[The Library Information Warfare] Memes in Politics: How Pepe the Frog Can Win Elections
Vice Cyberwar Piece "The Great Meme War"
Memes in Warfare
Anybody following recent politics closely at all , especially from the perspective of internet politics. The internet played a huge role in the election, from cyber security manners in the Great Russian Election Hack, to the role of data scientists in running Trump's successful campaign. There are many media outlets that are now covering the role of trolls and memes in right- and left-wing media, with Vice (as usual) at the forefront.
The alt-right can easily be called the first successful pseudo-political group to gain serious success in what Vice called in the linked video as the First Great Meme War. I cover this topic because I truly believe that memes are and will continue to be a large proponent in information war. The internet is the most efficient way to put a finger on the vein of international and domestic politics. Messages can be spread with increasing speed, to increasing audience, and with an increasing level of success. As data science grows and big data is used to measure success in information warfare, this "Memetic Warfare" will continue to grow.
Why Memes are the Perfect Medium for Information Warfare
Memes, at their core, are an image with a message. This may just be a funny cat picture with an apolitical funny message, but these memes are increasingly being politicized to gain an advantage over the opposing side. Take Pepe, the infamous MS Paint cartoon frog who went from 4Chan chat to the international stage.
In the beginning, Pepe was a meme like any other. Entirely apolitical, it was used many times as a symbolic representation for 4Chan users, the "neckbeard" generation, and other internet addicts. Towards the beginning of the Trump campaign and the rise of the alt-right political movement, 4Chan began to mobilize Pepe as a form of alt-right propaganda. Soon, Pepe donned the swatstika, was pictured next to Adolf Hitler, and was present at pro- and anti-Trump rallies. Why was a nondescript, 4Chan meme drawn up on MS Paint now at the center of international politics?
Memes carry a short and simple message. These messages and their associated images can spread incredibly quickly in social media spaces and forums. Instead of a lengthy social media rant that nobody is going to read all of the way through, memes are condensed and carry a memorable image, sometimes humorous and often shocking. A picture is worth a thousand words, but a funny image with a caption carries a lot of weight.
Memes also have an associated culture. Harambe the Gorilla, Pepe the Frog, and other popular memes have associated humor and culture behind them that was established long before they were politicized. Reddit, 4Chan, and other internet forums have been using memes for years, meaning that they were already an accepted form of discourse. Since they were already common on the web, it was even easier to utilize them for political discourse as well. Internet users understood the context behind individual memes, therefore making them even easier to spread quickly. It was like a language that the whole web spoke already, making it very easy to twist into a tool for propaganda.
On top of the condensed message and associated culture, memes were, in the beginning, thought to be apolitical. Their humor had nothing to do with politics. In the beginning, many people saw a meme and immediately shared it, or visited forums that frequently circulated memes thinking them to be apolitical. This quickly changed as media outlets began to report on the alt-right usage of memes in the spread of propaganda, but was important in the beginning.
How You Can Take Up Arms in the Great Meme War
As stated, memes are a valuable weapon in Information Warfare. No matter the message, memes can be used to quickly and efficiently spread a message to a vast audience. If you told me five years ago that I would be writing a blog post on the usage of memes in political discourse, I would likely laugh and pass it off as a ridiculous idea. Now, though, I recognize the value. As meme culture spreads even further and the political divide becomes even more vast, I would expect memes to become even more popular weapons of Information Warfare.
Use memes and their compact efficiency in your IW campaign and I would expect a wide level of success. Learn the culture by frequenting forums and following various "Memetic Warriors" like those mentioned in the linked Vice video. Study the history behind them in order to use them more efficiently. Set up networks of echo chambers willing to spread these messages.
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