If you have been active anywhere on the socials, you probably have seen a image added as a response to yours or someone else's post. That image probably has some text in it and either people really liked it or really hated it. It was probably a meme.
At first, you might have gotten a meme that went along with your post and you found it funny and giggled a little at the site. But, maybe, you received a meme that you thought was maybe a little bit hurtful, rude or just straight up mean. You didn't know how to respond, but you wanted to respond.
You, have entered the Meme Wars.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a meme, is an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. Or an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media.
While this is the correct definition, there is obviously more to it than just a social media 'thing'. It is a political attack from one person towards another person or a group. It is more exact to say a group of a type, because it is never an individual attack, even it is sent to a single person. The person who is focused on, is put into that group by being the recipient of the meme. Sides are drawn on the battle field, but let's step back a bit first to know why.
According to Varsity Tutors, the Join or Die image is one of the first political cartoon. It was published in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper, before the breakout of the American Revolution, in 1754. This simple image depicts the original colonies as a snake, that if split apart, would die. This image was simple, yet powerful and spread around the colonies and helped bolster support for the rebellion. It put people into groups, those who would join the fight and those who would oppose it. Certainly, there was another group, those who stood on the sidelines and watched, but nobody was really neutral in the end.
This simple drawing also spawned off another more familiar symbol of the American Revolution, the Gadsden Flag.
The Gadsden Flag was used by the Continental Marines as first a motto and then as a battle flag. And now is associated with people who back the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution, libertarians, patriots and generally people who really don't like big central government control. It is easily recognizable and immediately brings forth political views when it is seen. As most memes do, it immediately separates people into groups of either support or derision and hatred for that group. This image is as much of a battle flag now as it was then as it is now.
Who would have thought that a simple flag created over 200 years ago would still make blood boil. The flag seems to be one of the best baits in order to find someone who is the polar opposite or your views. It is hard to imagine something that could separate people more than an image of a snake. It could be that man has always been programmed to hate snakes, but there has to be something deeper to this particular image that makes some people freakout when they see it.
And as so much as one side sees the snake as a sign of good, the other sees it as a sign of bad. What side you are on is easily determined by whether you believe in the snake or the fist.
Now, some people might be saying that memes aren't all necessarily political, but that is not the case. The problem is, everything is political. Every opinion or belief you had can be boiled down to being a political standing. It may not be an actual political stance, but the underlying stance can be seen by which side you take when a meme is presented.
The definition of politics
the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government
Let's say that your belief is that pineapples should never be on pizza.
Simple enough.
Nothing very political about that, just a distaste for a particular fruit on pizza. Nobody is going to be harmed by the choices on an imaginary pizza discussed on the socials. How could the mere mentioning of a food mixture. But, along comes someone on the socials to challenge your view of pineapple on pizza.
Now the battle lines have been drawn. You either back down and accept that pineapple can be on pizza, or you hold your ground and fight for the exclusion. You have turned pizza toppings into a governmental overreach on food choices. It is stupid and silly, but you can't help it, because someone put up a meme that triggered something inside you that you must respond. You must respond, because they are wrong and you are right. And this has to be true. There can be no gray area when a meme is laid down. No battle can be won with soldiers that are iffy on the cause.
A response rings out across the barren battlefield waking the fire in the souls of socialdum.
Blood has been drawn and this battle will not end until real life comes along and drags you way to something more important. But, temporarily, no matter what your stated politics are, you stood on either the line of dictatorship of limited toppings and cheered with all of your power or you fought for the freedom of choice and against the tyranny of taste limitations.
That is the heart and soul of a meme. The ability to reach into the recesses of the brain and spark a firestorm of emotion at someone, just because they chose an image and some words to post on the socials.
The simplicity of the meme is that you don't have to be clever yourself, you can just latch onto a meme that you like and post it whenever you want. You will get a little laugh or giggle out of posting it. You might feel a swell of pride that you have planted your flag in the ground. But, if you aren't clever and you use the wrong meme, well, there might a response of several different types of memes against your meme casting you into the pool of small brained people.
Don't try to fight this onslaught, because you have already lost.
It is important to know your meme, which is why there is a site called Know Your Meme. This will help normies get adjusted to the meme game and be able to carefully lob a few memes without having them turned around on them. If you are ever hit with a meme that you don't know or aren't sure what it is, then you should look it up and get acquainted with its stance. Or, maybe you see something that you know you need to respond to, but don't know the right meme for the job. Google it. It is better to be naive and learn, then to not learn and be called out as naive.
Those who are veterans of the meme wars usually know most memes from memory and they pop to mind immediately when a situation occurs that requires a meme response. If you do your research and pay attention, you will be able to post your memes with fortitude and certainty. You will become part of the rank and file in the meme wars.
But, just being a grunt at the bottom is not enough for many and at times you want to put your own little twist on a meme. For those who want to move up the ranks in their meme game, there are meme generators.
Again, use these wisely, because if you generate your own meme and it is poorly executed, then you will once again be labeled a brainlette, and belittled by all who see it and rightfully so.
By either googling "meme generator" or going to a popular meme generator, know that you are stepping in to a world of addiction and pain. The ease at which you can generate meme ammunition will become like an all-you-can-eat buffet and snark and wit. After sampling item after item, you will find even more choices down the line. The combination of words and pictures, if you are well versed, will fill your meme armory to the hilt.
Addictions can hurt and main and sometimes they can kill. So, don't dive in too deep that your meme armament ends up dragging you down to the deep deaths of the social pool left to outcasts who abused their posting privilege and are left shadow banned and alone, screaming into the void with nobody paying attention.
But, with caution and these two tools, Know Your Meme and Meme Generator, you are on your way to the front lines of battle. Ready to go blow to blow with the unbelievers, skeptics and ill-informed. Leading the charge to fight for your views and truth. You might even be emboldened enough to want to start combining memes or even create one from scratch.
Again, tread with caution in this area, because it can be a huge success or a huge disgrace.
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." ~Voltaire
"Humor is essential to a successful tactician, for the most potent weapons known to mankind are satire and ridicule." ~Saul Alinsky
When the enemies of truth use ridicule to go after views and people they do not like, there is only one way to fight them back and that is with humor and ridicule. This is the importance of memes, to fight those who would hide, pervert or cloud the truth with calls to emotion and ignoring truth and facts. When they push emotion, they open themselves up to emotional attacks. They might not seem to be hurt by ridicule and satire raining down on them like a hail of arrows, but they are hurt. You can tell they are hurt by their responses that have a taste of anger. When you see that, you attack some more and then again, pounding them down with hilariously stupid images portraying the enemy as less and less of a thinking being and more of a walking drone until
....they block you.
You have won, soldier. But, you have only won the battle, not the war. The war is endless.
