Comparative Memes

Since Charlottesville, The War of the Memes online seems to have increased. From what I understand, the alt-right released a slew of memes to bring its base together and get the word out to the masses. Never mind that one meme that was reportedly showing a Antifa site was actually from an ad campaign against domestic violence, which just goes to show the validity of this particular form of rhetoric. This incident was reported by numerous agencies including the BBC and Salon. Honestly, if we're going to make a difference and engage in thoughtful discussion, we need to move beyond memes because they frequently misrepresent or outright lie in order to gain likes.

That's right, Goat. Memes are catchy, but not always truthy.

Don't get me wrong. I've clicked and shared my share of memes. I've even made one. It's terribly easy to do honestly making it that much easier to dupe the populace. There is a difference between political or social issue memes and just for fun vintage postcard styles of memes. I've probably clicked like on some memes that would upset my more conservative friends just as theirs have irritated me. Take this one for example though:

This one is fairly ubiquitous and innocuous. It's not political or biting or insulting in any way. It simply speaks to a problem that anyone who has struggled through calculus can relate. Look at the same meme used for a different purpose:

Crass? Sure. Critical of a widely watched television show? Certainly. However, it's still not attacking ideology or identity really. You can actually search for Sound of Music meme generator to create more using this same iconic image. Memes can be silly, fun, satirical, but they can also be cruel, insulting, and false. Some are just easily picked apart. Take for example this one my husband's aunt shared:

 

When I saw this, it just hit me as completely tone deaf. It speaks to the nationalism and white privilege in America. It wants to make people feel guilty for being un-American if they don't step inline. If you burn a flag or sit during the anthem or feel like the Confederate monuments should be in museums not glorified in parks, then you just are what's wrong with America today. I cannot describe how hard my eyes rolled on this one.

That's about right, Tina. Was this taken before or after people freaked at your satire with the cake?

The patriotic meme from earlier is wrong on so many levels. 

That's right, Bob. Buckle up.

Level 1: The American flag comes with a list of do's and don'ts. One of the don'ts is that it shouldn't be used in advertising, embroidered on fabrics, printed on things like napkins, or worn as part of a costume according to the list from Old Farmer's Almanac. Think about all the things the flag is printed on like those Old Navy tank tops or underwear or even on beer cozies. It's been used commercially for a ton of things. The code Title IV Chapter 1, Section 8 states that the flag image should not be used on garments but I've seen the flag image on bikinis and bras and thongs ("Capturing the Flag" by Marc Leepson). Is it patriotic to have the flag on your privates or tattooed on your skin? While draped on a fallen soldier's coffin is indeed within the code, the Supreme Court did allow for free speech use in 1989 stating that the 1968 protection law that outlawed desecration of the flag was in fact unconstitutional. I do concede that desecration of the flag can be considered offensive to some, but we don't seem to have clearly defined fair use of the flag anyway. I fail to see how stepping on the flag is somehow awful when the flag is displayed horizontally all the time in sporting events. Again, something that the do's an don'ts says is a don't. We contradict ourselves on proper treatment of the flag all the time. This quadrant is clearly too big for a tiny square on a meme.

It's a toughie. Right, Mr. Goldblum?

Level two: Let's turn to the second quadrant with the veteran in the wheelchair. Standing for the national anthem wasn't a thing initially. It didn't become a thing until a West Point ceremony in 1891 ("When did we begin standing for the National Anthem?" www.digiopo.io). We apparently didn't start the hat removal until two years later. After that, the National Anthem was used at the Republican National Convention in 1900. The standing during the Anthem at sports events occurred in 1918 during the World War at the World Series. It was spontaneous and unplanned. I wonder how many people know that NFL didn't adopt the standing during the Anthem until 2009. That's right. 2009! People weren't that outraged prior to that when the players stayed in the locker room. But have a black player take a knee in protest and suddenly everyone's pissy. My own uncles are protesting the NFL allowing the sitting and kneeling. You'd think that number one, people would have bigger fish to fry than telling someone they can't exercise their right to free speech. Number two, the history of the tradition in the sport is ridiculously short. Number 3, if people would just listen rather than rebuke, then we might make some progress. My uncles can protest just like Kaepernick. I do think my uncles are exercising their privilege more than anything, but that doesn't mean they don't get to protest, too.

Glad we're on the same page, Animal.

Level 3: Do I really have to explain this one? It of course is alluding to the removal of Confederate monuments that were mostly put in place eons after the Civil War and in Union states as well as states that weren't even around during the Civil War. Take my state for example. We weren't even named Montana Territory until 1864. We became a state in 1889 long after the Civil War ended. Yet, the United Daughters of the Confederacy put up a monument in this state as part of a nation-wide movement to do so. It's been removed now for almost two weeks. Here's the thing: no one is erasing history FFS. No one will forget the goddamned Civil War. We have fucking history books and Wikipedia. Removing statues does not equate erasing history. Furthermore equating removing statues of Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee is not the same thing as removing soldiers' headstones. Wow! Inflammatory imagery much? We may get around to addressing our monuments to other racial problems like the genocide of First Peoples. Maybe since we've already taken steps in that regard. Even George H. W. Bush saw fit to rename the  former Custer Battlefield National Monument to The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  It'd be progress with precedence to change names of monuments. I think a natural extension involves placing the monuments to the Confederacy in museums or battlefields like Gettysburg. Either way, history is not erased. This kerfuffle though will ensure that the Civil War remains part of our country's history rather than eradicating it. 

Aw! Thanks, Karen.

Level 4: OMG! Seriously? Ugh! Well how about this: you don't get to tell others how to feel about racism or oppression if you're the ones in the position of power. As a white person (my husband's aunt is, too), we do't get to tell other races to suck it up and embrace being Americans. We don't get to do that because the white settlers stole land and forced First People of North America onto reservations where they crammed assimilation down the their throats. The colonists literally stripped tribes of their identities. I think they get to be as bitter as they want for as long as they want. Let's address the black inclusion as well. Hmmm, ripped from one continent and brought to another to be chattel. Stripped of their culture and humanity. And the yellow folks? Well, guess what. They were taken advantage of to build railroads. They were forced into internment camps during World War II. If someone told a white person of Italian and French descent that he or she had to stop identifying with their culture and heritage, I think those white folks would be mighty put out. White people though got the land, the control, the power, the free expression of their heritage, and they just can't allow themselves to acknowledge the privilege and hypocrisy of telling minorities to buck up and cuddle up to the American tradition and pride. Oh! And what about that flag? I don't think it quite fits the flag code.

Thanks for the validation, Batman.

We click. We like. We don't always think. But we can do better.

No. Really, Moose. We can.