This destructive meme was posted by one of my relatives on Facebook. This meme’s purpose is to delegitimize and shame climate change/environmentalism activists and supporters. It tries to make fun of them for stating that climate change, specifically global warming, is a real and serious issue, claiming that in reality poor forest management is the reason why there are increasingly severe forest fires around the world. This is harmful because of obvious lack of sources to back this claim. This specific meme format always presents Batman’s claim as the “truth”, and the view that is “wrong” is supposed to be coming from the woman getting slapped by his hand. However, there is no credibility or reasoning given behind the claim that forest management would be directly causing more severe forest fires, nor have I ever heard in actual news and environmental research done. It seems to be created just for people who do not believe in environmental issues and do not want to listen to any reasoning or evidence that conflicts with their view, despite bountiful evidence existing to back environmentalists’ warnings. So, it perpetuates ignorance of scientific-backed information.
I created this meme to be both entertaining and educational, as it shows two ways people can interact with each other and learn about important matters. The top interaction shows the angry person choosing to be ignorant and refusing to have a conversation with someone to debate a certain matter. The bottom interaction shows how both people can be civil and mature, where the person on the right chooses to listen to a differing view that is given with resources to back the claims. I think the format won’t be as visually appealing to everyone because there’s a large amount of text, so it takes a little longer to fully read. However, I think this “chad” meme format is quite trendy and typically humorous, so it should draw a lot of attention. It shows a clear-cut example of unproductive internet conversation, as well as a productive conversation that allows for education on important matters.
Continuing to improve the flagging of misinformation on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms would help decrease the spread of fake news. I don’t know exactly what could be done now, but if it could be more normalized to engage in civil, productive conversation online instead of immediate jumping to insults and aggression, that would allow a lot more education on important issues and decreased ignorance. People can perhaps start to normalize this kind of communication by starting the conversation in a respectful, kind manner and hope that the other recipient also approaches in the same way. Social media companies should also put more priority into preventing the spread of false information by having more serious consequences and censorship of pages/groups spreading misinformation.
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