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Harris Campaign Deploys Coconut Messages, Because The 2024 US Electorate Is Pruned For Memetic Engineering And Wants More Of It

By
Michael Swanson
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What is termed as “memetic engineering” is now on full display in this political election, and it’s going to play a huge rule in shaping people’s minds this year, as a successful meme campaign overseas can demonstrate.

First, let’s talk about what is happening in the US.

We live in a polarized era where internet algorithms deliver up the content that is uniquely catered to their users, putting them in their own personal bubble. That means that when a person is a big fan of one political party or candidate they will see content negative when it comes to the side they do not like, but rarely do they see content created for that side’s supporters.

As a result, they end up not seeing what that other side is truly up to.

This past weekend, when Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the Presidential race he did it on Twitter, instead of going on TV, or issuing a press release to do it. The day after his disastrous debate, the first thing his campaign did was do a few events and put up videos to try to show that Biden was energetic, such as this one at a Waffle House.

@hotfreestyletv When you unexpectedly dap up Joe Biden at Waffle House 😂 #joebiden #president #wafflehouse ♬ original sound – Hot Freestyle

The day after Biden resigned from his campaign, the Harris camp told reporters that it was going to spend a lot of time creating meme’s that would boost her campaign. The Harris meme creators called themselves the “KHive” on Twitter.

As Axios reported:

“Internet users dug up old clips and created fancam edits of the vice president — including of her dancing and explaining how to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey — which quickly went viral.”

“One particularly viral clip, from 2023, featured Harris telling a story about her mother asking her, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” before adding: “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” Countless memes involving coconuts followed.”

The memes multiplied.

Here is an example of one of them:

Of course, the Trump team has it’s memes that it is creating too.

Meme’s are propaganda and are powerful propaganda.

As Elon Musk wrote:

The coconut meme looks silly when you watch, and I have no doubt that many Trump supporters will mock it and think they are winning by doing so, but there is something subtle behind it.

To understand what is really going on here, you have to turn to the February elections in Indonesia that voted into power General Pabowo Subianto, who ran death squads and concentration camps in East Timor in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He ran what he called “ninja gangs” in a military campaign he called “Operation Eradicate.” He was banned from entry into the United States for war crimes and became a hated figure in his country.

That is until now.

Using memes he refashioned himself as a “cuddly grandpa” and younger people liked that image and voted him into office.

In many of the meme videos he showed himself having fun, and dancing, creating disarming memes that people loved.

@vicenews A former military general with a bloody past, now nicknamed “cuddly grandpa” is poised to become Indonesia’s next leader on his third attempt at running for office—with the help of a huge social media rebrand. 72-year-old Prabowo Subianto—accused of kidnapping protestors in the 90s and once known for his “hot temper,” has amassed over 11 million followers on his social accounts. #indonesia #indonesia🇮🇩 #prabowosubianto #influencer ♬ original sound – VICE News

It wasn’t just young people who voted for him, because the General won in a landslide, with 58% of the vote, the biggest election landslide in the history of Indonesia.

At this moment of time the masses around the world just want someone that will comfort them and make them happy and the right memes can position anyone to be that person.

There are two take aways from this:

1)Trump supporters who simply think that Harris is a joke and think that by just mocking her laugh, her appearance, and so forth, because it was easy to do that with Biden, and worked, are probably underestimating her and the power of the Harris memes.

To test this proposition, the Trump social media warrior should watch the Harris coconut video twenty times and see what happens to them.

If they do it they may find that they start to feel that they actually start to like her for no good reason, because with the music, with the repetition, the meme programming does its work. She is dancing and smiling, doing it in this meme video too.

@politicalcoconut Our girl has moves! 🌴🇺🇸🥥#kamala #brat #kamalaharrisbrat #khive ♬ Look What You Made Me Do – Taylor Swift

Read the comments to the Tweet, look at the number of likes.

2)People think in memes now. It isn’t just that memes are powerful propaganda, but years of social media usage of the past ten years have engineered people’s brains to think in memes, talk in memes, and want more memes.

A result, is a deterioration in discourse to the point where rational thought is drowned out on the internet, and people are geared up to want a strong and powerful leader to obey. The giant online tech companies operate in countries that are dictatorships with no problem at all. Social media is not a danger to authoritarian states, but actually assists them in maintaining power by atomizing individuals and tearing apart civil society, by displacing both with the meme.

But in topsy turvy times, some elites see these as necessary changes to keep the world in order, as everyone deep down knows more chaos is to come. Memes are tools of social manipulation and control and people who spend hours on hours consuming them, which so many online do now, are pruned for more, because they are fun, even if they rot your brain out, just like drinking and drugs do. The problem is there are billions of people who don’t remember what it was like to not think in memes, so they can’t remember what it was like not to think in memetic fashion. They can’t tell you the difference. They have to free themselves by getting off the internet, going on something like a fast to stop consuming social media, which is the last thing the big tech companies, and those that own them, such as Elon Musk, want them to do.

-Mike

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