Violent Crime Rates in UK vs US

[*Nately120*]

(07-02-2015, 01:02 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Proven how?  Because I was wondering about needing to debunk a meme?

Depends on your preferred definition of "meme"



noun: meme; plural noun: memes

1. an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.
   • a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
     

If the humorous aspect of it is key, then positing misinformation that makes gun control look like a government plan to turn a country into Mad Max (beyond Thunderdome, or otherwise) is just a blatant spread of misinformation that people (unfortunately) use to shape world views and (possibly) act upon. I think the world is crap, but I'm also cynical enough to believe that at least one person saw this meme, or one that is like it and went out and bought an assault rifle, or something. Not saying said person will go postal, but people believe stuff. Oh, how they believe stuff (they want to believe). Either way, it stimulates the gun economy, I guess.

I personally think memes are better when they aren't to be taken seriously, and this one looks as though it aims to be taken at face-value...and that face-value hain't so legit.  Then again, it could qualify as a meme in the sense that it's just meant to be passed along willy-nilly and any misrepresentation of fact by the right-wing gets retroactively labeled as "satire" anyways.

Zing!