So now we’re treated to the meme of the Cop With Orange Pepper Spray Who Tramples All That Is Good and Right. It’s not good for the Occupy movement, and it’s not good for our country.
But this is how things go. If one has something serious and complex to say, it is critical that one find a way to amplify it into something tantalizing, scary, funny, or seksi– hopefully all of them at once– and make it into the 24-hour meme cycle.
All of that is actually fine. It’s perfectly normal to have multiple communication strategies to get a message out. The problem is when chasing memes becomes a core value. I refuse to believe that opposition to tactical mistakes by ill-trained ground-level university security people is a core value of the Occupy movement.
Much of this revolves around basic tolerance and a sense of fairness. The professionalism of tens of thousands of public safety workers who have safely managed citizens exerting their rights across the country should mean something in this context. People make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. And excessive pepper-spraying assholes should be fired.
Let’s get off the meme-mill.
Note: notwithstanding the forgoing, this image is fucking hilarious.