Orwellian Bellyfeel & Trendy Causes
Early in the morning of March 14, famed technologist Elon Musk made waves on Twitter by posting his Ukrainian-themed “I support the current thing” meme. As controversial memes are wont to do, off it happily galloped into the land of virality. Memes are fascinating vessels of comic content but what makes them especially special is that they are also containers of truth.
Do you have something politically incorrect to say? Stuff it into a meme and the initial humor of these charming cut-and-paste endeavors proves sufficient to temper the bitter reality coasting underneath. Elon’s provocative little art project brazenly said the unsaid of the current moment: The conflict in Ukraine had (in part) become contagiously co-opted by the masses as a virtue-signaling device.
This observation was inseparable from the following one: The puppet-masters of government and media had powerfully propelled “the current thing” into the limelight, to the point of drowning out alternative topics.
Whatever the mystery of Elon’s nighttime Twitter-posting whims, his satirical statement nevertheless hit a mark. For those that applauded it, it provided the essential relief that comes from validating an unspoken sentiment. It also constituted a comic cleansing of the swarm of sanctimonious attitudes that had come to dominate the airwaves regarding the Eastern…
