My opinion:
I think this community should ban political memes, and instead have another community for only political memes. I’m from Costa Rica and I don’t care about the USA politics or stuff
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US politics affect the rest of humans on the planet so I’d probably say it’s worth paying attention to. But I do like the idea of a separate political memes community so that the people have a choice.
Right? It’s such a US way of thinking to assume the entire world needs to hear about your issues.
You don’t really get that by banning a topic, but rather by fostering a culture where that sort of thing is frowned upon.
And you can foster it with rules and moderation.
But but… landlord bad? capitalism also bad??
“Political Memes” is extremely vague. I opened the community, and this was the 3rd meme that came up. Just to show you that it doesn’t take much to find an example that really blurs the line of what would be a political meme and what isn’t.
As a representative of slrpnk.net, yeah, it’s a fair bit political
No, that’s not what they mean.
Seriously, OP is straw-manning. There’s not this much politics on other sites. Lemmy has a ton of tankies so everything is about communism here
Yeah, when I’m doing the whole “no politics” thing it’s because the same issues keep being rehashed and even if I’m invested in them it still gets unpleasant when a conversation becomes circular.
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They need to more precisely say what they mean, then.
No, they really don’t. For most of us, “stop making everything political” is a simple and clear request that can be fulfilled with 0 follow-up questions.
Hmmmmm you sould like a rightoid 🧐🤔 /s
Jesus christ you’re insufferable.
We all know Jesus can’t save us now.
You better watch out. It takes Jesus 4.5 seconds to get to earth
Shit, he’s closer than the sun! How long is it relative to him?
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I hope it was one of those poops where you felt lighter afterwards, and that wiping afterwards wasn’t an ordeal
That was… extremely nice of you to say.
You better have a bidet, since it reduces paper consumption which is better for the environment.
Fuck I did the thing
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We should hang out by the quarry and throw things down there.
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That same dad when I happen to mention my trans friend in passing because it’s my friend:
three hour rant about me being men and testicles are a thing for a reason and this mother fucker is destroying America
Y’all “let’s not politic” folk politic ALL the time, you just think you can “nuh uh” to pick and choose what qualifies. Denying Healthcare to people isn’t political to yall, but I just cut a friend out because he literally shushed me for “being too political” for… Saying I’d like half hour busses back.
You’re making a big generalisation based on someone not wanted to see political memes and memes to about people not wanting to see political memes when they’re taking a dump or just trying to make the day pass.
I would definitely be a leftist in the USA and probably be considered progressive even, just because I’m used to how things are here in Sweden and the social climate we have. (I even argue with Americans quite often of how crappy their social climate and ideologies are)
But I still would like to browse Lemmy while taking a crap without having US politics memes shoved down my throat. If I would want that I’d probably subscribe to a relevant community.
I would still like to browse lemmy without us politics being shoved down my throat
The test determined, that was a lie. Y’all certainly stay engaged for extended periods of time for people who don’t want to think about it when you could, as people are wont to say, “Keep Scrolling.”
What you mean is that you want to browse lemmy without being reminded that the world is broken and your apathy fuels it’s broken state.
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#OneJoke
Left: “I don’t want to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings”
Right: “And yet here you are at Buffalo Wild Wings”
If you don’t want politics, don’t engage. Don’t like how political a community is? Leave. Can’t find an “apolitical” one? Start your own.
Otherwise, you WANT politics, you just want to screech at people you disagree with and say it’s not political because you say so.
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Bad meme and bad opinion.
You’re wrong.
Not a little wrong, just, wrong.
Go and talk to a politic science professor and they will tell you this.
You can’t escape politics because it’s linked to power.
Power structures affect everything in our society therefore politics affects everything.
When someone doesn’t want to ‘make it political’ all they are really doing is attempting to preserve an existing power structure they are a beneficiary of.
Ever considered that politics is not always the essence of everything? I don’t care that fundamentally everything may be political. I don’t care that we are made up of millions of tiny organisms. I care about the things I care. And that’s not your political agenda.
You’re apathetic about it because you benefit from the current structure.
You don’t have to care when you’re already a winner.
Did you ever consider maybe it’s just people already talk about politics in a lot of other places, and don’t need to talk about it literally 24/7?
When I am cranking it to a model on Only Fans, that’s what I want to think about, not about what politicians may have paid to lick their butthole privately.
So yeah, everything is absolutely political, but sometimes you need a few degrees of separation.
Do you not benefit from the current structure? Who built your phone? I wonder how much they think about politics.
