4 ms·
memes are not "on the side of reality". memes are on the side of whatever resonates. What resonates is what aligns to your model of reality (which is shaped by
by OmarShehata 1y ago
memes are not "on the side of reality". memes are on the side of whatever resonates. What resonates is what aligns to your model of reality (which is shaped by the ideology you're inside).
There's no clear distinction between propaganda, advertising, and what you call "meme-ing". Companies can and do create campaigns that look organic, that do takeoff as people feel they are organic (and then they become actually real as people take them further than what the company is pushing)
For example: Barbenheimer was a meme that got people to watch two movies in one weekend (not a typical behavior for most people). Was that an organic meme, or a marketing campaign?
(If anyone is curious, I keep trying to write a good intro to this rabbithole, see my writeup on the New York Times explaining how a psyop works, which itself very significant for them to be spelling it out like this: https://defenderofthebasic.substack.com/p/new-york-times-is-trying-to-explain https://defenderofthebasic.substack.com/p/new-york-times-is-... )
- endoblast 1y agoNot everyone is an ideologue. Some people are just on the side of what is, or what is real.
- mecsred 1y agoEveryone is an ideologue. What _is_ is too complicated to fit in a human brain, so we compress it. Thinking you're a free thinker is a type of ideology you can subscribe to.
- endoblast 1y agoNah. Compressed ideas are simply very good explanations! Ideologues aren't open to changing their ideas, but some other people do so occasionally. One can have philosophical assumptions and/or preferences without wishing to impose them on everyone else.
- gipp 1y agoSure, I suppose... The strange leap you're making is in the assumption that Internet memes are somehow inherently on the side of open-mindedness. Memes can be, and constantly are, absolutely used as weapons of propaganda, both intentionally and unwittingly. I'd say in general that's the rule, not the exception, at least where anything vaguely political or cultural is involved.
- endoblast 1y agoThanks. Yes it is strange. I do accept there's some overlap between propaganda and memeing. Yet whatever the intentions (or paygrade, or artistic ability) of the author of a meme, the fact remains that once it is posted he has no control over its destiny. So ultimately it is the funniest/most beautiful/salutary/plausible memes that get refined and selected for, i.e. which supply the strongest signal, and which inspire new memes in turn.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y agoThanks for the link to Tangle!