By David Futrelle
You may have noticed a strange explosion of highly surreal memes hitting your Twitter home page of late. Blame the Artificial Intelligence-powered meme generator that you can find here, which will happily generate as many weird and baffling memes as you could ever want.
Now, the meme generator is a fairly basic thing, in principle: it takes in hundreds (thousands?) of human-generated memes in a variety of formats before pooping out something it doesn’t understand, but that we humans might.
Given that the AI-meme-generator literally doesn’t know what it’s saying, most of the memes it puts out tend to be a bit puzzling:
And sometimes it doesn’t seem to understand the meme format at all:
But alongside the surreal memes, the AI-meme-generator somehow manages to spit out others that make perfect (or at least only slightly imperfect) sense. I’ve been fiddling around with it for awhile and have been surprised and intrigued by these memes, which seem very much like the memes an actual human might produce on their own.
Indeed, these memes make a lot more sense than many if not most of the Men’s Rights memes I’ve run across (and written about) over the years — despite the fact that the MRA memes were generated by actual human beings who, at least in theory, should know what they’re saying.
Let’s look at examples from both genres — contrasting some of my, er, favorite MRA memes with memes the AI-meme-generator made for me.
Let’s start with this authentic MRA meme:
Apparently the thought process behind this, er, hilarity is: “Women are stupid! And rape is funny! Sharks!”
This AI-generated meme makes a lot more sense:
I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a nice hot dog once in a while?
Here’s an MRA meme taking aim at women in the military:
Contrast that with this cheerful and wholesome AI-generated meme:
Again, the AI hits the nail on the head. Everyone loves to see people talking about their cool stuff.
Here’s a dark and bewildering MRA meme:
I suppose the message here is supposed to be “even if she says she’s not a feminist, she might secretly be one, and falsely accuse you of rape.” But I’m not sure anyone not steeped in MRA-talk could discern that.
Also, why is “radical/white” in ironic quotes?
By contrast, this next AI-generated meme, while admittedly rude and perhaps a bit sexist, is as clear as a (school) bell.
This MRA meme may leave you scratching at your head as you try to puzzle out its strange “logic.”
This AI meme, by contrast, makes so much sense it hurts.
In the world we live in today, who has the patience to wait until you get home to get sloshed?
So why are MRA memes so illogical and incomprehensible? Part of the problem is that reality is not on their side, and so many of their memes only make sense if you’re already living in the imaginary world of the Men’s Rights movement, where black is white and mean, bitchy women rule over all. I know enough about this world from the many years I’ve spent doing this blog that I can usually make some sort of sense of most of their memes, but I still struggle with some of them. It doesn’t help much that many MRAs are bitter bastards choking on their own aggrieved entitlement; their attempts at jokes are undercut by their meanness and their barely developed sense of humor.
The AI may not have a sense of humor, but it’s also unencumbered by all this baggage, so when it pops out with something that’s funny, it’s genuinely funny.
Congratulations, MRA; it’s official now: You’ve failed the Turing test.
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@Redsilkphoenix
Mithraism was a real religion, a major competitor for Christianity as the official religion of Imperial Rome. The Unconquered Sun was very popular with the legions, for pretty self-explanatory reasons. Christianity absorbed considerable ritual and theology from Mithraism, among other Mediterranean Mystery cults. A bit of poking reveals that Dr. King wrote some papers in seminary about this link. They were very well received by his Christian religious community at that time.
I’m surprised they didn’t try to claim Dr. King had once nailed 95 theses to a cathedral door in Wittenberg.
Pages of discussion about cool stuff like the possibility of interstellar travel and the troll pops in to go, “Elon Musk tweet, neener neener neener!” Like, dude, at least insert something about how realistic you think Musk’s aim of colonizing Mars is.
@ dali et al
I’ve seen very convincing arguments that one of the appeals of Christianity was it was seen as Mithraism but without the entrance fees or background checks.
Christianity was apparently better at outreach, though Mithraism presumably had its appeal to people who wanted real underground scene.
Pages of discussion about cool stuff like the possibility of interstellar travel and the troll pops in to go
If you really think the past few pages have been “cool” or interesting, frankly you need to expand your intellectual horizons a bit more. Check out the blog Slate Star Codex if you want a genuinely stimulating commentariat.
Anyway, I’ll be honest and say I was going for a little trollish humor earlier – in hindsight, it misfired. Live and learn.
@MansVoice
When has anything you’ve done here not misfired?
And here I thought BoysWhine had a 9-to-5 gig, and the fact that commenters here posted during “regular work hours” meant that we were all unemployed.
What’s the matter, didums get fired?
Dude, we’re not going to go read long-winded LessWrong garbage, we’ve already established that.
When has anything you’ve done here not misfired?
Not much, actually. In my estimation I’ve soundly defeated my various antagonists in this thread. I’m sure you all disagree, but as Alan said, the goal is not to convince one’s debate opponents – as you’ve all abundantly demonstrated, this community is not capable of good-faith discussion. The goal is to convince bystanders; by that measure, I’d say my time here has been a success.
@MansVoice
You don’t seem to have convinced anyone of much of anything.
Quick poll: if you were convinced, say you were and we’ll see who was.
@Naglfar
I’m sure he’ll pull some convenient excuse out of his ass about why no one will actually answer.
Unless he goes full sock. That might almost be funny….
Ah, Jo Walton’s song will never truly go out of date.
The lurkers support me in email
They all think I’m great don’t you know.
You posters just don’t understand me
But soon you will reap what you sow.
Lurkers, lurkers, lurkers support me, you’ll see, you’ll see
off in e-mail the lurkers support me, you’ll see.
