The End Justifies the Memes

Part five in a series on propaganda

Attentive readers will be aware that I began a series on propaganda several months ago. This post is the conclusion to that long argument, in which I offered the mechanisms and some of the main developments in the production of emotional images for mass consumption.

I aim to show how memes are not only an effective means of resistance, but that they are in fact a direct and serious threat to Regime power. They are serious jokes at the expense of the wicked fools who rule us, and their potential to subvert the messaging of power is devastating.

Emote Control

I maintain that there is no difference between advertising and propaganda. Commercial and political messaging share the same methods and have the same aim - to attach your feelings to a given symbol in order to manipulate you.

This attachment may be positive or negative. You may feel bad or good about the given symbol. The attachment will usually aim to confer a sense of superiority on the target. Propaganda makes promises it can neve…