The strategic meme gap that the Right now enjoys completely dominates the political battlefield. Our memes have kept the Left back in the Stone Ages compared to the intergalactic cathedral we are building for the future of mankind. This opinion piece is further evidence.
The Left Shouldn’t Be Too Proud to Meme By JENNIFER GRYGIEL The Failing New York Times MARCH 5, 2018
Say the word “meme” and most people think of funny videos that go viral or assaults by internet trolls on platforms like 4chan, a website frequented by alt-right groups. President Trump, who regularly retweets memes, many of them directed at Democrats, is perhaps the most famous devotee of the form. Memes are powerful tools for communicating ideas, a fact Mr. Trump seems to understand better than many of his critics. One needs only to look at the reach of the Russian government’s memes to understand why it exploited the form in trying to influence the 2016 election. The term “meme” was first coined by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene.” Successful memes, he believed, had common elements: They were long-lived and could be copied easily and disseminated widely. The rate at which memes were created increased exponentially with the advent of the internet and social media. Internet memes typically combine text with images or video, often humorous in nature. And because video is rich in information, it makes memes particulaeffective in conveying snappy ideas, such as political expressions like “fake news” or mocking nicknames like “Crooked Hillary” or “the Amazon Washington Post” favored by the president. Mr. Trump’s affinity for memes is not surprising: He is a branding and marketing expert who has specialized in creating trademark phrases like “You’re fired.” Even the name “Trump” is a meme. Patrons who stay at Trump-branded resorts and hotels enjoy the aura of wealth and power that he has constructed. The president’s supporters have also become skilled at creating memes. The content of these memes is not always civil, but they are often effective in getting shared across the internet. For example, a meme that portrayed Mr. Trump hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball was retweeted by the president and went viral, inspiring 41,000 more retweets.
Brayden Cooper
Some might find Mr. Trump’s tweets and verbal attacks to be childish, bullying, unprofessional or simplistic. But another way to think about them is that he’s speaking in the cultural language of memes; he is using memes to build support for his ideas. So when the president retweets the infamous video of him wrestling CNN to the ground, he is promoting the idea that the media is out to get him. Continue reading the main story
Democrats, however, have been slow to see the potential of memes as a political weapon. Many seem to regard the form as amateurish, vulgar or low-brow. Mrs. Clinton made a few attempts at using memes but struggled with the execution. In one notable attempt, she used a “Texts from Hillary” meme for her Twitter profile photo starting in 2013, perhaps hoping it would make her appear hip and internet-savvy. But the meme met with some ridicule and probably did not reach the swing voters she badly needed. Mrs. Clinton also attempted to use a meme on Election Day, generating a video that showed her participating in the “mannequin challenge,” a meme that had recently gone viral. But she did this after that meme had already started to fade. During the 2016 Democratic primaries, supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders generated many memes promoting their man, often focusing on his untamed hair and his socialism, or unscripted moments that seemed funny or charming, such as when a bird landed on his lectern during a rally. But Mr. Sanders himself did not engage with memes as much as Mr. Trump, who shared them regularly during the campaign. At the same time, pro-Trump activists on the right like Mike Cernovich aggressively used memes to attack Mrs. Clinton and spread wild conspiracy theories about her, including the idea that she led a child-abuse ring out of a Washington pizzeria, a concocted scheme that came to be known as “Pizzagate.”
If Democrats and other critics of the president want to fight back effectively on the internet, they need to figure out how to harness the meme to communicate ideas and build community. This approach does not come without risk. People often create sarcastic or ironic memes that could be misinterpreted. Increased meme use could also add to polarization between the two parties. Research has shown that there are a few characteristics that make a meme successful. Short, template-based memes that avoid profanities and use clear, simple words do well. This could help to explain why Mr. Trump’s pledge to “build that wall” was such a successful meme and campaign platform. Voters understood what Mr. Trump stood for, while Mrs. Clinton’s platform was more complex and abstract. Both candidates supported fighting terrorism, but the idea of a “Muslim ban” was more concrete and could be easily understood, talked about and translated into internet memes. In this way, memes can provide vital feedback to candidates, signaling that voters understand a campaign message. If voters are not creating memes or retweeting the ones you create, it probably means they do not get what you stand for. I have heard many Democrats comment that they will not stoop to Mr. Trump’s level by trying to use memes for political gain. But democracy is increasingly dependent on engaging voters on social media. If the goal is to build a movement that is effective in opposing attacks on democratic ideals and a free press, the left can’t be too proud to meme.
