Opinion: A few memes for every faction

One of the offshoots of social media times is the meme, that clever little snippet of wit and/or wisdom that unknown creatures create and agreeable people share.

These little “attention hackers” can be pearls of wisdom or pebbles of propaganda — sometimes serious, occasionally funny and most-of-the-time witty. From what I’ve seen, they are often designed for one political camp or another, and in their own subtle way, they spin us down paths of thinking the way they want us to think.

I don’t know if they transfer to print very well, but let’s give it a try (with thanks to those who unwittingly contributed). You’ll have to come up with your own artistic backdrops, since there’s only so much I can do in a column …

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Let’s start with some memes for the general population:

Family reunions will be less stressful once Trump is no longer a topic of conversation around the dinner table.

A sadist and a masochist get together. The masochist begs, “please torture me,” and the sadist smiles and replies, “No.”

“And they were naked and not ashamed.” Obviously, body-shaming wasn’t an issue for Adam and Eve.

Inauguration Day saw the greatest temperature change in recent history — from a negative 45 in the morning to a positive 46 by noon.

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And these for the liberal, progressive and/or socialist tribes out there:

New Mexicans: If you want to pretend COVID doesn’t matter, go to Texas. And if you get COVID, stay in Texas.

January 2021 will go down in history as the month in which Donald Trump went from the mainstream to the fringe.

Post-Trump ponderings: Is outrage addictive? Because I think I’m going through withdrawals.

Why did the chickens cross the road? To vote against the presidential election’s certification, just as the wolves wanted them too.

Dear U.S. Capitol attackers, let’s make a trade. You can keep the Trump flags, and the Confederate flag as well; we’ll even throw in the Nazi flag if you want it. Just give us back the Stars and Stripes.

Georgia this time. Texas next.

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And for the conservative, capitalist and/or insurrectionist tribes out there:

Consider all news fake news unless Trump says it’s real.

The election was stolen. Trump said so. That’s enough for any true American.

Antifa has infiltrated our Rebel ranks. Why else would Trump be discouraging violence?

Liberals are pushing for masks to take away our freedoms. The proof is out there, hidden behind a face covering.

I’m not stupid. I simply voted for Trump.

n n n

I’m sure the Trumpians consider my memes deeply biased. It’s just that it’s hard for me to get inside a Trump-supporter’s head.

Besides, bias might be a requirement to come up with a good meme. I doubt you’ll ever find any on C-SPAN.

The fact is, social media isn’t designed for you to get inside anyone’s head. It’s designed to get inside your head.

But surely the memes aren’t hurting anyone, right? They’re just cracking wise, giving us something fun and insightful to share with our friends as we make our way into the echo chambers of internet activity — places that, we think, we’ve chosen to go.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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