The Memeification of Politics

Where do we draw the line? 

With the skyrocketing popularity of social media platforms, online discourse is playing a larger role in politics than ever before. One way this manifests is through “memes,” or text, video or image-based content spread online by Internet users for an intended comedic effect. TikTok and Instagram Reels tend to be the most popular platforms for video-based memes and X, formerly Twitter, for image and text-based memes. 

Memes and dark humor is something that most, if not all, generations enjoy, but are Millennials and Gen Z taking it too far? The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election and upcoming federal elections in Canada raise the question: where is the line between clever social media marketing and blatantly harmful posts? Are we inadvertently fueling propaganda? 

According to an American Press Institute article, “The News Consumption Habits of 16-to-40-year-olds,” the majority of  people ages 16-40 consume their news through social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X, in conjunction with traditional news sources, such as CNN, Fox News and The New York Times. While social media can be an incredible tool to reach large audiences (as seen in the recent social media coverage on the genocide in Palestine or the more recent resentencing of the Menendez brothers), it can also be dangerous. Not only does misinformation on these platforms largely go unchecked, the long term effects of social media as a political tool are unknown.

Social media and TikTok, in particular, have been used as marketing tools to appeal to younger generations—specifically with the U.S. Presidential Elections, as seen in 2016, 2020, and now again in 2024. In some ways this is a clever marketing strategy to endear the public to a candidate, as seen recently with Kamala Harris’ TikTok account @Kamalahq which posts fun, Gen Z-geared edits and empowering speeches. However, political social media marketing can have harmful drawbacks that many may not consider.

Elections are no joke. As of recently with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, human rights are on the ballot. Anything that may discourage potential voters from hitting the polls is a cause for concern. Voting is a privilege, a privilege that not all countries have. Democracy is not a light topic, yet somehow we as a society have gone from being tight lipped about our political standings to memeifying the entire concept.

In a meme circulating of Actor Ryan Reynolds, Reynolds is shown endorsing Kamala Harris in a doctored t-shirt reading “Kamala removes nasty orange stains” (a parody of the cleaning brand Tide). This is problematic for several reasons. For one, Reynolds has not made his political intentions clear yet. This photoshopped meme is skewing his stance. Moreover, with the rise of celebrity endorsements of political candidates, (as seen with Taylor Swift’s recent endorsement of Kamala Harris and Joe Rogan’s endorsement of Donald Trump), people take political endorsements very seriously, regardless of their place on the political spectrum. Turning an election as consequential as this one into meme material takes away from its serious implications. If people do not take elections seriously, then they may not feel the urgency to vote, and not voting is more dangerous than voting “wrong.” Voting is more than just a privilege, it is a human right that has been fought hard for. To not exercise that right is to undermine the efforts of those who came before us.

Then again, TikTok has also allowed for one of the most candid presidential campaign interviews ever, when Alex Cooper from the Call Her Daddy podcast (which generally covers gossip) interviewed Kamala Harris. Harris also made her SNL debut later in the fall. These types of easily byte-able media appearances are truly effective at reaching a target audience, while also maintaining the serious nature of the topic: the future leader of one of the world’s most influential countries. 

This is not an election that only affects America. America’s role within world politics is akin to sleeping with an elephant, if it moves the whole bed shakes. American politics have a domino effect on other countries and their political leanings.

Other memes have continuously blown up on TikTok poking fun at the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump. You do not have to agree with someone’s political views, but you definitely shouldn’t encourage threats on their lives. This is when the insensitivity of political memes can become a problem. Regardless of differing political views, encouraging violence against world leaders only perpetuates a very real threat to democracy and threatens the freedom for which most sovereign states have fought for. 

Smear campaigns like this do not stop at a government level, eventually they move into every class of life until any and all adversaries are eliminated. This has been seen historically in Vietnam, Nicaragua and Guatemala, where foreign American governments formed coup d’états that took out previous leaders when they tried to nationalize their own economies. They then inserted preferred leaders that were more “American positive” and often dictators who slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians in the process. This is a horrific process that only causes more harm. This cannot be a cycle that repeats itself. When we lose humanity in politics, we lose sight of what we are fighting for. 

Voting should be an informed decision made with the voter's best interests at heart. One can’t vote with confidence if they feel they do not truly know enough about what they are voting for. This is why we have so many people today who don’t even bother to register to vote, let alone hit the polls: the focus is on the jokes, not the issues. 

Voting is an absolute privilege, one which we should protect and cherish at all costs. We cannot do that without verifying the sources where our information comes from and reflecting on our own media literacy and judgment.