About Anonymous Memes on Facebook

 PREFACE: I got caught up in a flame war on Facebook, because I couldn't help myself. When I realized what I had done, I tried to apologize and make amends. I don't know if I was successful. But I spent all night thinking about it, and ended up posting this the next morning.

I get way too upset when I see people mindlessly reposting inflammatory memes about [[insert current topic of conflict here]]. It's a personal failing; I know, and I apologize for getting worked up over things which don't matter. (p.s. I'm working on it. Your advice is not needed; however, your nonverbal support is appreciated.)

It's not the content of the memes that bothers me so much, it's the fact that you keep reposting them. If you want to know why, keep reading. If you don't want to know why, I will understand if you stop reading now. One of the things that I'm doing to help me get over this personal weakness is this: if all I see from you is reposted inflammatory memes, then I will snooze you for 30 days. If, after 30 days, I'm still seeing that same garbage from you, I'll quietly unfollow or unfriend you. We'll still be friends in real life. I just don't want to see that stuff over and over on Facebook.

If you're still reading, I'm going to cover four more points.

1.Why? Because Big Brother is watching you!

2. Where do the memes come from?

3. What are you going to do about it?

4. Try lifting people up instead.

1.Why? Because Big Brother is watching you!

Now for the why: Facebook has algorithms (thinking machines, if you will) that follow your every move on Facebook (and beyond, I suspect). They know what you look at, and they make conclusions about what you like and what you want to see. So they tailor what will appear on your news feed. You'll end up seeing a lot of crazy memes which are intended to get people angry, and which amazingly support YOUR point of view. Often, you get emotionally stirred up by them, whether you realize it or not, and you decide to repost them, as if to say (again, whether you realize it or not) "See? Amiright? That's what I've been saying!"

This gives those memes new life, and gives them a chance to upset and motivate somebody else.

2. Where do the memes come from?

Ah, that's it. Nobody knows. There's no authorship attached. BUT! Have you heard about these "troll farms", in Russia and other countries? These are people, or groups of people, whose purpose is to destroy the U.S. by sowing division and discord from within, getting us all to argue with each other, to hate each other, and to actively work against each other. Remember what Abraham Lincoln said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." If they can break up (or FURTHER BREAK UP) the unity that can and should exist in the U.S., then the country descends into chaos, and they win.

They're like those instigators on the playground in middle school who like to play "Let's you and him fight".

All of these anonymous memes, which are designed to sow discord and confusion, they don't do anything except tear down: they tear down society; they tear down our unity; they tear down good (albeit imperfect) people who are trying to make a positive difference in the world; and worst of all, they prompt us to tear down each other.

Nobody signs these memes, or maybe those who share them don't credit the authors like they should. Therefore, nobody's ultimately responsible for their content. Yeah, but if you share them, THEN YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CONTENT, and you deserve all of the opprobrium and contempt that your respondents heap on you.

(Detour! "Troll" in this case doesn't refer to the fairy-tale creature, although modern trolls are as ugly and sociopathic as that creature. "Troll" in this case refers to the act of dragging a baited hook through the water, with the expectation that sooner or later a fish will take the bait and be hooked. Every time you repost an anonymous meme or reply to one, you've been hooked.

Now, back to the subject at hand.)

3. What are you going to do about it?

We are all involved, to some degree, in politics. We all have opinions about not just the political, but the social, issues of the day. These opinions move us to action.

If the only action you take is to repost memes of anonymous and unknown origin, then YOU ARE AMONG THE LAZIEST CREATURES ON EARTH. It doesn't take a lot of effort to click the "Share" button at the bottom of a meme, and to feel self-satisified, like you've done your part in Advancing the Cause. The Internet calls this "slacktivism".

If it really means that much to you, then for Pete's sake, GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND GO FIND SOMETHING TO DO ABOUT IT. You will not change the world by sitting there and clicking "Share". The world wants deeds, not clicks.

4. Try lifting people up instead.

Jenna Ames Crellin and Jason Wilson are two of my heroes on Facebook. They mostly repost stuff -- but everything they repost on FB is intended to lift somebody up, to put a smile on somebody's face, or to make somebody laugh out loud. (Or to get excited about football.)

Janis Ian posts a lot of original stuff, and the things she reposts are things that she has carefully researched to make sure they're for real. A lot of what she posts is entertainment, a lot of it is to lift up strangers or to say hi to her friends, and some of it is intended to make you uncomfortable, to make you think, and to make you take action. (Real action. See above.) I don't agree with everything Janis posts, but I read and think about all of it.

Jodi DeLong/bloomingwriter has a wicked sense of humour, a vicious command of the English language, and ... well, she always posts original stuff. I don't know if I've ever seen her repost an anonymous meme. And her original photographs of her flower garden, and of the beauty of the Maritime Provinces, brighten my day and lift my soul.

