this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Political Memes
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Man I'm a progressive and even I can tell this is propaganda.
Also, missed a bunch of presidents? Bush 1 after Reagan. Lyndon B, Nixon, Ford and CARTER between Kennedy and Reagan.
I obviously agree with the overall message (that "both sides" is and always has been bullshit) but c'mon man.
Edit: like, you could put the actual campaign goals and summarized impacts and then it would be a real infographic. Like "passed tax cuts for top _% of income earning Americans" "repealed gun laws". It's still cherry picking and biased but that's what moves something like this out of the realm of propaganda and into I dunno...something more like biased news? Bias isn't inherently bad, obviously when you're trying to have an argument you have a side and an agenda.
The point of a meme is to be short and punchy, not academic.
This like watching the trope of “Republicans are evil, and Democrats can’t govern” play out in realtime.
We're here for memes, not to RaRa your campaign.
Yes, yes, I'm well aware of the position of your kind. "Only memes that agree with me or empower fascism are allowed."
No, not really. Just when it's blatant propaganda.
It's a fucking meme! Just go full boomer already and say "things I don't like should be banned".
No because that's not the position no matter how much you want to straw man it.
What were William Harrison's goals for office? 🤔
You know I'm not sure if you're joking but I'm genuinely curious now.
Edit: I looked it up and most of what I could find was, "Let's finish killing all the Indians". 😬
lmao I'm glad that bitch died
Lmao I was just joking because he died only a month after taking office, but I did not expect that!
IIRC he was famous for being the guy that ended Tecumseh's war, so yeah, he didn't have the fondest opinions of indigenous rights
William Harrison was a Whig, which was definitely the more progressive party at the time. His vice president, John Tyler, abandoned the Whig party and aligned himself more with Andrew Jackson and the Democrats, which were the conservative party at the time. It should be noted that the Whigs were much less destructive toward Indians than the Jackson and the Democrats, and Tyler was also strongly anti-Indian and anti-Mexican.
Here were the political positions of the Whig party:
I think he was just really happy to be included.
This a meme, not an infographic.
You're right. It's not an infographic. It's also not a meme.
It's a political cartoon. Definition from Brittanica: " a drawing (often including caricature) made for the purpose of conveying editorial commentary on politics, politicians, and current events. "
It's just a joke.
Where have I heard that before?
political memes are propaganda. all of them. always have been always will.
there are no exceptions, only examples which oppress and exploit more or less.
something this sublemmy needs to get into its head.
It's... a political meme. I wonder what sub this is...
This feels more like boomer humour than a meme.
I would argue that you know it's propaganda because you are progressive.
What? I think a lot of non-progressives would call this propaganda.
True but it probably helps not being of the party the propaganda was meant for. It would be an additional level of security.
Who was in meant for?
It was made to make fun of progressives, by people who don't want Biden to be critiqued.
Really? I interpreted it as more making fun of republicans and patting themselves on the back
Look at the title of the post. It's to make fun of anyone who critques both parties.
True, I guess moderates then also
Aw man, you saw right through it!
I was told you progressives were smart but you caught this propaganda in no time! And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling progressives!!
Ok how else would you word that I'm on the political "side" of the meme and still call it out for being kinda shitty by misrepresenting the 'other side' in a way that undermines the credibility of the message?
I did not expect this to blow up and made an offhand criticism that used a cliche literary device before heading out for the day. I apologize for getting tripped up when information is misleading or inaccurate, it's a condition, and obviously I am long overdue at the gulag
Y'all take stuff way too seriously on the Internet.
It obviously has a point of view. Just like any text, image, or other media.
It's fun because it's pretty much true. If you want to make sure to include Johnson (hey - can we do the whole JFK thing here? Cause you know Johnson was . . . I guess that wouldn't fit in this particular meme) or Carter (yeah a meme is probably not the place to re-litigate his administration, though that's a good idea) one could, and apparently that would work towards being less "propaganda" like, but it wouldn't be very brief.
If you're saying the overall message of the meme is wrong, well we'll disagree there. But if you're saying it's just not properly balanced; I mean - Yeah. Obviously. Y'know what else isn't properly balanced, though - actual news articles from the New York Times and Washington Post, every single day. "Biden is old, Biden fares poorly in some poll we found on the floor. Trump does outlandish bullshit again, people love it." C'mon. We can take a look at the point of view of those articles and that would be propaganda in a more denotative sense.
So calling out a pro-Biden meme for being propaganda is, well, not wrong, but . . . kinda . . irrelevant? Hey, you wanna explore each of the listed presidential administrations and go through their accomplishments to see how true the meme is? Man, that's a long thread but we can do that - and when we finish, guess what - it'll be pretty close to this. But sure. Why not, Let's go.
I guess we can, what, use JFK as a "gimme" and just allow that a defining accomplishment was to create the space program as we know it. Should we add anything in there about the Cuban Missle Crisis or - ? What even would that be? "Faced down communist aggression"? "Skillfully negotiated aggressive military . . something"? Yeah ok let's just leave it at the moon thing. I mean, he only got three years, right.
Reagan. Why'd we jump to Reagan? We missed Nixon! Oh man, where are the Nixon memes amirite. Well, Regan - who as we know served two terms - really laid the foundation for the absolute mind-meltingly disastrous republican party politics that we know and love today. What was the defining element of his two administrations? (Should we split the two or just - I guess the format is for one line each so, no - ok) Well, he's really most famous for taking money from federal programs and giving it to the military contractors or back to other people who have money, i.e. the rich. It's actually pretty apt. But we can debate that one, everyone loves a good Reagan hullabaloo. We could also do the October Surprise, or Iran Contra, or invading El Salvador or a bunch of other shady shit, but let's go on an "affects Americans daily lives' bend. "Gave money to the rich" is correct.
Bush I - oops we skipped him, hm. Why's that I wonder. (Oh, hey maybe it's two term presidents only?) Eh, Let's just put Iraq I and then I guess we'll have to figure out why we went to war for oil. Oh - or we could just put "blood for oil" and hope that the economic implication is obvious enough. Anyway, moving on.
Clinton - well, we could talk about the whole healthcare reform thing that was a major component of the first term. Or in how he pulled the rug out from under Newt "contract with America" Gingrich by declaring big government "over" and adding a ton more cops. That's . . y'know . . true but . . . not as . . pithy? as we're going for here. His balancing the budget and actually leaving office with a surplus is, frankly, astonishing in retrospect though. It's absolutely no small feat and no one thought it was even possible since Reagan just said it's fine to blow all the money and hope future generations figure it out. Well, he figured it out. So that's not nothing. That doesn't seem like propaganda, that seems about right actually.
Okay the meme is getting really long at this point but I think you see the direction I'm going here. Is it misinterpreting "the other side"? Only in the sense that a meme is a single point of view and a deep discussion of the differences would be more balanced and nuanced but also take a long time and wouldnt ultimately be that far off from what we have.
So if you really feel like this meme is some horrible brainwashing propaganda of "the liberal left" or whatever? I dunno what to tell ya. Yeah? I guess? And it's nice?