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I 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
by nottrobin 5y ago
I 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
- whimsicalism 5y agoOkay, so beliefs are uncorrelated with action. In no way does that suggest that there is a tradeoff, and if anything, is evidence for my hypothesis - people are happy to talk about beliefs without any of that translating into real world action. Talking about beliefs in one way only trades off with talking about those beliefs in another way.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago> people are happy to talk about beliefs without any of that translating into real world action That’s exactly what is decried by the original article as being detrimental to activism. The point of activism is to take action to effect meaningful change in the world.
- whimsicalism 5y agoSure. My point is simple: 1. Every movement has the vast majority people as quiet supporters, not taking concrete action in the streets or wherever. This is not unique to meme activism. 2. I don't buy that meme activism actually trades off with physical action. I do buy that meme activism doesn't translate into physical action, but I don't think that those people would be taking physical action if they didn't have the memes. None of the evidence you've presented is contrary to that hypothesis, and if anything, supports it.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y ago“ Second, more time spent online may take away from more valuable activities, including social contacts offline, sleeping, or reading books.” http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/ccpos/b5/pdf/QoL10.pdf http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/ccpos/b5/pdf/QoL10.pdf The point of activism is to effect change, not to be an echo chamber.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoAdditionally: “ However, experiments to date have only documented very short-term effects on public concern (lasting up to a week), leaving open the question of whether agenda-setting has the power to yield meaningful political consequences in the course of ordinary daily life over the longer term.” https://pprg.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009-Handbook-of-Social-Psychology.pdf https://pprg.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009-Handbook-o...
- A4ET8a8uTh0 5y agoYou see it as harm, but there are people who would not mind reducing activist energy to unavoidable minimum. As such, draining people's energy and channeling it through another outlet is a very useful endeavor. Same could be said about sport ( or its close sibling - national level politics in US ).