I had to email this meme from my phone to my computer, with the subject line “Garbage I Have To Use For Class”. It’s basically just trying to discredit the common sentiment that people share, that climate change is a harmful process that is likely to doom us all, by turning around and claiming those people are racist against white people. The gap in logic is a large one, and is specifically an example of the Causal Fallacy. In short, it’s when one incorrectly concludes that an effect is caused by something, with little basis in reality. An example of this would be saying that, because roosters caw in the morning, that they are also able to predict the future. It’s almost as ridiculous as saying that if I believe in climate change, I must hate white people. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as ridiculous to the people who post these kinds of things without irony.

The effect of these kinds of memes that it further entrenches these kinds of ideas into people who already hold them. To us, they’re appalling, because we haven’t bought into it. Things like this just reinforce what people already believe. They’re not meant to convert; they’re meant to bury people deeper into the rabbit hole.

I think that this would have the potential to be viral, as it’s based off of a common template that has been shared to me multiple times before. I think that cat memes, in general, have a long lifespan and staying power. They’ve been around the internet for ages now. It reminds me of that category of memes that aims to remind the viewer about something important; for example, I have dozens of memes saved that boil down to, “Drink water, hydrate or diedrate, idiot”. So… it’s worked on me. I’m sure it will work on other people.