Memes can make you stupid

Yes, fun, but they usually twist around logic to make us happy

Friends—

Sometimes people say things better than I can, so I wanted to share this piece by Judson Vereen, a contributor to Wrong Speak Publishing.

As a big fan of speaking the wrong thing when everyone else is toeing the line, I encourage you to check out their site. I’ve shortened Judson’s piece a bit, but you can read it all here.

– Ken

1. Memes Are Making Us Stupid

‘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.

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?

…

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.

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.

…

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.

2. Gender-bending at a gender-bending tech event

The Grace Hopper Celebration, a tech event aimed at “women and non-binary individuals,” got a surprise this year: men.

The event, with 30,000 attendees and high-profile sponsors like Apple and Amazon, had a significant percentage of humans who looked and acted like men.

One official with the group evidently didn’t mind assuming genders, claiming some attendees lied on their gender identity to register. While they’d like to, the organization can't ban men due to federal anti-discrimination laws.

The irony is thick. An event designed for women and people who claim to have no gender gets infiltrated by men claiming to be one of the former. It's like a social experiment gone wrong—or right, depending on your point of view.

3. Yes, but this meme is funny …