Six weeks of general election means one sure thing: six weeks of memes. You might not immediately put politics and memes together, but in the face of ridiculous statements, sassy responses and backtracking to the nth degree, memes create the perfect opportunity to laugh at politicians. Just last night, a Jeremy Corbyn meme went viral on Twitter. It’s a cartoon image of him dabbing, with a quote from his election speech:
‘They say I don’t play by the rules, their rules. They’re quite right. I don’t’
As memes go, it’s not the funniest in the world but it adds to a mountain of other political memes that have changed the way we view politicians, and by extension, their parties. For every political event, in fact for any event ever, there’s a meme. They put your exact thoughts into one happy picture, a joke even, and with political memes they allow you to share your deepest thoughts about the election with a simple retweet. Of course, you could do that with any political statement, so what’s so different about memes?
The ugly truth is: they provide a nice security blanket to show your political affiliation without explicitly saying it. None of us are ever 100% sure about what policies mean or what our parties stand for, not only because they U-turn ALL THE GODDAM TIME but because even leaders can’t simplistically define their policies for us. If you mindlessly retweet a policy statement and receive backlash from a political nerd who you can’t possibly argue with, you make a tit of yourself. If you retweet a meme with political affiliations, you can easily pass it off as a joke when questioned. It’s shameless, but we all do it, whether you realise you’re using your security blanket or not. It’s just easier to speak through memes than to make actual political statements.
The non-shameful use of memes is their ability to simplify complex narratives. When you don’t completely understand new policies that are being put forward or why a politician making this particular statement is a big deal, memes help explain that in a way everyone can understand.
My favourite so far? Captioning an image of Ja’mie (from Ja’mie: Private School Girl) where she says ‘I’m so random. I can’t believe I just did that’ with ‘Theresa May after the announcement’. For the un-politically aware, it attaches a character they know to a situation they’re not quite sure of. It explains that actually calling a snap election is a really random thing to do, and makes you question, why? It then hopefully encourages young people, as the lovers of memes, to search that and find an abundance of results explaining the significance of the timing of this election (and videos of her promising she wouldn’t call a snap election).
It’s the modern-day version of newspaper cartoon satire, and it’s engaging politics with a new generation. Young people can look at political memes and gage what’s going on in the world without having to turn on the news, or read a newspaper- which I hate to say but is something I struggle to do now I'm 22, never mind at 18 when I only voted for whomever my parents did (also because I never watch live TV- I am an unashamed full millennial stereotype).
That being said, they have much more political significance that I think even memesters are aware of. The ability of a meme to make or break a politician is unprecedented. Sometimes, they humanise politicians, you see a relatable image of them and you feel as though you’re almost laughing along with them. Jeremy Corbyn dabbing is a prime example of this, not only humanising him but also engaging him with a younger audience who could actually see the meme and think ‘Shit, Jeremy’s a cool guy’ (Maybe. What do kids think these days? Do they still say ‘cool’?).
But then there are those that take it even further, and make a laughing stock of a politician (you still drooling from your bacon sandwich, Ed?). The boldest extreme? The memes that are compared to propaganda for taking statements out of context and exploiting it to garner a particular political reaction.
And they’re only getting more important. The limited time frame of this election means that parties are struggling to hammer home the policies they stand for and therefore rally votes. It means that the debates are limited, or none-existent if Theresa gets her way, and its stopping opposition from forming a legitimate campaign.
The memes that go viral in this election have the possibility to spread these messages, and be the voice of a party whether they want it or not. It’s giving memesters and anyone with Photoshop the ability to cripple a politician’s career. Not only that, it can perpetuate fake news in joke form, and thereby having the same impact: misinforming masses of people on something that will actually alter who they vote for and thereby who runs the country for the next five years.
On the plus side, it could mean that politicians are less and less likely to get away with manipulating audiences because memes hold them accountable and ultimately undermine whatever ridiculous statement they make on a viral scale. Of course, there are honest politicians who could also be made a derogatory meme of and find their reputation unduly tarnished. But that’s the lesson to be learned here: when you scroll past a meme, take a second to think whether it’s influencing your opinion and fact check it. And always think twice before you eat a bacon sandwich in front of a bunch of photographers. Don’t let a meme ruin your future.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.