this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Memes

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A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.

An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.


Laittakaa meemejä tänne.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago (2 children)

George Carlin agrees.

I've begun worshipping the sun for a number of reasons. First of all, unlike some other gods I could mention, I can see the sun. It's there for me every day. And the things it brings me are quite apparent all the time: heat, light, food, and a lovely day. There's no mystery, no one asks for money, I don't have to dress up, and there's no boring pageantry. And interestingly enough, I have found that the prayers I offer to the sun and the prayers I formerly offered to 'God' are all answered at about the same 50% rate.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sometimes I wonder if there was a George Carlin based religion where he was the profit of secularism or something if he would hate it or would get a kick out of it. I know it's the former but he was also pretty twisted in his last days.

[–] shrugal@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

I feel like prayers being answered at a 50/50 rate could be exploited.

[–] kugel7c@feddit.de 87 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Honestly worshipping the sun the river the mountain and the tree makes so much more sense than the abrahamic religions.

Like why shouldn't the spirit of cats be happy when I feed some cats. Why should the god of the mountain not punish me for littering. It simply makes more sense for your spiritual thoughts or emotions to be grounded in specific phenomenon.

[–] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nah, now you're pouring unnecessary godhood onto inanimate objects. They have no agency of their own. You can still worship them for all the good things they bring you in life, but please leave the personifications at the door.

The way I see it, we're all part of the same thing, which is the universe. And since we're included, I see no issue in the personification of the universe.

[–] kugel7c@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The way I see it, we’re all part of the same thing, which is the universe. And since we’re included, I see no issue in the personification of the universe.

I actually agree, but nonetheless personifying, and relating emotionally in this way to specifics, is useful because doing the work of actually relating all the cause and effect happening in between everything and a specific thing is generally an impossible task, so a shortcut to emotionally understand some specific as it's categories personification gets you a faster and maybe more detailed conclusion. It's in many ways just a mental shortcut enshrined in culture.

Same with a lot of the abrahamic stories if you read them as you would read Aesop's Fables there is actually a lot of good philosophical or otherwise human insight wrapped up in there.

In many ways it doesn't matter if there is flooding because we angered the sea, or there's flooding because there's a tropical storm and high tide, as long as we realize early enough that there exists a flood and we should seek high ground, warn our peers....

In this same way it mostly doesn't matter if everything is one and specifics are just phenomena of that one thing, like your universe, or what I'd probably just call nature, and others might call god, or if everything is a thing unto itself in constant relation to any other thing. If we draw the right conclusion.

So If you don't litter because the sign at the entrance of the trail told you so, or you believe it to be disrespectful to the mountain, or it is your duty towards nature to not pollute it, nobody cares and/or should care, but crucially any of those ways to think give you a good reason to do the better and harder thing, which is the reason all these ways of thinking exist.

A shortcut or a model of thought devoid of context is neither good nor bad, but in context I see the personified one true god causing much more harm recently. Not that the personified mountain can't be a harmful idea, it's just that in recent history it mostly hasn't been used that way.

If worshiping the Nekogami makes me happy and good to cats while not impeding me otherwise, why shouldn't I.

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[–] SchizoDenji@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

That's probably how those "gods" came into being in folklore. In order for people to be kinder and more considerate, supposed religious scholars used the fear of God as a tool to be better.

Which is based, but down the line bad faith actors use this for personal gain.

[–] p1mrx@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Like why shouldn’t the spirit of cats be happy when I feed some cats.

I think this is literally true, if you assume that the spirit of cats is inside the cats, rather than some mystical universal phenomenon.

[–] taanegl@beehaw.org 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We used to worship the sun in Europe too. But Christians decided they wanted to test that resolve, when they were helping pagans simulate the conditions of the sun by setting them on fire.

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Technically you still do, Jesus basically just consumed Sol Invictus and his cult practices to be palatable to the Roman public.

Same Birthday, same halo iconography, same vision to Constantine at the Milvian Bridge. No seriously, that was originally Sol Invictus before Constantine fully embraced Christianity. The Chai Rho was a symbol of the general concept of righteousness at the time and was used by Constantine because it was a symbol all his multi-faith forces could accept as being a divine message without rubbing them the wrong way for being too partial to one religion or the other.

[–] Cannacheques@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

paganism works well with monotheism if you imagine that all could be a potential avatar of or personification of an overarching identity or deity which has multiple sub personalities due to omnipresence across multiple universes or timelines

[–] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So basically how Hinduism does it, they even have their own big trinity!

Also the bit where saint worship is basically just polytheism through a veil of monotheism friendly innuendo.

[–] Cannacheques@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah similar to Sikh. I have my own suspicions, mainly along the lines of gnosticism

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[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] hglman@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its real and true about some rules that in no way relate to the real world. Just like a video game has rules, yet it in no way describes reality.

[–] lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It is real because we all believe it. The video game is a good example, we can shut it down and all your items are gone. Same with economy.

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's real because we practice it. If we stopped commerce that doesn't disprove the existence of the economy, it just ends one existing economy.

If we all stopped talking it wouldn't prove the spoke word is a myth.

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[–] MxM111@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Are you talking about the science of economics or economy?

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[–] Kase@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Pfft I bet he believes the moon is real too /s

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