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Memes R Us

I put this simple question, “What is a meme?” to Wikipedia.

This is what they told me:

An Internet meme, more commonly known simply as a meme (/miːm/ MEEM), is a type of meme that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms.

Traditionally, a prominent form of such memes consisted of image macros paired with a concept or catchphrase. In some cases, these memes used words and phrases contain[ing] intentional misspellings (such as lolcats) or incorrect grammar (such as doge and “All your base are belong to us“).

However, in more recent times, memes have evolved from simple image macros with text to more elaborate forms such as challenges, GIFs and viral sensations.

These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, or news sources. They may relate to various existing Internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on various websites. Fads and sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word of mouth transmission …

… And on they went.

My interest in them stems mainly from a general appreciation of how we use words; how they make us think, the effectiveness of them and the perceptions they might carry.

Life, after all, is about perception. Not what it is but what we perceive it to be.

Here are my top 15 favourite memes. The first thing you will notice is that the group of 15 all reflect my own views. Memes allow this. It’s part of the culture.

 

15 Every picture tells a story. Yes?

 

14 Admitting one’s guilt.

 

13 Words that make you think.

 

12 Seriously funny.

 

11 Slam dunk.

 

10 What’s his name again?

 

9 I liked this for its truth.

 

8 I agree

 

7 Fools rush in.

 

6 No words needed.

 

5 The truth hurts.

 

4 When you tell a lie you deny the other person his or her right to the truth.

 

3 Memories

 

2 A true, if biased view

 

1 A classic.

 

I have no more to say except that I might follow up with a Top 10 Donald Trump memes. They should give your thought processes a thorough going-over!

My thought for the day

Lying in the media is wrong at any time however when they do it by deliberate omission it is even more so. Murdoch’s papers seem to do it with impunity.

Words have special meaning when they are written by the intellectually rich but mean nothing when written by the intellectually corrupt.

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7 comments

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  1. Ken

    John I really like your top 15 favourite memes.

  2. nonsibicunctis

    If only more people shared this author’s perspective, we would have a much more cohesive society, increased equity, less crime and mental illness and a positive chance for the future. As it is, we have none of those and so it will remain until the LNP is removed from office and structural change is made to our electoral system and our system of government.

  3. whatever

    A meme can also be a single word, like “lockdown”.
    This is the favourite descriptive term used by BigBusiness/AltRight when discussing any given regulatory framework.
    ‘The Greenies have locked down our National Parks!’……etc

    This term is now being used on the MSM (including FOX-ABC) to describe quarantining and distancing measures to control the spread of Covid19.

  4. Keitha Granville

    I am clearly on the same page as you ! Love them.

    I think they are especially helpful in getting a point of view over to people who don’t like to read a lot. A meme can say so much in a very short space.

  5. Phil Pryor

    The dog pissing down Dutton’s pictured throat, (our own Heydrich), is a correct version of a trickle down effect. Some economic urine to whet and wet the poor suckers who wait for economic justice.., never ever to come while conservative c—s–kers are in charge. Turf them…Conservative fascist aurhoritarian plots have dominated parliaments, media, money and mining, with online retail and info and social gossip added. What a rotten world it is for the new electronic peasants and slaves, mindless consumng, a plantation culture.

  6. wam

    Just as you cannot describe your truth without your perception, you cannot ascribe other truths to a lie without consideration of their perception.
    What do you make of the crowd of trump supporters with signs that say social distancing is communism?
    ‘Their president describes them as ‘responsible'” for he shares their abject fear of the word ‘socialism’
    Notice, lord ‘fear of the word ‘socialism’. An abject fear of a word that the not only is not understood but also can never be understood because they already understand the fear.
    Words have special meaning when they are written by the intellectually rich but mean nothing when written by the intellectually corrupt.’
    Special meaning for the writer or the reader? For the intellectually rich or he ‘corrupt intellectually ‘rich? B
    ?ut where are the intellectually poor, the workers, the voters.
    Those who are frightened by the loonie socialists and the way they present themselves and are presented by ‘your intellectually corrupt.media form up to 90% of Australia.
    So, lord is it intellectually corrupt to compare extremists to a main stream party with individual candidates having success in achieving 50% plus one.
    the toxic meme for many of the 90% is ;lobor and the greens”

  7. nonsibicuncdtis

    Warn, you fail to understand words in the same way as you represent is the case for the non-intellectual. You also fail to respect the author of this post by writing his name with a lower case ‘l’.

    I am not sure on what basis you claim John Lord to be ‘intellectually corrupt’ for comparing “extremists to a main stream (sic) party…” I read the post twice and could not find evidence that he had done so but perhaps I missed it. Of something I am certain, however is that the ‘main stream party with “individual candidates having success in achieving 50% plus one.” has rarely if ever achieved a 50% plus one vote of the electorate, and neither have most of its candidates.

    Our eletoral system puts voters in the invidiious position of being compelled to vote (which I would generally agree ough to be a positive but shouldn’t be necessary) but having to do so within a preferential system that effectively compels them to either make a ‘donkey vote’ or else to risk having their vote allocated to a non-preferred candidate. This system leads to major distortions on representation which, in a democracy, ought to be intolerable. The Greens,for instance, whom you appear to also denigrate and no doubt consider an extreme, obtained 10% of the vote yet only 1 seat. So, I’d suggest that, even aside from the abusive language of your ‘argument’, its basis on voting percentages is unsound.

    Your own rhetoric. presented in a condescending and judgmental fashion, is both ill-expressed and guilty of precisely that which you accuse John Lord.

    You write: “you cannot describe your truth without your perception, you cannot ascribe other truths to a lie without consideration of their perception.” I wonder what you really intend to convey by that. Are you saying that one can’t clam that the truths of others *are the results of a lie or that one can’t claim the truths of others *to be a lie?

    Either way, you go on to speak of the “abject fear of the word socialsm” – really? Surely such a fear would be similar to the reaction of those who lobby for censorship of films and books without, in most cases, having read or seen them and while arguing that such material is disastrously harmful, fail to explain why censors who read or view the material, (including themselves, if they have done so), do not suffer the harm they claim will come to others.

    You then, after mentioning what seems to be a garbled misunderstanding of populism and an abusive mention of ‘loonie socialists’ make an outrageously opinionated generalisation about ” ‘your intellectually corrupt.media” (sic), claiming that “up to 90% of Australia” are “frightened” by the previously mentioned “loonie socialists”.

    Your post ends on a final absurd statement that , “the toxic meme for many of the (mythical) 90% is ;labor and the greens” (sic).

    I ask you one question: Instead of decrying the reasonable post of a credible and articulate commentator, if you have a genuinely strong feeling that

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