Weaponized Memes: The Evolution of Propaganda

              Memes, the one thing that everyone truly loves. It doesn't matter what your background is; the fact is you like your memes. But you don't have to look far to see how they have evolved into mostly political propaganda. The general tone of memes has shifted from aimless lowbrow humor to staunch political commentary of whatever agenda the creator has. 

Memes are perhaps propaganda perfected. All you need is an image, and some biased half-true text slapped onto it to push your views. Preferably it should appear like a joke, but a joke with a motive. This is the genius as well as the danger of memes. Because we perceive them as jokes we often do not make the correlation to propaganda. Therefore we can consume hours of "funny memes" without ever registering the thought that we actually consumed hours of propaganda. Our political ideology and general opinion can be swayed without our acknowledgment of the change occurring. 

Of course, memes aren't the first ones to use humor to change opinions. Political stand-up comedians have been doing that for decades. The difference is, comedians have a relatively small market penetration and consequently a much smaller footprint on society. They have their fans and maybe a few TV appearances to people who aren't a fan, but for the most part a very limited number of people ever take note of them even if they are allegedly famous.

This was noticed and expanded by those who have a vested interest in engineering society. Thus comedy based late night talk shows were born. After all, who doesn't want current events spoon-fed to them in a humorous way? Its a great way to get the news, and have a laugh! The problem is, you are getting a biased account of everything. You are being told what to think without realizing it. The invention of comedy news only exaggerated this effect. Shows that admit they are not real news or real reporters reporting the news in a comical way. Yet if they come under fire for inaccuracy or bias they hide behind the defense of "its just comedy." Examples of this would be The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and all of their spin-offs. 

The next development after stand-up, and talk shows are adult cartoons. I have to admit even I used to watch shows like Futurama, The Simpsons, and never detected the amount of propaganda in it.  It all seemed like good natured humor that represented the different types of people around us. When I go back and watch re-runs now, I see how effectively deceived I was. Cartoons are noticeably more effective than old fashioned comedians reaching much higher levels of popularity. They are still effective today and many memes are born from them. After all, the internet generation grew up watching these adult cartoons. Its only natural that the early internet culture would reflect that. 

The internet bringing back the standard of image based content, and merging it with easy photo editing tools, and social media birthed memes as a result. Its not too hard to see the resemblance to old propaganda posters. An image with some text to influence public opinion. The key difference is with modern technology anyone can make a meme and reach a broader audience with it, which makes them much more popular and  more effective. The propaganda agencies are a relic of the past, but what we do see is influential people investing millions of dollars in "online trolls" who creating memes and spreading their preferred disinformation. 

In a slip of the tongue Hilary Clinton admitted she had a "basement of virgins" on her campaign payroll called Correct the Record. Ironically that same  political campaign made an official website denouncing Pepe, a popular meme mostly used by the right wing.  They even went as far as to push it into being classified as a hate symbol by the ADL. Why? They simply don't like counter-propaganda. Its the equivalent to banning books in the modern age. Though we will probably get back into banning books at some point in the future. 

With major political campaigns acknowledging the power of memes both for the usefulness to their cause, and as potentially damaging to their cause. Its fairly safe to conclude that propaganda has come full circle. It started as printed posters and newspaper, and in most ways it has come back to that only in more modern terms.  The memes we love so much, are actually weaponized psychological warfare or simply a "psy op." Thats not to say to quit consuming dank memes, but merely think about what you are consuming to stay true to your core values, not someone else's. 

sources used for reference: 

https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/pepe-the-frog

Note: The Hillary campaign page has been taken down in favor of peddling her book now.