Memes on Twitter are at least as important today as political cartoons of the 19th and 20th centuries. Two memes went viral this week, surrounding the events of protests in Los Angeles.
The first meme reflects how Lord of the Rings is deeply embedded in American culture. Two million views means that most people don’t need the joke explained. (Part of the Lord of the Rings story is that the wise and powerful elves abandon chaotic Middle Earth for the safety of the Grey Havens. Similarly, the Waymo cars quietly drove themselves to safety away from Los Angeles after several had been vandalized and burned.)
I worry that The Lord of the Rings has made us too optimistic. Americans rarely tolerate stories that do not have happy endings. Has that made it hard for us to understand global events, or impaired our ability to accurately predict how most battles will end?
The next viral meme about the Waymos has two tweets to track. The originator of the joke got half a million views. Someone who added AI-generated images to the original text got half a million views as well.
The four quadrants form is a common meme format. Starting in the upper left, perhaps the best way to explain this is that a rigid socialist might resent Waymo as a symbol of Big Tech. At the very least, a socialist who wields state control might want to nationalize Waymo if there are going to be autonomous cars.
“Protect the Waymos” voices support for the police and traditional property rules. This is a joke, keep in mind, so it’s not meant to make perfect sense. The Libertarian Right might be more likely to support individuals protecting themselves with their own weapons as opposed to relying on the police state.
Compare the meme world to the news. I feel like this might become quaint soon, so here’s what it looks like to use the Google News search function.
The Los Angeles Times reports
The autonomous ride-hailing service Waymo has suspended operations in downtown Los Angeles after several of its vehicles were set on fire during protests against immigration raids in the area.
At least five Waymo vehicles were destroyed over the weekend, the company said. Waymo removed its vehicles from downtown but continues to operate in other parts of Los Angeles.
The flaming Waymo image is all over the news and internet. For one thing, people are interested in it because it’s real. This was supposed to be the year of deepfakes, and yet it’s mostly real images and real gaffes that are still making the news.
At this moment in time, most Americans do not yet have Waymo in their cities. Oddly enough, losing an inventory of several cars might be well worth the publicity the company is receiving. Two million viewers of the video of the little driverless cars making an orderly exit from Los Angeles might come away thinking driverless cars are safe and sensible.
Here are more posts from my long-standing interest in cartoons and internet culture.
Kyla Scanlon also felt like the little cars on fire was worth a newsletter post. She wrote
We scroll past the burning car to see arguments about whether the burning was justified, then scroll past those to see memes about the arguments, then scroll past those to see counter-memes. The cycle feeds itself!
Economist Writing Every Day 