Memes Are Making Us Stupid

Immediately after any given event of consequence, a sprout of “memes” appears on every social media platform intended to provide a conclusion, a statement of truth, often accompanied by a photograph aimed at illustrating the text that comes with it — to “express the truth in its simplest form”. I apologize — we all know what a “meme” is — but do we know what a meme does?

“Memes” date back at least to the 1900s (the Wisconsin Octopus has found one as early as 1919) and there have been plenty of variations on the theme. From “dank” memes to “deep fried memes” to single-visual to multi-visual to GIF to short movies, many memes are silly and rather innocuous. They do not offend, incite, or educate. They just want to make you chuckle. Fair enough. 

But when memes are designed to express an important political or social point, they are often misguided and plagued by illogical comparisons (where there need not be any comparing), cherry-picked photographs (that do not tell the whole story), and many times aim to push a pre-existing narrative based on stereotypes. 

The aim here is, of course, to express a summary of an event in its purest form while leaving out all the fussy details of the highly complex and the highly nuanced. The sentiment they express may often be of good faith, but the vessel itself is often guilty of “clunky” storytelling. If you are tempted by steelman/strawman argumentation, you have found your goldmine, blogger.

The most ludicrous of this type, in my mind, is the “split-screen” meme where one picture is juxtaposed with another to expose a double standard or a misconception of social, political, or racial injustice.

For example, a meme I once came across (shown above, #1) shows a trio of Millennials, with brightly dyed hair, eccentric clothing, and a young man in a dress, snapping selfies in the mirror — undoubtedly a crude caricature of the liberal left. Accompanying the photo is a group representing the conservative right — hand over heart in unison and all very well-behaved. A seemingly positive caricature, but a caricature, nonetheless.

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No doubt, the handiwork of a meme-ster steering the narrative via selective photography to humiliate the liberal left, and uphold the virtue of the conservative right. The second meme (shown above, #2 photo) aims to drive the exact opposite narrative. On its left, a group of BLM peaceful protestors march before the Capitol Building, while to its right, violent right-wing mobs battle police on the Capitol Floor. Whatever your political leanings, neither of these memes gives truth any justice. A third and fourth meme (shown above) illustrates that both were essentially peaceful protests and that both were essentially out-of-control riots.

These “image macros” do nothing for our discourse. They do not convert but serve only to subvert the discussion into a debate of semantics. “Were they peaceful protests? Were they rioting mobs?”  The better question is why embroil ourselves in these types of debates, especially since there were clearly elements of both in both demonstrations?

Another example not long after the BLM protests had lost most of their initial momentum, there were subsequent marches in every major American city protesting the initial COVID-19 shutdown of many businesses and additionally, the mandating of masks in areas where such a mandate could be legally upheld. Not long after that movement lost its own immediate momentum, a comparison of the two marches, or protests (or riots, or whatever) was “meme-ified”. 

The caption read “This is what it looks like when black people protest and this is what it looks like when white people protest”. The first of the two images were photographs of peaceful BLM protestors expressing their right to protest. They held serious placards that read “We can’t breathe” and that once and for all, “Black Lives Matter”. All of those pictured were black, disciplined, and not breaking any laws. 

The second photograph showed the all-white crowd doing just the same — expressing their right to be heard on an issue they considered to be serious — that is, the disruption of their local communities' businesses due to the COVID-19 shutdown. However, the latter photo showed a crowd of white protestors with one sign that read simply “We need a haircut”. 

The expression here is that when black people protest, it is serious, it is dire, and it is of major consequence to its demonstrators, but when white people protest, it is silly, ridiculous, and needless. But the meme itself is guilty of what essentially all memes are guilty of — the oversimplification and false comparisons of two separate events.

One glaringly obvious problem is that the BLM marches were held in the name of black injustice, but were overwhelmingly white (Source: Mobilewalla via Cision PRNewswire, June 18th, 2020). Another issue — while white people holding signs that say “we need a haircut” might not set off any serious alarms, the underlying issue of business closures, lay-offs, and economic catastrophe was a serious one.

Both memes (#1 and #2) are the classic steelman vs. strawman argument. Find the most serious, righteous photograph of the side you empathize with, and the silliest, most damning photograph of your opposite, shove the two together and your narrative is complete — with photo evidence to justify the commentary. These memes thrust into our discourse very chunky storytelling and the type of backward-first pseudo-journalism that conspiracy theory dreams are made of — find the narrative you like first and choose the pictures and facts that fit it.

Dating back to the early 2000’s it was hard to miss the litany of photographs of George W. Bush that pushed the narrative that Bush was not all that bright (in fairness, as far as presidents are concerned, he wasn’t top tier as intelligence goes, but as a man, George W. Bush is not exactly as dim as people think — smart man, dumb president). 

The picture that accompanied the narrative was a silly-faced Commander-in-Chief, seemingly “mid-sneeze” — the kind of picture that makes someone look dumb. But ask anyone who has ever edited a video of any human being and they will tell you it isn’t hard to freeze-frame a contortioned face — which makes one look silly, makes anyone look silly, whether they are president or dim, or not, or both. This same strategy has been used for Obama, Trump, and a whole host of others from various political ideologies.

While many memes are good for a laugh, many purport ideologies that are just too coarse to be of any good use. While the Capitol riots of January 6th, 2021 were the logical conclusion of years of violent rhetoric, they shined a direct light on the dangers of widespread misinformation. While we are all too aware of the danger of outright lies, the meme itself, the kind designed to educate through their erroneous juxtaposition of photographs may be subtle but are equally dangerous. It is no surprise, nor is it controversial to state that those who call themselves Americans are watching two completely different movies, two completely different storylines, and two completely different sets of reality.

Memes often provide a screen capture of the worst part of the movie you hate shoved right next to the best part of the movie you love. They are the visual equivalent of preaching to the choir. What rests below these posted memes is an ever-eroding foundation of language and good-faith debate — a fallacious and manipulative substructure that is built on falsehood, misdirection, blame, contortion, caricature, and beneath that substructure, an ever-exploding comment section full of vitriol, hatred, and cynicism that is devoid of any critical thinking for oneself. If it is the job of those who do the talking to understand that language matters, then it is the job of those who do the seeing to understand that pictures also matter.

Memes dilute, simplify, and speak to us, more often than not, like children. But even children, judging by the questions they so often ask, are capable of seeing through them. We ought to try to emulate them. 

If we stop asking ourselves the appropriate questions when seeing inappropriate pictures, we might as well be watching cartoons. Meanwhile, our foundation for thought and critical thinking, our language, continues to rot — bringing the whole house crashing down with it.

JSV
2023