OMG, the women in my local Pantsuit Nation spinoff group got bored

[wildeyed]

with calling our white supremacist representatives and writing postcards. They have moved onto meme production. Next up, weaponized hashtags! The Russian trollbots won't know what hit them soon.



They are pretty funny already, and this is early days!

[WheelWalker]

1. I don't exactly follow that, but it sounds dirty and I like it.

[bathroommonkey76]

2. Act One: Meme Come True

I listened to This American Life this past weekend and they had a story about Trump supporters making memes during the election-- Do you think she got the idea from this story?

Here is the link if you want to give it a listen:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/608/the-revolution-starts-at-noon?act=1#play

[wildeyed]

3. No, from me.

And they are smart! They learn really fast

The thing about using memes and inflammatory rhetoric to shape online discussion is that anyone can do it. Shitposting is not that hard if you are willing to log the hours. I have been posting off and one all night about the mom waiting for medical attention who died as a result of Trump's Muslim ban and the nursing baby who was separated from her mother for 10 hours. In ALL CAPS! With emojis 😢 I have one about Trump's mom being an illegal immigrant cued for tomorrow. The illegal part is #alternativefacts, but live by the meme, die by the meme, right? They started the game, so now we play.

[bathroommonkey76]

5. Oh, I know.

I've been doing it for over 9 years on Twitter.

Personally, I think the younger Trump supporters got the idea from those posting memes about McCain and Palin in 2008. All of those memes sure did work against the GOP and make their party look like a joke-- Trump's even better than Romney & McCain. More Dems should get on the meme bandwagon and attack him every day until the next election.

[wildeyed]

6. Voters in my neck of the woods are riled up about state and local races too.

I have begun to focus on those more. Realistically, I can't hope to have much effect on national issues. Happy to add my voice to the crowd, but there is a HUGE opportunity to leverage social networks for down ticket races that "normal" citizens generally ignore.

[bathroommonkey76]

8. Our districts in NC are heavily gerrymandered

The GOP has a huge advantage on the local and state levels-- Little hope outside of the governor's mansion and attorney general;s races. We are hoping the feds will rule in our favor soon.

[wildeyed]

9. I'm in NC too.

The goal is to break their veto proof majority, which is a possibility with the re-drawn districts and the voter engagement I am seeing. Dunno if we will vote in 2017 for the GA. Looking like a no since the supremes are looking at the case. But that gives us more time to organize and recruit great candidates. Dems will contest every single race, not just the ones they might be able to win. This forces the GOP to defend ALL of their seats and diverts $ and time from the vulnerable urban candidates. And maybe some of the GOPers will get primary challengers as well. They deserve that. They are egregiously BAD, and not just in a partisan way.

I plan to take a leave of absence from my job if I can manage it, to work on campaigns and GOTV. I am MAD. Really, deeply and profoundly pissed off. And I'm not the only one.

[LeftInTX]

4. This may be the future of activism

Who knows maybe right wing trolls decided the election for trump.

I hope they are good with "fake news"

[wildeyed]

7. And Russian trollbots.

This was posted here recently. It bears repeating:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/fake-news-why-the-west-is-blind-to-russias-propaganda-today-20170123-gtxbuw.html

Russia has skilfully exploited social media to divide the West and increase Moscow's power in Europe, the US and eventually Asia.

The use of social media as a platform to divide democracies works, in part, because the strategy preys on a fundamental blind spot in open societies: the origin and volume of voices taking part in an online discussion.