Bernie Sanders & Memes

I suppose this talk had to come eventually; they’re everywhere, and they’re unescapable. Whether found on 4Chan, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, or shared by your middle-aged aunt on Facebook, memes are a hugely important part of the internet. Anyone discussing the discourse of the internet has to address memes at some point, due to their prevalence and their ability to satirically address present day issues. Whether we look at them for entertainment, or from a critical standpoint, you have to admit that memes are an integral part of internet culture.

In the past couple of weeks, internet meme-ists have taken to critiquing the United States democratic presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton though a new meme. Each meme compares Bernie and Hillary to issues that have absolutely nothing to do with the election, giving Bernie the ‘funnier’ or more appropriate response, and they frame Hillary as out of touch with youth or as that one adult who seems to try too hard.

For your own viewing pleasure:

I mean, as a Bernie supporter, I find these memes hilarious. In her political addresses, Hillary very much does come off as a candidate who is trying to win the younger generation’s vote by being ‘hip’ and ‘cool’. However I feel like this meme speaks volumes about the political standpoint of the younger generation. (Quote: "I want to be as good a president as Beyonce is a performer." Yuck. Hillary, why?)

From just the implications of how widespread this meme is, it would be totally understandable to infer that the majority of young people support Bernie Sanders to be the democratic Presidential candidate.

I think a lot of mainstream media overlooks the Internet as a facet of the public sphere. They sweep things like the Bernie/Hillary meme under the rug, writing it off as “that darn younger generation”. However, they seem to forget the sheer power that online communities possess.

For example, the subreddit /r/sandersforpresident is making an attempt to spearhead the grassroots effort to support Bernie by donating, phonebanking, canvassing, facebanking, and encouraging others to do so as well. With over 216,000 subscribers, there have been primaries that came down to a couple of hundred votes. There’s a high possibility that those voters could be attributed to the subreddit’s hard work.

I feel like this meme is a good demonstration of the current online demographics’ feelings on current day politics; it puts the candidate that they support in a powerful position against the opposition, while maintaining humour and relatability to millennials. This isn’t to say that people in the millennial demographic don’t support Hillary, but in my experience a lot of younger people prefer Bernie.

(Stats support this opinion too)

Being a meme is also incredibly beneficial to Bernie’s campaign; his face gets quickly shared over the internet, through a demographic that historically has poor voter turnout. However, I often see someone easily retweet, reblog, or share a picture of this meme, yet refuse to get involved in the nuances of politics. Yes, this meme is making its rounds throughout social media, yet voter turnout in the current primaries is still relatively poor.

I feel like not only does this meme represent the potential power that the 18- 24, but also the lack of utility with this tremendous power.

The term “hashtag activism” comes to mind, meaning that many people feel if they tweet a hashtag then they are actively involved in political situations. A great example is #Kony2012, which supported a charity to stop Joseph Kony, a child militia leader. Unfortunately, this campaign spread like wildfire, yet neglected to acknowledge the fact that he wasn’t at large anymore.

But, that retweet made people feel like they were doing something. In the same regards, people retweeting this meme can be considered them ‘participating’ in political discourse.

I think people feel the same way about the Bernie Sanders meme. Yes, it plays into current day trends of memes and allowing people to customize the template with whatever references are currently relevant. However, it also allows them to make a (albeit small) political statement with the click of a button.

I suppose this has been a bit of a tangent, but to wrap it up, I have one question to pose to you all. Do you think that parts of the internet, such as memes, are important to consider when considering political demographics? Or should we skip over them like the mainstream media does?

#Politics #Memes #Reddit