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Against Meme Activism
- commandlinefan 5y agoIt's popular because it's effective.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoEffective at what exactly, though? That is the question being answered by this article. It suggests that it is effective at pseudo-activism but not real activism.
- makomk 5y agoWell, one thing it's definitely very effective at is perpetuating itself to the exclusion of any kind of more thoughtful or complex activism. This is probably a problem.
- mistermann 5y agoTrue, but is this the fault of memes, or perhaps more so due to the fact that an internet platform specifically designed for nuanced, accurate, high quality conversations about complex topics does not exist (and is rarely discussed)...not to mention the questionable availability of a sufficiently skilled in thinking and discussion userbase?
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoThis very platform is founded on interesting discussion.
- mistermann 5y agoDid you miss anything in my comment perhaps? Is internet discussion as implemented on HN the pinnacle of what can be achieved by humanity? This seems like a worthwhile topic of discussion.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoIt could very well be both the pinnacle (or an approximation of it) of humanity and a worthwhile topic of discussion.
- mistermann 5y agoI think it would be cool if HN had meta-discussions now and then where people could throw out various different ideas, I don't recall there ever being such a thing here before though. I think it's an interesting idea (maybe not for HN, but in general): a social media platform whose functionality is (largely) designed/guided by the users.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoIronic that the fact that your comment is on a startup news discussion site, points out a glaring need in the public sphere, one which could be fulfilled by a startup, and it gets downvoted to the point of being grayed out.
- mistermann 5y agoIronic, and utterly fascinating if you really think about it. And it is not a one off by the way, here elsewhere. In my experience, this is almost bordering on some sort of an unrealized constant in nature. An even better example I think is this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27581414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27581414 That exchange blows my mind, the irony (and other things) is off the charts. Occam's razor would suggest Hanlon's razor as a satisfactory explanation for that conversation, but I am very skeptical.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- watwut 5y agoWhat makes you say more thoughtful activism dont exist anymore? Whede I followed activists, their activity did not went down with these. Occasionally they uses them, occasionally not, occasionally they disagreed. But I did not seen them stop original activity or complain about memes all that much. It is way more often people who did not cared about activism who complain about lack of it due to memes. Like, not everyone has to care about activism, but it is odd to claim it dont exist anymore.
- luffapi 5y agoThe article literally starts with a story about how “meme activism” (aka slogans) was effective.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoLiterally, it used the words “powerful”, “widespread”, “helpful”, “dark”, and “destructive”. Not the word “effective”.
- luffapi 5y agoThe very first paragraph: > A few weeks ago, in the midst of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict, Andrew Yang, a mayoral candidate in New York, tweeted in support of Israel. The backlash came fast, and by the next day, #YangSupportsGenocide was trending on Twitter. The aggressive public shaming worked: Yang backtracked and issued a follow-up clarification. And now, politicians with progressive constituencies will likely think twice before publicly expressing support for Israel.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago> aggressive public shaming worked Being the key. Does not imply that meme activism was effective at doing anything but making people think twice out of fear of shame, not out of reasoned principles.
- luffapi 5y agoIf it accomplished its goal, then it was effective. Are there other goals to accomplish? Sure, but to say this wasn’t effective is incorrect.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoI’ll grant that it meets the definition of being striking, but not that it meets the intended goals of activism. The entire point of the article is that this style of pseudo-activism debases activism, as a whole.
- Jtsummers 5y agoIt can be effective in real activism especially if it's capable of shutting down dissent. Whether it's effective for activism you agree with or activism you disagree with is a separate matter. To stay away from politics and stick to the programming domain, the phrase "structured programming" was chosen because who would want to say they're for "unstructured programming". It worked, the languages and language features we use today were largely shifted away from goto-heavy code (and computed goto in Fortran and some others) because of this kind of meme activism.
- ddingus 5y agoIt can also be a great conversation starter. Memes can make everyone involved think. And then if some start talking, common basis for solidarity can be found. If you ask me, memes are doing a lot to generate the fertile ground needed for greater class awareness and solidarity. Lots of noise in that, but it is the signal that adds right up. In any case, there is no stopping any of it. I would bot even try. One can generate better ones and contribute to signal. That is also effective.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kspacewalk2 5y agoIn purely 'technical' terms, as an activist tactic - wildly effective. In terms of achieving actual aims - not really. Kony 2012 is a perfect, textbook example of vacuous meme activism (as the article discusses).
