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.
It means we all know they’re lying to and manipulating us through various means including terrorism and psychological warfare…and we’re expected to keep calm and carry on as if we don’t know what we do.
In other words, more of the same from the circus act
Of course. I find the article an illuminating or at the least reaffirming examination of the way meme culture can reflect popular consensus, and the consensus is becoming one of implicit distrust of alphabet agencies, which is a good thing. On the other hand, it can also lead to the dissolution of meaningful political consensus between people and, as the article states, the festering of solipsistic and individualistic political prophetism, or main character syndrome in other words. Everyone’s a fed, you’re a fed, I’m a fed. Everything’s a psyop, you’re a psyop, I’m a psyop. The identification of psyops becomes a psyop in and of itself. The only one we can truly trust is ourselves, etc.
It is not exactly new information, but I like reflections like this as it can help reaffirm commitment to being vigilant yet refraining from overwhelming paranoia and conspiratorial thinking.
Ah, definitely good points to make. Alienation couples this too. And the increase in bots, social automation further alienating us from each other.