Jordyn Prestwich doesn't have time to repost garbage on Facebook. She's too busy just living in Ghana and making a difference in the lives of the people there. Props to #ghanamakeadifference .

I have some other friends whom I won't name, who are on journeys of self-discovery, and who feel comfortable posting about their progress. It builds me up to see them growing and getting stronger and wiser.

I have yet other friends, whom I also won't name, who are having fun just being alive, and who share their adventures with their friends. I've vicariously traveled the world and climbed mountains with these friends.

(I guess that, in order to be named in this post, your name must start with "J".)

All of that is what I come to Facebook to see. And that is what I myself aspire to contribute. Given a choice between building up and tearing down, I prefer to build up. You can, too. That's a choice you'll have to make for yourself.

Do you want a plague mask?

Have you ever wondered about the pictures of these 16th Century doctors and their strange masks? Why did they wear those beaked masks? Were they supposed to scare the Black Plague out of its victims? Would they help you avoid today's plague, the unstoppable virus known as COVID-19 or novel coronavirus?

A plague doctor, outfitted in the latest style

First, a short history lesson

The disease known as bubonic plague, the Black Plague, or the Black Death, originated in the Gobi Desert of eastern Asia in 1330. By 1346, it had spread to Europe, where it proceeded to kill, by some accounts, up to 60% of the population of Europe at the time. Then it disappeared.

... And came back. Several times. For centuries afterwards.

The plague was so contagious and so fast-acting that, it was said, a fishing boat would depart in the morning, with the crew healthy and symptom-free, and before nightfall the entire crew would be dead, leaving the ship adrift and disease-ridden.

Cities would hire doctors from out of town, or sometimes itinerants who were not even doctors, to come in and serve the cities as "plague doctors". As with today's pandemic, it was tough duty, as many of the plague doctors died of the plague themselves.

Plague doctors were constantly seeking for ways to isolate themselves from the contagion. In the 14th through 18th centuries, it was believed that diseases, such as cholera and (of course) plague, were spread by "bad air", also known as "night air" or miasma. The word miasma is Greek, and translates roughly to "pollution". And in Latin,"bad air" translates to malaria. Hmmmmm.

Since death, disease and decay are stinky processes, the miasma theory held that bad odors were a sure sign of "bad air". Flowers and other good-smelling stuff were believed to ward off disease because their good odors drove away the miasma. So well-meaning friends and family would fill a  sick person's room with fresh flowers, burning incense, and other good-smelling stuff.

That hasn't changed in 800 years, has it?

(Hey! Maybe that's where all of this "essential oil" pseudo-medicine came from as well!)

In the early 1600s, a French doctor named Charles de Lorme (who happened to be the chief physician to Louis XIII) created what you might call the world's first hazmat suit, and plague doctors quickly adopted it.

The plague doctor's outfit consisted of a lightly oiled cloak, purported to be impermeable to miasma, a broad-brimmed hat or oversized hood, purported to keep bad stuff from drifting down onto the doctor, leather boots and gloves, and a mask consisting of a long, hollow beak and eyeholes with glass lenses.

A plague doctor mask, made of white leather (Buy this mask on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/126798567/plague-doctors-mask-maximus-in-white)

The glass lenses offered the same effective protection as modern safety glasses or face shields. The beak, at least six inches long, and often longer, had nostril-like holes to allow the passage of air, and was stuffed with all manner of aromatic substances, in order to neutralize the miasma. Various sources list the aromatic ingredients, things like "ambergris, mint leaves, storax, myrrh, laudanum, rose petals, camphor, cloves and straw".

Records vary on whether the mask was effective. Remember that the miasma theory was the basis for the beak full of aromatic substances? 

Now, up to more or less modern times

In the 19th Century, the miasma theory of disease was supplanted by the germ theory, as doctors discovered that "germs", the microscopic organisms that really caused disease, can be spread from person to person through a wide variety of vectors, or transmission methods. One vector is aerosols, the technical term for the cloud of microscopic particles which an infected person coughs or sneezes into the air, and which other people then inhale. (That's pretty close to a miasma, isn't it?) 

The COVID-19 virus can be transmitted through skin-to-skin touch, through touching a contaminated surface, or through aerosols. And that brings us almost all the way to the 21st Century.

In 1910, a Chinese doctor (oh, the irony!) invented a face mask for use by medical practitioners, to filter bacteria from the air they breathe. One hundred and ten years later, that doctor's design has evolved into the N95 face mask, which blocks 95% of airborne particles. 

N95 face mask. By Hanabishi - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26800840

Because of the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a critical shortage of N95 face masks. The shortage is being backfilled by hobbyists, housewives, automotive manufacturers, and enterpreneurs, who are getting very creative in the design of the face mask. The critical part of the mask is compliance with the N95 standard; the rest of the design is up to the maker's creativity. 

A modern beak mask

And that creativity takes us full circle, all the way back to de Lorme's beak mask.

A modern plague doctor?