Icanhazcheezburger as an activism tool.

[hso]

This is where the vetting process for us as a community comes in.

And that's why the thread is in AD so that we can look at it from a lot of different perspectives to refine it.

 

[NickEllis]

I like the Joker one. Its a good use of image and satire, and left his words from the move "why so serious...." echoing in my ears.

 

[rd5589]

Joker 2.0

The first two are to make you giggle. Not really activism related.

So much of comedy is about timing. A routine will fall flat on its face or knock 'em dead depending on the moment.

The second one is cleaned up version of the first.

 

[saint]

I'm gonna go with pic #2 not being appropriate for grammaw.

 

[xsquidgator]

I think it's a good idea, but handle with care.

I also like the idea of "vetting" these memes here before spreading them, to avoid "Unintended Consequences".

 

[Queltor]

There's a huge problem with the Brady and Rahm pictures: Lack of context. A joke that has to be explained generally isn't funny.

A random fat man being presented a bowl?
Three people, an award, and a reference to Iraq?

There's nothing funny about those unless you have intimate knowledge about where those picture came from, who the people are, AND what their political beliefs are.

 

[JImbothefiveth]

I think people know who Rahm is by now.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

Queltor nailed it.

JImbothefiveth, I be willing to wager if you took that picture out to the public and asked who this guys was, you'd have less than a 1% recognition rate.

 

[giddonah]

I have no idea what half of these are about. Can't recognize most of the people. If I'm having trouble with it, how is it going to go over with people who don't care about guns either way?

 

[MikePGS]

on a related note, i recently discovered the /k/ forum on fourchan. Very fun, but definitely NSFW

 

[rd5589]

Encyclopedia Dramatica is NSFW fun as well. The gun section is interesting.

 

[rd5589]

 

[JImbothefiveth]

I suggest changing the wording on the "consistency" one from "but gun violence is bad" to "but guns are bad".

After, wouldn't it be nice if we could stop senseless violence? Yes. Nice if we could get rid of guns? No.

 

[Sinixstar]

I agree with Kingpin that our struggle with gun prohibitionists is serious business, but humor has been, and always will be, an effective way to reach people and provoke thought. Satire has been used from as early as the Egyptian dynasites and the Greeks and Romans lauded great satirists. Our own Benjamin Franklin was a great one to use humor to skewer the enemies of America.

It is difficult to use though. It is a subtle weapon that has to be used with great sill because we're wanting people to be drawn to think AND laugh and not just snort at the humor. Care must be taken that the level of great satirists be the sought instead of Beavis and Butthead.

Good idea, keep at it.

I think one of the other hurdles that we have to look at - is the image that seems to exist of gun owners. The crazy ranting survivalist holed up in a shack somewhere waiting for "them" to come after him. Humor can be a great thing, and satire can be a great tool - provided you have some sort of connection with your audience, and more importantly - your audience has some connection with you on the issue you're satirizing.
Case in point - the above pictures. I doubt most people not involved in the gun issues (and even some who are) even know who Sarah Brady is, let alone what she looks like. We might get a chuckle out of that stuff here, but I doubt very many people would get it.
The picture of Blago. I doubt many people even picked up on the thing about him having an FOID card, let alone the irony considering IL gun laws - since I doubt many people are even AWARE of IL gun laws (outside of, us - and people in IL).

So - what does that get us with the uninformed, or those who simply have not taken a stand on the issue. It gets some confusing looks at best, probably not enough to even register though. For those "leaning" antis - if it's done in a snarky spirit - it re-enforces the childish irrational stereotype that's been fed by the hard-core antis.

I'm sure i'll catch some crap for saying this - but if we want to make progress, we have to do some of the "image building" that was done in the past. People standing up with rifles in their hands screaming "from my cold dead hands" pretty much painted us into a pretty dark corner with a lot of people. If we want to win those people back - we have to soften that image a bit.

Humor can work towards that softening, but it has to be done very carefully. Making fun of fat people, or how people look, or painting the police in an unprofessional light - isn't going to work.

 

[Sinixstar]

I think people know who Rahm is by now.

They might know the name, but I doubt many people could identify a picture.

 

[JImbothefiveth]

What about putting "Rhambo"'s(Don't flame me, even Obama called him that) head on a rambo poster?

 

[Sinixstar]

What about putting "Rhambo"'s(Don't flame me, even Obama called him that) head on a rambo poster?

I don't think enough people are going to get it. I think most people would just laugh it off as a play on his name, probably even think it's something painting him in a good light.

 

[MikePGS]

Some Revisions as suggested by a fellow THRer:

 

[rd5589]

 

[rd5589]

 

[rd5589]

I'm sure i'll catch some crap for saying this - but if we want to make progress, we have to do some of the "image building" that was done in the past. People standing up with rifles in their hands screaming "from my cold dead hands" pretty much painted us into a pretty dark corner with a lot of people. If we want to win those people back - we have to soften that image a bit.

Humor can work towards that softening, but it has to be done very carefully. Making fun of fat people, or how people look, or painting the police in an unprofessional light - isn't going to work.

The Chief Wiggum image always makes people laugh. You just have to find a really choice photo and run with it.

I like the antiwar sentiment posters since they erode the base of what got the Democrats elected in the last two cycles to begin with.

Read books such as 48 Laws of Power, BradP's Fashion Bible and books on pickup artist techniques for ideas on how we can improve our image.

 

[conw]

books on pickup artist techniques for ideas on how we can improve our image.

Right...

BTW, I don't think the purpose of one humorous poster is to completely persuade the viewer. The point is, as has been made here before, to get fence sitters thinking of our side as reasonable and accessible.

There are a certain percentage of people who, for whatever reason, we won't be able to convince without an excessive amount of effort (and even then, usually it just ends in an argument). We want strength in numbers by convincing people who are undecided or easily persuaded on firearms issues. A huge part of that is just infesting news blogs, comments pages, etc, with our side's point-of-views backed up with facts and offered as a reasonable point-of-view.

The humorous pictures are just another form of saturation, another way to get the dialogue going, and another way to get some fence sitters percolatin' on our ideas. The facts are on our side, we just need saturation and to get the undecided people whom the message hasn't reached.

 

[JImbothefiveth]

Since when has the U.S. "firebombed Iraqi children"?! Insulting these guys is fine, but don't start insulting our troops.

I think the new Rahm poster is retty good, though.

 

[rd5589]

Right...

Don't knock the material before you've read it.

There are very useful principles in those books that pertain to influence.

 

[conw]

What little I've read is very derivative, and only useful (if at all) for people who want to "develop" their "personality" to "succeed" with "women."

I use the quotation marks because develop is a questionable term for channeling and constraining your personality specifically to get a single type of result...personality isn't really what you have when you do so...success is subjective, as I for one am past the adolescent score-keeping of how many women I can talk to or impress or pick up...and women in general don't fall for the lame tricks presented, only some women in bars and social situations who are already open to that kind of thing.

All in all it's lame and nothing new, and if the strategies are useful for anything else at all it's likely because they were gleaned from other source material and applied to the subject of "pickup artistry."

This isn't an attack on you, and I don't plan on carrying on any more in this thread - although if you feel strongly that I am misinformed, feel free to PM me and quote relevant passages.