For those of you who aren’t acquainted with this slang term, a “basic” person has uninteresting interests.
To be fair, being labeled as basic isn’t necessarily bad. Basic things are, by definition, quite popular.
In a way, basic people are anti-hipsters. Rather than having eclectic or unique tastes, they enjoy activities that are universally-liked by everyone else. The cliché basic person is a 20-something educated female who listens to Taylor Swift, uses TikTok, watches The Office, and drinks pumpkin spice lattes in August. Oddly, a common stereotype is that these people all LOVE autumn and anything even loosely associated with the season. (Of course, fall is also the perfect time to show off a diverse collection of flannel shirts and take artsy photos of fallen leaves.)
While the term has only been applied to humans, I’d like to argue that even chimps can be basic.
For example, Negra’s hobbies include eating spring grass, eating peanuts and chow, watching the caregivers work, and napping peacefully on high platforms. None of these interests are avant-garde, and Negra seems totally fine with that. She doesn’t want to be surprised, shocked, or inconvenienced; she just wants to enjoy the simple, familiar pleasures. She’s basic to the core and seems to be proud of it.
Perhaps the world would be a better place if we were all, like Negra, comfortable with our own basicness.
I’m sure that if Negra had her own Instagram, she’d be posting selfies of herself enjoying the cool autumn breeze under a pile of fleece blankets today. Since she doesn’t have her own social media, I decided to post on her behalf today.
