"Most of us will be fortunate never to witness a law-enforcement murder firsthand; only the Internet really makes these killings real or proximal. As such, it's hard not to respond from the same context-running to memes, Internet callbacks, gags that pass into conventional wisdom, like dril bits. This all feels desperately immature for the moment, but we might as well use the same tools as those responsible, atop a government rightly pegged as a memeocracy."
"After Good's killing, the Trump administration came out swinging with them. The Department of Homeland Security's current RICO-style deployment in Minnesota is itself delivered as incipient meme, orchestrated by the ultra-media conscious leader of the raids, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino. It was duly marshaled in response to a memed understanding of a fraud scheme and a daycare-fraud meme applied to people depicted in the dull, deathless memes of racism."
Government authorities repeatedly invoke upside-down alibis of state to manufacture claims of imminent threat and justify killings. Multiple law-enforcement killings are informally titled like episodic memes, including the murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Good's car contained stuffed animals and her killer hid his face while officials and leaders attempted to recast her as a terrorist. Internet circulation makes these killings feel proximal and produces meme-driven responses. The Department of Homeland Security deployed a RICO-style operation in Minnesota framed as an incipient meme, orchestrated by Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, tied to memed fraud and daycare-fraud narratives racializing targeted people.
Read at The Nation
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]