MemeTank
From dKosopedia
Categories: MemeTank | ThinkTank
MemeTank Instructions
How to Create a Meme
(By which we mean an entry in the MemeTank for a meme.)
First, decide if it's a new meme or an existing one.
- If you invented it, put it in the "development" section.
- If you heard it used in public, put it in the "catalog" section.
Second, format it correctly:
- Each meme needs to be given a short name to signify it.
- The link should lead to a description of the meme
- Each Meme should eventually have the sections in the MemeTank:Template.
In practice this means you can feel free to add any of these sections and fill them in for yourself if they are not present.
Since the meme can be an idea about anything, of course other sections are likely to be required to completely diagram the meme. For more see Memetank:Methodology.
What is a Meme?
- Definition for purposes of the MemeTank, see MemeTank:Meme.
- Definition for political purposes, see Meme.
- General definition from Wikipedia, see Wikipedia: Meme.
- SPIDER (Social Psychology of Information Diffusion -- Educational Resources) page, devoted to the study of how memes spread, see SPIDER.
Alternate Indices
The pages below organize the memes in different ways.
- Particularly Promising Memes
- Memes in use in mainstream media
- Dishonest Memes
- Particularly Damaging Memes
- Memes Of Historical Import
- Memes employed by Fox News
See also Code Words, Lies and Lying Liars
The Meme Development Project
Meme Development Project: Instructions
This section is for people who want to invent new memes and try to encourage professional journalists to start using them. Yes, I know that's a tall order, but you've got to think big to change the world.
Remember, real journalists have certain limits - there are certain things they just won't say, no matter what. Don't put a meme in here unless you really think there's a chance we might be able to get the New York Times to repeat it.
I'd also like to point out that even if we are successful, this project probably isn't going to be able to get memes into common usage all that quickly. Because of that, think long-term. Memes about Bush may not be helpful: by the time we get them out there, the election will likely be over. Instead, concentrate on memes that change the way people think about politics in general.
Meme Development Project: Memes
- Baby Tax
- Bribe-and-Waste Republicans
- Bumper Sticker Neocons
- Bush altered legislation then signed it into law
- Bush's prayer
- Chickendad
- Civic Trust
- Civic Value
- Conservatives: Every Man for Himself
- Corporate Feudalism
- Ethically Bankrupt
- Dems: Members of the Reality Based Community
- Edjumacation
- Empathy Deficit
- Freedom Tagging
- Government of the Powerful vs Government of the People
- Groupthink tank
- Hate-Based Domestic Agenda
- Hate-Based Foreign Policy
- NeoCon-Artists
- Neocon Media
- OReillyian
- post 11-7 world
- Republican Aristocracy
- Resignable Offense
- Rovian Nazgul
- Social Security Reform is Breach of Contract
- SS: Inventing a Crisis
- Tax Cut & Spend Republicans
- UBCs
- Ultraculture
- War on Peace
- From "War President" to "Struggling President"
- It is wrong to profit from the suffering of others
Classic
- Fairy-tale Conservatives
- Enron-Style
- Banana Republicans
- Flypapers
- Republicans are Cry Babies
- Second-Class Republicans
- Bush Campaign Lies
- Cheap-Labor Conservatives
- Cash-Advance Tax Cuts
- Economy is like an Automobile Engine
- The Millionaire Death Tax / The Dynasty Tax
- The Unearned-Income Tax
- Dolchstoss Republicans
- Stereotypes, Scapegoats, and Prejudice
- He didnt Lie - he Manipulated and Tricked
- Bushenkoism
- American world domination hurts most Americans
- Self-fulfilling prophesy - Bush doomed to repeat failures of his dad
- Paying for plastique with plastic
- Unholy Alliance
- Capitalist theocracy
- Re-enlightenment
- Failures of the Bush Administration
- Starve Al Qeada
- Chickens for Colonel Sanders
- Special Education Nation
New Terms & Catchphrases
The Meme Cataloguing Project
Liberal/Progressive Memes
- We've got 4 half-assed anti-republican memes. They've got 15 powerful anti-democrat memes. No wonder they've been winning for 30 years! We spend all our time making up anti-Bush memes. When Bush leaves office, there goes all our hard work, we're back to square one. Meanwhile, they're still building up the memes they created back in 1980. - Josh
- Josh, to be provocative here... you think the Republicans would put the "Republican's are Racist" meme in the "meme's that backfire" category? No, and they wouldn't throw away the Bush meme's either, they would apply them to the next available candidate. OTOH, I agree with you, and that's where there is real work to do here in the MemeTank. Their memes, if this page represents at all, are much more deeply ingrained (PS: when does a comment fit here vs on the talk page... I do think some personal comments fit because this is a Think Tank, and sometimes the think-ers need to speak as individuals...)-- Pyrrho
- Supreme Court nominations
- Harriet Miers nomination shows the GOP is exploiting cultural conservatives
- Would you buy a car from John Roberts?
