Psyop memes are taking over social media, in particular across post-ironic meme pages, where anti-establishment currents are supercharged. In the mainstream, HBO Max’s new Velma cartoon has prompted conspiracy theories that it’s a right-wing psyop, while Fox News is convinced that the M&M girlies are a Chinese psyop meant to pedal candy-coated femininity. It’s not that we’re all collectively losing our minds, although it certainly feels that way. It’s more a reaction to our increased awareness of the propaganda and subversion that we are all exposed to every day. As the late Robert Anton Wilson said all the way back in 1980: “Anyone in the United States today who isn’t paranoid must be crazy.”
I like this article.
Ah, definitely good points to make. Alienation couples this too. And the increase in bots, social automation further alienating us from each other.