Yes I do benefit and I think it’s unjust which is why I’m a socialist.
I also think it’s unjust, but I don’t shoehorn it into every conversation.
you make socialists look bad
I don’t think you care about their optics beyond brow beating them for having an opinion that upsets you.
Uh no on the contrary. My true self is apparently appalling and unnatural.
Politics is not the essence of everything “To YOU” because you won the genetic/sociopolitical lottery. You sit comfortably atop the suffering of the “other,” who does not have the luxury of playing this apolitical card.
I really didn’t won the genetic/sociopolitical lottery…
Great but you see when you say ‘I don’t care about other people’ then we loudly don’t want to care about you back. That is pretty much it, I don’t know why you need to foghorn that you are selfish, is it to rile up others to violence in name of their selfishness? Explain why you have to explain that you don’t need something so badly, we dont need anything if we dont wish to live so whats the actual fucking point here to "DONT NEED IT’ except to also say “OR ELSE” which is… ALSO A POLITICAL STATEMENT OR ELSE.
Sometimes people just want to freely discuss stuff without the overarching politics.
Did you ever think about that?
Then they should say that instead of trying to refute that just about everything is political because just about everything is political.
They literally are? If they are having a discussion and someone brings politics up, “stop making everything political” would mean what else than I don’t want politics in this discussion…?
Thats literally an attempted refutation of everything is inherently political. Its already political, no one you’re talking to made it political, they just reminded you of something you tried to ignore. So again if you just dont want to talk about politics, just say that instead of trying to refute that pretty much everything is inherently political. Words have meaning, say what you mean, because implying that the person you’re talking to is making thing political is different from saying ‘hey im not trying to talk about politics’ and it doesn’t automatically mean the same thing as “Why do you make everything political”, especially in forms of communication like text only. Hell, one of them is a question and the other is a statement, so why would anyone who doesn’t want to talk about politics prompt someone with a question that in guaranteed to get an answer that’s directly about politics?
Only if you incorrectly take it that way, in the context of the conversation, it would mean, you’re trying to make this political, fuck off.
People can only respond to the words on the screen, not the ones you wanted to say, if you ask someone a question expect an answer. I can’t make it simpler.
Go to a physics professor and they’ll tell you everything is physics. Go to a math professor and they’ll tell you everything is math. Go to a philosophy professor and they’ll tell you everything is philosophical.
Not everything is about power inherently. People can and often will make almost anything about power. But it’s not inherent to the thing. But you might disagree.
However the degree to which things are political can vary greatly. Would you agree? Voting at the presidential elections is a more political act than watching birds or playing with my kids.
I think what people mean in your view’s context is that they’d like to keep memes away which directly refer to a topic which is to a high degree politicized. Instead they prefer memes which are at maximum very indirectly related to politics.
I’m sure you know that but this is my one try at a good faith discussion.
I don’t disagree with you about each professor thinking their subject is the most relevant.
That’s interesting in and of it self though, maybe people should consider looking through things using different lenses. When they don’t look at a topic as political, maybe they should, perhaps it’d give a perspective they hadn’t previously considered.
In saying people want to keep memes away from politics, the problem is if you accept my premise that anything can relate to politics it’s functionally not possible to keep memes away from politics.
So instead what’s left is actually control on the discourse of what memes we can make and those we can’t. Or rather ‘which ones are political’ (not acceptable) and ‘which ones aren’t political’ (acceptable).
Now practically I agree the bow gets longer to draw on a meme relating to beef stroganoff but who gets to decide the boundary line? I assert no one gets to decide because the boundary doesn’t ever exist. All memes have a political component so to attempt to stifle discussion based on a memes political content is useless.
This is why people who say ‘let’s not make it political’ are really just saying ‘I don’t want you to talk about that topic because it’s unacceptable to me and not something I want to address’ - cool thanks for expressing your opinion, next time not saying anything would be better.
Now practically I agree the bow gets longer to draw on a meme relating to beef stroganoff but who gets to decide the boundary line?
I think the boundary is set in this case by the community and ultimately by the moderators. Would it be an arbitrary and very fuzzy line? Sure. Will everyone like it? No. But that’s why it is good that one can simply make their own instances and communities. But I am glad we can agree that different degrees of closeness to politics do exist and that it is possible to differentiate them. You don’t think there is value in doing so as I understand it. And I think that’s a perfectly sensible point to take.
This is why people who say ‘let’s not make it political’ are really just saying ‘I don’t want you to talk about that topic because it’s unacceptable to me and not something I want to address’ - cool thanks for expressing your opinion, next time not saying anything would be better.
