In September 2017, my thirteen-year-old son coined the phrase, "for every meme, there is an equal and opposite meme." In the first year of the Trump administration, the meme has continued to serve as a viable act of visual rhetoric: a portable digital artifact that, by nature, requires effort, rudimentary skill, and access to a social media presence. How these image files have and may continue to affect political and social norms and views is important to a larger understanding of the Internet, as a place that fosters creative and unique human expression.
Memes are ill-defined: taking a screenshot of another's tweet or twitter exchange with the intention of sharing has become a somewhat common practice, as has the repurposing of individuals' facial expressions, to provide a comment and sentiment regarding a given topic. Memes range from relevant to absurd; the form has no requirements, no vetting process. I am interested in how meme creators have begun to use anonymous individuals' images, as well as those of celebrities, movie stills, etc. Characters from The Simpsons, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Heath Ledger's depiction of The Joker, and other cultural icons have become immortalized within memes over the past year, but so have individuals who were previously unknown and unrecognized by the general public. The role of the stock photograph in our digitized culture invites larger examination, to better understand the intersection of cultural studies, digital media, and social platforms that encourage the sharing of content.
Political media organizations-- some with explicit political motivation-- have created memes included in this collection (Act.tv, NowThis). Other organizations' affiliations, and the sources of many memes, are less clear. The shareability of image files via social media invite the anonymous meme: a visual/textual carrier pigeon bearing quick and visual satire, delivered to unknown persons in unknown ways. Further understanding of the role memes played during the 2016 Presidential election and Trump's first year may come to include (and identify!) memes created by foreign agents-- outright propaganda, seeking to appear as if created by some anonymous American Photoshop novice. This understanding, which may not become clear for months or years, will eventually inform how, during the first decade of widespread social media accessibility, digital media was created with the intention of promoting specific parties, positions, policies, and politicians.
Memes related to the election of Doug Jones in Alabama-- and the unconceded defeat of Judge Roy Moore-- provided meme creators a clear and present foil, as has the continued revelations related to sexual assault and misogyny in Hollywood, Washington DC, and in the mainstream press. The extent to which a given meme asserts or assaults a specific ethical stance is interesting: the meme as presentation of a moral argument. At worst, these memes (collected here and on other posts on this blog) may represent something of a political spiritus mundi, from which both our nightmares and dreams come true.
This author does not endorse any of the rhetorical statements inherent in these memes (though I agree with some wholeheartedly); rather, they are presented here, as memes have in the past, to serve as a 'snapshot' of political and social rhetoric alive in American culture during the last quarter of 2017. As for my son's comment, it may or may not be true: I have yet to see a wellspring of conservative and/or Republican memes. Understanding how these images have and may contribute to our culture may reveal a larger truth about ourselves, and how we educate each other about what we believe.
