The House of Cards meme uses the universal imagery of a precarious tower built from playing cards to represent fragility, instability, and the threat of total collapse. It is most commonly used as a metaphor for complex systems—like the economy, a software codebase, or a personal secret—that are held up by a single, thin thread. While the concept of a house of cards has been a literary staple for centuries, its popularity as an internet meme surged alongside digital culture as a way to visualize the high-stakes tension of a situation where one wrong move means everything comes crashing down. It is the ultimate visual shorthand for 'barely holding it together.'