I think this is why your argument goes a bit into strawman territory. Your interpretation is pure guesswork and putting words in the mouth of others without giving them the benefit of the doubt.
For me personally it is simply that I don’t want to have heavily political discussions all the time. As you can probably see from this post here I don’t mind a good discussion. Political or otherwise. Although you’d probably argue that every discussion is political.
Sometimes I just want to look at funnies and not think about the complex power dynamics of societies and the world. That doesn’t mean I never want to discuss those. But I like to have places where I can go knowing it’s not that. And I think several people here want this memes community to be such a place.
People here don’t realise the boundary line of what constitutes acceptable political meme discourse is far away from their expectations.
This the Marxist-Leninist meme community.
If people ‘don’t want politics’ in their memes I’d suggest they go to a different community.
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My arguments about power are pretty well understood among social science academics. I didn’t come up with these ideas, I was taught them.
That aside, what do you think someone means when they say ‘let’s not talk about this topic’ do you not accept that’s an attempt to exercise power of what is acceptable discourse?
Who are they to decide?
I’d argue they are exercising covert power.
If you’re interested in the academic underpinnings of this view go read Lukes’ paper on the three faces of power.
Just because it’s important doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to have happy conversations that don’t involve politics which is basically what you are saying we should never do.
Just talk about the happy politics. /s
Remember when Regan got Alzheimer’s?
Lol good times
Remember when Thatcher died?
Funniest shit I ever heard.
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No u
I disagree.
I reject this! This sounds edgy but muddies the water and distracts as to recognize what politics is. Politics is everything regarding decision-making in groups! not more not less. Recognize when that’s the case and fight!
I think our definitions of politics are fundamentally different.
I would say politics is the struggle for power.
Power is an underlying factor across all of society so politics affects everything.
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If you want to understand why the other definition is more useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQjcmDGY2vA
Me so hungy, me so hungy!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQjcmDGY2vA
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Isn’t there literally a community called politicalmemes because people wanted to sort these into another place?
At this point you’re not even posting to be funny, you’re just posting to be annoying.
some would even consider it not only annoying, but spamming as well
That’s for people who want only political memes. Someone should start an “apoliticalmemes” group.
Haven’t thought of that. Thanks :)
“Everything is political” shares the same vibes:
I agree. It’s like sometimes you just want to go for a walk and there’s some guy following you around screaming EvErYtHiNg Is PhYsIcS just to remind you that there are physical laws to explain the world around you. Just shut up and let me walk in peace sometimes.
You’re very fortunate that you can take the time to ignore those politics. For many people, these issues affect them to such an extent that they can’t be ignored at all. As for the amount of memes challenging the status quo here… well… if you’re on Lemmy, the status quo didn’t work for you either.
What has their constant fixation on these problems achieved? I have problems that affect me every day, I can still fuck around on the internet or whatever for a while and get my mind off it. Constantly immersing yourself in this stuff is not healthy.
Exactly, armchair meme politics does literally nothing and it’s the only “activism” half these chuckle fucks have ever taken part in.
“Political Memes” is extremely vague. To demonstrate, I opened the community, and this was the 3rd meme that came up. Imo this blurs the line or what counts as political. I’m sure you can find many others.
“Not everything is political”
=
“I am priveledged enough that my right to exist and thrive is never questioned or under fire, and things that I care about are protected by the status quo and the suppression of others”
I exist in several categories of people who’s right to exist have been threatened many, many times throughout history, I agree that everything is political, or rather, that politics encompasses everything.
However, not every discussion should become politically oriented, as it’s not particularly the most productive in many cases. This is most prominent on the internet, where nuance, which is ESSENTIAL for productive political discourse, is often absent. I find much political discussion. This is especially true in dialogues where it is either discussed on a broad scale, or where it is discussed in a reactionary manner. When my answers to political topics are so often “it depends”, this stuff tends to be quite straining, especially when my attempts to create dialogue are shot down.
In short “not everything is political” exists because you’re either detailing a discussion to talk about how horrible everything is, or you’re on the internet and internet politics just suck.
It’s confronting for a cis gendered white male to accept they are the pinnacle of the power structure in western societies by serendipitous occurrence.
Some of the replies to this post make that clear.
The pinnacle of the power structure is wealth, not any of your liberal buzzwords.
Intersectionality and solidarity, dude
Acknowledging things beyond class isn’t liberalism, man. Socialists can be against racism, too…
Yep, s’all buzzwords.
