Common American Memes
Written By: Leon Felkins
On 1/20/96
Revised 12/2/07
Here is a list of memes that appear to be fairly popular in the USA and possibly other "civilized" societies.
Note:
- No comment will be made (in this list) as to which of these may be good for society and which may be bad.
- No judgement is made as to the validity of these memes. A meme can exist whether it is true, partially true, partially false or false. A meme is a meme without regard to its truthfulness.
- The list is in no particular order.
Popular Memes:
Politics and Government:
- An individual's vote somehow makes a difference somewhere.
- Government is, for the most part, composed of benevolent people and does benevolent acts.
- The government, somehow, has its own source of funds. If the government helps me it isn't really costing me or anyone else.
- You are unpatriotic if you are unwilling to die for a politician that is trying to further his/her career.
- Many government programs are wasteful and should be cut -- except those in my community which just happen to be critical to the country's welfare.
- Politicians care for us and generally try to do what is best for the country -- not themselves.
- Our government is always right in its dealings with other countries even if it appears terribly wrong and cruel.
- We must always be patriotic and support our government no matter what.
Social Issues:
- The Japanese and Germans were evil people at one time but now they are good.
- Today's young people are somehow smarter than all previous generations especially the one their parents belong to.
- On the other hand, ancient, especially primitive, people were very wise and we would be advised to follow their scriblings
- Some sexual acts are moral, some are immoral and some are disgusting. Which ones belong to which category varies from time to time.
- Having babies is somehow good for the world. Note that the desire to have sex is genetic: the desire to have babies, on the other hand, is strictly memetic -- and wrong!
- Prejudice is wrong with respect to race or gender but is OK with respect to stupidity or social status.
- If your teeshirt says that you are a compassionate person, then you are a compassionate person.
- Global warming, with its disastrous consequences, is certainly underway -- in spite of the fact that the measured temperature of the earth has actually been declining the last 20 years or so.
Trade, the Market and Consumerism:
- Eggs are bad for you (Now, before you get your hackles up, tell me the name of the scientific study that you actually saw that claimed that eggs are bad for human consumption -- otherwise it's just a meme!)
- My city water is not fit to drink so I pay good money (or my precious food stamps) for expensive bottled water. (Do you know for a fact that your city water is bad?)
- I know recycling is good but I am just not sure why. Anyway, it makes me feel good.
- For a particular commodity, particularly in food and drink, only one brand (or version within a brand) is acceptable. All other brands are vastly inferior. This kind of thinking shows the success of the "Brand Name Identification" effort by manufacturers. Most people are very careful to never take a blind test over several brands for if they did, they might ber embarrassed!
- Feeding table scraps is bad for my pets and will most likely kill them. I haven't seen any real evidence to support this but I have read the words of thousands of experts on the web that seem very sure about it.
- Taking lots of drugs is the way to stay healthy, and not building up our own immune systems. The fact that we can't drink the water in foreign countries and the natives can, proves our superior health.
- Aspirins and other drugs must be tailor made to the type of person that might be taking them. Males must have "male" drugs, females must have "female" drugs and children must have "children" drugs.
- We must change the oil in our autos at least every 2,000 miles.
Links to More Examples
Back to "Common Sense".
Back to Rational Life home page.