First, environmental concerns. Is there any evidence that it takes more energy to quickly generate a meme image than to draw it on a computer? That seems highly unlikely. You would have to power a computer for hours to produce such a drawing by hand.

It doesn't take hours to draw a meme image. Spending a few minutes using a meme template or drawing a quick meme will most certainly not use more energy than AI.

[...] but something being created unethically doesn’t magically make its use unethical.

Sounds like a philosophy problem to me. In my opinion, the use of something created unethically being unethical is a truth that we must accept, even if it's hard to do so.

This is religious thinking, not rational thinking.

No, we just think differently.

Every meme image made by AI is a small blow against these companies. It costs them money but generates them no revenue. But because apparently AI is magically cursed with evil, any use of it must also be evil.

If nobody used AI image generation, these companies would not even exist, it would be the ultimate blow. So, logically, more people using their AI helps these companies long-term.