Disclaimer: The views expressed below are the sole opinion of the student writer and do not reflect the views of the Southern DIGEST, Student Media or the Staff/Administration of Southern University & &M College.
When you see a meme making “light” of a situation or a person trying to cope with “dark humor” remember the term Memetic Warfare. Remember that the government WANTS you to make jokes and laugh about it to become desensitized to it. They want you to react with an “Ugh this is so old can we move on already” or an “This was in 2025 why are we still talking about it” when it comes to the absolute horrors that our government is doing. They want you to see it and move on.
When people were making the “Diddy parties” a joke, people failed to realize that this happened in real life. People were being raped, abused, drugged, and more and it’s minimized to a “freak off”. When people started saying free Palestine to hop on the trend so they wouldn’t get “cancelled” fail to realize that over 72,000 Palestinians in the Gaza strip have been killed in the genocide since October 7th. People make fun of the Epstein files despite the fact that they were abusing and trafficking children. They removed CHILDREN’S teeth on the island so they couldn’t bite. Imagine your son or your daughter being raped as a child. Imagine your son or daughter’s teeth being removed because they defended themselves. Babies were quite literally being dismembered and eaten and the taste of their intestines were compared to cream cheese. Yet people are cracking jokes about it?
I’m sorry point me to when jokes about rape, pedophillia, and cannibalism are funny? People joking about ICE saying “Don’t take my elote man!” and “I prefer my ice crushed” not realizing that families are being ripped apart from homes, schools, churches, etc. and it’s being done in a similar fashion as Nazi Germany in 1933. People are joking about these serious situations then want to wonder “Well why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?” Because nobody CARES. Everyone thinks that it’s a JOKE because “haha freak off” or “haha learning new tricks to try from the files”.
Making memes and jokes about these situations quite literally is a psychological tactic used to influence public opinion. YOUR opinion. Cracking jokes like this takes away your empathy when it comes to things as severe as this. Cassie for example was just labeled as “freaky” when she was constantly beaten, drugged, and raped. Cracking jokes about not losing your “lawnmower” when people are being snatched by ICE and forced into detention centers, forced onto planes, forced into countries where sometimes they’re not even from. You wonder WHY nobody is revolting, you wonder WHY nobody is “angry enough”. The people don’t care anymore! The people have lost their empathy, the people have lost their compassion so remember that next time you think it’s funny to laugh at a “freak off”.
