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- [00:00]
A
Everyone's focusing on President Trump's performance on the economy. The dow is over 50,000 for immigration. The president has now fired her as Secretary of DHS or Foreign affairs or whatever. And there's a lot, there's a lot, obviously to be excited about, to talk about, but people have not paid sufficient attention to the White House's supreme use of memes in the second term. You gotta remember, a lot of the people there were kids, teenagers, just coming up during the meme wars of 2016. Now we're seeing that flower and those, those meme war vets are now in the halls of power. So the producers have compiled some of the greatest White House memes to be published to date. Take it away I'm on my way I'm on my way Home sweet home Tonight Tonight I'm on my I'm on my way Home sweet home These are real. This is actually from the administration, like DHS and the White House, Mr. Davies. Is that right?
- [01:15]
B
Yes, it is. I wish I could pull up in front of me. It was supposed to be in the video itself where you could see it, but yeah, that is.
- [01:21]
A
Let me pull it up. Very impressive. Very. You know, it's funny cause I'm for all my doom scrolling, I don't know, my algo is real niche stuff. It's basically like, you know, the Merovingian dynasty, like facts you didn't know and weird ukulele videos. So I actually haven't seen a lot of these. That's great offer. Only valid to illegal aliens. Cause that's one thing, that's a level of memory that I really like. The one level, the most obvious level would be, hey, you illegal aliens, you get out of here, we're coming for you, we're gonna get you. But it's a deeper level of meaning and irony to come and say, hey, great news, illegals, we'll fly you anywhere you want to go, as long as it's your country of origin. Like, get out, get on board right now. It's real exciting. Okay, next one. Here we go again. Ah, here we go again. This one's to be expected because the postmodern philosopher that everyone's talking about right now in the kind of right wing intellectual circles, even somewhat mainstream circles, is this guy, Jean Baudrillard. There are all sorts of reasons why he's the man of the hour and people like to cite him. Many people haven't even read his books. But he's an interesting writer if you can make it through Very confusing postmodern language. But anyway, one of the reasons is he wrote this book called I think it was the Iraq War didn't happen or the Gulf War didn't happen. That's one of his that I actually have not read. But the idea being that we now live in a hyperreality that is in many ways divorced from the underlying reality. So our experience of war now, be it in Venezuela or Iran, is really no different than the experience of a video game. Would that mean there's actually a pretty deep level of meaning in. In how the American right sees itself and sees the world? And I think mostly correctly. Okay, next one.
- [03:37]
B
This is from the official ex White House asmr. Illegal alien deportations flight.
- [03:41]
A
Okay, just the sound of chains. I was expecting. Like whispers? No, just chains. Wow. Well, much, much funnier than I was expecting. What are the sound of deportation like? Hola, Jose, you're going home. You know that. That would. That would be the basic level meme. But no, just chains banging on a metal staircase. Yo, but by the way, some people are going to say this is gratuitous. And they're going to say this is, you know, performative and it's red meat to the base or whatever. It serves a strategic purpose because a ton of these guys reenter, you deport them, and then under Biden, under Obama, they just re enter. They just come right back. I mean, some of these people have been deported like five times. So if you want to actually keep them out, you need to make the process of being deported a little less comfortable, let's say. And chaining people up and then videoing them being chained up and then posting that to hundreds of millions of people on the Internet in America alone is. That's one way to do it. Okay, next one. Go to hallow.comknowles K A W L E S We are deep in Lent, walking steadily toward Holy Week, the crawl, and the resurrection. This is not a season for the half hearted. Lent is a summons to conversion, to strip away what dulls the soul and return to God with sincerity. This time of year demands movement, prayer, fasting, and self gift. And our sponsor, Hallow helps you do that. Do not drift through Lent. Live it first. Prayer Hallow can help you build a daily habit that makes room for God's voice. They have meditations on the passion, scripture, reflections and sacred music. Real prayer that draws you out of noise and into encounter. Next, fasting. Yes, from food, but more often from what's poisoning your interior life. Gossip, constant scrolling, cynicism, complaint. Fasting is not punishment. It's clarity. It frees the heart and makes space for grace. Finally, give real charity always costs something. Offer patience when you'd rather be sharp. Mercy when you've been hurt. Love when it's undeserved. That's what it means to imitate Christ. I love Hallow. That app is taking over the world. Download Hallow today. Spend intentional time in prayer and meditate on his love for you. You get three months free@halloween.com knowles all
- [06:27]
B
right, this next one's from the official White House Instagram caption Justice, the American way with 64 million views.
- [06:38]
A
Wake up, daddy. Some welcome home, son. Strength and honor. Strength and honor. What will you do without freedom? Mavericks in doubt. You can't conceive of what I'm capable of. Finishing this fight. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back. I'm here to fight for truth and justice and the American way. I am the danger. Time to find out. Maximum effort. Here it comes
- [07:12]
B
now.
