MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
Here's an original of that photo. That kid is creepy. Not only is she dressed like an Amish person but the doll is wearing the same fucking clothes. Although I guess that's what you'd expect from Rick "man on dog" Santorum.
and for fucks sake doohickie, these arent memes. you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. these are photoshopped image macros; internet jokes.
To me, the weirdest thing isn't that the doll and girl are dressed the same; it's that the doll version of her has blonde hair while she has brown. It seems a little wish-fulfillment-y on the Santorums' part.
"Look, honey, we got you a doll that looks just like you! Only more Aryan!"
meme: a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
Cultural item: In internet culture, there are takeoffs on the "No, you can't have a pony/not yours" picture.
Cultural item: Takeoffs on the "IM IN UR x, yING UR zZ!"
These are both memes by that definition- cultural items that are repeated. Meme is often used, and not just by me, to refer to the "inside jokes" of internet sites.
So I took two election-related examples and posted them together. Yes, the language was a little stilted; the election itself is *not* the meme, but Wedge, lighten up. I hardly deserved to get cussed at over this. For fucks sake.
Oh, man. That's totally bizarre. When I saw the crying girl pic, I just thought it was shopped... Damn.
I wonder what she thinks this all means? I mean... I wonder if she thinks they are going to ... what? Have to leave their home and wear sackcloth and eat rocks for dinner? I'm not even joking about that, something is terribly wrong here, and if her parents didn't even notice that - or worse, insisted on bringing her onstage to exploit her anguish as bit of metaphor propaganda, then I would imagine that this is only the tip of the iceberg for that little girl's pain.
Actually, it was probably like this (coming from the kid of a local politician): They were probably all upset, really upset, at that moment. They had been watching returns all day and into the night. However, the older people in the picture were able to pull it together for the public appearance. But the youngest daughter was probably upset and tired and just wanted to get home and chill out. She was crabby at an inopportune time; that's all.
She was just being a kid. Cut her a break. (But I'm still glad her dad lost.)
I think you might have misunderstood me - I wasn't making fun of the girl, I was sincere about my comments. And that level of emoting is way beyond "crabby" for an eight-year-old. I just think no one has talked to her and said, this is the nature of daddy's job, and we're going to be okay - we wanted something that didn't happen, but life is like that and now we'll do something new, all together.
And it's hard not to have cynical ideas about why they wanted her onstage despite her distraught state. I hope I'm wrong about that, at least.
First of all, we are looking at a snapshot and thinking she was throwing a major tantrum; that's just one instant in time, remember. We don't know if she just did that for a few seconds or if she was pitching a fit for hours.
Look at it from her point of view. Sure, she maybe was thinking this was the end of the world and they would end up on the street, but more likely, I think, is that they've been telling an eight year old girl to behave for long stretches of time for public appearances, for the past several months. I bet she was up late the last several nights of campaigning and was spent. No, a "normal" eight year old doesn't pitch fits like a three year old, but put a lot of pressure on one to behave and keep up late a few nights in a row, and an eight year old cannot be expected to act normal.
protip: watch the concession speech! looks like she's scrunching up her face and trying really hard not to cry. right about the time when rick requests a round of applause for bob casey is when she really loses it, iirc. and then she appears to be consoling her doll, or vice versa