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.
Well there’s a good chance I’ll die in a Trump concentration camp, so might as well make the best of it.
Shoot to kill any intruders that invade your home without a warrant.
If ICE Gestapo thugs invade your home without a warrant, be a hero. Exercise your second amendment right.
Do you ever imagine your pond is colored red, symbolizing the blood of millions of innocent lives taken by your industry?
Do you wonder how many of your industry’s victims dreamed of having a nice, quiet, peaceful life by a pond?
I have an honest followup question to this meme (because I lived it): how long do you expect the girlfriend to stay?
At age 23 I was in a great relationship, we were in love, then I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I stopped being able to do physical things, I dropped out of school, I was bedridden. She went from being my girlfriend to being my nurse. She cared for me for a year, one long miserable year, then she left.
Is she at fault for leaving?
If we use the original definition of the word “meme”, which is “a unit of cultural transmission” then yes literally everything is a meme.
It was coined to be analogous to the word “gene”. One of the similarities is that the borders of genes and memes are fuzzy: when you split a gene in half, you get two genes. Both genes and memes are nested inside of themselves like a Russian doll.
The misdefinition of “meme” as “image macro on the internet” was ill informed, and is thankfully going out of style.
I heard you like polyrhythms is actually a really good song imo
Your heart is in the right place, but I think “no regrets” is an insane take.
As a fellow unemployed CS grad, I once thought software engineering was my best shot at a middle class life.
Now after 5 years of unemployment, the financial reality is setting in. I will never be able to afford a home. I will never be able to afford a family. I will never be able to afford retirement. I will never be able to afford a vacation. I will never be able to afford most things that make life worth living.
I thought I was going to be an engineer. I thought I was going to be a professional. Now I’m fasting at the end of every month bc food stamps always run out, and the electric company is threatening to shut off my power.
Choosing CS is deeply regrettable.
Lol well I guess it’s easy to get confused. I was submitting job applications to write computer applications.
I was submitting app apps.
Over the years I have tried a handful of subfields.
I always felt particularly adept at assembly language programming, so I had a couple projects doing that, and applied to every relevent job I could find.
As a math nerd I enjoyed data science and machine learning, I had quite a few projects like a neutral network from scratch in Matlab, and many data analysis and computer vision projects in R. I was always aware this field is very competitive and my chances were low here.
I had a friend get a job in the biomedical field, so I tried to follow that, I have Python projects doing basic gene sequencing and analysis, even a really cool project that replicated evolution.
Another friend landed a government job, so I followed his advice and got some security certs.
I also had smaller projects and attempts at databases, finance programming, and video games.
There was even a class action suit against UW for their negligence during covid. I guess the case is already settled, so I’m looking forward to my meager restitution check.
And I actually feel lucky that most of my serious classes were complete before Covid lockdown, bc the quality of education during covid was absolutely pathetic.
I’m not sure I was misled, what you said was explicitly taught to us at University. I think my degree is the #1 thing on my resume, but of course I also had projects, a few certificates, and multiple attempts at more specific fields.
Back when I was applying, my GitHub activity was pretty solid green.
I think most billionaires are not paying either of those taxes in any significant amounts.
Most follow the buy borrow die method. Then their children just have to pay estate tax.
Advanced tax cheats like Bill Gates take it one step further by creating their own charities. You give all your money to the “charity” and give your kids full control of the “charity”. This way you can avoid paying estate tax, and you only need to give away a tiny percentage of your wealth to actual charities and PR firms to save face.