Oh it’s true, and you know they support me.
There’s thousands of lurkers out there!
They all understand my intentions
you posters are not being fair!
Lurkers, lurkers, lurkers support me, you’ll see, you’ll see
off in e-mail the lurkers support me, you’ll see
The lurkers support me in email
“So why don’t they post?” you all cry
They’re scared of your hostile intentions
they’re not as courageous as I.
Lurkers, lurkers, lurkers support me, you’ll see, you’ll see
off in e-mail the lurkers support me, you’ll see
One day I’ll round up all my lurkers
we’ll have a newsgroup of our own
without all this flak from you morons
my lurkers will post round my throne.
Lurkers, lurkers, lurkers support me, you’ll see, you’ll see
off in e-mail the lurkers support me, you’ll see.
Re: Mithraism, I’ve always found this post a useful one: https://historyforatheists.com/2016/12/the-great-myths-2-christmas-mithras-and-paganism/
Also, in unrelated but great news: A Canadian court has just ruled that there’s a legal difference between sex with and without a condom, when it comes to consent. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sex-condom-consent-court-1.5572724
And even better, the 17 year old incel who murdered a woman at a massage parlor in Toronto in February has specifically been charged with terrorism: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/incel-terrorism-massage-parlour-1.5575689 @David, I don’t know if there’s a post in that…
@mansvoice
Of course you would think that. You’re a regular Socrates, to be sure. I challenge you to produce a bystander who was reading a feminist blog mocking blockheads like you, who was provoked by your superb rhetoric and reasoning to think, “Wow! Women actually are the source of all ills in the world!” and who wasn’t disposed in that direction already.
Ah, Jo Walton’s song will never truly go out of date.
Mmm. See, once again we have a “clever” rebuttal that falls on its face because it’s actually completely disconnected from what I said. I did not, in fact, claim “the lurkers support me in email.” I think most bystanders are intelligent and/or un-mindkilled enough to understand the distinction, so there’s need to pursue the matter further.
@ lumipuna
Heh; nice one!
There was a Mithraeum in London. I used to pop ‘in’ a lot whenever I walked past. It was in the open then. They’ve now though moved it back to its original location in a newly constructed museum.
https://www.londonmithraeum.com/temple-of-mithras/
@ Vicky P
Thanks for that. I must confess I only managed a few moments. I love the presenter; but I just can’t muster any enthusiasm for the subject matter.
I always like to hear Dance Macabre though!
A Man’s Whine,
You know what would really convince the lurkers of your majestic wisdom?
Provide a guide to finding a looksmatched partner. Anyone who is single but would like a romantic partner is probably going to be pretty anxious to find someone when the pandemic passes. These are crucial things that people need to know if they are to date in MRA approved ways! Don’t hold out on us!
Sooooo since you have nothing to contribute to the wide-ranging conversation, you just say that there’s a better one elsewhere. You try very hard to seem smart without actually putting in the effort of saying something smart.
Once upon a time, I was a precocious kid that was able to put on a front to seem smarter than I actually was. The thing is, the act doesn’t work when you get older. I think I may detect another former ‘gifted and talented’ kid here. It’s a heavy label to put on children, especially since most of us were just prematurely good at reading. It can lead to feelings of inadequacy that we try to hide with pseudo-intellectualism.
@MansVoice
Out of curiosity, what makes you think readers of a feminist blog are likely to trawl through ten pages of comments to learn about your ideas? Or that they’d be receptive in the first place?
@WWTH
He should make sure the guide includes advice for same gender couples and looksmatching as well.
MansVoice:
I’m going to disagree with your assessment, my dude.
I’m pretty sure that even the most casual observers know that songs are rarely 100% applicable and are clever enough to extract the theme/relatable bits.
In this case, the song’s overarching message is “Online, it’s easy to claim the ‘silent majority‘ agrees with you: no matter how unbelievable or unreasonable your stance.”
You aren’t supposed to believe the songwriter is actually getting emails of support. You also aren’t supposed to be able to disprove the claim.
However, the song encourages you to doubt the lyricist’s claims, with how they’re presented.
So… to me it seems pretty spot on.
I know I’m also subject to the inability to read lurker’s brains, but at least I’m giving them credit for being able to do basic critical reading?
Which you aren’t choosing to demonstrate as far as I can tell.
It’s one thing to name drop references without analysis to ‘prove’ how witty you are, and it’s entirely different to demonstrate actual cleverness by extracting and repackaging information in such a way that others can understand and appreciate your arguments, and maybe even interact with and expand upon them.
You’ve done the first a LOT, which (since you haven’t even tried the second as near as I can tell) kinda reads as posing as ‘cleverer than thou‘ and not actually being ‘cleverer than thou’.
I don’t think you’re an idiot. But, I also don’t think you are demonstrating peak intelligence and reason in this thread.
@thread: I keep saying I’m going to ignore the troll, but ahhhhhh! I’m not a damned math/writing specialist & academic coach anymore but I haven’t managed to break my bad habits.
**mutter-mutter pseudo-intellectualism grumble-grumble**
Edit: sorry if double post, for a 503 error so…
Wow, he’s so stupid, he thinks assertion is evidence?
Damn, he’s dumber than I thought…and I already knew he was a moron.
Maybe not a Basilisk-level moron, but still jaw-droppingly dumb….
Thanks, contrapangloss and Gaebolga. I was having supper with Mr. Parasol, so I haven’t been able to respond until now.
Gaebolga, I can’t tell if he’s never had to actually defend his ideas before, or if he’s just flailing because he can’t accept the idea that he’s not nearly as awesome as he thinks he is. *shrug* Whatevs.
@Victorious Parasol