This is gonna sound so tinfoil hat but realizing that memes were created by the US military for mind control and propaganda purposes changed my life. I know it sounds crazy but:
The term “meme” comes from the Greek root “mimesis,” which means to imitate or recreate. And it sounds hilarious but memes are a form of Memetic Warfare; basically inorganic streams of information that are repeated and spammed all over the web until they are internalized by society.
A very base example of memetic warfare is for example people claiming Pepe the Frog was a far-right symbol for Trump supporters lmao. But that’s the only one they’ll admit to, when memes go deeper in turning war and human suffering into a form of ridicule and cheap entertainment; such as the current situation in Ukraine. Aside from people making insensitive jokes about civilian deaths in Ukraine, the west used memes to galvanize citizens into supporting WWIII and NATO intervention:
By portraying NATO as a potentially heroic force and a saviour through memes, the US propaganda division could quickly make people forget about the failed US “interventions” in Iraq and Afghanistan in which NATO caused even more civilian deaths.
Which leads me to the next point: memes are a form of dumbing down society. With mimesis, they repeat the same formula of images with bottom and top text with some asinine joke to program you into reacting instantly with “lol funny meme.” Have you ever been scrolling through your phone mindlessly and you think “wow fuck my life I’m so stupid compared to when I was young and didn’t have technology?”
That’s not just a side effect of technology, but the entire intention. The dumber the masses are, the easier they are to manipulate. If they’re programmed to react to basic images, then that’s even easier than the era when the government had to produce actual books and audio-visual propaganda that took more astute work on their part.
If you doubt the whole “dumbing down” concept, consider the fact that society now has no culture, art or history and there’s been 0 genius thinkers in the 21st century. Memes are literally all that’s left of our society to the point where they’re featured in entire museum exhibits lmaoo
Once you consider the lack of cultural capital in the 21st century, you’ll see that now everything has been turned into an ironic joke to normalize suffering. Tired of work, school or covid? Just make a meme about it and stfu! There is no reaction, but memes are a form of inaction and complacency in which everything is bad comedy.
I’m still gonna be a dumb bitch and send memes to my friends bc sadly it’s a modern tool of communication which won’t go away but while I do I’ll remember the creepy ass NATO strategist talking about using memes as mind control…
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