This post is years in the making. I've been waiting for the perfect example, and on the eve of releasing my book, it finally appeared. But let me explain.

In one sense, I can't get away from social media because I love it. On the spectrum of "staying in touch," I'm 95th percentile, at least. I occasionally reach out to my grade school friends and frequently reach out to high school and college friends. Obviously, this is all much, much easier through social media.

But on the downside, there's everything described in the Netflix Documentary, The Social Dilemma. Division, FOMO, Addiction, real connection replaced by life-sucking apparent connection. General life-sucking tendencies. In some places, civil war. Lots of downsides.

There is one particular action that I have noted, which, if stopped, might allow civilization to co-exist with social media.

I mean, I've just been sitting here watching America self-destruct for 15 years. Haven't you?

If I were Russian or China, I would think, "This is all going splendidly." You don't need much imagination to know that one of the most cost-effective things for our enemies to do would be to divide and conquer. This has been done many times before, including by the US on other countries. It's so much more effective than just rolling in with tanks. Divide and conquer.

You might think the Democrats are ruining America. You might think Trump is. Well, you're both right. But the biggest ruiner is the division itself. This division might come from outside of our country. (It is not hard to act like an American from the other side of the planet on social media.) It might just come from our own worst tendencies to be drawn to controversy like a moth to the flame. My opinion is that it comes from both.

But watching my feeds for 15 years, I feel certain in saying this:

The most destructive thing you can do as an average citizen to civilization is to forward a post that has an image and ANY connection to politics.

Social Media May Look Harmless

You CAN write about politics yourself. You could copy/paste your friend's deep political thoughts. You can repost a cat video.

I will unpack this further. Those who would like to see an end to division so we can maintain civilization, I hope you will read on.

I don't think I personally know anyone who takes the time to assemble memes. Do you?

We are forwarding ideas from people we don't know and who are generally unknown sources: Political operatives, advocacy groups, foreign actors, or simply engagement farmers.

These images that people forward around are not made equally by all of us. In my observation, great attention to detail is invested in memes so they appear like something just "tossed off," but are in fact perfectly curated for maximum division.

The one I will share below may actually be just "tossed off," but I'd still like to point out how perfect it is to create division.

To create division, it must:

1. Seem sensible enough to the "sharer" that they are willing to have it on their feed.
2. Contain some logic, so sharers feel they will convince someone of their point of view. (They almost certainly won't, but they think they will.)
3. Contain some controversy, because that's what makes eyeballs stick to it and pauses the scroll, boosting the post.
4. Ideally, the meme will seem like it "just happened," so people don't feel like they're being "sold" an idea. It's just a "truth" that exists.
5. To create the division, it must make the opposing viewpoint or group wrong. When this wrongness is agreed with enough times by a viewer, the other side becomes a detestable enemy to be attacked, ridiculed and certainly not trusted.

When point five above is achieved on a large portion of the USA, think of what a gift that is to our enemies! Do you want to give that gift?

I want to point out how the entire package of points 1-5 happens in a political meme vastly more than when someone just speaks their mind directly.

You may think the Democrats are an unholy lot. You may think Trump will be the downfall of our country. That's outside of the scope I'm speaking to. I'm speaking to how reposting political memes is creating division that would let either of those two groups continue the decline that you see.

Here's the post I saw:

I can see it's on X, and I've never read this guy Matt Walsh before, but looking now, I can see he posts a lot. I just read about 20 of his posts, and I agree with some of them, and not with others.

But this meme I have pasted here just happens to be the perfect example for what I'm trying to say. (I did not see this in X as a post - I saw this as a screen snip image reposted on Facebook) After a little more digging, I see that Matt did post this way back in 2022. It got 7.1k comments, none of which I can see now. Derek Thompson's comment could be a fake created in Russia two weeks ago. Or it could be legit. I'm just encouraging you to not take it at face value.

Political Memes and Social Media - More Than Meets the Eye

Okay, I've set the stage, and I just want to say this meme worked on me exactly intended by someone who wanted to create division. I read Matt's comment, and I thought, "Whoa! This guy doesn't know what's up. We did handle that!"

Then I read Derek Thompson's comment, and I thought, "Yes! Exactly!"

I felt vindicated.

If you had the right sensor in my bloodstream, you probably would've detected a tiny spike in dopamine.

I lived a micro-story: There was setting, a conflict (a trivial one between two posters on the internet, AND a real-world global problem of the past), a victory, a satisfying ending. It stuck with me. All from a meme.

Ten years ago, I would've proudly reposted it.

As I type this today, I'm so glad I didn't. Why?

There are many reasons, I'll start with the obvious and go to the more insidious

• it is clearly the left making the right wrong.
• it doesn't claim to be political - it's just innocently presented as "two things people said."
• it appears to be a fight right now and therefore (note the dates were erased in the screen snip - the date on Matt's posts still exists in x.com currently) Someone took the time to erase that date.
• it appears to have the positive value of spreading knowledge, encouraging a thoughtful person to post it for that reason, when they are really satisfying that urge to "righteously stick it to the other side."

And believe me, there are PLENTY of examples on my feed of the right making the left wrong. But I'm just posting this one.

The ones making the left wrong seem a little more willing to just be flippantly pissing people off, while the ones making the right wrong seem to be more of considered outrage. Did I just sound like I'm taking sides? I'm not. They're both guilty. "Who is more guilty" is outside the scope of this article. I just want to save my country from eventual civil war. I hope you can get behind that.

And who is to blame? Sure, the person who curated/created the original meme, but that doesn't get us anywhere because chances are they are doing the destructive activity they are intending, and possibly paid, to do.

So we can only blame ourselves.

If you love America, or whatever country you live in, please don't repost political memes.