[PaulHoule]

Reddit passed the cultural event horizon some years ago.

The dominant form on reddit is the "meme" which (unlike joining a religion or revolutionary party) makes no demand that you understand what you're copying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1LpXN4PO8U

People on the Craiglist forum seem to be "there" more than redditors are even if I can't figure out how they bypass the spell checker to mess up simple words like "cow", "dog" and "pig".

[slipperlobster]

> The dominant form on reddit is the "meme"

I remember seeing something on the front page a few days ago about a meme being removed from.. some subreddit, it was an area-based one (I think /r/australia?) and the comments were exasperated that they don't allow memes.

Excuse the hyperbole, but memes are absolutely ruining the chance of many of these subs (and even other sites) from building substantive communities.

[PaulHoule]

It's like Sarin: not only does it destroy community but it will lead people to take rash, stupid, destructive and dangerous actions such as

* eating Tide pods

* attaching government buildings

* speculating on financial markets

My son plays games with a lot of meme activity and can demonstrate the act of inserting a small amount of misattributed and false information into a metastable system (game and players) causing a phase transition that changes the community. The people who play along and/or victims usually can't understand what happened, even if you tell them directly.

I have nightmares that are some mix of

http://www.uber.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Miami

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parallax_View