“J.D. Vance is subhuman and Gavin Newsom mogs” is something I never would have thought would be someone’s reasoning for who will win in the next election cycle. I also never thought I would see deportation ASMR coming from the White House’s official X page, but I guess there is a first time for everything.
Over the past few years, out-of-touch commentary and behavior like this has become increasingly prevalent online as politics have been memeified.
While the concept of memes dates back to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene,” we have seen his original idea take on a new form in modern politics. These memes have gone from “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,” to obnoxious political commentary that, more often than not, overshadows the importance of what is truly going on.
Consider photos of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s gray Nike tracksuit or videos of Donald Trump starting a meeting with oil executives by wandering off to look out a window at his incomplete renovations. Both of these seem to have one thing in common — they take away from the bigger picture.
Unfortunately, the United States’ capture of Maduro has bigger implications than his outfit becoming a viral sensation. Instead, we should be focusing on what the capture of another country’s president means for sovereignty as we know it. The same goes for Trump’s unusual antics. Instead of laughing at his randomness, our attention should be on what actually happened in this meeting with Big Oil.
However, distraction is almost entirely the point of these memes. Memes are meant to be a buffer between real-world events and the public. The proposition that the president wants to bring back his own 21st century version of imperialism is a lot less scary when we’re focused on the fact that he cannot differentiate between Greenland and Iceland and claims that European leaders call him “Daddy.”
At this point, it is no wonder why people are so distrustful of our government. Memes of not-so-secret notes from Marco Rubio or a video of AI Trump in a fighter jet dumping feces on No Kings Day protesters do nothing to boost morale or encourage citizens that the government has their best interests at heart.. The country should not be known for embarrassing events and graphics, but instead for how and what it does on the national and global scale.
The United States is entering a frighteningly unpredictable era of history. This is a moment where we have to take responsibility and stop letting memes fill up space that should be filled with meaningful and constructive political discourse. Scandals such as the Epstein Files that implicate some of the most powerful people should be what we’re talking about. We should be concerned about conflicts with foreign nations and their implications, not just the fact that Trump is salty about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is our job to look beyond the funny and not succumb to harmful distractions. So, the next time you see a meme of our president dancing, maybe you should check to see what he’s dancing about, and hope that he’s just happy and has not, in fact, extracted another nation’s leader.
