Meme Magic: The Rise of Kek

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.

Famous LBJ propaganda ad from 1964

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. 

Good luck, and meme on friends.

A sign of things to come? Very likely.