Not really sure what year it is in the Chinese Calendar (Rat, Pig, Dragon etc) but sometimes I think the past few years should be lumped together to form the Year of the Meme. For those who are unaware of what a meme is (Which rocks do you live under), a meme (At least from my limited understanding) is some cute, buzz worthy picture or phrase that tends to float around the Interwebz that tries to boil down extremely complex issues into a couple of phrases and maybe a picture or three. Because of the parsing of information nessecary to create a Meme, they are more often than not...WRONG!
I tend to avoid Memes as much as possible except to confuse people and liven up my pages. I often post ones that amuse me and that I think might have a grain of truth in them. However, as a general rule, I don't make the meme the end all and be all of my argument. If someone comes back and says, "Your Meme is a big stupid, doody head lie" I am usually prepared to back up what I posted with some semblance of an argument. Or I come back with a witty rejoinder like, "OH YEAH! WELL SEZ YOU!" and move on with my life.
(For those who are curious, its a song from Sesame Street. Look it up they cute.)
So an Interwebz/Vaguebook Friend that I really like and enjoy somewhat stimulating and mock intellectual arguifying with (Waves at John McDuffie) posted both of these memes today and believe it or not I am not using them to mock him or question his sanity/intellect. I am using them because they are perfect examples of how a Meme may have a grain of truth in them, but that truth is more often than not drowned out by the silo of pure BS. (Get it grain...silo? Come on folks this is prime stuff here!) So let us briefly study each one with an eye on the truth vs BS. |
| Oh sing it with me! "One of these things is not like the other. Which one is different do you know?" |
The first one is one of hundreds of Interwebz Memes trying to draw comparisons between White on Black Violence and Black on White Violence. Usually these memes are used to somehow justify the Police Shootings and outright murder of Unarmed Black People,so this one scores points for at least being different. However, the wording is always the same. Usually Memers (New word, I get a nickle every time you use it!) try and make White on Black violence seem somehow not so bad because, "HEY LOOK BLACK FOLKS DO IT TO US TOO!" Now this argument is kind of stupid for two reasons.
Reasons the first. Just because Black Person X does some horribly violent thing against White Person Y or even if a hundred Xs do it to a 100 Ys, that doesn't justify shooting a small child carrying a toy gun seconds after your arrival. (Side note here, White Conservatives try to justify the Rice Shooting because the Cop had to make a split second decision and was unsure if the gun was real, but expect same cops to make all nice nice with a bunch of White Men running around carrying Automatic weapons and not assuming the White Men are dangerous until they actually shoot someone. Gotta love that. Anyhoo, side note done.) Cops aren't supposed to assume that all White folks with guns are dangerous even though every single mass school shooting was done by White Christian kids so why is the assumption that they can judge any Black person they encounter by the actions of other Blacks?
Reasons B. This particular meme is moronic because it says "Liberals blame Racism." Got news for you! Liberals didn't blame Racism. The Terrorist who shot and killed all of those Black Folks blamed racism. He screamed Racist statements as he shot them. He wrote (plagiarized) ream after ream about how Blacks were ruining the country and how they all needed to die in his Manifesto. Liberals didn't make this about Race, he did. Conservatives are desperately trying to make it not against race because this Racist White (Presumably Christian) Terrorist makes them look bad. Its called Damage Control. Look it up.
Now like any good but badly inaccurate Meme, this one also has a grain of truth in it. Well I am presuming it does, I am really too lazy to look up exactly how many glaciers the Earth has and how many are still left so we will give the creator of this one the benefit of the doubt. Here the stupidity isn't on how many glaciers there were or how many are left, but the size of said glaciers. Despite what your wife may tell you, Size does indeed matter so pay attention.
The question isn't how many glaciers are left on the planet, but how big they are. Thanks to climate change (used to be Global Warming but Conservatives decided that the phrase was too scary and changed it to CC. Yes it was the Conservatives not Liberals, no matter what you want to think.) glaciers are shrinking at a rate that is actually perceivable to the naked eye. An Observer can go to glacier X and study a section, then come back a week later and the section is complete changed. If the rate of thaw continues, areas that have been covered in ice for 10s of thousands of years will be ice free in just a few years. So even if you assume the meme's numbers are correct, by the time your Dachshund is ready for senior food, it won't be anymore.
Memes are cute and good for a quick media buzz. However, anytime you try to use a meme to prove your point, you run the risk of making yourself look less that smart like and can drive all but the most simple minded/like minded people away from your argument. Instead of simply posting memes willy nilly, try to find something that actually helps your cause. Might take a bit longer, but you won't look quite as silly.
End of Rant
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