Memeing the God Emperor

Kek is a generous god. As Hillary Clinton collapsed on the street and the media was finally forced to cover what only Alt Right shitposters have been discussing for weeks, it was hard not to believe the ancient lord of chaos was smiling upon us. Some of us have always believed. And even as this is written, stern faced reporters on MSNBC are discussing an official statement from the Hillary Clinton campaign denouncing “Pepe,” because “that cartoon frog is more sinister than you may realize.” 

Even the heretics who doubt the power of meme magic must concede the ability of the Alt Right to set up confirmation bias and push counter-Narratives against the mainstream media. As we could see with the woeful responses to the Alt Right press conference last weekend, all reporters have to offer is snark and moral signaling. Whether it’s Protective Stupidity or because they are actually just stupid, leftists have lost the ability to engage with our ideas at the very moment when they can no longer ignore us. When the wrist flapping faux outrage of the effeminate neurotics and hysterical shrews of the lying press finally loses its effectiveness, the entire edifice will collapse.

What precisely will replace it is up for debate. But in today’s memes we can see tomorrow’s dreams of a world of hierarchy, excellence, and power. And it scares the hell out of the shitlibs.

An ostensible adult male, something named Nico Pitney, disgraces his ancestors by serving as a senior editor at The Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington is still reeling from what could be Trump’s most savage tweet in his long and glorious history, in which The Donald praised Huffington’s ex-husband for leaving the “unattractive inside and out” Arianna — for another man. As a result, The Huffington Post continues to publish its whiny “Editor’s Note” after every article mentioning Trump.

The existence of a man who could read such a publication, let alone work for it, lends credence to the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the negative effects of soy consumption and fluoride in the water supply. In any event, Pitney wrote an article moaning that it is “so very creepy” Trump’s followers refer to him as “God-Emperor.”

Part of this, of course, is ironic. Self-awareness is actually one of the best characteristics of the Alt Right. It keeps us from tearing each other apart. We have it because we don’t know what the Old America was actually like. We were raised in a country where Martin Luther King is the ultimate hero, A People’s History of the United States was a public school textbook, and the Founding Fathers were portrayed as savage racists. At the same time, we notice how egalitarianism functions as a political weapon. The most maudlin signaling about anti-racism and freedom for minorities is always a cover for elite power. And it’s the most privileged people in the world who constantly lecture us about our “privilege.”

This leads to a refreshing cynicism, a willingness to mock taboos, to laugh at demands to feel guilty. Their morality is simply a weapon, their showy panic about opinions they don’t like simply a tactic. We know it’s all bullshit. And the ability to laugh at it is allows us to handle the degeneracy and foolishness of Weimerica without simply going mad. Calling Trump “God-Emperor” is funny because it disturbs meatbags like Pitney, who derive their personality, identity and sense of values from whatever was the last thing they read on Upworthy.

But this cynicism is combined with an almost heartbreaking idealism. When Trump is memed into the Emperor of Mankind from 40K, or Alt Right Fan Fiction tweets absurd scenarios with pictures taken from old sci-fi books, or people create images featuring Trump and Putin celebrating the reconquest of Constantinople, it’s partially a joke. But it’s also a real yearning for something greater than what we have now, this dead world and this rotten System which enslaves us through our own decadence. Like runes, memes capture something which has a meaning beyond mere sounds or written words.

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