The Left Can’t Meme”: How Right-Wing Groups Are Training social media warriors

Thread win!

 

Yep OrangeManBad is well established as being the left's go-to when they want to pick a meme fight that they can't win.

 

That is not at all what she was saying. It has to do with how the human brain processes sensory stimuli. It has been clinically demonstrated that there is a much higher immediate activation of the amygdala of those who identify as "conservative" or classical right of center political and social attitudes. Its actual friggin' science, not comedy central.

Another reason a meme is so effective is that it triggers limbic reactions associated with emotions in the reader. Another reason is because meme's generally require no "reasoning" to produce an effective reaction they already appeal to underlying bias (both conscious and unconscious). Another reason is that when they are genuinely funny (witty, cutting, punny, ironic, etc) they are doubly impactful. And lastly they act as an effective short hand to distill complex nuanced situations to a simple "bumpersticker" that is easily palatable by those not intellectually invested or capable.

 

The republicans are FAR better at messaging than the democrats. Their spin doctors are simply better at the game. they've been focused on "its not what you say, its what they hear, that is important". The dems have been focused on "what they say is the same thing people hear", which is tragically bassackward in the selling of ideas, policies and opinions.

There are now all kinds of "messaging factories" set up to promote special interests of all kinds across the social spectrum. Some are foreign governments with nefarious intent to other governments, some are corporations pushing economic interests, etc etc. The novel notion of internet influencers has now become an "profession" onto itself.

Meanwhile the far right fascist fringe is having a gay ol' time pumping out their poison in meme form. (admittedly so is every other whacko scumbag group).

 

Lady I didn't cherry pick anything: That's what the study says. I'm sorry you had trouble reading and understanding it, but that's not my problem. Sorry it took so long to respond, I caught a ban for other posts.

 

See my critique of the study and her representation of its findings above.


Emphasis mine: Which is what I was saying. You bypass many reactions and get the message across. Often the message can be so nuanced or multi-layered that great hilarity can ensue based upon who reacts and how they do it.

 

I grant the study was less than definitive, however, simply google Neuroscience of political affiliation and you'll find that there are any number of far more rigorous studies. This one can predict if you're right or left with 83% accuracy for instance

https://www.motherjones.com/politic...p-model-management-illegal-immigration/#testb

Like I said, its science.

Yes we humans are easily manipulated into thinking and feeling certain things.

 

Yes a motherjones article about donald trump's modeling agency and illegal immigration is a rather rigorous scientific study using proven reliable methods I'm sure.
Post the wrong link did you?


Which is the basis of rhetoric. Hence my position that memes are well crafted tools for rhetorical purposes, should one be competent in their use.

 

The left always has to be afraid of running afoul of their own inflexible ideology and being declared impure (the first step towards being declared alt-right and excommunicated). True humor cannot occur in such conditions. So what do you do in such a situation?

 

The Left can't meme. More specifically.. Leftists can't meme.

I separate Left-winger from Leftist. Why do I make this distinction, you may ask?

With Leftist I mean moral puritan; moral Authoritarian; moral busybody; humorless; stuck up; Authoritarian, etc. The kind of people who go around taking things literally. The kind of people sticking their nose where it doesn't belong. Telling people "Oh, you can't joke about that". These people detest taking political tests because they end up on the Authoritarian side of the Left-wing on the political compass.

 

Won't work.

Leftists don't have a sense of humor.

 

Being humorless is why you fail.

 

The NPC MEME was a Russian thing

 

"Hands Up Don't Shoot!" comes to mind; because the entire Left of the United States of America gulped that down whole and unexamined even as the Right produced proof that it didn't happen. The Left can't meme for the simple reason that they substitute FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS for actual humor, and most good memes are humor-based not FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS based.

Oh and then one has the Trump/Russia nutjob leftist conspiracy which the collective Left once again swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Why did you even bother asking?

 

So you weren't ever an Obama supporter? There are memes about Obama dividing the nation into Us versus Them.

 

Mea Culpa and humblest apologies for major gaff.

here's the correct link:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...al-beliefs-with-83-percent-accuracy-17536124/

And yes, I totally agree they are a very powerful tool. Back in my day "memes" were called "print and outdoor ads.

 

Memes, at least in this context, are a form of mockery. They are childish and anti-factual and anti-intellectual by nature, appealing to emotions like an advertisement and similarly attempting to manipulate thinking in a particular way that is disconnected from the facts, especially inconvenient facts. It is a means of crafting a fictitious narrative that you want others to believe and spread to others on your behalf. It is propaganda and disinformation being used to manipulate millions of voters, it is done extremely cheaply, and it is done by people and organizations with questionable motives and of no guaranteed origin. Having the Russians involved this way means we have a foreign power using its vast military resources to directly influence American voters en masse, in addition to certain American actors doing so.

Through memes, a large segment of our population has been radicalized into supporting a terrible person as president and supporting terrible ideas and policies that threaten and harm innocent people, as well as harm our greater national interests. It is extremely toxic to our republic and it is extremely difficult to combat because of how effective it is. It appeals to the human mind the way a good cult or religion does. To all intents and purposes, Trump is supported by a large cult that is shaped in large part by a particular brand of "alternative news" and "alternative facts," coupled with the endless memes and the peer dynamics that the memes help to cement.

 

Wrong. What's with you people and Russians? Do you see Russians everywhere you go?

The NPC meme originated with people responding like NPC's would in a game. No internal monologue let alone the ability to think for oneself. It originated on /v/, and /pol/ decided to take it a step further.

And now it's being used as a means to make fun of people parroting the same ideas they hear without question.

 

With all these dank memes!

 

As stated memes are mostly about cutting wit, or humor.

If you think memes got trump elected you're going to continue to be horrified by life and I'm unable to help you. You're looking at a symptom and deeming it the root cause.
Memes are favored because people have short attention spans for things they do not choose to view, mostly because of how we source and view entertainment (and work ie on screen) now. Memes are made to catch the eye while one is scrolling and to be encapsulated well enough that that glance is enough to receive the message.

 

We need look no further than to Gatewood's many posts in the humor section for examples of what the article is talking about, I think.







"Memes" such as these aren't memes, but they come in the same format. Unlike memes, they are designed to spread ideology and misinformation through social media to the detriment of political opponents, among other target groups. Such images are made to target Jews also. Morons enjoy posting them at the Pravda forum.

https://engforum.pravda.ru/index.php?/topic/285489-the-history-of-the-jews/

 

All of those things contain sophisticated political commentary, not simply mockery.
They use the events, concepts and/or characters pictured along with the captions message to either pose a question, make a statement of belief, make a historical reference, or reference an ideology or competing ideologies based in moral, cultural, political, and philosophic belief structures and make commentary upon it either explicitly or by implication.


Yes persons of all stripes or sorts or beliefs, even persons of low moral character, can employ a simple tool of communication with varying degrees of sophistication. Do you have a point?

 

Your article references the same study if I'm not mistaken. Wrong link again?

Exactly: they spoke to a common audience on a theme and often worked subliminal or otherwise multiple intended meaning statements into their ads

 

Amazing, I did it again. D;oh

here's the one that shows definitively different brain activation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092984/