- ergot_vacation 5y agoPrecisely. Depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you want to actually make lasting, positive changes to the world? Absolutely worthless. If you want to self-promote for the sake of e-fame, real fame, money, power etc, smash hit. Guess which one most Twitter activists are actually interested in.
- whimsicalism 5y ago> If you want to actually make lasting, positive changes to the world? Absolutely worthless. I think this is an incredibly premature statement to make if this is really a form of activism that's only been around for ~5-10 years or so. Typical HN though, we love to play the role of enlightened politicos looking down at the unstrategic masses.
- djrogers 5y ago> I think this is an incredibly premature statement to make if this is really a form of activism that's only been around for ~5-10 years or so. But it hasn't - TFA even includes an example from centuries ago. > Typical HN though, we love to play the role of enlightened politicos looking down at the unstrategic masses. Typical HN though, we love to assume we're the first people to really understand a topic.
- whimsicalism 5y agoYes, TFA which explicitly singles out "contemporary meme activism" as the problem. > TFA even includes an example from centuries ago. Oh, you mean the abolitionist example? Yeah, too bad those guys never achieved any lasting, positive gain. You can't have it both ways.
- skeeter2020 5y agoit's effective in raising intense, context-free, subtlety-free, short-lived outrage with little effort or follow-up action. If that's not your goal, it's not very effective.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago> 1/ Meme activism encourages performative and fleeting action. > 2/ Meme activism silences dissent. > 3/ Meme activism sanctions simplistic and naive political beliefs.
- BuyMyBitcoins 5y agoPoints 2 and 3 are actually very powerful. Do not underestimate how effective silencing dissent can be, even in a “free and Democratic” society. In fact, maybe it’s even more effective precisely because “it isn’t the government doing it”.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- fwip 5y agoYou're free to have opinions, and we're free to call you an asshole for the opinions you have. A more eloquent xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1357/ https://xkcd.com/1357/
- BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago“Being shown the door” is completely tame compared to what actually ends up happening to people who become targets of online outrage. People can have their entire livelihoods destroyed, often for something that isn’t particularly noxious or egregious to the average person. We have no control over how sensitive the doorman is, or what they will become upset about in the future.
- AzzieElbab 5y agoIt also generates news, that refuels meme activism, which generates news…
- lucasmullens 5y agoMy biggest gripe is trying to redefine/explain a slogan after it goes viral. Far too much political energy was spent explaining why "all lives matter" misses the point, and how "defund the police" actually (to some people) means "reallocate police resources"
- kspacewalk2 5y agoThe reason "defund the police" meme activism had to shift gears and re-define it mid-flight was because it was such a spectacular failure, and took so much wind out of legitimate calls for police reform. I recall angry pontification to the effect that "reform" is a dirty word, we must get more radical, hence "defund". Conservative media nodded furiously in agreement and multiplied the message, since they knew full well that it's a self-defeating one.
- whatshisface 5y agoI would like to introduce my new political slogan, "Cat Hat Mat." It might seem baffling at first, but after you find someone to explain it to you, you'll find out that it's a coherent proposal for housing reform in the Bay Area.
- wayoutthere 5y agoWhat is meant is “abolish the police state”. The US throws more people in jail than any other country by several orders of magnitude. To get to where we should be, we do effectively need to abolish the system as it exists today. Most cities spend far more on policing than they do on prevention; much of this driven by self-serving lobbying on behalf of police unions. Nobody except anarchists is claiming that we don’t need police; but a lot of people are saying we don’t need these police. Let’s define the role of police in society and severely curtail their monopoly on violence.
- kspacewalk2 5y agoIf "abolish the police state" was meant, "abolish the police state" should have been said. You don't need these police, wonderful. Propose changes, phase them in gradually to prove that they're better than the status quo (we can't just go ahead and assume that with no evidence now can we), work out the kinks so that we're not left with a crime wave in the interim while your bold new ideas are being perfected. I'm non-ironically all for that. The obvious one to try first is funding teams of a police officer paired with a mental health nurse, with self defence training of course. Don't defund anything and anyone to do this; it may or may not work and then you'll need to refund police and that'll be awkward. Struggling to understand how "severely curtail their monopoly on violence" can be meant in a positive way. Who do you propose should also engage in violence lawfully? People's Self Defence Militia Units?
