Please don’t despair! Have faith in humanity. The meme craze is simply a new form of expression.

Most people aren’t looking for discussion. They want validation. They want to hear how they aren’t wrong in feeling/believing the way they do—and that’s always been the case. Memes and social media in general easily provide validation and on a huge scale. And it’s entertainment as well, diversion, so win-win.

The difference now is not in form (just finished reading your Aristotle piece, btw, great stuff! [validation, haha!]), nor even in scale, but in visibility.

Social media has brought long-hidden foibles out into the open. We don’t necessarily know who exactly is laughing at the racist trope, for example, but we can know, by the disturbingly high number of them out there, that it’s a lot.

Win-win as well, because now we know it’s out there. And knowing what you’re up against is half the battle.