Let’s talk about something, internet.
Before we start, I’d like to get my political biases out of the way. I’ve never been more apathetic towards a presidential election; both major candidates, in my eyes, were equally unfit to do the job. With Clinton, we’d see an imperialist march against all the countries and a vicious attack against the poor little brown people that inhabit them. With this would come people finally realizing that the United States have a hand in some rather disagreeable deeds, saying “no,” and banding together to bomb us to kingdom come. With Trump, we’re going to have a bunch of skinheads running around and attacking people of color, queer folks, and women. As a black man living in the states, I had two choices: I could have my home raided and be arrested for possession of a gram of marijuana to keep money flowing through private prisons, or I could walk down the street and get jumped and beaten to death by Neo-Nazis. This election, in my eyes, was whether I wanted external racism or internal racism. And let’s be real, the third-party candidates were a bunch of nutjobs who believed that cell phone towers gave you cancer and schools aren’t necessary. No matter the outcome, I was going to be disgruntled. So, when I talk about the election results, keep in mind that I’m mostly mad at everybody who had a hand in this. And yes, that means all of you. I don’t care about protest votes or anything that you all think I should care about, because I don’t. I’m mad at all of you for enabling him by ruining the one pure thing we had on this earth: memes.
On Nov. 9, 2016, Donald Trump was elected to become our president in a victory of 290-238 in the electoral college. On Jan. 20, he will take the oath and swear himself into the oval office. Do you know why? I want you all to take a second and think about that. How could a presidential candidate like Donald Trump – who has gone on record to say some unbelievably fishy, divisive, and downright hateful things – see victory in 2016’s America? The land of the free and the home of the brave? The place where activist groups like Black Lives Matter and third-wave feminism would see the light of day and receive an open endorsement by Barack Obama? How could we go from the embrace of revolution and doing what we perceive to be right to being sent back to what could potentially be a level of conservatism we haven’t seen since the 1980s? We all laughed and joked about his presidency, believing that he would never, not in a million years, see ANY recognition by mainstream parties whatsoever. What happened? What could have possibly happened, America? YOU ALL HAPPENED.
That’s right. Liberal, conservative, libertarian, or authoritarian alike talked him up into his place of power. How? Through memes. It wasn’t enough that Donald Trump said bad things, but then you all had to give him legitimacy. You ridiculed him and what he said before thinking to yourself, “Am I essentially giving him coverage and the media attention he doesn’t need?” It’s a little hard to believe that it didn’t cross your thoughts at all. I thought that would happen by the tenth or eleven time you reblogged the funny picture of Donald Trump as Spongegar or whatever was funny in 2014. I don’t remember. Memes age and die quickly. Except for the chalice of Dionysus that is Donald Trump. You all let it keep coming and coming to a point of absolute absurdity. And you know what that did? That had people who would potentially agree with his policies, who never gave him much attention, think to themselves, “This Donald Trump guy knows what he’s talking about. He has my vote!”
It’s not just the alt-right to blame for their beating Pepe into the ground and making him into a white nationalist symbol (respect to Matt Furie and his hilarious comic that had nothing to do with race or bigotry). It’s everyone who disagreed with him. Everyone who was convinced they were doing God’s work was doing nothing more than giving him the attention he needed to keep the Trump train going. Now we have neo-conservatives and bigots running around in the streets, feeling enabled by the latest election. And there’s nobody to blame but the leftists and the moderates who sincerely thought there was ever such a thing as bad publicity. You’ve screwed yourselves in this election, and when 2020 rolls around, you’d better start pumping out some memes about whoever you want to win this time. Hopefully you’ve learned, but you probably haven’t. Thank you, good night, and I truly, truly hate you all.