- geofft 5y agoThis article identifies three problems with meme activism, all different: - Sometimes, meme activism is too effective at the goal the activists want, as in the case of Andrew Yang or Black Lives Matter. (At other times it is effective, but not too effective, as in the case of abolitionism.) - Sometimes, meme activism is too ineffective at the goals the activists want, as in the case of Joseph Kony. (At other times it is ineffective, but not too ineffective, as in the case of the Hong Kong protests.) - Sometimes, meme activism allows its proponents to argue for shallow ideas that they claim to want probably don't actually want were they to reflect on the ideas, as in the case of Lock Her Up. Those are... pretty much all over the place, and only the last one seems directly connected to the meme-ness (an idea optimizes for ease of spread) of the meme activism. And, fundamentally, no one is going to listen - nor should they - to the idea that their activism is too effective, and it is somehow unfair for them to engage in such means. This isn't a board game with rules, where everyone shows up to have fun even if they're being competitive at the table. The goal of an activist is to get what they want; the goal of the opposing activists is the same. Voluntarily giving up "unfair" advantages is just a good way to ensure that your side doesn't win.
- skeeter2020 5y agoone observation: your examples all focus on the effectiveness at targeting the subject. I'm not sure the conclusions hold for the underlying cause the activism was fighting or supporting.
- ergot_vacation 5y agoThe unifying thread in all given examples is that Meme Activism is good at short-term and superficial victories, but poor at long-term, meaningful ones. It's great at getting a bunch of likes while harassing someone like Yang into shutting up, but did that action actually have any meaningful impact on how Israel acts, or how US politicians act toward Israel (not what they SAY, notice, but what they DO)? Probably not. It's great at getting fame and money for the Kony people, but had no actual impact on the situation in question. Slogans like Build the Wall and Lock Her Up served their purpose, which was to build an electoral base for Trump, not to actually accomplish those things. I'm actually more sympathetic to Trump here, because he's a salesman using sales tactics to make a sale. The others clothe themselves in high-minded morality while in reality being exactly the same thing.
- acatnamedjoe 5y agoThis is an interesting article I'm, but I'm not sure any of this is particularly new in politics and political activism. Using short, simplistic slogans, using word games to try to make your opponents look bad without really engaging with their argument, faddish movements that burn brightly but briefly - these have been around for a lot longer than twitter.
- lolinder 5y agoI don't see OP claiming that this is new, just that it's dangerous. He gives a (positive) example from the abolitionist era.
- whimsicalism 5y agoI know that people will harp on the January 6th thing, but political discourse in the West is safer (as in free of violence) in the current 2 decades than it probably has been ever before.
- foolinaround 5y agoOn the contrary, i would submit, that this country was never as split like this in recent memory...
- whimsicalism 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine Maybe the country is more polarized, but I think we need to be cognizant of the tendency to make everything today be totally unique. Political violence has a long history in the US, and there are far fewer people getting killed over it today.
- Barrin92 5y ago
- hirundo 5y agoThis might as well as be "Against Tidal Force", because suppressing meme activism is about as tall a challenge. First, admit that it will never happen by voluntary action. The rumor mill, at least, will keep grinding until the last free-range human is gone, who will tell it to a volleyball if there is nobody else. Then imagine the scale of intervention that would be required to significantly suppress it. It would mean continual monitoring, punishment, isolation, and we'd find ways to signal our discontent through masks and straight jackets. If instead you just opt out, go your own way, plug your ears, you've exited the arena, and the memes will happily steamroll along without you, and with you having less warning to get out of the way. I too have a beef with meme activism, and also the gravitational constant, and the speed of light. Those are all equally winnable battles.
- testing123--- 5y agoIt's true that memes have a life of their own but they are currently fueled by social media companies that operate on advertising revenue. This is a fixable problem but it requires changing the model that generates meme worthy content. As long as publishing every thought is "free" there is no viable solution to stopping meme activism because advertisers like it when people scream and shout at each other because it keeps them on sites like Twitter and Facebook longer than they would stay there otherwise. And since they stay longer because they're angry it is easier to show them ads for some product that will cure them of their ills. Commercial interests are fundamentally the root cause of this problem.
