Re: <nettime> Can the Left Meme?

["t byfield" <tbyfield@panix.com>]

Lots of bad bits too. No amount of theory can paper over basic flaws in 
analysis.

One of the more useful observations I've seen lately (can't remember the 
source, alas) is that in the current US political context rightists see 
violence as a form of speech whereas leftists see speech as a form of 
violence. True or accurate or not, this observation has the virtue of 
highlighting the relationship(s) between speech and violence.

When it comes to recently reinvigorated right-wing revanchists, their 
acceptance and even embrace of violence transforms the meaning of their 
words and images. Meaning follows a sadistic logic, in which words 
explain action and action lends force to words. But that content is 
arbitrary: there's nothing intrinsically sinister or violent about Pepe 
the Frog or any other right-wing -eme, visual or verbal. On the 
contrary, the right's approach is precisely to assign esoteric and even 
occult meanings to phrases, punctuation ("((()))"), images, rhetorical 
forms, gestures, anything. To the extent that "memeing" means anything, 
most of its meaning boils down to that process.

Leftoids can "counter-mirror" (IOW, parrot or even ape) rightist 
techniques as much as they want, but it won't work very well because the 
left has a fundamentally different view of the relationship between 
speech and violence. The mainstream left, and even most of the radical 
left at this point, has completely forsworn violence as a legitimate 
political strategy. That was partly deliberate, a victory of important 
moral strains in leftist and progressive thought; it was also partly 
unwitting and/or circumstantial, the result of ferocious persecution and 
subversion by rightist and state elements. But, regardless the origin, 
the insistence that speech and violence are categorically different 
rather than a continuum has severely limited what the l3efts's words and 
images can mean. Put simply, the left doesn't inspire fear.

This is just a historical observation. I am CERTAINLY NOT suggesting 
that the left should rethink its rejection of violence. Precisely the 
opposite: I think that good-faith, communitarian rightists (there are 
many) need to find ways to restrain and/or exclude those who would 
pursue similar political outcomes with force rather than persuasion.

But the question here shouldn't be "can the left meme," it should be 
"can the left speak and act with violent abandon?" At the moment, the 
answer is no. That's one reason — just one — that I'm a leftist.

Cheers,
T

On 11 Jun 2017, at 18:20, Gabriella "Biella" Coleman wrote:

> https://www.textezurkunst.de/106/notes-toward-memes-production/
>
> Lots of good bits in here covering the nitty gritty mechanics of the
> alt-right and their stellar command of media manipulation in light of
> theories of art and cultural production. Worth a read.

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