I found this wonderful image the other day while trolling around on the magical place that we call the Internet which perfectly encapsulates the reactions of those who oppose Donald Trump. However, I would like to propose my own very similar system for classifying the leftist mourning process which I deem: "The Five Stages of Stupidity."
Stage 1: Butthurt - The individual is overcome with such a large degree of shock that their anus becomes pained. The pain causes their fight or flight mechanism to kick in, and given that there is no stronger immediate threat to their survival, they opt to fight. They resort to vehement attacks against those who have a difference of opinion on social media websites.
Absolutely anal pained.
That escalated quickly.
Stage 2: Rage - The shock and frustration has passed, and now the rage sets in. This stage is usually marked by low-energy protests, a few smashed windows, boatloads of lies, and gross over-exaggeration.
Stage 3: Slacktivism - The rage subsides as the leftists get tired of their cute little protests, and they decide to move back to comfiness where they begin their Starbucks-fueled, Macbook "activism."
Good luck with that.
Slacktivism in a nutshell.
This is totally going to change things.
Stage 4: Escape - At this point, the reality of the situation is beginning to set in, but the liberal mind makes one last attempt to escape from it. This can be a physical escape or a mental one (moving to Canada or "deleting my Facebook/Twitter/etc.") Many promises will be made, but very few will follow through.
Lol.
Still waiting on that.
Stage 5: New Topic - Finally, after many tears, rage, lies, and broken promises, the horse has been beaten to death and it's time to find something new to get angry about.
If only they were this passionate about the election. Clinton might actually have won.
Over the past year we've witnessed the rise of a new god (of sorts) on a certain Taiwanese basket weaving board. His name is Kek, and he manifests himself through the image of "Pepe the Frog." His weapons? Dank ass memes and repeating integers. Kek supposedly has the power to change the course of human history. He's the reason why Donald Trump won the 2016 election, and why neoliberals all over the world are getting utterly BTFO at the moment.
The rationalist in me wants to chalk this up to a big joke. No, I don't believe there's an actual frog god influencing the course of human events. But witnessing all of these happenings in such a short span of time leads me to believe there might be more to this "meme magic" than mere coincidence and confirmation bias. Alas, my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to dive into the depths of the human mind to figure how this "meme magic" actually works, why it has been so successful, and what the future holds. So grab yourself a snack, get comfy, and get ready to learn about Meme Magic.
"Read me the story of our people Papa Trump."
Part 1: The History of Meme Magic
Before we can ever hope to understand something as complex as meme magic, it's important to first examine its origins, as well as the origins of the sub-memes that it is composed of (memeception if you will). This will give us a basic understanding of the topic which we can use to launch into more complex ideas. Pepe the Frog and the Word "Kek"
The history of the word "kek" is long and detailed. The most relevant thing here is its recent usage as an alternative to "LOL" on 4chan (often used in the phrase "top kek.") Coincidentally, Kek is also the name of an Egyptian deity who represents "darkness, obscurity and night."
Similarly, the history of the Pepe the Frog meme is long and detailed. Pepe entered the mainstream not too long ago when people started posting (and selling!) "rare pepes" like trading cards. While Pepe had been a successful meme for a while, this event solidified his image in the collective conciousness, which played a huge role in things to come.
Worth ever penny.
These two memes combined led to the elevation of Pepe the Frog to the status of a god called Kek, who is fundamental to the concept of meme magic.
COINCIDENCE? I think not!
Repeating Integers (AKA "gets")
A long lasting meme on 4chan is the idea of the "get," wherein an anonymous user's post number contains a string of repeating numbers at the end. This is sometimes accompanied by an image of Patrick Bateman from the movie American Psycho pointing at where the post number would be.
Check 'em
"Dubs" or doubles are the lowest form of get, followed by "trips," "quads," etc. The more repeating digits, the better the get. This concept can be applied to the idea of meme magic, so the better the get, the more likely the post is to come true. For example:
The most epic of gets.
Meme Magic
Once again, the history of Meme Magic is long and detailed. You can click the link to read the full story if you want (I'm not going to type it all out here -- that would be redundant), but the most relevant part of this is the recent combination of Pepe, Kek, and Gets. Together they form what we currently know as meme magic: the force which put Donald Trump in the White House.
Praise Kek!
Part 2: Memetics and Meme Warfare
Now that we're familiar with the origins of Meme Magic, it's time to analyze it in detail and discover how it actually works. There are two reigning theories: the more secular one that references our understanding of memetics (the successful spread of thoughts, ideas, behaviors, etc. throughout a culture, regardless of truth value), and the more esoteric one which references the idea of chaos magic. As a rationalist the former explanation appeals to me more, so while the latter definitely has merit (they appear to cover nearly identical concepts), I'm going explain things in terms of the former.
Memetics
Before I begin my discussion on memetics, I want you to watch this video if you haven't seen it already:
Done? Good. You now have a basic understanding of the concept of memetics. Thoughts and ideas are like germs which spread from host to host. Each host has the ability to slightly alter the idea and create new versions of it, one of which may spread even better than the original idea.
The success of these ideas depends on which emotions and instincts it appeals to. Memetics operates most effectively when it appeals to the most archaic forms of thought: the survival instinct, the reproductive instinct, strong emotions (especially anger like CGP Grey mentioned), etc.