- Liberal Value Systems:
- Liberal Stands on Specific Policies:
- Pro-active Liberal Meme re-framings
- Counter-attack memes
- Criticism of Current Republican Administration:
- Bush is Stubborn
- ie, unable to alter his plans due to circumstance.
- Bush is a Divider, not a Uniter
- Bush jeopardizes national security for political gain
- Bush is Stupid
- Bush is Out of Touch
- Cheney is The Real President
- Bush Is Phony
- Bush Is Unelected
- Bush Flip Flops
- Anybody but Bush, aka "ABB"
- The Bush presidency is a Miserable Failure
- Bush Has Created Backdoor Draft
- Bush Administration Smears Honest Critics
- Bush is not Credible
- Bush is insane
- Wrong war at the wrong time
- Bush is Incompetent
- Bush uses terrorism like McCarthy used communism
- Bush has declared war on science
- Bush administration is overly secretive
- Bush administration is morally bankrupt
- GOP is the new party of the welfare state
- Bush, the Schizophrenic President
- Bush is a dry drunk
- George Bush's war
- Bush as mediocre CEO
- From War President to Struggling President
- Bush is Stubborn
- Criticism of Republicans in General:
- Borrow and Spend Conservatives
- Borrow and Steal Republicans
- Investigate/Punish/Repudiate the Neocons
- Shift and Shaft
- Wealth vs. Work
- Reagan 3-Dollar Bill
- Good for Each, Bad for All (Tragedy of the Commons)
- Banana Republicans
- Faith-based Economics
- Taxpayer-financed 'tax-cuts'
- Callous Conservatives
- Corrupt Conservatives
- Useful Facts for Liberals:
- Left-Wing Google Bomb memes
- Listed at Google Bomb
- Pro-Kerry 2004 election memes
Right-Wing Memes
- Criticism of John Kerry:
- Criticism of John Edwards:
- Edwards lacks experience
- Edwards is phony
- Edwards is a friend to trial lawyers and that is bad
- Edwards overshadows Kerry
- Edwards was Kerry's 2nd choice
- John Kerry FUD:
- Criticism of Democrats:
- Liberals always blame America first
- Democrats Like Taxes
- Democrats are full of hatred
- Reverse Discrimination
- Liberals are Elitists and Intellectuals
- Excessive Regulation and Red Tape
- Peacenicks Backstab the troops
- Democrats are Perverts, Gays, and Philanderers
- Liberals are anti-marriage
- Democrats are soft on crime
- Democrats are weak on defense
- Clinton's fault
- Democrats support big government
- The DNC is a big mess for Boston
- Democrats support the welfare state
- Extreme Bush-hatred is a form of mental illness
- Democrat - without the 's'-
- Liberals killed millions by banning DDT
- Right-Wing Economic Attitudes:
- Republican Accomplishments
- Right-Wing Value Systems:
- Right-Wing Stands on Specific Policies:
- Pro-administration Stuff:
- Paranoid Stuff:
- Tutorials:
Memes that favor neither Liberals nor Conservatives:
- The Draft is Coming Back
- position:electronic voting is currently unreliable
- position:electronic voting can never be democratic
- Iraq War Depression
- Nader Is A Spoiler
- The Culture War
Liberal memes that backfire:
- Alienating Rhetoric/Overgeneralization
- Republicans are Racist
- Republicans are Fascists
- Republicans are War Mongers
- Republicans represent Big Corporations
- Republicans are Theocrats
- Red States are Welfare States
- People from the south / rural areas are stupid
- People of religious faith are sheep, dumb, followers, etc...
