Another president said something like “it only takes one generation to lose our freedom”. Or something along those lines
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Reagan
Reagan Quotes and Speeches
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It has to be fought for and defended by each generation.”
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Only cuz Im quick on the google. But it seemed worth looking up.
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Ha. That was quick!
I thought it was Reagan, but was not positive
This is a great point and I think follows what @dazercat is saying about how people fall out over politics.
In the UK it seems to happen particularly when people become real fans (or opponents) of a candidate - Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn stand out to me as recent examples. Interestingly, neither of them were in power (a good trick by those who were, look over there and don’t focus on what we’re doing?), but the arguments around them became so intense. You were either with them or against them, some people still hang onto that even though they have both fallen out of relevance. It’s created massive factions inside political parties as much as outside of them.
I guess the thing is that memes, like most political information that we seek out, only serves our confirmation bias. I have found being aware of that is helpful. Like you say, they will only ever be a caricature or one side of the story and a massive oversimplification of the complex realities of policy making, process and effects. I can see why they are appealing on that front!
When the conversation becomes focused on the individual rather than the policy, it becomes personal. That can be really toxic and ultimately alienate people from each other, which can in turn be a distraction from doing the real work that needs to happen.
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The political meme thread has been a great release for me. I’m firing them off left and right. No pun intended. I actually use to be right. I turned left November 2016 because of you know who? I’m tired of the hate. I’m tired of my hate towards other people that support you know who? I feel whoever goes to the political meme page cannot be offended. Especially me. And that’s getting just a little bit easier every day. If I don’t want to be offended I don’t go there. And if other people don’t want to be offended by what I post they shouldn’t be there either. I’m finding it really hard to explain but it’s been a real emotional release for me to post my side and also most importantly not hate what the other person is posting against my side. I might sound like a lunatic here but somehow I think it is opening my mind.
I’m not going to be able to fix or control anything except my own self. And I much appreciate insight from everyone on this thread.
Time to turn in over here in Arizona.
Have a happy sober day or night wherever you are.
And learn to accept the things we cannot change.
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Interesting how from the outset the thread became 99% about USA politics. I could post some Dutch ones but it is no use. They are in Dutch for one and most of my Dutch mates here are gone for now. It’s fine with me, I find America and American politics fascinating if somewhat (or a lot recently) scary.
Political memes come in many forms. The overwhelming majority is political propaganda. As has been said before. No subtlety. Innuendo, gossip and outright lies under the guise of humour which to my eye isn’t humorous at all. And IMO one party is more guilty than the other one. The same false messages repeated again and again with only the slightest of variations. Repeated so much that people start to believe them because they have seen it so much.
There’s always been political propaganda but there also always has been political comment in the form of cartoons. There’s a big difference. Politically opinionated cartoons are open for debate, smart political cartoons will get you thinking while making you smile. Propaganda wants to make you believe and follow. Political cartoons are democratic while propaganda is the opposite, propaganda is the tool of totalitarianism. With the demise of the newspaper and the advent of social media the two seem to have integrated into each other, in the form of memes, with propaganda mostly winning.
Democracy has deep flaws and nowhere these flaws are deeper and more apparent than they are in the USA. I understand how people there feel like there is no choice to make. I think there is though. There is some hope. You can think about AOC what you like, but she did break through barriers and gained support based on her ideas. That’s democracy. That she did make it to congress is a sign that there are still possibilities for change in the American system, however under the control of big business the whole system and both parties are.
I can also see how many people feel like the politicians are only there for their own interests 100%, and don’t care about the people they were elected by. I don’t agree. There is a lot of self-interest and there are a lot of egotistic bastards and there is a political elite yes. But go and live under a real dictatorship and you’ll see soon enough. In any democracy there are still some politicians out there who are trying to make society a better place based on their beliefs.
Anyway, I’d like to see some thought and some humour and some opinion in a political meme. It does not make me happy or amused to see so much outright propaganda in ‘m. Still it’s interesting politically and sociologically and I’ll follow it.
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Politics and all the conspiracy theories behind politics will give a sense of hopelessness if your not careful.
Hopelessness can easily feed my inner alcoholic an excuse to drink. I got a little obsessed with it before I relapsed a long time ago. It was a factor in my decision to start drinking again.
Life is hard and politics are beyond our control. When the economy turns sour and it makes life even harder, thats when it gets really hard.
Covid has affected everyone. And the conspiracy theories are rampant. Im trying not to go down that rabbit hole.
Its a daily struggle.
All I know is that drinking did not make any of the insanity go away. I make myself find some beauty in the world to distract myself. There is beauty everywhere if I look for it.
Even in my least favorite place on earth that I’ve spent the last few months in.
