Humans have been doing political satire for as long as records go back. It can be traced back to ancient Greece, where the playwright AristophanesA comic playwright from ancient Athens. mocked AthenianFrom either modern or ancient Athens in Greece. leaders for their failings.¹

But in the past, satire was limited by technology. Today there is no such restriction. You can mock up a picture of a politician in seconds and send it to thousands of people around the country.

These memes are so effective that politicians themselves are getting in on the act. Liberal DemocratAlso known as the Lib Dems, a liberal political party in the UK. leader Ed DaveyThe leader of the UK party the Liberal Democrats since 2019. has decided to run an all-meme election, getting himself filmed falling off a paddle board, playing drums on an exercise ball and spinning in the teacups at Thorpe ParkA theme park near London. .

And all the parties are ploughing serious money into their digital strategies. In the first week of the campaign the Conservatives spent more than £350,000 on social media advertising, while Labour invested a whopping £1.2 million.²

The real fight, however, is playing out on TikTok, which is becoming the engine of political life. More than a quarter of teenagers get most of their news from the Chinese platform and around 10% of adults.³

Is the meme-ification of politics a good thing? Some think it helps make politics more accessible. More than a third of people under 35 say they prefer not to follow the news because it has a negative impact on their mood.⁴

Memes help make news more fun, meaning people might be more likely to pay attention.

But others say complex issues cannot be boiled down to short videos. They say TikTok only makes politics more tribal, as people only consume short, snappy messages with a strong biasBiases are beliefs that systematically and unfairly distort a person's decisions, in favour or against one group or another. , rather than more considered and balanced coverage.

Still others claim this is all irrelevant. Memes will always be part of politics, they say, because they are baked into our brains.

Thinker Rene Girard wrote that all human beings have an instinct to mimic each other, which he called "mimetic desire".

So when Richard DawkinsA British scientist who is associated with New Atheism, a position that is critical of religious belief. argued that certain cultural trends spread through the human population and replicate themselves like genesSections of DNA strands that act as a kind of instruction manual for a human being. There is still a great deal we do not understand about how they work., he chose a word from the same root: meme, from Greek mimema, meaning "that which is imitated".⁵

That means memes will always be part of human life, some say. And that includes politics.

Are we all mimics at heart?

Yes: Humans naturally imitate each other. This makes us want to satirise other people, but it also makes us do them a good turn if we see others doing it. It is a source of both good and evil.

No: We do not make memes because we like to mimic, we do it to express our frustration with a political system that foists upon us leaders whom we do not admire or trust.

Or... Whether or not we have an innate desire to mimic, memes are a social as well as a biological phenomenon, and we should take them seriously on both these fronts.

Aristophanes - A comic playwright from ancient Athens.

Athenian - From either modern or ancient Athens in Greece.

Liberal Democrat - Also known as the Lib Dems, a liberal political party in the UK.

Ed Davey - The leader of the UK party the Liberal Democrats since 2019.

Thorpe Park - A theme park near London.

Bias - Biases are beliefs that systematically and unfairly distort a person's decisions, in favour or against one group or another.

Richard Dawkins - A British scientist who is associated with New Atheism, a position that is critical of religious belief.

Genes - Sections of DNA strands that act as a kind of instruction manual for a human being. There is still a great deal we do not understand about how they work.