Meme Seed Ideas
(A scratchpad of ideas for productive memes)
Electioneering
- (Congressional candidate) "America needs a good House cleaning!"
Kerry
- "Integrity. Vision. Leadership. John Kerry for President." Troikas are tired. Besides Kerry doesn't have much of the "visions thing". Frankly, I would settle for just the Integrity :)
- Time for a leadership change
- Kerry had most Electablity as 2004 Candidate
- McCain For Kerry VP (obsolete?)
- Bringing REASON to the White House
- Kerry is the Antidope.
- Kerry is a stronger candidate (than Gore was, than Bush is.. he is a strong 'finisher'...)
- Kerry has conservative values
Bush
- Bush Quote Tracker- using a wikki like this we could track everything that Bush and Cheney say every day as an oppo research tool. We could then find and pick apart every contradiction, every lie, every half-truth, in one place for the media, bloggers, and Democratic campaigns to use.
- Bush's arrogance endangers America
- Bush is an elitist
- Bush Knew
- Bush policies shortsighted
- The Bush Administration plays the terror card to influence other policy areas.
- the Bush economy had squeezed the middle class - working harder/earning less, paying more for heath benefits, education, gas. family debt and bankruptcy is going up..
- Bush wants to be like Reagan.
- Bush puts politics ahead of policy, picks his ideology first and then twists facts to match, uses Enron Economics to hide the true costs of his policies
- It's been a wild ride. Thank God it's almost over. (Extend to Roller-coaster or Driving analogy w/ Bush as the drunk at the wheel.)
- Rushing toward Armageddon / Apocalypse Now
- 12 failures of the Bush Administration
- Bringing state-sanctioned murder to the masses
- Abuse of power is the rule
- lives in an alternate reality
- for him facts get in the way of decisions
Cheney
- Cheney is a liability
- Cheney is crude and disrespectful
- Cheney has a conflict of interest regarding the Iraq war
- Cheney: one heartbeat from the presidency, one heart beat from death
- Great Champion of Torture
- War is good for my business
The Left
- The Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
- Progressives and are Progressives to the left or right of Liberals?
- Liberals
- The Left
- DINOcrats
- Joe Democrat / Joe Liberal
- Two Left Feet
- Left Foot Forward
- Left Out
- Anything Left?
- Are you a righty or a lefty?
- Don't get left behind
The Right
- Pseudopatriotism, jingoism, as opposed to supporting your nation and what it stands for
- GOP is divided, true conservatives are turning on Bush
- Christians vote for republicans - why?
- Libertarians vote for republicans - why?
- The Republican elite
- Right makes might... Might makes right.
- Conservative media are unreliable (NY Post et al...)
- The culture wars are an invention of the Right to distract us from economic issues.
- Gonzales: the Architect of Abu Ghraib
- The Red-Wing (as opposed to Right-Wing); red vs. blue; negative connotations of communism; red is the color of blood
- On your own-ership society
- The RePalliburton Party
- Bribery-based initiatives
- crybaby conservatives
- live in a Tinkerbell reality (believe hard enough and it will become real)
- They call themselves conservative but act like regressives
- There is a difference between conservative policies and regressive policies
- A State religion for all
- Anti-fact policies
- Pro-union of church and state
The Center
- Swing Voters
- The Radical Center
- Moderate Evangelicals
- Independents
- Republicrats: the two major parties are the same
The Spectrum
- The political spectrum is a useless model, and there are alternatives.
- Political Compass
- Republicans are selfish, Democrats are neighborly
- The South Is Conservative, The Coasts Are Liberal
- Cheney is so far right on the spectrum he almost "wraps around"!