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Boy would I love to see your comment become a reality…
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I can’t wait to start my political career then y’all can make me in to a meme
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Sweden have a little more complex system, where you can vote for different parties and they all need to get at least 4% of the votes to be allowed getting into the parliament . Usually the parties build alliances or blocks there’s a red block which are the socialist or communist parties and we’ve got the blue block who are the opposites of the communists/socialists.
The red usually wins, but sometimes it happens that they can’t rule without the other parties in the alliance. And they’re forced to hold the alliance because they need the majority. Sometimes however it’s so bad that they need to make an agreement with the other block, like agree about a budget or something like that.
The partie with the most votes gets to choose the primeminister, once again most often he will be from the socialists. We elect our leaders every 4th year.
To elect mayor’s we do just the same way. So the elections for the country and the cities works the same way. If you want a special person to be elected for mayor you can write his or hers name on the vote paper or if they are listed among the candidates of option you just mark their name on the paper.
Every decision the parliament makes is decided by votes in the parliament. So new decisions and things like budgets can be voted up and okey or down. And all the parties can come with their own ideas that are up to votes.
Sometimes like last time it happens that the ruling parties still doesn’t get enough majority and there’s a risk that tge primeminister won’t be getting an Okey from the other parties in the Gouvernment to get on his post. That happend last time, and before they all could agree we where without a primeminister or a Gouvernment for about 4 months before they got into an agreement. They have about three times to get a candidate for the post or there will be a new election.
And no matter if they’ve got a huge majority or not, the winning partie or the primeminister will never get absolute power, he always have to cooperate with all the other parties in the parliament. He can changed things like budgets or the school system if he get that approved by the other ones, but he can’t change or fundamental rights. To so that it takes 2 different elections and it have to be 4 years between the elections and there’s no guarantee the primeminister or the partie will keep their post after that. Also the change of rights will have to be approved by the people in the country too.
But most of the time we just go to vote and let them have their own parliamental daycare in Stockholm. And care more about what kind of politics our mayor is using. They don’t have the same amount of power but their decisions are closer to us. Most of the time all of the Gouvernments ideas are based of peoples lifestyle in the big cities an no one cares or have the slightest clue about life out on the countryside where a lot of people actually lives.
They want us to use public transportations so therefore there’s a high tax on gasoline, to save the climate. Well if you live like we do, without any public transportations even going to your town you don’t have a choice but using your car. Can’t ride a bike either because no one cares about rebuilding the road to give us a bike lane.
They want us to eat less meat because the meat production is bad for the climate and a lot of meat are transported long distances. And all the meateaters get shit from a lot of directions schools are serving vegetarian food. How can it be better for the climate to eat vegetables from all over Europe than having the deer or moose or wildboar you shot by yourself? And how is it better for our kids to eat that when our village have their own meat produce and vegetables gardens, but the school aren’t allowed to make a deal with them because of rules and regulations?
They want to save money and centralize a lot of services to the bigger cities? How is it better for the climate if we have to ride 10 miles onw way ride to the closest doctor and hospital, or police station or just about any service that you need?
Our system might work pretty good but our politicians really don’t pay attention to their people.
The king have no political power here, he is just a nice accessory for the country or something like that.
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Got my vote. What do we have to lose? 
Famous last words, friend.
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God, Family, Fishing and Guns are my "safe space"
Is that my “englishd for mod” campaign poster?
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Nice! 
I miss just the good old political cartoon too. I always read them when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. I probably didn’t understand most of them but really enjoyed them.
Just did a quick google search and thought I’d share this one. I was shocked to see how graphic some of them were in the 30s and 40s. But wow!! I might be check those out for fun.
Rendezvous” was published in September 1939 as a way of satirizing the Nazi-Soviet Pact, something the West saw as a marriage of convenience that would lead to ruin. The cartoon depicts the two leaders meeting at a crossroads above the body of a fallen soldier. The greetings, “The scum of the Earth, I believe” by Hitler and Stalin’s “The bloody assassin of the workers I presume” shows exactly what Low thought about each.
Ahh the good old days.
Love the civil conversation in this thread.
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Sorry just one more. I couldn’t resist. Maybe we could start a fun old time political cartoon page. Emphasis on FUN.
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I was thinking the same, @Dazercat Eric 
David Low is legendary. Over here I always was a fan of Opland, who started out imitating Low directly after WWII but developed his own unique style. The most renowned image he made was this one that became the logo for the anti-nuclear arms movement world wide, originally made for the demo on 29 October 1983 against the placement of nuclear armed cruise missiles in the Netherlands. Which was the biggest demonstration here ever, with over half a million people attending.
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