How Online Meme Culture Fails the Left

“As such, it is not simply the case that coherent political dialogue is difficult via the Internet; it is difficult, in large part, because of the Internet…”

In late 2019, Matt McManus and I co-wrote a piece at Merion West entitled “This Is How Bernie Wins.” The article acknowledged the struggle that Senator Bernie Sanders would face to win the Democratic Party’s nomination, particularly given the notion held by many voters that the Left stands for attacks on individual independence. We proposed a solution to the now decades-long problem caused by the falsely-held idea that the Right empowers working-class voters, while the Left aims to control them through a nanny state. We suggested that the Left must effectively counter the Right’s claim that the United States can be made great again through a focus on individual grit. As such, we emphasized the individual and group roles we can all play in fostering a society managed for the benefit of the many, not the few.

The challenge for the Left is to build a narrative equal to the heroic narrative of the Right, predicated on the idea of dispelling enemy hordes and individually embodying the fate of the nation or race. Against this, what could be more heroic and necessary than having an individual role in creating the first society that is truly open to races and nations, while giving everyone an opportunity to develop their talents through gainful employment? If need be, it is even possible to evoke a bogeyman in the form of the super rich or “the 1%,” as both Senator Sanders and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have done. Yet, however compelling the Left narrative of a class of underdogs rising up, deposing their overlords, and founding the fairest society known to humankind is, it perennially fails to win elections. This has, in the past, been correctly attributed to conservatives outspending the Left in media and advertising campaigning as corporate interests donate to protect the neoliberal order. To some extent, this remains true today.

With that said, in an age in which anyone can publish text images and videos to potentially large audiences via the Internet, the failure of the Left to ignite needs further analysis. The tools are there, but what if we do not know how to use them for anything other than stirring fleeting provocation? And what if the Internet is fundamentally skewed in favor of the Right? These questions need asking as the Left continues to appropriate conservative tactics, only to fail perennially. Perhaps it is time to stop sending Doge barking up the wrong tree.