The 5 Worst Conservative Memes Of The Week
After debunking a false meme posted by a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives earlier this week, I was asked why I didn’t do the same thing for conservative memes. To be honest with you, I thought that would be a one time deal – but since the Tea Party and conservatives offer up so much easy material, perhaps it’s time we start running a weekly column addressing the dumbest conservative memes circulating on social media.
To be fair, there’s some pretty dumb or false ones on the left as well, and we will address those as necessary. But it seems that when it comes to posting ridiculous, easily debunked rubbish, conservative memes have no competition.
Have you ever received those email forwards that tell you how people are putting HIV-loaded syringes on gas pump handles or that if you forward within 10 minutes, you’ll meet the person of your dreams? Yeah, that kind of rubbish that preys on the gullible or pulls on your heartstrings – and in this case, it’s in the form of memes.
Before we get into the worst conservative memes of the week, here’s quick little background on web memes for you. They’ve been around since the beginning of the internet in one form or another, and Smithsonian Magazine has compiled a list of top ten unforgettable web memes which includes “Chuck Norris Facts.” Anyone else remember those?
Web memes often serve as advertising, especially on Facebook, for pages which use them to draw followers which they hope to translate into customers or traffic to their respective websites. Out of all of these, the most famous is probably George Takei, although there are much larger pages which do the same thing. For the sake of transparency, we here at Forward Progressives create memes as well in order to advertise our site, as do many other sites.
Now, with that brief rundown out of the way, on to the dumbest conservative memes.
5. Number five comes to us from the Facebook page “The Revolution” which claims to be “The Best Conservative News Source” and runs stories from dcgazette.com and universalfreepress.com.
A "Missing" poster from the conservative Facebook page called "The Revolution."
A “Missing” poster from the conservative Facebook page called “The Revolution.”
The stupidity behind this meme is that it relies on the constant narrative that the President is always on vacation, as well as a shot at his wardrobe which is meant imply that he isn’t “a real man.” As Allen Clifton pointed out a few days ago, the conservative complaints about President Obama’s vacations (he’s on pace to take half the vacation days that George W. Bush did) or playing golf are utterly ridiculous. They’re even more ridiculous when the Republican-controlled Congress is on yet another break and has done little else other than to constantly attempt to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act – when they’re not holding another investigation or trying to sue the President.
On top of all that, the image wasn’t even created by “The Revolution,” they just swiped the advertising for another site and didn’t even bother to credit them. So much for “liberals are lazy,” huh?
4. Number four is from the Facebook page “Being Conservative.” In this image, they attempt to blame current gas prices on the President, a favorite disingenuous tactic that you’ll see in conservative media from blogs all the way to Fox News.
A gas price meme posted on the Facebook page "Being Conservative."
A gas price meme posted on the Facebook page “Being Conservative.”
Remember, if you’re a resident of Bull**** Mountain, anything that goes wrong is President Obama’s fault. Conversely, anything that goes right is not of his doing – up to and including killing Osama Bin Laden. The stupidity of this image rests with the fact that, other than launching airstrikes on oil-rich nations and unsettling the world oil market, the President really has no control over oil prices. Oil prices are set by global supply and demand, and higher gas prices are usually indicative of an economy that is on the upswing. When President Obama took office, gas prices were about half of what they are now – because the economy was in a downward spiral. Shortly before the bubble burst, I remember paying over $4 for a gallon of gas and I can’t recall any of the conservative pundits placing the blame on George W. Bush – can you?
But hey, if you think the page Being Conservative is actually about being a conservative and not a front for collecting your personal information via the petitions from groupstand.org that they constantly push, then believing that the President controls gas prices is right up your intellectual alley.
3. Any time I want to see something really, really stupid, I go to the Facebook page “The Tea Party.” No, it’s not the actual Tea Party page, it’s set up to use the name recognition of the Tea Party to promote the ridiculous website tpnn.com. At this site, you will see stuff that poses as news that even Fox producers would decline out of journalistic integrity. Yeah, it’s that bad.
Anti-immigration meme from the page "The Tea Party" on Facebook.
Anti-immigration meme from the page “The Tea Party” on Facebook.
This image promotes the idea that refugees and immigrants come here for free stuff, not because they’re seeking opportunity, or because the chance of dying on the journey here is better than the certain death that awaits them back home. If you’re gullible enough to believe that this Facebook page officially represents the Tea Party, then you’re probably also likely to believe that immigrants are all lazy moochers who want free handouts but somehow also want to steal our jobs.
In case you’re wondering, only one person on my friends list “likes” this page but they also believe if they like and share that picture of the little girl in a hospital bed, Facebook will donate $1.00 to her medical fund.
2. This gem comes from the Facebook page “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children” which uses a nickname for the United States Marine Corps to push their website for “The Best Non Politically Correct Conservative News” as well as sell merchandise, none of which has been approved by the actual Marine Corps. In fact, Facebook has terminated this page at least 2 or 3 times. But like a case of herpes, they just keep popping back up.
Crusader image from the page "Uncle Sam's Misguided Children" on Facebook.
Crusader image from the page “Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children” on Facebook.
Aside from the hilarious confusion the creator of this meme has with the proper use of the words “you’re” and “your,” this image is aimed solidly at the keyboard commandos who litter the comments section of Yahoo! with ALL CAPS rants about Obama and how he’s coming for their guns and freedoms. I doubt many of them have ever seen combat outside of a paintball range or Call of Duty, yet in their minds, the only thing standing between ISIS and Lady Liberty is their AR-15 with a Molon Labe sticker on it. Very likely, followers of this page still have “Benghazi” listed as their middle name on Facebook and actually subscribed to Sarah Palin’s horrendous TV channel. These folks are easy to spot online and in real life as they’re likely to have the skull and crossed knives as their profile picture or a bumper sticker on their truck at Open Carry Texas rallies.
1. The absolute dumbest conservative meme I’ve seen this week comes from the page “Conservative Lady” which represents the website GopTheDailyDose.com. This meme manages two dogwhistles in one image – the racist reference to Trayvon Martin as well as the Tea Party favorite rumor that Obama is secretly a Muslim.
Image from the page "Conservative Lady" on Facebook
Image from the page “Conservative Lady” on Facebook
Not only is this incredibly stupid, it is also unbelievably offensive. I’m pretty sure the family of James Foley would be horrified to know that their son’s death was used to make a disgusting political statement and advertise a website of any kind. While I have seen some pretty offensive memes come from liberal pages, I don’t think I’ve ever seen something as low as this. Racism, stupidity and the fact that it’s outright disgusting is what earns this the title of the worst conservative meme of the week.
The 5 Worst Conservative Memes Of The Week
