TLDR it’s like Don’t look up from 2020, but about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2024

The original picture (in Russian) critisizes the people’s unwavering trust in authority, the childish belief that those in power are more capable in general and have some secret knowledge that makes their decisions properly weighed and correct, despite what the commonperson thinks (this, of course, does not apply to the out-group, like leaders of other nations).

The original was created shortly after the (bigger and overt) invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2024 by Russia. It’s supposed to hyoerbole and show the desperate attempts to act like everything is actually okay or preserve the less-distressing routine, primarily taken as a severe coping mechanism. Change is scary, especially when it’s so big and coming from an even bigger actor, and in many people, this results in this kind of defense where they try to suppress the irritant - in the case of the latest invasion of Ukraine, the people that oppose it and its perpetrators.

Feels weird seeing this as template in a completely different context, though. No offense.

The suits did. You know, so the line goes up. Because we’re all gonna die otherwise or something.

1999 piracy mostly consisted of paying for a pirated copy that someone decided to make profit off; most likely, they weren’t the person to make the (first!) copy, and they’re not even sure what’s on the thing they were selling you. It was mostly bootlegging.