• davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    That is not why things are getting worse in the US. I could go on at great length on why things are getting worse, but I don’t think this is the time or place for that.

    This post is actually a great example of how memes can be effective. The meme is the hook. The conversation that’s being had around the meme is the meat & potatoes (apologies for the mixed metaphor).

    Going back to an earlier comment of yours:

    Memes are short, contextless appeals to emotion and thus the perfect format for propaganda

    By “context,” I think you mean something different from what I’m about to say, but memes are densely packed with context: our shared cultural context. They are effective at communicating so much out of seemingly so little by leveraging our shared context. The a-ha moment of perceiving the meme through recognition of the implicit context is the hook.

    • JamesStallion@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      You’re right that that is not at all what I mean by context. I mean the kind of context that can make what appears to be a simple question much more complex.

      I would say this thread supports my position more than yours, in that the only engaging discussion happening here is a result of attacking memes as propaganda. The actual content of the meme (socialism and memes are both about sharing) has been almost entirely ignored, probably because it is so shallow and meaningless (as are all memes) that there really isn’t much to say about it.