- not left nor right, but forward
- Green is not Left
Dissent
- Dissent during time of war is critical to the survival of democracy.
Economy and Taxes
- Feed the rich and tax the kids
- Next Generation Taxation
- Birth, food and work taxes
- Enron Economics (fudging budget numbers to hide true costs - tax cuts, war, etc.) also Enronomics and (as an adjective) Enronic
- Welfare Farmer - a farmer to collects government subsidies to not grow food; as opposed to "welfare mother".
- Republican's social security plan is a Pyramid Scheme.
- Corporate psychopaths
- Social Security: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
- Taxes are an investment
- Social Security is healthy and successful
- Don't let Bush "Fix" Social Security the way the Vet fixed your dog.
- Roll back the tax cuts on the obscenely rich.
Terror
- What Terrorists Want
- Terrorists Want Bush Re-Elected
- The "war on terrorism" is as mindless as the "war on drugs"
- Would you rather fight the terrorists in Iraq or New York? (False Dichotomy)
- Fight the terrorists in Washington D.C.
- Bush is a terrorist
- "Shock and awe" is terrorist
- Don't you wish the economy was growing as fast as Al Qaeda?
- Terrorism is a symptom of a disease.
Iraq
- Tenet is at fault for the whole WMD / Iraq fiasco
- Fix America first
- We've been neo-conned!
- "Sept. 11 changed everything" (except Bush's desire to invade Iraq).
- Unjustified pre-emptive war is terrorism.
- Repeal the War Tax too!
- Every Death Creates New Enemies
- Preventive, not pre-emptive
- Torturer-in-Chief
- No American Combat deaths in occupied Japan or Germany
- Iraq Debacle
- PNAC's meat grinder, The Neocon’s meat grinder or The Republican’s meat grinder
- US occupied Iraq
- An unjustified occupation is a war on the people.
Abortion
- Pro-Choice IS pro-life!
- Forced Pregnancy
- Preventing abortions is more important than outlawing them!
- Anti-Choice: Criminalizing the rights of women
Government
- position:big government is bad - why? Is government bad?
- position:government is corrupt and inefficient - or is it?
- If the military plans for the effects of global warming, why doesn't FEMA
Taxes
Media
- Media Incorporated or Corporate Media (something with the zing of "liberal media"... but reflecting reality) are interested in money, not truth.
- All media sources are biased.
- Balanced reporting at any cost spreads disinformation
- Repeated references to Bush as "Commander in Chief" inure us to the idea of dictatorship
- TV shows are the filler between commercials
- The "new" media or "neo-journalism" (Kos, blogs, etc.) have countered the abilities of the world's most notorious political stategist Karl Rove.
- Main Line Media (MLM); seems similar to the right-wing Main Stream Media, but carries with it connotations of addiction.
- Customers of the media are corporations
- enduser is the product
Foreign Policy
- The Bush Doctrine debacle: When foreign policy hits home.
- Our henchmen today, Our Public Enemy tomorrow
- Weapons in space - another treaty abandoned without discussion?
- We need to stop using Weapons of Mass Desperation against other countries.
- Military retargeting - a proposal to use the military as a research and development super-NASA to deal with the most important threats.
Religion
- Keep the Government Out of My Church!
- Why do you need the government to justify your religion?
Democratic/Liberal values
Labels we like
- Santorum: "Senator Memo"
Other
- Education policy = capital investment for information economy. Like Eisenhower's interstates
- Environmental regulation = Environmental stewardship
- Generational Politics (Bush ruining environment, budget for next generation)
- Zealots
- We're Running Out
- Environment:Shrinking America:As we warm the tide rises: who pays for beachfront property loss
- Environment:global warming setbacks: insurance companies refuse to cover builds in Florida
- Evironment:Britain has forecast rising waters impact: does the USA plan for high water
- Environment:There goes the Condo:maps of impact
2008
- Mike Huckabee is Jimmy Carter with an R next to his name.
- John McCain would be the oldest President ever.