Preface
The concepts discussed in this article are based on my own observations and definitions and are little based on existing definitions and research. In other words, my source is I literally made it up.
Memes
Memes or memetic viruses as I like to refer to them as to avoid confusion with comedic memes are a concept of the spread of ideas, behavior, culture, and probably other aspects of human life. Years ago I came to understand this concept mostly through my own observations. I had witnessed references to it before my understanding through things like SCP and brief references to how the term 'meme' came into being. These however had little effect on how I developed my understanding of memetic viruses and just gave me the vocabulary to build my own understanding of the concept. Where my actual understanding of the term came from was noticing the viral nature of things like ideas. I noticed that people would say the same things over and over again and what they said would spread to more people that say the same things. This occurred mostly with political stuff. This is probably when I first started thinking of the term 'memetic virus' and started to use it.
From this foundation I began to often think of things that could be considered memetic viruses. Religion was the first thing I think I thought of as a memetic virus. Since religion relies on you believing in something and influences your ideas, behaviors, and other beliefs and you usually develop it from other people, it was an obvious possibility of an example of a memetic virus. Eventually I got to the point where I now recognize many things as memetic viruses such as most beliefs, religion or lack thereof, culture, and even education may be a sort of memetic virus. Memetic viruses aren't entirely bad though. People's desires and beliefs that are genuinely beneficial to people and would be considered good by almost everyone could still be memetic viruses but you should understand when something could be a memetic virus so it doesn't manipulate you. For example, people's belief in privacy and avoidance of things that could be considered spyware could still be a memetic virus. However, I see it as a beneficial one. Memetic viruses can be beneficial and come from benevolent intentions or can be bad and just spread ideas, behaviors, and beliefs that may be of harm to people.
Constructs
Constructs are things that people think exist but don't in an objective sense. An example is property. Legally you may own something but that item being your property is not an objective fact. If it's stolen is it still your property? What if it is legally seized by the government? Is it still your property? What if you are renting it or borrowing it? Is it your property? The legality doesn't matter for the answer to these questions. What is the objective truth as to whose property this object is? As far as I understand, it's impossible to prove. The concept of property exists as a tool to enforce societal behavior.
Constructs usually exist as tools to give the illusion that something is a fact when it isn't at an objective level. These may be beneficial or not to people. An example of a construct that's a benefit is names. You can't prove that someone's or something's name is objectively their name. We just use names as a tool to identify things to make communication easier. Things like laws, rights, labels, and money are all constructs, things we use as tools to benefit us or not but can't be objectively proven to be what they claim.
Illusions
Illusions are what I originally called things such as constructs. Now I refer to illusions as things that are misleading in their expression. An example is freedom. The word freedom means almost nothing by itself especially when used in a political context. If someone says their political beliefs support freedom but don't define 'freedom' or provide context then the word freedom means nothing and is therefore an illusion because any possibility of the meaning of freedom can be interpreted. This concept isn't as developed as the others in its current definition and I need to discover more examples.
Relation/Modern Examples
These three concepts can be related. Most if not all constructs seem to be memetic viruses, memetic viruses themselves are a construct, and illusions may be memetic viruses and/or constructs.
Even the rejection of constructs can become a memetic virus such as the current meme of gender rejection. While gender under a definition separating it from sex is a construct in terms of gender roles and societal expectations, what I have witnessed with many people participating in this meme is that through their rejection of gender, I often see people make up their own gender or gender standards therefore going against their own goal of dismantling the construct by replacing it with a new one. It would make more sense to reject gender entirely and rely only on sex. You would still be able to conduct yourself however you want but without hypocrisy.
I find the concept of 'identity' nowadays to also be a memetic virus. From what I see, people will often tie their 'identity' to a preexisting collective whether it be political, sexuality/gender, skill/merit, ethnicity and/or nationality, or whatever. Instead of their identity being simply them as an individual, they base it off the acceptance of others and a collective identity.
Back to the illusion of freedom, a memetic virus I have noticed pertaining to this is that of American freedom. Often you will find Americans saying they are the freest country but don't define what freedom(s) that is. You could make the point that actually every country has equal freedom, their only differences being who has freedom to do what and where/when. If you are arguing your points on the basis of 'freedom' you must explain the freedoms you are arguing and therefore the restrictions of freedoms you are arguing as freedom comes at the expense of another freedom.
Another possible example of an illusion is democracy. People believe democracy to be a rule of the people but this is not true even in the most democratic states. In a democratic country, the people can't come together and enact a change even if the majority supports a change and then hold some type of vote and get a law written down or retracted. The people can't do anything to enact legal change, they must rely on an authority to enact change and even if legal authorities are voted in, most are demagogues that just want power and those who aren't still have to work within a system where most aren't acting on benevolent intentions. True democracies don't exist at a nation level. A true democracy would also still have problems regarding authoritarianism since a majority of people could enact legal change that harms a minority of people with the minority having very little they could do to legally fight back.
Memetic Cancers
Memetic cancers are what I call things that have an extreme memetic virus output. This can include social media, major political parties, and religions. Social media for example will use algorithms to identify your qualities and recommend things that you may agree with and build your memetic infection. They may then through an algorithm show you things you don't agree with in order to get an emotional response out of you and further strengthen the memetic virus you have. You may be subject to cycles of this to keep you on the platform longer making the platform company money and possibly influencing the way you think. This can be considered possibly as a form of propaganda since it strengthens/creates beliefs for the platform's benefit whether it be solely monetary or even political.
Political parties are a memetic cancer in that they are used to make people think that they are the only options to influence politics. Instead of thinking and voting at an individual level, political collectives are used to make people think they must support a party and possibly disregard their individual beliefs for the sake of the party. You can especially see this in countries that are primarily two party states. Parties are used to give the illusion of choice and restrict possible political outcomes. They exist to spread their own memetic viruses for their benefit.
Memetic Immunity
In order to prevent harmful memetic viruses from infecting us, we must build our memetic immunity. We need to recognize when something is a memetic virus so we know not to let it influence our thought. Recognize when people try to use your emotions against you, don't let people convince you of whatever belief because something is making you angry. I call this stuff ragebait. It's especially common with political stuff where someone keeps pointing out how bad stuff is over and over again along with clickbait to get you to watch or read more and more and let their ideas seep into your mind and influence you. Even if you share the same beliefs as the presenter, you must avoid this kind of work as it solely exists to control your thought and think things are worse than they really are and get you to tell others and act on your emotions to continue the memetic cycle.
Groups or collectives are another thing to be cautious of. Like-minded people tend to group together and homogenize their thoughts. Differing opinions, behaviors, or whatever may be met with hostility and people not conforming to the group may be met with hostility and change their expression. This change of expression may then be permanent and they may now wholeheartedly express themselves in the group's ways. Be cautious of collectives you associate with and recognize when they try to make you conform.
Final
To avoid manipulation and propaganda, we should understand these concepts. Notice when a memetic virus is trying to influence your thought, a construct has you believing in arbitrary things, and when someone uses words that are intended to mean one thing but could be interpreted as a number of things. Be wary of even this article.
Written 2022-5-25/26 Published 2022-6-1 Updated 2022-11-1