US Politics

Good article on the supposed meme-ing of the election... https://theoutline.com/post/352/memes-do-not-matter

Despite its shortcomings, the spectre of “tech” journalism haunted this election. Eleven days before Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States, The New York Times ran an article in its Style section titled “How Pepe the Frog and Nasty Woman Are Shaping the Election.” The intro paragraph alone reads like clueless liberal bingo: Alex Williams, whose previous articles include “Why a $15,950 Tourbillon Watch Is Considered a Steal” and “Why Does This Watch Cost $815,000?,” interviews the editor of Know Your Meme, an NYU grad who lives in Williamsburg, who explains the significance of 4chan and Pepe the Frog to the Times’ aging readership. It goes on: “In 2008, memes were simply a PR nightmare for the Republican Party.” Were they really? Did Obama owe his landslide victory to the exposure of Floridian septuagenarians to LOLcats, or was it the financial crisis, widespread dissatisfaction with the Bush administration, and record turnout among African-Americans? No evidence is given as to if or why any of this is shaping the election; that it exists at all somehow makes it newsworthy.