patrick.net

but memes that lie mostly do not work.

But 99% of Left meme attempts fall flat.

but look at those temperatures closely. they’re lower, not higher. it’s not the world that changed, it’s the manner in which the world is being presented. this has long worked to mislead, but this ability is failing, supplanted by a new memetic technology.

memes like the one above are anti-propagandistic gold. their informational density is surreal and they lay plain not only how shabby this trick is but how the trick is done so you can more easily spot the next one. best, they teach away from the provocative image that previously evoked fear or rage and invert it so that the same image in the future now screams “they are manipulating you” instead.

it’s an entire argument, indictment, and informational immune booster in one simple medium.

memes are changing everything.

welcome to the age where you can devastate a whole movement with one well chosen flourish:



for perhaps the first time in history, we have the template to refute big lies more quickly and more comprehensively than they can be told.

the prior impact is effaced and replaced by the new (and yet retains its power). the old images, even unaltered, wind up inverted in significance because the new ones are more compelling, more memorable, and evoke greater meaning.

where once they evoked status, they now cry fraud.

it’s dazzlingly effective and it multiplies and expands to suck in all adjacent energy.




and, let’s face it, this is way more fun.




there is just nowhere to hide from this. the ridicule and linkage is too intense, too fast, and mutates too rapidly consuming everything you try to use against it.

no sooner do you utter the phrase “malign creativity” than there are 200 memes that have adopted it as their own gleefully boomeranging it back at you.

all information is meme-fodder and the jiujitsu of using the power of someone’s own images against them has a wonderful feeling of turnabout being fair play.

and striking back in response to this is difficult.

fighting humor with stridence is a terrible look.

that’s as low status as it gets.

never bring outrage to a meme fight.

they so desperately want to stop this because they cannot compete with it.

for perhaps the first time in history, we have the template to refute big lies more quickly and more comprehensively than they can be told.

I don't know for sure that he's the one who originated it, but writer Matt Walsh has certainly popularized this increasing tendency among online conservatives. Whenever a leftist or progressive revolutionary weighs in on an issue or offers a condemning retort, the response is to quote tweet with the phrase "pronouns in bio."

The point being that someone who fastidiously toes the line of what's-happening-now to the degree that they feel it necessary or even morally responsible to tell everyone what pronouns they use for themselves is not someone in whose wisdom we should place much confidence.

As I said, the trend is catching on, and as much as they pretend it doesn't bother them, it routinely evokes some of the most indignant responses.

HeadSet says

Example to the contrary:

Oh, there are exceptions. Make me laugh, too.

But 99% of Left meme attempts fall flat.

Patrick says

for perhaps the first time in history, we have the template to refute big lies more quickly and more comprehensively than they can be told.

This is why they ban memes in Europe.

Yes. Back before they all collectively went insane. Or were just starting to.

I'll say something that I bet more than 95% of the people here will disagree with. The left was the first to create the art of memes

Rare to see more than 1 conservative sticker on truck. Usually just FJB or trump won or trump 2024 around here. Lefties on other hand plaster their puny cars with tens of stickers.

Really, the cartoonist was AFRAID to put up authentic stickers.

I think the screw up, except for "Trump '20", is that none of those bumper stickers are real.