The Danger of Forgetting Context and History: The Polarizing Affect of Tweets and Memes

Memes and tweets are some of the worst when it comes to disregarding context and history. Without context and history there is no meaning and significance; even facts have no meaning without context and history. The more complex a problem, the more the context and the history need to be examined to find not only a solution but the meaning and significance of the problem itself.

But we address important issues in tweets and memes (and even sarcastic remarks made by comedians, which are often considered wisdom these days).

Memes and tweets by their nature avoid context and history. (Or they imply one that is unconsciously assumed by some but is not necessarily shared by others. The difference in they way that these different people understand the meme or tweet is never really examined seriously, and the difference goes unexplained aside from accusations of irrationality or lies which just deepen divisions amd differences.) Persuasion or debate by Tweet and Meme is by and large appealing to emotion and superficiality. They make us slaves to our emotions and knee-jerk reactions. As long as we try to carry out discussions in this environment, nothing will get done except maybe the further polarization of society.