Trump Memes Have Gone from Helpful to Overwhelming
Welcome to Teen Vogue's Meme Week. We’ve cooked up stories all about internet culture, viral stars, memes, and more from the deepest corners of the internet. In this op-ed, entertainment features editor Gabe Bergado unpacks why memes about President Trump no longer serve the same form of political humor as they did in his early presidency.
When Donald Trump announced he was running for president, I, like many people, thought it was a running joke. How could a reality television personality, albeit an extremely rich one who built much of his financial fortune through generational wealth and the exploitation of disenfranchised people, actually take the highest office in the United States government? It sounded like cause for laughter, something made to poke fun at on the internet.
As a person who has grown up with the internet, I have long taken my personal thoughts and wisecracks about current events to the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and other online wormholes. So even when Trump would say something extremely abhorrent while campaigning, it felt like I was taking him to task in my own way by making fun of him or meme-ing the moment on the internet. But over the past couple of years, as headlines continue to worsen, as my anxiety about everything that’s wrong in the world increases, it has become increasingly difficult for me to fire back at Trump on Twitter or think of some clever meme to post.
I can hardly even stomach seeing Trump memes on the internet; whenever I catch the whiff of one, I’ll hurriedly scroll past.
My first full-time job was all about reporting on internet culture and I often wrote about Trump through the lens of the internet. In early 2016 before he was elected when he spent Cinco de Mayo eating a taco bowl and declared, “I love Hispanics,” I responded back with a classic Latinx meme, the screenshot of telenovela villain Soraya Montenegro with the caption “[cries in Spanish].” Later that year, I even had a tweet about how it felt at the beginning of 2016 vs. the end of the year was declared one of the “20 biggest memes of the Trump era so far”.
These moments felt like I was doing my part, helping with the resistance against Trump. That my form of politicism is through humor — comedy has always been a useful tool to call out the forces of evil. In addition, memes and jokes have been my way of processing all the incessant Trump headlines and chatter on the internet. Memes have been particularly helpful for a lot of people to open up about mental health and other struggles; it makes sense that they can also be used to take in unfortunate news such as national parks being in jeopardy thanks to budget cuts or the United States possibly leaving the Paris agreement.
“For most, humor can be a coping mechanism to deal with stress, anxiety, and sadness and memes provide an outlet for folks to express their frustration, sadness, and anger in a humorous way,” Dr. Rachel O’Neill and Talkspace therapist tells Teen Vogue. “In a sense, it’s also a way to express feelings in an indirect way. So, for example, instead of having a social media post where you share your feelings about gun control, you can simply share a meme, which conveys some of the same points but perhaps in a funny or satirical way. For some, this can be a more comfortable and less directive way of expressing their positions on important social issues.”
As someone who often felt nervous talking about politics when I was younger, memes have been a vehicle for me to navigate conversations about current events. We’ve seen the power of social media efforts and movements, everything from Egypt’s revolution in 2011 to more recently people coming forward with their own stories of sexual assault through #MeToo. On the flip side, there’s the risk of phenomenons such as echo chambers, where our online bubbles are insulating people with similar perspectives from those of opposing views, keeping different groups of thought separate instead of sparking actual change.
The rush of memes that come after any major news has two waves to it: One, an echo chamber of the same reaction GIFs and television screencaps to jest about whatever awful is happening. Second, the overwhelming effect of this echo chamber — no matter how funny or satirical a meme about Trump can be, it can feel suffocating to see a feed flooded with retorts and reactions crafted for the internet. Having everyone make the same tired joke about Trump’s appearance while migrant children are dying and trans people are continued to be killed merely for existing does not make me feel any better.
“Too much of anything can be bad for your mental health, especially if it’s negative. The reality is, there’s a lot of pretty stressful stuff out there- from fears about climate change to concerns about things like immigration rights,” Dr. O’Neill adds. “It can get overwhelming fast and it can also produce a sense of powerlessness. Often, when confronted by the sheer volume of negative memes out there, individuals can start to feel a sense of stress and dread. Instead of finding the memes funny, individuals start to feel overwhelmed by the negativity they are consuming.”
Memes against Trump once felt like I had some sort of power in this landscape. I felt like I was helping “stick it to the man” by making direct statements in internet lexicon. And while I do think there are function and purpose to these memes, I also know that there are a number of more palpable ways to do my part — like donating to progressive organizations, supporting a qualified candidate, or helping disenfranchised voters.
A meme might just be an entryway into political activism, but there’s always plenty more work to be done, offline.
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
