I love a good, snappy meme as much as the next person

[canetoad]

And a big shout-out to underpants, nevilledog, Soph and many others who trawl the web and post a stream of excellent memes for DU. Really enjoy them.

But... Is this what political activism has come to?

I start to read what should be a brilliant political twitter thread. Predictably, by the sixth, eighth tweet, out come the memes. The old, the recycled, the obscurely and tangentially connected to the original topic. My personal rule of thumb is to read as far as I'm bored or put off by mindless disconnected repetition.

I guess the question I'm asking you all is: are memes changing folk's view of the dire political situation the US is experiencing, are they preaching to the choir, are they the fall-back of the intellectually and creatively challenged, or do they serve a higher purpose?

I'm not a meme hater, so please don't accuse me of that, but are memes making light of a larger, systemic problem and metaphorically smearing it over a large pane of glass until the problem becomes invisible.

[CentralMass]

1. An article on the cultural value of memes

https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2018/04/26/memes-2/

[canetoad]

2. I grok the 'Trojan Horse' for feelings

But the article is talking about teens. Not supposedly politically aware adults.

[CentralMass]

3. Well they aren't my thing but they seem to help some people engage in topics online.

[Mister Ed]

4. They're like editorial cartoons, only with photos.

Editorial cartoons have always been an adjunct to lengthy, well-researched editorials, but not a substitute for them. We can have both, I think.

[mitch96]

5. +1

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. I agree with you.

Memes can be fun but too often they are used a substitute for original thought.