My version of the golden rule was ‘do unto others as they would do unto you’ for a long time. I’ve lowered the inherent hostility of that somewhat as I’ve aged, but on a philosophical level I still pretty broadly disagree with behaving in a civilized way with uncivilized people. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and treat you like a human being until you prove otherwise, but if you prove otherwise I don’t see why what happens next reflects on anyone but the aggressor.
So yes I think using the weapons of the other side against them is better than fine. It’s a good way to force those people to be on the receiving end of their own behavior for once.
I’m sorry but point me to the Melania gold digger meme that isn’t 100% accurate. It’s what she is… and not for some generic replacement value rich guy either but literally the worst rich guy she could tolerate for money.
And making fun of a gay for being gay while also being a massive traitor to every other gay person on the planet is deliciously ironic. Fuck Lady G. He deserves all the shame he’s going to have heaped on him from now until the day he dies. It’s not an accident that many of the worst anti gay slurs I’ve seen hurled at Lady G were thrown by other gay men.
Whether or not one should be disgusted by the photo of her looking at her vagina is obviously going to be an agree to disagree since I’m obviously in the minority.
Posters claiming they are immune to the feelings that I’m expressing as part of some overarching political strategy? You’re actually buying that?
Embracing full blown nihilism just makes Trump correct and all the showings of disgust towards his behavior outdated in the same way that everyone seems to feel my reaction was.
I hate to continue this derail, but this actually is an interesting conversation and I think deserves some nuance. Because it can be simultaneously true that:
Calling women “gold-diggers” is problematic because it victim-blames them for forced survival strategies thrust upon them by thousand-year patriarchies, and
Melania’s apparent willingness to prioritize her own comfort over others’ suffering is appalling.
I think the end result ITT is an indictment of the current state of political discourse as much as it is of anything else. Because I’m sure most people here could articulate something along the lines of “It’s not cool to call Melania a gold-digger, but it sucks that she’d rather be rich than protect migrant kids from being tortured,” but that concept doesn’t meme well and - unfortunately - that sort of messaging isn’t effectively viral in today’s climate. People want instant amygdala activation, or they move on.
Evil deserves to be called out, efficiently and consistently. But I’m not sure what that means for Melania. "Psychopath sympathizer,’ perhaps. Or maybe just “grave digger” - though perhaps even this latter one is problematic given the potential connotation. Because while I think Melania deserves some empathy for her initial participation in a broken system, we still need to hold her accountable for her lack of action now.
It’s not full blown nihilism to be willing to hit people back when they hit you. In fact I think pretending that the words people use is more important than their actions is how we got into this mess.
I’m way more worried about stopping these people from carrying out their actually evil plans than I am in navel gazing. If the meme makes people laugh, makes the target look ridiculous, and sticks with people in any way I’m willing for there to be some limited collateral damage.
Women are not fragile. LGBTQ people aren’t fragile. African Americans more than virtually anyone else are not fragile. They can deal with a little bit of cognitive dissonance for us to absolutely smite their foes for maximum damage. The only damage that matters at this point is damage done to them with their base, and their base loves racist/sexist/homophobic memes.
I think the whole dark side of the force, don’t be evil when fighting evil people because then you’ll become them plot line we’ve all been getting fed by popular culture for the last 50 years is propaganda from the evil people. They want us to let them do whatever they want and hope for better in the afterlife.
Sure. What I would say is - Donnie Dumb Dumb and Missus Dumb Dumb are so clearly reprehensibe that they can be criticized on the facts with no reference to broader problematic tropes like “gold digger”. So why bother calling her a gold digger? Its a lazy shortcut with unnecessary baggage.
Emotional appeals are more effective than factual appeals. People need to stop relying on the training they acquired from the Susan Collins Tone Police Academy.
The issue is pretty simple. Marrying someone for money is not a bad thing, who the fuck cares why two people get married. The only reason it has become a terrible insult is because it’s something men can hold against women.
As the original poster of the memes I fully agree they are in bad taste. I posted them to make a point about what’s playing on FB. I didn’t make that clear enough. I also don’t think they rise to the level of feeling bad for Mrs. “I don’t care. Do you?”
And finally I’m still a little wobbly on this whole idea that accusing someone of marrying for money is some huge taboo insult. If it’s not an insult then ok - she’s just a very crappy husband chooser.