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I'm gonna be honest here. I'm not really liking the recent wave of Political stuff we've been having. The site feels more like a news site nowadays.

A meme was elected as president. You get what you vote for.

That along with the fact that he gets memes, be it funny or unfunny. Plus politics is more or less an inevitable thing considering this site can get members from all over the political spectrum.

Yes

The main thing about this whole situation that I don't like is a lot of the stuff being posted political-wise isn't really funny.

Now I might just have the wrong definition of a "meme" (technically a "meme" is really any shareable idea), but one of my personal requirements for something to be considered a meme is that it be somehow funny or comedic. It doesn't have to be necessarily funny to me, but I have to see that it at least could be funny to at least someone.

I feel politics have a potential to being memes. Like during the election Trump and his shenanigans basically became one giant meme, or during his presidency we got things like Scaramucci as the Boneitis guy from Futurama or the giant inflatable Trump chicken. I feel political cartoons could count too but I personally don't find them entertaining.

However, I don't think annotated news articles would count as this. I mean I understand they would be a part of politics and part of news, but they aren't funny. They still fit the technical term for "meme" but at that point they really are as much as a meme as the actual news article it's from.

And that's the problem I have with all the influx of political stuff here. If any of it was really funny or otherwise entertaining I would be okay with it. It's just a lot of the stuff being posted currently just really isn't funny.

I agree that many things I see here are not funny….but they are not meant to be funny are they? Most of the political stuff is there to "rally the troops" by giving them their fix of daily jabs against their "enemies." Meme's themselves, as expressed here, are not meant to be argument, but in many cases are treated as points in a debate. Thus, if somebody sees something very satirical and even nasty, but it's satirical and nasty about the "other guy" well, the creator gets a point, the viewer gets a thrill out of the good punch, and in the end both pat themselves on the back and thank their lucky stars they're on the right side. If it's against their guy, of course, it's "mean spirited," 'spiteful", full of "bigotry and hate" and not funny at all.

Meme's are just another form of mindless propaganda and seldom rise to the level of being anything but a different form of tweeting.

AJ

I'm going to broadly state that the interest in politics is at an all time high.

The interest has grown and without a doubt, people need to feel like they are making a difference.

You can blame "normies" for that. Due to the internet becoming basically mandatory to use in most first-world countries (a lot of job applications are completely online now) people who post image macros on forums aren't just tech-savvy geeks anymore.

Also keep in mind that a meme is not necessarily an inside joke amongst a community. As long as it's some concept that is spread (usually through imitation) then it can be considered a meme.

Regardless if something is funny or not, a meme is still a meme.

I don't like it either, but there is a certain honor in being consistent.

As long as the mods are politically neutral while still having their own opinions, I don't really mind the site becoming more political.

Just don't turn the site into a trashy circlejerk or ban people for their views.

Politics are a very important side of the internet, wether we like it or not.

Obviously it causes a lot of memes, and it'd be ridiculous to throw them all away but I have to agree with Tyranid on most of them not exactly being a lot of fun.

Also, it seems to be a springboard for a lot of non-starters that die quickly even by meme standards. By that very natural it's hard to give specific examples but think of how many times Donald Trump said something that caused a massive stir and got a page here and then got tossed away in favor of another thing. Or some hashtag campaign thing that never ends up taking off. Or a controversy that fades into the mists of times (or is promptly shoved there by other, bigger things).

Maybe it wouldn't be unreasonable to set a higher standard for political stuff? Or maybe have them begin on hub pages and only get their own article if they show enough staying power?

As far as I am concerned, I don't mind politics. To me, it's kind of a natural development, because the generation that first browsed the Internet for memes and lulz grew up and is therefore more concerned by politics than before.

I am more worried by the growing bias the community took – or least, seemed to take. I am pretty sure a good amount of regular users no longer bother to comment on most entries because their opinions would be systematically downvoted (I always think of Platus who's probably one of the few literate people around here when it comes to gender/sexuality), while brand new accounts which all appeared after the election and are exclusively used for shilling can thrive with little opposition.

For me the most blatant example of that bias is how conspiracy theories are handled over here. I personally don't support one until solid evidence comes to light, but the bias here sometimes reaches propaganda levels. See Russiagate entry: even actually neutral people advocating for waiting for the investigation results and taking a step back (because just like the US, Russia interfering abroad is no news) get negative feedback, while people (including a good amount of shills) outrightly dismissing it and/or insulting the other side get tons of upvotes. And some of these people were the first to jump to conclusions with Seth Richards' murder (which the popular theory pushed by Fox News was an actual fake news) or defend the ridiculous premise of freaking Pizzagate. Yep, I sound biased on the latter, but unlike the theory on Seth Richards' murder, which the premise is believable, I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone sane can find Pizzagate plausible to begin with.

People can claim being centrists or hating both sides all they want, the tendency to give more attention and credit to an event or theory weakening liberals (as a EU resident, I can never call these people "lefties") and being overly defensive when something weakens the right-wing is real. Of course, I am ranting and all, but how can we "fix" that ? For me, there is no miracle solution and it's an issue which the scope is well beyond KYM: I browse /v/ from time of time, which should be a neutral board in that regard, and I see a similar bias when a thread turns political (with or without /pol/ crossboarders). It will probably take a major event for the current political climate to change. Or maybe you should do something like a writer of South Park would imagine: call J.J. Abrams to reboot US politics.

Of course, I am ranting and all, but how can we “fix” that ?

Well, you mention people shilling with fresh accounts and such, could just ban 'em for such behaviour.

I think I might've found a couple of terms that sums it up nicely (and I think I might get downvotes for saying it):
Cultural Temper-Tantrum and Persecution Complex.

Personally, I think the site should cull the events pages that don't lead directly into a meme. Simply using other formats to reference the events, or having some popular tweet about an event, doesn't make it an infectious internet idea like a meme is. They die out quickly and are fueled entirely by the shock of the event rather than it being genuinely infectious.

Bla bla…………forums are no fun , without discussion(s)……..its more about people not being able too……sigh

This being a meme site

Mzzls

I don't think its gone to far, I think that the media has gone to far. KYM pretty much documents internet memes and news worthy events which includes polotics.

Since Trump has become Meme Incarnate and everyone and there grandmother make a big deal and a "news worthy event" of what ever he does.

KYM has to cover it which will obviosuly cause 3 political stances to appear. Left, Right, Uninterested.