Has NY state’s official Instagram account lost its mind? – Gothamist

Historically, the public faces of state and city governments have maintained a manicured image, offering their constituents PSAs and schedules in a clean-cut format meant to be informative and little else. That isn’t the case for the state of New York, whose official social media presence has increasingly become a destination for nonsensical memes. While an extreme weather forecast could normally be expected to be presented succinctly, compellingly and self-seriously, the state Instagram account @NYGov took a very different approach in January. “WE GOTTA RESPECT MOTHER NATURE’S THING,” the account captioned a digitally edited image of a Furby wearing bunny ears in a snowstorm. Elsewhere in the same carousel, a grimacing blue being appeared alongside the number to text for real-time weather updates, along with wind chill predictions from the National Weather Service. Another era of taxpayers might have balked at an official arm of the state promoting meaningless, agenda-less content like viral baby hippo Moo Deng photoshopped in front of an Olive Garden, but in 2026, the message of nonsensical delight deeply resonates with young voters’ nihilistic senses of humor. The most bizarre content often appears to get the highest engagement. “I noticed that the weirder the posts, the
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