- nverno 5y agoThere are many things in society - scratch that, nearly everything in society - that I both dislike for one reason or another, but also accept they will never change. Still, it is nice to hear other people express similar opinions. Imagine where we would be if there was never any pushback against bad ideas.
- dimitrios1 5y agoThe bulk of pushback against bad ideas, especially sinister ones that come with societal blowback, occurs in the form of ignoring them. It's whats happening right now with CRT. You can't speak out against it, without risking reputation or livelihood so you hope to just ignore it until it goes away.
- corndoge 5y agoGood luck reaching the people that need to read this. The people concealing political agendas behind simplified slogans that everyone agrees with know what they are doing.
- hamolton 5y agoI'm bothered by the focus on "performative" social media posting that many people, such as this author, have adopted - it's a cynical personal attack that doesn't accomplish much. I understand a lot of people felt social pressure to participate in BLM posting last summer, it's hard to say if we'll see that level of fervor again in the near future. For these decentralized movements, it makes more sense to focus on the issues and the tactics than the people.
- nottrobin 5y agoI think other comments have noted this, but I don't see where the harm of memes is supposed to be. Yes, far more people are happy to fleetingly express support for an idea than will actually take meaningful action Yes, political movements need short slogans which naturally obscure a lot of detail These really just seem like facts of life and it's not clear that either thing (lots of half-invested people sharing hashtags; people misunderstanding slogans) does any harm to the actual movements, or to society
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoOne harm is in draining peoples limited energy for political action.
- whimsicalism 5y agoDisagree. People sharing political memes wouldn't be out organizing unions if not for the memes. It's a zero-sum tradeoffs with other online activities, maybe, but definitely not with outdoors political action.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoThat’s a claim that needs some scientific evidence to back up.
- whimsicalism 5y agoBoth of us made claims, neither have evidence.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agohttps://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2943 https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2943
- Null-Set 5y agoThis seems like an unnecessary new name for slacktivism.
- paulpauper 5y ago>We also see this with terms such as “anti-racism” and “equity.” Most people have no problem saying that they are anti-racist or that they support equitable policies. But, as with Black Lives Matter, some people use these words to denote radical and far-reaching ideologies. According to Ibram Kendi, for example, “the only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” This makes it difficult for people who loath racism, but disagree with Kendi’s prescriptions for how to remedy it, to respond to a question like: “Are you an anti-racist?” Seems like a motte and bailey fallacy Memes work in so far as they are persuasive, so I don't them going away
- whatshisface 5y ago>To be fair, meme activism has had its upsides. American and British abolitionists inscribed their slogan “Am I not a man and a brother?” onto medallions and domestic objects, which they distributed to build support for their cause. In 2019 and 2020, activists took to social media with hashtags like #5DemandsNot1Less to generate pressure on the Chinese government to preserve the relative political freedom of Hong Kong. The author gives up on their point too soon, not realizing that it's possible that in line with their thesis neither of these specific actions were effective beyond rallying support.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- SLWW 5y agoNot exactly a 1:1 comparison but the idea of a struggle session comes to mind.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session I've seen to a lesser extent this behavior done (sans the physicality of in-person shaming)
- rchaud 5y ago> Here, I’m using the original definition of meme: an easily replicated unit of cultural knowledge or information that is spread by imitation. Would "I'm standing with the people of Israel" count? Because it is a complete throwaway statement, made by US politicians so routinely that it is absent of all meaning. Israel is a democracy that upholds property rights and rule of law. Unfortunately, rule of law that successive civilian governments have put in place allow settlers to simply take, by decree, land that belongs to Palestinians. That's not 'property rights' it's Manifest Destiny. Andrew Yang did not get cancelled. He propagated a meme statement and had to clarify that his actual opinion has more nuance, as does the situation he referred to.
