Like and Share

Like and Share

Every day I read memes instructing me to “like and share if I agree.”

Every day I receive memes about the plights, persecutions and woes of the elderly, the poor, fetuses, the planet, pets, political and religious affiliations and our troops.

Every day I receive memes shared or forwarded by people I know don’t do shit about what’s being bemoaned in their memes.

Every day I receive memes about our losses of freedom and liberty. I receive memes about the evaporation of our spirituality and morality. I receive memes about the glory days of the past compared to the present. I receive memes about guns and equality, along with the instructions to “like and share if I agree.”

Every day I received memes shared or forwarded by people who do nothing but piss and moan about what’s being pissed and moaned about in their memes.

Never do I receive any memes rhetorizing the plights and woes of the elderly, animals, fetuses, the planet or our troops with anything more than instructions to “like and share if I agree.” Never do I receive a meme instructing me to “get off my lazy, virtue signaling ass to do a little something about it.”

So I go ahead and like and share to make myself feel better about caring about all that shit so goddamned much that I can’t help but like and share. In the meantime, nothing about the planet or our freedoms changes since I’ve done nothing but fucking like and share a bunch of fucking words and images.

Little about the circumstances we lament in our memes changes. But it’s so fucking easy and it feels so fine to be liking and sharing so goddamned much of our theoretical virtues before I jack off, watch Netflix or take a nap – why would I ever want to do anything else but keep on liking and sharing and having my virtues and values affirmed by everybody else doing the same?

A meme is defined as: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.

A meme is an idea that spreads, like the idea that professing, liking and sharing our virtues and values has any real value, except for our profile. The value of so much goddamned liking and sharing adding to the stock of our profiles, while adding little to nothing to the world our memes so vehemently criticize.

Yes. I am so distraught at the plights of the elderly and our troops, watch as I smash the ‘Like’ button and share my values so cleverly encapsulated in your meme. Watch me so virtuously spread my values through a meme from the convenience of my phone while I’m taking a shit.

Sometimes I wonder if the future of warfare will be bombs and bullets. Instead, maybe it’ll be warfare through our memes. And instead of the casualties of soldiers and civilians winning and losing wars, it’ll be the decimations of our profiles – through the subversive warfare of memes – that determine which side wins in our future battles between countries and ourselves and our own country and culture.