About the Author: Jennifer Grygiel (@jmgrygiel) is an assistant professor of communications at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
Hunter Gonzalez
How ironic that a leftist who doesn't understand memes is, xirself, a walking meme
A communications professor, no less. Like pottery. But we've been talking about this for years. Memes are rooted in humor and humor is rooted in reality. The left can't meme because their perceptions are rooted in madness. They are in a state of constant cognitive dissonance that puts them at odds with the natural order and basic human nature, but they believe their feigned altruism and empathy somehow makes them more worthy of… well, let's just call it "meme power".. It's not that they don't have the capacity of that they've underestimated the power of having fun while crushing your enemies. It's that they are awful, evil faggots. They are greedy and hostile, feeling entitled to all the glories of the world, though they are left constantly stewing in impotent rage, because the world cannot conform to their warped beliefs.
Look at the way they perceive memes. "A bird landed by Bernie once! This is an example of a meme." What the fuck? To say they don't understand memes is underselling the fact that memes may as well be eldritch magic to these people.
Nathan Reyes
Why is it that they only do "No U"s, and are any of them valid?
Isaac Lopez
The only thing that could make the second image better is if the smith were surrounded by books, perhaps even smithing a book. They'd eat it up too
Oliver James
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Jordan Foster
Are those real leftist memes or parodies of leftists memes?
Jace Thomas
Memes only spread if they are true, this is why they can't meme.
John Thompson
See that, leftypol? Even your friends can't remember who you are. What's it like to be such huge faggots?
Michael Wright
Also it's impossible to improvise when you have a hard enforced vocabulary, which is also why wordfilters are utter faggotry.
Connor Collins
Real leftist memes, it seems.
John Sullivan
Oh, they're real. Less effective than Dick Cheney's penis, maybe, but real.
Jack King
you should visit leftypol once in a while for a good laugh
John Mitchell
Did they put part of his ass on his face?
Sebastian Anderson
Even when they're trying to understand, they still hilariously miss the mark. Fucking hell.
Logan White
The left can't even paul!
Anthony Robinson
Yes, you can't. Stop trying.
Robert Torres
check this one out They had to inform their followers not to use it,because they cant grasp its a pol forged image made do ridicule them.
Chase Gray
I feel as if I'm watching a primitive hominid banging rocks against each other. He knows there's something to this, and he'll be damned if he quits before he gets something useful for digging out grubs from a log, but he just has the bad luck to live half a million years before the first man domesticates fire. It's just not happening.
Xavier Lopez
ITS MY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO PITY PARTY > PIZZA PARTY
Jaxson Clark
here is a dank leftypol meme pic pay attention to the skill involved creating this
Ryder Hall
wtf, wrong picture
Nathan Lee
I unironically enjoy the hilldawg meme.
Isaiah Stewart
's cool. We forgive you this time, degenerate
Michael Green
How do you even tell the real leftist memes from the parodies at this point? Can leftists? Maybe 90% of the memes they post were actually made by Holla Forums to mock them but no one can tell the difference anymore.
Take this for example. Is it real? Or did I just spend 10 seconds making it in photoshop? Either way, how long before it starts showing up on Holla Forums?
Good work
Julian Gutierrez
BARK BARK, REEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Aaron Allen
This whole debate is one shitty meme.
Lucas Phillips
If it has big white letters or a watermark, it's a rush job for sure.
Still, was it one of Holla Forums's rush jobs, done for keks, or one of theirs. . .
Daniel Martinez
PITY PARTY > PIZZA PARTY It's my party and Imma LARP if I want, pull up in a Bugatti because I wanted to, and go take off my pants and rape your girl at the water fountain because I CAN.
Robert Cruz
AAAAH REEEEEEE >>>/8tube/
Isaiah Hall
Repost. Even if you can't read it, the pics are pretty self explanatory.
Easton Jackson
I finally have a use to employ my college Italian!
Daniel Carter
It's just the warning signs of fascism, but the last panel is hilariously formatted as if Evola said it.
Jonathan Young
I think it is similar as to why child and adult humor is so very different. Humor is based on your level of cognitive ability and a type of fun which is meant as training for our cognitive development just like sports is a fun experience because it helps physical development. Same why Tiger cubs fight with each other, it helps develop their combat ability. Most things that helps your body develop in certain ways is experienced as fun, however, once you reach a certain level in either of these aspects, something previously fun gets less fun because your body doesn't get much experience out of it anymore. For example climbing on trees or playing tag as a kid is fun because it develops your physical abilities, but as you get older it gets less fun because you reach a stage where your physical abilities have developed far enough. Same with Humor and develping your cognitive abilities.
TL;DR, people on the left have cognitive abilities stuck somewhere along the lines of kids and teens, this is why their memes/humor doesn't click with people who have cognitive abilities above their level.
Tyler Campbell
So the same shit as always.
