Unpoliced speech. It was a thing, a long time ago.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
There are these weird things on the internet made of pixels and sarcasm.
Maybe you have seen them before. To many they are known simply as “memes”.
What exactly is a meme? We have no idea. All we know is that when we share them on Twitter and Facebook, people Like them, a lot, which theoretically drives more traffic to our website. And we like that.
Actually, there are several reasons why we are rather fond of these strange meme things. The best among memes are highly irresponsible and cut right through the baloney of corporate groupthink, like a flaming chainsaw through Jell-O. Yes, we value anything that can do that.
You know who doesn't like that, though? Mark Zuckerberg's famous website, “Hundreds-of-millions-of-self-loathing-people-seeking-validation-from-strangers.com”. It's a rather long domain name, but somehow it really took off.
To make a not very long story even shorter, Facebook removed one of our harmless meme cartoons. We extracted this image from a soiled corner of the internet, because it made us laugh and we thought it might make a few of our readers laugh too —
Yes, a Zuckerberg minion or algorithm or whatever actually forced us to remove this image from our celebrated Facebook Page.
By the way, this meme is a derivative of an old classic, which is hands-down more outrageous than this Trump version.
Over the last two years, Russia Insider has been home to articles, videos and opinion pieces by people and organizations who span the entire political spectrum. We have opened our doors to straight-up Bolsheviks, White Russian monarchists, progressives, alt-righters, hippies, neoliberals, ultranationalists, etc. etc. etc.
As a result, we probably offend no less than 25 percent of our readership each and every day. Trust us, it's good for you.
There was a time — not so long ago — when people were actually capable of encountering ideas they didn't like without melting into a blob of self-righteous sadness.
The problem is that political discourse is quickly losing its sense of humor. People take themselves too seriously, and there is no room for playful dissent.
Laughter has always been the greatest threat to systems which try to control and police acceptable thought. This is because laughter indicates the presence or absence of truth.
The real irony is that this meme is now infinitely more potent. Do not post it to Facebook. It is Verboten.
P.S. — since we're on the topic of silly censorship, please allow us to reassure our readers that we do not moderate our comments section. We jut don't do it. We don't believe in it. If for some reason your comment does not appear properly, or something is missing, just wait a few minutes and try again. This means that if you are a boner pill salesman, our comments section is the perfect place to peddle your wares. The End.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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