- vohvae 5y agoI don't think Andrew Yang's meme received much propagation to come under the types of memes the article is referring to. One more property I think is very relevant to the types of memes referred to by the article is that these memes want to spread at the exclusion of all others or any variation. What stood out to me with respect to that event is that while many memes were thrown about, some memes had to be clarified to death without having any effect on the outrage while others continued to be thrown about without requiring any clarification despite being dog whistles for things significantly worse than their seemingly innocuous wording.
- ineedasername 5y agoHe propagated a meme statement and had to clarify that his actual opinion has more nuance, as does the situation he referred to. Accusing someone of supporting genocide should not be considered an appropriate way of asking them to provide a more considered, nuanced opinion.
- slipframe 5y agoNo matter which side of that argument you find yourself on, the other side will reliably invoke the specter of genocide. If you side with the Israelis, you will be accused of supporting the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. And if you side with the Palestinians, you will be accused of wanting Jewish people to be genocided again. And if you say that both sides have a lot of valid points and you aren't sure how to weigh all those points to reach a clean and simple conclusion? Well... I've never won any friends like that.
- question000 5y agoNow that the Trump movement has run it's course it's kinda jarring to see how little a popular uprising can accomplish when it's entirely described and disseminated via meme. Even Trump's most obvious, easy to execute plans failed. Memes couldn't even build a functional wall let alone fix healthcare or even repeal what exists, even with a majority in all branches of government. Memes aren't necessarily a bad way of disseminating information, the ideas they spread are necessarily intellectually reduced and ineffective in implementation.
- ashton314 5y ago> In place of a well-reasoned argument, political activists can lean on pithy memes to demonstrate their political allegiances. But when people use memes as a shortcut, they sacrifice the process of testing and inspecting their opinions. Insight comes from challenging ideas, and memes allow people to skirt this process. As Plato wrote in The Republic, “opinions divorced from knowledge are ugly things.” Getting the nuance stripped out of the debate robs the debate of meaning.
- ericjang 5y ago> To be fair, meme activism has had its upsides. The author seems to dislike the meme #BlackLivesMatter, but also praises some memes like "#5DemandsNot1Less to generate pressure on the Chinese government to preserve the relative political freedom of Hong Kong". Both of these are memes. I am curious, what is the principle by which one decides which memes are "good" and which ones "have gone too far"? They propose 3 recommendations at the end for how to engage with memes, but couldn't this be applied to #5DemandsNot1Less as well?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rhn_mk1 5y agoMy own take (not supported by the article) is that there's more room for interpretation what BlackLivesMatter actually means, and the concrete political statements aren't obvious from the meme. In the case of 5DemandNot1Less it's clear that the meme is a vehicle for some concrete statements. Of course, both memes can be used thoughtlessly, so maybe that's not a crucial difference.
- brodouevencode 5y agoYep. BlackLivesMatter is semantically overloaded. There's the notion of BlackLivesMatter, of which only real racists disagree. Then there's the organization BlackLivesMatter, which has some very anti-traditional-western views that undermine the name.
- slipframe 5y agoIt's an ideal meme for people who want to employ the motte-and-bailey tactic. The face-value meaning of the words is unassailable, an impregnable motte that only the most violent of racists would disagree with.
- reidjs 5y agoI’m confused by this, how are you supposed to communicate a precise agenda in a hashtag? The movement has to do with systemic racism in America. Think of BLM like a “hook” in writing. Isn’t it interesting that a statement of an obvious fact (that black lives matter) has caused so much controversy?
- dr_dshiv 5y agoBack to pamphleteering! Grease up the letterpress!
- jordigh 5y ago> But, as with Black Lives Matter, some people use these words to denote radical and far-reaching ideologies. Convicting Donald Trump and banning him from office is not a radical and far-reaching ideology. Defunding the police (it's already waaaaay too funded, they don't need literal military gear, which is what they have in the US) is also not a radical and far-reaching ideology. This article is trying to present itself as being reasonable and moderate when it's just advocating for the fascism that is continuously creeping up on the US. Which is how you have to present yourself, as reasonable and moderate, if you want to convince anyone.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoThe only way to fight the abuse is to default most users to interacting with their own city block. Only through thoughtful upvotes would someone earn the community support for an individual to spread their voice geographically further and further. Allowing trolls immediate access to the entire world was a mistake.