To give a real-world example of this in action, consider how advertising most commonly targets the reproductive instinct (hence the phrase "sex sells,") Another example is political propaganda which most commonly targets the survival instinct and fear.
But there's another thing to which a meme can appeal to become successful: spirituality. Within the human psyche, spirituality and religion have become so entangled with the survival instinct and base emotions that such a technique can be very successful. This is especially prominent in religions like Christianity which propagate the idea of life after death, and it's why that religion and similar ones are so popular. It appeals to the survival instinct.
The idea of Kek and Meme Magic works along these same lines. It professes a spiritual cause for these events (Kek is speaking to us through posts with repeating digits!) This is why it's so effective.
Now this is obviously a simple misunderstanding of cause and effect. The posts which are "gets" draw more attention because of this misunderstanding, making the message within more likely to spread to people with whom it resonates. The more people with whom the message resonates, the more likely it is to manifest in the real world, as those people will work to spread it even further (consciously or unconsciously), which will eventually make it a reality. Basically, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Meme Warfare
Recently it seems that some very intelligent people have recognized the power of memetics, and the power of the Internet to rapidly spread ideas, and have started using it to battle the globalist propaganda which has dominated the collective conscious of Western cultures for the past few decades. They're aiming for huge gets when posting pro-nationalist memes, and taking related memes to Twitter and other social media outlets, which are slowly replacing the lamestream media as the average Joe's source of news and political opinions. This is what the term "meme warfare" refers to. Only instead of bullets and shells, this is a war of ideas. This is a war waged within the hearts and minds of men.
So which side is winning? The globalists, or the anti-globalists? The globalists have the power of unlimited money and decades of brainwashing. The anti-globalists have the power of pure numbers, weaponized autism, and shitposting. At the moment, it seems like the anti-globalists are winning. Perhaps money isn't as powerful as once thought. But they can't let up. Recruitment and enthusiasm are as important as ever.
Part 3: The Future of Meme Warfare
A popular sentiment seems to be that the meme battle is over, but the meme war rages on. The election of Donald Trump was merely the first step in the fight against the globalist agenda. Whether you love it or hate it, there is a hidden war for the fate of the world.
Now that the USA has been secured, the fight has moved to Europe. There has already been some success with Brexit, but there are many battles to come: taking down Merkel in Germany, securing France with Le Pen, and more.
Ben Garrison being based as always
Regardless of your side in this war: you, right now, sitting at your computer, posting your funny memes, have the power to change the course of human history. The purpose of this post isn't to act as a guide on how to use memetics. You'll have to do your own research on that. Or perhaps you already have some natural talent. I simply wanted to make you aware of its existence and the power that you as an individual can hold should you choose to wield it.
Green Party nominee Jill Stein is currently soliciting donations for a petition to recount the votes in three states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Supposedly this is being done in a bid to take the election from Trump and give it to Hillary Clinton. The degree of stupidity here is astronomical, and no, I'm not talking about Jill Stein. She's a genius (I'll explain why in a bit). I'm talking about the people who are donating to her with the hopes that the recount will put Crooked into office. Here's my thoughts on why this is stupid:
Jill Stein hates Hillary Clinton. Throughout the election, Stein vehementlydenouncedClinton multiple times. Hell, she's still poking fun at her for flip-flopping on her decision to concede. Why would Stein go out of her way to get Clinton elected?
She's no Donald Trump of course, but this woman knows how to troll.
Trump won fair and square. Get over it. These people seem to think that Russia was hacking our votes. It's hilarious. They sound worse than the Alex Jones-esque conspiracy nuts (who are honestly sounding less and less crazy every day about some things). They'll make up anything and everything because they just can't accept the fact that Trump won the election. For some reason it's completely unfathomable for their feeble minds.
A recount is just going to show us what we already know. Trump won. Honestly I'd love to see a recount in a state like California. It wouldn't change anything of course, but I wonder how many illegal votes for Clinton they would find...
b-b-but muh popular vote!
Jill "No Refunds" Stein is a genius. What better way to stick it to your opponents than to trick them into giving you their money? I have no doubt that Stein plans to embezzle most of the donations she's receiving. Trump knows this as well. It's also likely that this is a bid for popularity and media attention in preparation for the 2020 election. Seems like someone learned from this election (specifically Trump's tactics) after all! Anyway, the shitstorm is going to be wonderful to watch. I can't wait.
Now I know why they call it the "Green" Party.
The Trump crew is being stupid as well. /r/the_donald is currently in panic mode, warning everybody that some trickery is going to happen and that the globalist shills (most notably George Soros) are going to inject fake votes to get Clinton elected. It's not going to happen.
I get it though. They spent the better part of a year meme-ing a man into the highest office on Earth. Some of the dankest memes the Internet has ever seen came out of it. Obviously they would want to make sure their hard work isn't taken away by some globalist trickery. But the only thing this misplaced fear-mongering is doing is creating more divisiveness, which is exactly the opposite of what Trump preaches.
He's coming for your votes! Or not...
And that about sums up my thoughts on the recount. It's basically a cash-grab scam from Stein. Good for her too. Nothing brings me more joy than watching neoliberal idiots being ripped off. Anyway, nothing is going to come of it. Like it or not, Trump is still going to be President.
