So … It has happened from the last Republican I thought it would … posted a meme that wildly misrepresented data with the headline “FACTS” … you know the type, the ones that blame this or that problem on this or that marginalized group … Yeaaaaahhhhh … one of them!
So I’m sad. But I learned something, about myself. I paid attention to what was happening in my body as I rose to the bait. My heart rate increased. I felt a little physical rush of adrenaline tingling at the edges of my quick twitch muscles. I got angry.
But, like I said, this came from the last Republican source I ever expected. I had to scroll back up to the poster avatar to make sure that I was seeing what I was seeing. I still wasn’t calm. But the mere interruption of my train of thought allowed me to absorb the surge and let the rest of my brain catch up. Then another cycle started ...
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I jumped into response mode.
And that was where I learned something about myself. Because I was still paying attention to my body, I realized that something was still being triggered. I moved into my second strategy to counter the outrageousness of this meme. You know, a meme … A little photo with some words. I just want to make clear that this is what triggered me.
Strategy #2 involved activating my rational, encylclopedic brain functions to combat these five or seven libelous claims (about “illegals” by the way yet the subject of the meme is really immaterial to the discussion here). I decided to find my own little pictures or, better, links to articles and websites attacking these “statistics” one by one.
I would go into Keyboard Warrior mode.
I survived many a pie fight.
Hell. I recognize some of the usernames that were actually IN the original pie fight.
(Big Ups to Side Women’s Studies Set btw).
But a flew clicks in, I realized that this was a strategy that would consume the better part of my afternoon.
So … on to Strategy #3.
This involved a clever skewering of the entire meme’s raison d’etre.
In one comment I would cooly, and rationally, blow apart this little house of cards.
But that strategy quickly went the way of the dodo when I could do one version or the other, but not both at once. So … on to the final answer.
My comment was simply this:
I don’t listen to unsourced statistics.
I know. Right. In six words, I accomplished the task of dispatching with this issue and moving on with my day. But. Then I had to circle back to the source of the meme and my dismay. Seriously. This man and I have had serious, intense, logical discussions about a lot of things. No one does bipartisan better than we do. Seriously. We didn’t always agree but we ALWAYS remained informed and considerate.
And, here’s where the mindfuck comes in …
Three posts down was one of those other types of memes from the same person. This was the assault with information that looked kind of rational and focusing on any of them in particular was a pretty accurate evaluation of who was POTUS when certain things happened. True enough.
But pulling back, the entire list was of Democratic presidents and focused on a fairly narrow portion of military spending and international negotiations. So now I’m in a world of nuance and counter argument with myself. Because now North Korea being a nuclear threat is all the fault of Democrats.
But the last line was perfect.
And they call Trump a traitor?
Sure enough. The game played out.
This was a serious mind bending ride. This was more than serendipity or coincidence. This person didn’t just decide to defend the president with two well placed meme attacks. He’s in his 70’s and barely understands meme culture. He just hit share a couple of times from his feed.
And yet I feel a vodka hangover coming on.
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from Mike the Liberal:
Just saying. :)
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