- ayngg 5y agoI think the issue lies more with how regular people interact with the political process now, which is mostly political activism as a hobby rather than meme activism. Meme activism is just a consequence of that type of activism in contemporary society. Political hobbyists are a much larger issue because by nature the cost of participation is low (especially on social media) so many do not have much investment and are capable of being manipulated easily since they often lack the understanding necessary when engaging in difficult social issues. This leads to performative politics and eventually purity spirals. Social media exacerbates this since now you are easily capable of socially signaling to a much larger audience. In the age of social media this can (and has) created huge social movements based on nothing more than feel good politics. While huge, these movements aren't very resilient because most people aren't actually very invested in their causes, and leadership is often nebulous and diffuse. As a result, these causes can be hijacked, subverted or can just fall apart as peoples interests move elsewhere somewhere along the grueling path of change. For most, their political activism begins and ends with the retweeting of some catchy hashtag or infographic, or attending some march with their friends for some cause without fully understanding the issues they are protesting. When push comes to shove, most will not be willing to make serious sacrifices for their cause.
- phtrivier 5y agoI'm seriously considering launching the hashtag #ValueNuanceAndPromoteDispationnateAnd EmpathicDiscourseBetweenResponsibleAdults Don't know if that will catch (but apparently, there's a music video from some TV show's contestant that title "treat people with kindness", so we would have an opening song for rallies.) We would treat "being nice" as a radical way to resist the companies that are, albeit unintentionnaly, making money out of people yelling at each others ) Naaaah , I'll just reshare some cat meme instead.
- whimsicalism 5y agoI don't see why dispassionate discourse is inherently better. I agree that empathy is important.
- dlivingston 5y agoBecause when passions are inflamed, emotions tend to take charge over rationality and logic. Dispassionate debate doesn’t mean that you don’t have strong opinions about something, it means that you set those emotional connections to your argument aside and debate solely with logic.
- phtrivier 5y ago> I don't see why dispassionate discourse is inherently better. Amusingly, if we were to have a "passionnate" discussion about the topic of "passionnate" discussion, this sentence would be the starting point of a chain reaction in both our amygdalas that would end up with my insulting your family, pets, favorite sport teams and core values for not agreeing 100% with me. (Or, so would say some unreliable and pop-sciency blog writer that I should definitely not bring into a serious discussion.) ;) That being said, I'm not sure "dispassionate" is the best word to describe what I mean. I initially went with "civil", but a discussion can be "civil" between people who hate each others - as long as there is a cop in the place to keeps the knifes out. I mean "the kind of discussion where people agree that emotions have to be managed, if not toned down, in order to avoid tribalism". I know the task is hard, if possible at all (at least that's why pop-neuroscience indicates [1]); I value the effort. If anything, "passionnate debate" might not be good for our hearts ;) [2] So let's add plenty of smileys to the plenty of threads that don't need too much seriousness, shall we ? [1] https://theconversation.com/from-the-penalty-box-to-the-ballot-box-our-brains-are-wired-for-tribalism-117089 https://theconversation.com/from-the-penalty-box-to-the-ball... [2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020926070006.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020926070006.h...
- bosswipe 5y agoThe Yang anecdote could be used as an example of bad or good power of memes depending on if you support Israel or not. The article is filled with the author's personal biases leaking into a purportedly principled argument.
- runbathtime 5y agoReminds me of Leonard Peikoff's lecture- "A picture is not an argument." Memes show how easy it is to manipulate or con a large group of people.
- patorjk 5y ago> This activism was supposed to culminate with “Cover the Night,” an event where people across the world would plaster “every city, every block” with Kony 2012 stickers and posters. But the campaign was a flop, and it shows how meme activism is often too ephemeral to make a lasting change or, more cynically, is just a way for activists to demonstrate virtuousness. A good example of meme activism, however, I disagree with it being a flop because of the ephemeral nature of the campaign. Shortly after Kony 2012 became a huge story, the guy behind it started acting erratically [1]. I remember high profile news reports of him being on crystal meth and running around naked. This took a huge amount of steam out of the campaign. Had that not happened, I'm not sure it would have flopped in the same way it did. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/the-guy-behind-the-kony-2012-video-finally-explains-how-everything-went-so-weird-2013-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/the-guy-behind-the-kony-2012...