One of the most delightful developments in the Age of Trump has been the mainstreaming of memes that previously used to be shared only in more out of the way areas of the internet, such as 4Chan and /pol/. The best meme of the presidential cycle was Pepe the frog. Completely misunderstanding that meme’s origin and deployment, the joyless Left declared it to be racist. Crooked Hillary even gave a speech about Pepe. This left those of us in the know dying of laughter. This article gives an authoritative explanation of the cute little fellow.
Other memes have become widely known and it can now be said that America itself is “memed.” You may have seen the “distracted boyfriend” one, a seemingly limitless meme for all sorts of social messaging. I think some degenerate “nation” like Sweden recently pulled itself out of its godless materialist torpor and declared the meme to be sexist. Of course.
Possibly the best meme ever, however, has recently come into vogue and is causing angst amongst, and whining from, the Regressive Left, which necessarily includes our corrupt and dishonest media. This is the “NPC” meme, which stands for nonplayer character, a term borrowed from the world of gamers. These are characters with whom players do not interact, as they are part of the computer program of the game itself.
The application of the NPC meme to the unthinking liberal herd is perfection, sublime, possibly a miracle sent by God to keep our spirits up as we take back our country in the teeth of increasing violence from the Left. The thing about memes is that they either work or they don’t: there’s no middle ground. Another thing is a common saying among the Right: the Left can’t meme and it really can’t. A fatal lack of humor accounts for this, although not being very bright or clever also adds to it. Being in a continuous state of rage is also unhelpful in creating effective memes.
The NPC meme is deadly precisely because it is so accurate in what it targets. Liberals are generally unthinking herd animals predisposed to emotion with an aversion to rationality and facts. They have a predictable, scripted, limited number of responses to any issue.
Deployed on Twitter against these types, their response has been to declare that it “dehumanizes” them and to seek to ban it. So far, the NPC meme thrives on that platform, despite recent fears of a purge.
For an excellent introduction to the NPC meme & the reaction on the Left to it, I highly recommend Tim Pool’s YouTube “Meme Magic, How Conservatives Are Able To Keep Winning.”
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In the last two weeks or so I got to thinking about Minnesota liberals and how the NPC meme fits them to a T. We have only to think of some recent developments in politics to see this is inarguably true.
First, Alpha News went to court to get Keith Ellison’s divorce records unsealed, belatedly joined by the Star Tribune. The responses to this action were straight out of NPC casting. We were a “far right” news outlet, bigoted, racist, sexist, “Islamophobic.” That’s pretty much it: they repeat themselves after getting to the end of the list. Kim Ellison called us “Alt Right,” which was news to us but I found it an exciting addition to the rote denunciations.
Next, Keith Ellison’s ongoing disastrous campaign for Minnesota Attorney General has elicited a handful of outraged barks, sometimes focusing on his race, sometimes on his religion, mostly on how awful his opponent’s supporters are. Again, not much imagination in the Regressive Left’s repertoire. The same tired, shopworn, ineffective invectives are hurled again and again.
But that’s the point of the NPC meme: an inability to deal with issues on their own merits, or demerits, with immediate linking to other topics that have nothing to do with the matter at hand. The credible abuse allegations made against Ellison by multiple women have proven particularly difficult for the tedious social justice warrior set.
That’s why yesterday the Pioneer Press published a hit job on Doug Wardlow, accusing him of being a high school bully. A friend who knows media effectiveness deemed the story “soft” and it was, born of local media’s desperation to help save a sinking campaign.
It was yet another occasion, however, to see the NPC response from the usual suspects. What’s disconcerting is the Left’s failure to realize that name calling doesn’t work anymore. We on the Right can see it because we’re the object of it and we remain unfazed. I’ve collected quite a few names this cycle but again, after ten or so, they have to repeat them. Whatever could give us the idea that the Regressive Left are unthinking automatons?
Yesterday saw a tweet of my friend Rep. Mary Franson being retweeted by the Emperor himself. The frenzied, mouth foaming responses from Minnesota liberals was hilarious, everything you’d expect it to be and more. One of the stock phrases the NPC meme uses is “Orange Man Bad” and there was plenty of that. Others include racist, misogynist, phobe, impeach, climate change, Russians, hate cops, sexist, Democratic Socialism and #MeToo.
Speaking of the Me Too movement, let’s not forget that this week saw the Chair of the DFL, Ken Martin, say flatly that he did not believe Karen Monahan’s allegations of abuse against Keith Ellison. So much for the narrative that the Left believes all women. They’re frauds and they don’t mind showing us.
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Without Wilhelm Davis, the deputy director of communications for the DFL, being on Twitter, the hall monitors and tone police are without a leader. Davis said on social media that the day after the midterm elections Republicans should be lead to the guillotine. He was suspended for a whopping one week but he deleted his Twitter account because of many other vile tweets. He used to berate various Minnesota Republicans for expressing Wrong Think on social media. It was as tedious as it was ineffective.
Sally Jo Sorensen, of Bluestem Prairie blog, picked up on Rep. Franson’s tweet but not the fact that the Emperor retweeted it. Sad! The Emperor said “Good luck Mary!” Sorensen likes to drag Franson whenever she can and suggested that her video about extremism and violence was simply trolling. It was actually more than that but Sorensen bit. They always do.
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This election cycle I’ve seen Republicans push back and fight in ways that I never have before. The DFL and their media allies simply don’t know what to make of it. To be sure, there are still those kind of Republicans who want to be liked by both groups and they remain the burden they have always been. Catch them on “Almanac” and “At Issue.”
But these bugmen are increasingly in the minority (hi Tpaw!) because conservatives in this state are aware of the stakes and have no intention of surrendering preemptively. We may lose important races but not for lack of trying.
I wrote some time ago that I thought Minnesota voters were waiting for a new kind of politics, one in which they were ahead of our political class. This election Republicans are trying to deliver it. Cue the angry NPC noises.
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In addition to Alpha News, John Gilmore is also a contributor to The Hill. He is the founder and executive director of Minnesota Media Monitor.™ He blogs at MinnesotaConservatives.org and is on Twitter under @Shabbosgoy. He can be reached at Wbua@nycunarjfza.pbz
Image credit: there is none, you fool, it’s a meme. Have you learned nothing? Did you even read this column?