Bookworm Beat 9/13/24: the ‘cat lives matter’ essay and meme edition
This meme edition is dedicated to the memory of the eaten pets in Springfield — along with an essay explaining why this is so important.
I’ve been doing meme editions at Bookworm Room for more years than I can remember, so I can say with some authority that I have never before seen an outpouring of memes to equal what followed when it became apparent that at least some of the Haitian immigrants that the federal government has dumped in Ohio and Pennsylvania have been dining on people’s pets. (And yes, contrary to what ABC debate moderators claim, Springfield’s pets are ending up in cooking pots and on BBQ grills.)
Part of the outpouring of memes is attributable to the fact that this story works well for AI image generation. But I think it goes much deeper than that — and it explains why Democrats and other leftists are so desperately attacking Trump for having raised the “your pets are immigrants’ dinner” matter during the debate. They want people to think he was being stupid. He wasn’t. Typically for Trump, he nailed an important issue with powerful, simple words.
Famously, Sigmund Freud, who saw deeper meanings in everything, said that, sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. But the opposite is also true: Occasionally, something innocuous reaches into a nation’s psyche and explodes there because it perfectly encapsulates fears, longings, and other fundamental emotions.
In this case, Americans understand that their country is being invaded — and no, this is not like the immigration influx from 1880-1920, when America’s population literally doubled. There are four significant differences between yesterday’s and today’s mass immigration:
- Back then, immigrants arrived legally. They either had to pass through Ellis Island on the East Coast or Angel Island on the West Coast. They needed sponsors so they wouldn’t become a burden on America, and they had to pass through health checks. They weren’t just inviting themselves in, and voters had a say — with that say shutting the doors in 1920.
- Back then, there was no welfare state. Immigrants were on their own…or dependent on friends and family.
- Back then, our education system was geared to assimilation and patriotism. Today’s education system is antithetical to both. Children who arrive here don’t get many English language or math skills (instead, bringing down everyone else’s education), but they get a snootful of America-hatred, racism, and gender confusion.
- Back then, immigrants came either from Judeo-Christian cultures or from stable, moral Asian cultures. They didn’t come from anarchic, communist, or Muslim hellholes, complete with cannibalism, animal sacrifice, total welfare dependency, jihad, etc.
Things are different now, and Americans feel it. When small towns have their populations augmented by 30-50% in three years, and the newcomers are utterly alien to our culture, given benefits denied to long-time residents (and taxpayers), absolved from their criminal activity, and wreaking havoc…that stirs up deep fears. And so the “eating our pets” concept becomes the almost tangible — and definitely visual — embodiment of those fears.
And so the memes come rolling in. Here are “just” forty memes. I could easily have assembled forty more. Later this weekend, I’ll try to do a regular meme edition, too, so be sure to check back.
[UPDATE: After I published the post, I learned that The Kiffness, a hugely talented South African, put out a video. Maybe he means to poke fun at Trump, but this just puts a melody to that visceral feeling we all have that there is something very wrong with Democrat immigration policies — so I’ve put his video at the top of this post.]
