This memes popped up on my InterWebs today: Europeans were in North America before the Asians. Now, to be clear, I find this interesting (if it is true), but I think this is a loser in the battle for the meme-o-sphere.
[Full size images are at the bottom.]
It’s not so much the content of the meme that matters to me here, but I want to express a thought about framing. This meme is a loser, because it has already lost the frame.
The meme is attempting to counter the narrative that the noble savages we call American Indians were in North America and then the evil white man came and conquered them and genocided them and stole their lands with shiny beads. In this typically Leftist narrative, weakness and savagery are good, and strength and civilization are bad. That is the frame.
However, the counter-argument this meme uses is “we were here first”, therefore it was actually the Asians who genocided the Europeans. The mistake is that it accepts the frame that weakness is good and strength is bad, and tries to portray Europeans as the weak (and therefore good) victims. The memeologist thought they were countering the Leftist narrative, but instead they played right into it. Needless to say, playing into the enemy’s frame is a losing strategem.
Instead, break out of the frame. State the obvious: Strength is good. Winning is good. The Darwinian struggle is real and it is never-ending. Let me put on my bowtie and fedora for a moment: Yes, now distinct peoples can trade with each other and everyone can benefit from this trade, but we don’t have to live together. And if we come into competition, then Europeans are going to win, and winning is good.
This little meme below breaks the frame and re-frames the discussion with a powerful message, one that is powerful because it is true: strength is good. Don’t fall into the Leftist frame. Don’t try to argue that Trump (or anyone else) is not a racist. Argue that strength is good. Argue that solidarity is good because it makes a group strong. Survival is good. Argue that the Darwinian struggle is not going to end. The Leftist argument (that being a weak victim is moral) is a lie. They are attempting to frame morality in such a way that Europeans owe them something. They are attempting to use this lie and this frame to get access to our resources at a discount — they are attempting to steal. We have no incentive to accept that weakness is good and every incentive to assert that strength is good, because we are strong and that is Nature’s way. Never try to frame us as weak and therefore deserving, the weak deserve nothing. Nature does not reward the weak. That’s the truth and the truth is enough.