[aguasfrias]

Modern meme culture is just modern culture. Information is embedded in society memetically, at least in Dawkins' framework. That memes are simple, stupid jokes like "badger badger badger" is itself a meme.

This isn't nitpicking. The author lacking a strong definition of "meme" makes their blog post read like childish whining.

However, the author makes a good point if you think about it. To cut through all the meme history, it seems the author has a problem with "memes" being commoditized and leveraged by the powerful and interested, in order to sway public opinion. Worse, the average person can't help but get caught in the gears of the machine, because meme savvy can be an important factor for acceptance into certain social groups. This means minting memes becomes valuable.

Being able to turn Pepe the Frog into a divisive character has political value. Being able to inflict a notion of "coomer/doomer/bloomer" on people has political value.

It feels cheap compared to the more organic process of the past because it is. It is deliberately cheap so as to make it easy to analyze, process, and improve. The interests pushing the latest memes need them to be cheap because cheap is effective, much like making food sugary just makes it more addictive.

And unfortunately, unlike the food industry, memes will probably not be regulated, because there is no objective metric of the harm they cause when leveraged in a coordinated way. It would be like regulating gossip and hearsay.

Ultimately, what the author laments is that what used to be fun has been hijacked as a utility in a sociopolitical war for influence.