'Incredible': The Atlantic explains 'how memes led to an insurrection' and nearly took down a nation

We’re used to grabbing the oven mitts before attempting to handle a hot take from The Atlantic, but this one might require putting on an entire flame retardant suit:

It's real. pic.twitter.com/n6dEzW6v6l

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 17, 2022

Oh yeah, it’s certainly real:

In January 2021, a meme war spilled onto the streets of Washington, D.C., Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, and Brian Friedberg write. A president who understood the power of memes was able to send thousands of people into battle against democracy itself. https://t.co/W9GqrII06H

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) September 17, 2022

The article reads like a background piece on how D-Day unfolded in real time if General Eisenhower communicated with the troops (led by a guy in a horned fur hat) via memes.

And it took three people to write that tripe.

— Schadenfreudelish (@aggierican) September 17, 2022

One person couldn’t possibly have come up with that all alone.

HEY KID WHO HAS THE DANKEST MEMES IN YOUR CLASS? pic.twitter.com/9ptue1rvCQ

— Matt’s Idea Shop (@MattsIdeaShop) September 17, 2022

The conclusion of The Atlantic’s article is that 2020 memes nearly “took down a nation”:

The 2020 election illustrated that social media could be turned against U.S. democracy when wielded by domestic political actors who understand how to use it to make their ideas go from the wires to the weeds. Trump was the first president to fully adopt meme wars as a campaign and governing strategy. He retweeted memes, amplified the voices of devoted meme warriors, adopted into his official campaign materials memes that had been workshopped on 4chan, and frequently behaved as a “general in the meme wars,” a title some of his once-most-devout supporters (including his son Donald Jr.) gave themselves. At the end of his long speech from the Ellipse on the morning of January 6, a speech filled with references to memes such as “America First” and “China virus,” Trump told the assembled crowd to march to the Capitol. “We fight,” he declared. “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” With that, Trump proved that memes can run real-life American politics, and mobilize large groups of people to action. And when those people are fed a steady stream of violence, aggression, and fear, the results can nearly take down a nation.