There is no bigger rush than seeing a meme online, reading the comments, and seeing that millions of people are united in finding humour in the same thing. Memes repackage information or experiences that we already know into entertaining references. However, there is no limit to what is memeified. When we memeify and downplay serious situations, who benefits from our lack of sensitivity?
Using humour to cope with pain and stress is a universal human trait. Memes give us the ability to bond over shared experiences, those that are painful or otherwise, as seen by those that emerged in early-2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed and the constantly re-emerging trend of World War III jokes. Often, these memes are about experiences that universally affect a majority of society. Humour becomes an attempt at practising optimism in negative situations.
However, memes are not regulated. Users have the freedom to make light of any situation of their choosing, including those that have no direct effect on them. This has been the case with memes about the egregious things done on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island and by Sean “Diddy” Combs that have permeated social media for months. Social media users have made a joke of the crimes committed by these men, to the detriment of their victims’ mental health and dignity. It is all fun and games to laugh about these incidents from the comfort of our beds, behind our phone screens, but we tend to forget that they (often inadvertently) are mocking the painful realities of someone’s life. Psychology Today asserts that humour has the ability to suspend critical analysis and (justified) defenses. So, while we may find humour in the obscene amount of baby oil that Diddy was found with, to his victims, the mere sight or mention of the product may be a triggering reminder of the abuse they faced.
Memetic warfare refers to the use of internet memes and references in order to manipulate public perception and narratives of a situation or topic. It is widely accepted as a form of propaganda, but, as opposed to traditional propaganda, it can be propagated by the general public as well. When multiple people find humour in a distressing situation, that situation immediately becomes less of a threat to the brain. Oftentimes, people who are not directly affected by situations are the main creators of related memes. This lack of sensitivity and widespread humour leads to an association of happiness or nonchalance with the topic at hand. Many teachers, especially in the US, have lamented hearing their students referencing disturbing events in a humorous manner. Some of them have taken to social media to talk about this, with one showing frustration that her high school students centred their assignments around Epstein, Diddy, or Charlie Kirk after being tasked to create a fake civilisation. This exemplifies the effect that the memeification of such incidents has on young people especially, but also on society at large. People would rather make absurd jokes about Stephen Hawking’s alleged presence at Epstein Island despite being disabled instead of actually showing sensitivity for the potential crimes he may have been privy to.
A general public that has been trained to lack sensitivity or anger for justified issues is a benefit for a powerful elite that aims to get away with committing crimes. While memes do have the ability to unite users across the world, they also run the risk of creating a reality in which people lose respect for serious topics that negatively affect many lives. While the US’s bodies of power use posts to memeify their attacks on Iran or on immigrants, the victims of these attacks have no space to join in on the laughter.
Entertainment, by nature, tends to be a means of escaping reality, which is often bleak. Hegemonic figures such as the White House understand this and use it to their advantage. The juxtaposition that occurs on a user’s For You Page in the span of a few minutes aids in this desensitisation. One can watch a video of ICE harassing people, a makeup tutorial-storytime about a date, and a meme about Epstein in succession. The consistent and rapid back-and-forth of hilarity and discomfort results in a state of numbness towards all content that is consumed, especially the most uncomfortable. This numbness allows for a nihilistic view of the war crimes being committed as seen on our smartphones, and results in the making of jokes because of the little empathy we have for the situations.
The goal is not to lose the community-building nature of internet memes and jokes. However, as a society, we need to be aware of who stands to gain (and who loses) from a lack of sensitivity towards abuse of varying forms.
