Memes like this, at least to me, mostly accomplish two things:
- some people get to enjoy mocking a group of people that align with their values in more ways than they don’t.
- some people feel dissuaded from doing anything.
We don’t know when small actions added up will make a difference or perhaps even lead to bigger actions. But I just don’t think, as a general rule, we should sit at our computers mocking those who spend their time doing something productive or at least attempting to make things a tiny bit better.
So in this case: help get Pikachu a firehouse. Or go find a squirtle to help. Perhaps you have a better solution on hand and you two can work together. Either way, pointing at him and mocking his attempts to be helpful, even if they maybe won’t solve the issue, just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
those who spend their time doing something productive or at least attempting to make things a tiny bit better.
Except what they do is only productive towards maintaining the status quo and enabling the oppressive systems that exploit us to continue chugging on regardless.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
https://blacklikemao.medium.com/how-liberalism-helps-fascism-d4dbdcb199d9
That would imply that (liberal) reforms are a good way to solve our issues, but that is not the case. Of course posting memes is not praxis. But to say that reforms, especially liberal reforms who even fail to see capitalism as the root problem, are good because someone is at least doing something is just as wrong. This is not a new debate and none that needs to be had for the hundredth time. All this reform vs revolution talk has been plentifully discussed over a 100 years ago. Rosa Luxemburgs “Reform or revolution” makes the biggest points perfectly clear. Reforms can be a way to temporarily make things better (if done right, which is not the case with most liberal reforms), but we should not be kidding ourselfs by thinking that we can solve this systemic issue by making new laws. The powerful won’t just sit there and watch their power be handed over.
But to say that reforms, especially liberal reforms who even fail to see capitalism as the root problem, are good because someone is at least doing something is just as wrong.
That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying do the work or put the effort into help sell people on and direct them to better action. Critique is easy, solutions are not, and this post doesn’t really propose solutions. It feels like red meat for people who want to go “liberal reforms are nonsense amirite?” - notice how most comments are functionally just nodding along or just giving this post the same dismissal in kind. Ridiculing well-intentioned people with a pikachu joke and then walking away is worse than inaction, frankly. If your goal is buy-in, I’m seeing quite the opposite, which is unfortunately a kind of post that is generally rewarded online. Yet I imagine we both want to see meaningful change!
Let me ask you this: why was this posted? What was the goal?
the picture is ofc just a meme. In reality (if we stick to the methaphor) there is a whole barrage of Hypnos' (media conglomerates) behind Pikachu, telling everyone this is the best we can do to solve this situation, while a bunch of Machamps' are tasked with blocking the path for the fire trucks (bourgeois democracies being designed in a way to prevent meaningful change) and beating up anyone who dares to try turn off the gas to the exploded pipeline (police and military protecting the exploitative economic base that accellerates all and is the cause for many of our problems)
So no, supporting or even accepting the machinery behind Pikachu is not making things better "little by little" but actually enabling things to stay as they are at the core.
there is a whole barrage of Hypnos’ (media conglomerates) behind Pikachu,
I get what you’re driving at and don’t entirely disagree but you’re also sort of implying most people trying solutions you don’t think will work (or know won’t work sometimes I imagine!) have no agency and are just mindless sheeple/puppets. I imagine this isn’t actually how you feel about other people who don’t fully align with you!
And we both know it’s never “just” a meme. Memes influence opinions, they often are a culture driver/reflection of culture and attitudes. It was posted to make a statement, so we should assess it critically.
Where's the third panel with Team Rocket GOP pouring gas onto the flames?
Is that Rei Ayanami?
If every blue haired slim anime girl = Ayanami, then yes
Leftist solution: everyone gets in a circle and loudly argues about what the ideal solution would be in a perfect world if only they didn't have any political opposition. They can't agree, so they don't take any action, while the liberal has called the fire department.
The leftist solution is to shutoff the pipeline that keeps on fuelling the fire (aka. Capitalism)
Yes, yes, absolutely, every communist country has been a wonderful environmental steward! Just don't pay attention to the USSR's history of environmental neglect or China's use of coal or reality in general.
Also, while leftists may talk about shutting off the pipeline that's driving the world economy instead of reforming it to be green, they won't actually do anything, because leftists don't have either the numbers or the organization to effect change by themselves and they are often so hostile to collaboration within a political coalition that they are a political non-force. The serious leftists just become Democrats or members of other social liberal parties when they grow up and realize that writing lit memes isn't enough to change the world.
I've been there so I know They keep on saying "Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble "Do it slow"
You keep on saying "Go slow!" "Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble "Do it slow" But bring more tragedy
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
- Nina Simone