- [07:12]
A
End this flawless victory. Can I say something? Can I say something? This is Reagan esque. And it's not Reagan esque in the sense that Reagan was really polished and, well, you know, he's got. Because the 80s were more restrained than now. But this is Reagan esque in the sense that when Reagan came in, he made people, for the first time in almost a decade, feel good about being Americans, feel like America was a good place, stood for good things, that we should be strong, that it is good for us to demonstrate our strength. All of those things that Biden downplayed, that Obama more or less outright denied, Bush fumbled. You get that? You get that and you think, well, if America's big cultural export, sorry, our big export period is our popular culture and is Hollywood and are these narratives, then why aren't we using that for our own good? I am the danger. I remember this is 20 years ago now, maybe when Superman got rid of Truth, justice and the American way as his motto and it became Truth, justice, and that other stuff. Does he still stand for Truth, justice, all that stuff? Wait, what they were embarrassed of America was so just cringe. It was kind of peak American decline. And then we come out and we use it again. We say, yeah, this is who we are, man. Pretty scary, ain't we? This is what, a message to terrorists from the White House? TikTok, you want to see me do it again? You want to see me do it again? You want to see me do it again? Yeah. What makes it work, obviously, is spongebob. It's not enough to just post Videos of the bombs going off, that it'd be fine. That's what propaganda does in. And it would be refreshing because America has been so weak and loath to show our strength. But the spongebob paradoxically makes it much more menacing. Makes it much more menacing than just the bomb. It's like that scene in Casino, you know, great scene in Casino where Joe Pesci's talking to the banker and he goes, hey, I want my money. Where's my money? And the banker says, oh, well, you know, Ha, ha. Well, I want my money. Because what I'm gonna do is go down to the bank, and if you don't give me my money, I'm going to crack your skull in with a crowbar. And then in 20 years, when I get out of prison, you might be coming out of your coma. And you know what I'm gonna do? I'll crack your skull again. Cause I'm stupid. I don't care about prison. And it's a very menacing scene. It's menacing because it seems irrational and absurd. That's SpongeBob. SpongeBob is Joe Pesci. Donald Trump is Joe Pesci in Casino, okay? Here illegally. The Deportation Express. This holiday season. Believe you can go home. Okay? That's what makes it make sense. So it's all about, you know, going home again. Hey, where you going? Home. Oh, okay. Okay, good. You are going home. That raises it from the level of just mere provocation to an actual work of mimetic art. I like it. Yeah, it's funny. It's funny because it's in your face. It's a pretty easily recognizable cultural reference. You wouldn't get it if you're. I don't know, if you're like a boomer who only watches cable news or something. You wouldn't get it. But then you wouldn't be on these social platforms anyway. But if you're on the platforms, you get this Spotify thing, and I like that. It's personal. You know, what makes this work, what separates it from cringe to actually pretty effective, is that they're going after specific journalists that you guys are like, you, John, or whoever it was. You're the liar. It's good. It's edgy. Got edge. Next one. Yeah, the penguin. Penguin's great. The penguin stuff was great, especially because it triggered the libs. Actually, there aren't any penguins in the Arctic. Did you know the penguins are the Antarctic? You think? Yeah. Shut up, nerd. Yeah, you would say that. Nerd. Nerds. Guess what? We're gonna add more penguins to our memes. We're gonna give you a swirly. No, but they don't. They're not there. They're not. Aren't. There aren't actually penguins in Greenland. Did you know that? Yeah, we know. We know. We always do. We heard your feedback. You can't believe this is the real White House. Omg. I can't. Well, I like that they capitalize the G even in omg. You don't want to use the name of God in vain or, you know, even the initial. But they did lowercase M and capitalized G. I kind of appreciate that. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but in any case, okay. I can't believe the White House posted this. However, the Dems shutdown means most of our team is furloughed. So we have an important announcement. We're doubling down. That is great. During the shutdown, when they started posting major White House events, but it was with pictures of a thumb in front of the camera or kind of sideways and blurry says, sorry, our photographers furloughed. We don't. We just. All we got is our cell phones now. It's good. They get it, man. They get it. It's also because the, you know, the median age of the White House staff is like 14. You know, I mean, it's young, it's vibrant, energetic, good looking.
- [13:16]
B
All right, which one of the memes do you think was the most effective? Which one's your favorite?
- [13:21]
A
My favorite one of these, the most effective probably are the deportation ones. Really? All of the deportation ones because they check so many boxes. They do send a message to the illegal aliens. Don't forget, over a million illegal aliens self deported in the first year. Even as they were being processed, they just left because they gave up because they didn't think they were going to be able to stay. So send a message to them. Send a message to the American people. Don't forget, Trump won the popular vote running on that issue. And it was funny and it was light. And, you know, one way the Dems used the immigration issue, the deportation issue, even though they lose on the issue generally, they were able to try to turn it against Republicans by making the Republicans seem scary and, you know, like they were the Gestapo or something. So when you have these light kind of funny deportation memes, it undercuts even that. It was very effective. The ones of bombing the terrorists and the foreign enemies and all that kind of stuff, they were good. And the most effective one was spongebob. For all the reasons I previously said. Cause the absurdity is so menacing. But no, I give it to the deportation memes, really. I mean, the flight away, you know, get your vacation now. Or the nastiest one, the one that really resonated with me. Chains on a metal staircase. Ain't gonna be entering the country looking at that. Okay, that's it. All right. I liked them. I liked them. See you next time.
- [14:54]
C
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