Asemese Basket Weaving

Asemese Basket Weaving is a phrase which originated on the website 2sama in mid 2013. the term was coined by a user responding to someone claiming they had recently attented an anti-immigration protest in Valnødkjerke, a small community in southwest Lyngaard. The user posted a photo taken by Journalist Steven Arundel of an Asemese woman weaving a basket while soldiers rush with guns drawn during the Battle of Sinké-Pacifique. The post would effectively mock the original posters efforts, comparing it to Asemese Basket Weaving, while other did unspecified "real work".

The term was initially a popular phrase within the culture warrior community who used the phrase to mock others they saw as not acting decicivly. It would aslo be used to mock liberal and apolitical individuals, claiming they were doing useless tasks while others (the posters) took action against "Cultural Communism", "Degeneracy", and "Globohomo". However the term gradually became normalized in internet slang, gradually become a euphemism for simply not caring about or intentionally ignoring the news or current events. By 2018 it became common for people to respond to news articles with the Asemese Basket Weaving photo, used to insinuate that the poster was unbothered or unconcerned with the news. The phrase "literally me rn", or "my reaction to this information" would sometimes be added into the post.

The term reached mainstream recognition after the Lyngaardian socialist politician Karoline Pyndt used the phrase to describe people who participated in the Pink Hat Protests on a Clipr Post in 2019. The phrase in now in use in broad internet slang, particularly in Lyngaard and Arcadia.

The photo

"Woman weaving during battle" is a photo taken of a woman named Bérengère Gbó in the Matelotville Market. She is weaving a set of traditional rice baskets, in the background there are several armed FARSU rebels supposedly running into battle. It was taken by journalist Steven Arundel in 1998 during the start of the Battle of Sinké-Pacifique. Arundel would later say "The situation at that moment was really dire. The village of Korhotoubé was recently attacked and depopulated by rebels allied to FARSU. I knew i had nothing to really worry about, the rebels tended to be careful around visible foreigners. But that lady I think showed some sort of courage in the face of their invasion of the city. She continued to do her work, the only thing she could and knew how to do. While marauders sacked her community. She refused to give them a victory, that its the victory of fear and intimidation."

It was reported later that the woman was named Bérengère Gbó, a well known and beloved basket maker in the city. It was claimed that every family in the city had at least one of her baskets in their home. She would later be executed by NCAPDGb during the Purification Campaign. Her body was never found.