Not marginalized people across the country clawing desperately for the right to mind their own business and live their life in peace as adherents to the status quo dedicate their free time to attacking them and arguing they don’t deserve recognition as people.
Just buzzwords. -.-
Yawn, do always just write in platitudes?
Florida now teaches that slavery was a good thing, but go off king
buzzwords
._.
Regular words can seem like buzzwords when you’re ignorant.
Buzzwords can seem like regular words when you use them too much
I think you’re missing a glaring obvious issue there. It’s right there. Just look a little harder.
-cis gendered white guy (only sort of old)
Facts
“I am priveledged enough that my right to exist and thrive is never questioned or under fire, and things that I care about are protected by the status quo and the suppression of others”
so someone who this doesn’t apply to thinks that some random star in our neighbour galaxy is political?
literally everything is politics
how is nitrogen atom nr. 14729583929174 political?
Becauses a scientist says it exists and that made God cry so we gotta burn him.
And this is how you get from “everything is politics” to “we have to burn god”
Edit: After rereading the above I noticed the possibility of the scientist having to be burned
Rules are simple: both enter, one leaves.
Do we give them a lighter or something beforehand?
Emotional damage only.
Oh that would be even more interesting to watch
Yes yes I used hyperbole.
Sue me.
yes I wrote “literally everything” but that does’nt mean that I meant “literally everything”
I can accept that
ok so now that we’ve established that there are things that aren’t political, it makes sense to say “don’t make everything political”, because there are in fact things that aren’t political (yet). however responding “literally everything is political, if you think otherwise, you’re profiting from the system” doesn’t make sense, since there are non political things
I don’t have time to explain how you moved the goal posts from:
Everything is politics does not literally mean all matter is comprised of politics (I.e. atoms are a thing)
To
Atoms exists therefore there are social issues that aren’t political.
All social issues remain political even in a world with atoms.
Edit: turns out I did have time.
Atoms exists therefore there are social issues that aren’t political.
I never said that and this isn’t my opinion.
you didn’t say “every social issue is political” (which I agree with btw), you said “everything is political”. and since “everything” includes atoms, they are either political and you’re right or they’re not and you’re wrong.
“literally everything is political”
ok then, can you remove the hyperbole and tell me the result?
(spoiler: they wont)
At least pick a noble gas
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Even chosen linux distro?
Damn
I work in the government and let me tell you: Yes
I mean, depending on how much you value privacy and the virtues of FOSS…maybe not directly political, but I’m sure some correlations could be made.
Every single time a gripe about privacy is brought up on Lemmy or some issue with iOS or Windows, Linux users come out of the woodwork. It is 100% political as privacy becomes more and more of a concern.
Everything is political. My poli sci teacher said it best: when you boil it down, politics in the most simplest terms is just getting things done.
Especially Linux distro! Now, give me a pulseaudio snap package for my Unity desktop.
ducks and covers head
According to Lemmy that’s the most important political decision there is.
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I once got warned in a discord server for being political. Brought up that everything was politics and they backed off.
About a week later I got hints that they might be a bit of a nazi bar which was confirmed when I called it out.
No its not, when I close Lemmy it disappears (IMAGINE BELIEVING THAT POSTING MEMES IS “CHANGING THE STATUS QUO”) 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Imagine believing that changing the status quo happens out of the blue without civil political discourse.
Memes help share ideas and they reflect the zeitgeist. You can see the pattern if you’re older and experienced the birth of internet memes and over time they became more depressing, surreal, and self deprecating, reflecting the current socio-economic situation of many. During 2020 - 2023, the memes were quite surreal and making commentary about one in a life time events happening many times, shits on fire, economic inequity and more. Millenials and zoomers are depressed they can’t afford a house.
Now imagine you are someone who has a masters degree and can’t find a decent paying job because the marking is fucked. You want to purchase a house and you just can’t. You now see a meme reflecting those ideas and you feel a form of solidarity. You get emboldened by those ideas.
I think, the current wave of unionization and striking partly contributed by these memes. They shared a spotlight on the inequities of the world and got people worked up. You can also see the “power” of the Dark Brandon memes, oh, and Donald fucking Trump became a serious candidate and elected because of memes.
Memes are quite similar to caricatures and cartoons of the printing age, except they have an even bigger role in our modern age. It is a more accessible way of spreading ideas, making arguments, or the like.
You of course will not be taking down a government with a meme alone, but the meme can be part of the first steps of spreading awareness and bringing societal problems to attention, preceding real change.
