By Aidan O’Connor | Sports Broadcaster
Memes have gone beyond what their original purpose was. Today, they are more than just jokes. They are tools used to psychologically manipulate us.
This idea that memes can be used as a form of propaganda is nothing new and has been prevalent going back to the 2010’s. In a paper written for the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, writer Jeff Giesea advocates for what he calls “memetic warfare.”
Seeing that NATO was losing the social media battle to ISIS, Giesea argued that NATO countries needed to be more aggressive in using memes as a way of fighting an online war. Giesea, a man who has brushed shoulders with influential figures such as Peter Thiel and Donald Trump, saw the power that memes had on people around the world.
There is no better avenue to influence people without them knowing because memes inherently are meant to lower your guard, as they are a form of comedy. The speed of social media makes you less critical of what you see, making it easy for a meme to plant ideas of division or desensitization in your head.
Today, it’s not hard to see this idea of memetic warfare in action as every major traumatic or divisive event has memes surrounding them. The most pertinent examples of this are, without a doubt, the Charlie Kirk and Jeffrey Epstein memes.
These memes try to downplay both Kirk’s assassination and Epstein’s crimes. They try to turn things that should be taken seriously and delicately into a laughing stock. Think of the last time someone mentioned either of these men to you; it was probably under the pretense of a joke.
Now whether this is the government or some other figure perpetuating these memes, I’m not sure. There is no doubt, though, that they are trying to desensitize us. They are meant to lull us into thinking these issues aren’t serious, and in Epstein’s case, erase our anger and replace it with indifference.
This is why we need to be careful in our consumption of memes. Whenever there is something on Instagram, TikTok or any social media making light of a sensitive topic, there needs to be a pause. We need to analyze whether what we are watching is just an example of dark humor or a form of propaganda meant to influence.