Lincoln Clark
Good luck. Humor is subversive. Their forced memes won't float because pushing establishment ideology is just propaganda. It's oxymoronic like "feminist humor."
Whatever they push will end up looking like a meme equivalent of a fake Gucci bag - trying hard to be something it isn't.
Elijah Martinez
It's funny because all Holla Forums have to say against "the left can't meme" is screencaps or smuggies that do nothing but extremely strawman and project. Another hilarious one I heard was saying things along the lines of "hur dur guess that means reading is leftist"
Chase Jenkins
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David Cook
Now I want to jack off, thanks asshole.
Luis Peterson
Epic lefty content coming thru.
Christopher Morales
Thinking a company that hired this Harpy can Meme.
Okay (((NYTimes)))
Dominic Bailey
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Jason Morgan
Right? They're such fucking idiots, and the cognitive dissonance really doesn't let them understand memes and humor in general for the most part. It's funny as fuck tho regardless.
And not me, that girl had a ugly puss, and was too tan.
Sebastian Robinson
Most important conclusion she has contributed, ever.
Justin Myers
That was part of my intro. Thanks.
Nathaniel Cook
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Gabriel Green
It had its moments.
Carter Gonzalez
things that are "vulgar or low-brow" apparently are distasteful to the party of the working class.
Gabriel Campbell
I don't know what I was expecting. This isn't quite "the hacker known as Four Chan"-tier but it's still pretty sad.
Cooper Ramirez
Lel
Chase Hughes
...
Jayden Gray
...
Ian Lewis
I'll check that. I'm opening a new folder just for the dyke memes I'm getting out of this one.
Hudson Edwards
Lel
Angel Fisher
...
Robert Brown
...
Jose Rodriguez
fapping to this hottie right now
Landon Morgan
Self control is a virtue. PMO fags don't belong here
Kayden Jones
Look at this statement from the article: "So when the president retweets the infamous video of him wrestling CNN to the ground, he is promoting the idea that the media is out to get him." Like they think they can control reality if they can just figure out the meme thing.
Dylan Ramirez
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Kayden Hill
I think it has something to do with the ability to think abstractly through metaphor and if you're a black and white thinker, like most SJW's are, you cannot think this way within the understanding of your world view. Now you can train yourself to think metaphorically but what poet who has ever communicated anything of value to humanity did not stare into the abyss. SJWs and the loony left cannot stare into the abyss, their marxist doctrine does not allow any form of discourse with any opposing idea. You are instructed to shout it down. And this is where the ideology differs. Free speech and free thought advocates have stared into their shadow. They've resolved who they are and are comfortable in their skin but in entertaining what is not permissible on the left, which is the thought that one may be wrong, they have a much deeper understanding of the universe around them. If lefty sjw were do this sincerely they would either go hang it up in the closet or free-fall towards free speech advocacy. This is why the left can't meme and never will be able to meme.
Jaxon Jackson
That logic doesn't really work considering the world is actually a pretty black and white where problems have black and white answers. e.g. exterminate the kikes. It's more like in order to meme successfully you need to know what the fuck is going on, and leftists have no idea what the fuck is going on.
Matthew Torres
To know what's going on one must know oneself. If you don't know who you are and what you are there's no chance of figuring out what's going on around you. The problem with the loony left is they have a script they have to stick to with the golden rule of never engage in discourse with opposing ideas which also means inside one's own thoughts. If you don't understand the enemy you will never understand how to defeat them and to understand the enemy you need to first understand yourself. It's an elementary concept.
A meme saying "exterminate the kikes" on top of a picture of a kike would be purely black and white thinking with no penetration into anyone's mind other than the already converted. The meme's purpose is not to preach in an echo chamber but to shift the point of view of the observer. So essentially, your statement supports my position. Now the meme "Who could be behind this post" is a fine example of metaphor utilising double entendre. Used tactically the curious mind could be led down a rabbit hole whereupon all they begin to see is the kike behind everything that ails society and thus leading to one thinking yes "gas the jews, race war now". The left is operating on a lower level of consciousness as they refuse free speech and free thought. It's why their memes are bland, humourless and lacking magnetism.
Ayden Gutierrez
Its not subversive and thats why they cant produce any quality content Their diseased brains work as following:
Nathaniel Reyes
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Brody Reed
It's not completely wrong. A lot of people would be very surprised (or not very) how few of these leftists are actually able to parse something like sarcasm anymore. It's really weird; they are both simultaneously lost after a paltry few layers of abstraction, but when it comes to very simple black and white solutions which comprise a lot of the problems in the world, they'll whip out so many layers of nonsensical abstraction to the issue that anyone with half a brain would be wondering how they hadn't sprained themselves on that piked triple back dismount without their mental gymnastics causing a cerebral hernia.
