6/6 - Andrew Boyd

6/6 - In Andrew Boyd’s article, “Truth is a Virus: Meme Warfare and The Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)” discusses memes as an act of cultural resistance. I started being aware of how political memes can be during the election and even now so. This growing trend also makes politics more accessible for the younger generations because it is simple. It doesn’t have the inaccessible language and jargon that prevent people to be part of activism. I thought the author makes an interesting point that “social movements cannot live by memes alone. Yet memes are clearly powerful- both analytically and operationally (Boyd 378)”. Meme are a great entry way for people to gain interest in politics, but I do not think that online activism should and can be the source of movement building. As the movement building continues in dynamic ways, the methods to restructure and reform things should be dynamic as well.

Additionally, I thought more about the conversations we had during lecture. Someone brought up that the Marin and flash mob protests didn’t seem genuine because of the comedic/fun tone. However, I don’t think activism can be sustainable, if there always a serious tone. The change we are fighting for gets tiring and draining. The heaviness of the topics can get heavy and I think memes and performative protests are get ways to balance comedic and serious tone within the movement.   

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