I would be a confident criminal too, if the most powerful army in the world pledged to invade as a response to any criminal charges against me.

Hague Invasion Act - Wikipedia

I’m guessing this is a reference to unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, which has killed 20,000 and caused 45,000 amputations since the war ended in 1979.

That war ended 50 years ago, and there is still 700 square miles of land contaminated by unexploded bombs.

At least one child will lose their hand to a US bomb this month in Cambodia, you can bet on it. And next month too.

Did you like it when he bombed hospitals?

Did you like it when he promised to pull out, but instead surged troops?

Did you like it when he supported the rise of ISIS in Syria?

Did you like it when he betrayed the Kurds?

Did you like it when he abandoned Egypt’s Mubarek, leading to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Did you like it when he expanded drone warfare, killing hundreds of innocent people?

Yeah he’s better than trump/Republicans, but his failed policies have normalized the Bush-era crimes and have enabled the Trump-era crimes.

Whitewashing Obama’s disgusting, bloodstained legacy only serves to further degrade our national morality and enable the worst excesses of American fascism.

The leaders of the New Atheist movement are not heroes; they are certainly imperfect. I agree with all of your criticisms, but you say nothing of the bulk of their work.

Hitchens’ God is Not Great will stand the test of time; his Islamophobia will not.

Dawkins’ The God Delusion is still correct, despite his late-in-life transphobia and “cultural Christianity”.

You are asking an interesting philosophical question, I feel a little out of my depth trying to answer.

But yes, I believe every meme is an idea, every idea is a meme, and there is a 1:1 relationship. The word “meme” is just an idea that is viewed through the lens of evolution.

Now as for the second question- should a screenshot of Twitter be allowed on this “meme” sub? - I don’t have a strong opinion, but I lean towards no

My apologies, I confused you with the other commenter Sonotsugipaa, and I spelled your name wrong. :(

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Your insist that memes must change or recontextualize at every step, but this is your personal interpretation and is not supported by any definition. This is analogous to saying “genes are only genes when they mutate, otherwise it’s just a bunch of amino acids”.

An exact copy of a gene is a gene. An exact copy of a meme is a meme.

It is not worthless at all. Studying cultural changes through the lens of evolution is very useful and enlightening. That’s why I referenced the books that go into this in depth.

I would argue your narrow definition of “meme” is worthless because we already have a term for what you are describing - they are called “image macros”.

Well the definition is correct, it is Antagonistic’s narrow interpretation of that definition that is incorrect.

The key is evolution. For something to evolve, it must have the ability to be transferred, to be changed/mutated, and to be stored. Both genes and memes have these properties.

Literally any idea is a meme. If you can think it, it’s a meme.

If you break a gene in two, the result is two genes. If you break a meme in two, the result is two memes.

The name “Antagonistic” is a meme. The letter ‘A’ is a meme. The sound you make when you say ‘A’ is a meme. The idea of air vibrating to make sound is a meme.

In one sense this is very true- the wealth of the American worker has been stolen over time by capitalists.

But the truth is that one person supporting a family of five has never been sustainable. It was only possible in an era when the American lifestyle was heavily subsidized by the rest of the world through post-WWII economic domination.

As worker productivity continues to rise, we can hope for a future where 1 person’s work can support 5. But, at least for the near future, the math simply doesn’t work out.

Example 2 is a meme, no doubt about it.

If you go any deeper than the surface-level Google definition (that you are pedantically picking apart), then you will find literally any idea or unit of culture is a meme.

Read the last chapter of Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene. Actually please read the whole book, it’s a masterpiece of science popularization. Or read Susan Blackmore’s The Meme Machine, it explains the concept of memes and how they evolve in further detail.