All posts tagged: Memes

“The memes will continue”: A fake presidency, but real tyranny

“The memes will continue”: A fake presidency, but real tyranny

Published by Sam Flores

This past week, the Trump White House posted an image on social media that appeared to show Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer who was arrested after an anti-ICE demonstration in Minnesota, weeping helplessly after being handcuffed. It was a blatant fake. Only minutes earlier, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had posted the original photo of Armstrong’s arrest, in which she appears calm, even resolute. After the New York Times confronted White House officials with evidence that the second image had been “digitally altered,” probably using a generative AI tool such as Gemini or Grok, deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr responded with a post on X: “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.” You could almost hear the high-fives being exchanged; you could almost smell the medium-high-end hair products and lily of the valley-scented body spray. That extraordinary statement says, or reveals, much more than it intends to, and even amid the relentless onslaught of lies, abuses, perversions of justice and outright criminality perpetrated by the Trump regime, it merits closer attention. The memes …

Why Everyone Is Suddenly in a ‘Very Chinese Time’ in Their Lives

Why Everyone Is Suddenly in a ‘Very Chinese Time’ in Their Lives

Published by skeptic

In case you didn’t get the memo, everyone is feeling very Chinese these days. Across social media, people are proclaiming that “You met me at a very Chinese time of my life,” while performing stereotypically Chinese-coded activities like eating dim sum or wearing the viral Adidas Chinese jacket. The trend blew up so much in recent weeks that celebrities like comedian Jimmy O Yang and influencer Hasan Piker even got in on it. It has now evolved into variations like “Chinamaxxing” (acting increasingly more Chinese) and “u will turn Chinese tomorrow” (a kind of affirmation or blessing). It’s hard to quantify a zeitgeist, but here at WIRED, chronically online people like us have been noticing a distinct vibe shift when it comes to China over the past year. Despite all of the tariffs, export controls, and anti-China rhetoric, many people in the United States, especially younger generations, have fallen in love with Chinese technology, Chinese brands, Chinese cities, and are overall consuming more Chinese-made products than ever before. In a sense the only logical thing …

China’s Hottest App Is a Daily Test of Whether You’re Still Alive

China’s Hottest App Is a Daily Test of Whether You’re Still Alive

Published by skeptic

An indie app with only one function is currently all the rage in China. It’s called si le ma (死了吗), which translates literally to “Are You Dead Yet.” The app asks users to tap a button once every day, and if they fail to do so for two consecutive days, it automatically sends an email to a designated emergency contact, urging them to check on the user in person. Guo, one of the three Gen-Z developers behind Are You Dead Yet, says he has been building social and entertainment apps for a few years. But he wanted to pivot to something more fundamental. “When I looked at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I saw that safety needs are deeper and apply to a much broader group of people. That felt like a good direction,” Guo told WIRED in an exclusive interview. (He asked to be identified only by his last name, for privacy reasons.) The app’s practical functionality and the dark humor its name evokes have struck a chord with young people in China, who swarmed …

The Memes Are the Point

The Memes Are the Point

Published by Sam Flores

This weekend’s attack on Venezuela produced plenty of indelible images. The one burned into my brain was shared by President Donald Trump on Truth Social. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sitting in front of a laptop at a makeshift command center in Mar-a-Lago. He’s monitoring the raid with a grave expression on his face, eyes intently focused on something out of frame. At first glance, the image has all the trappings of a Serious Tactical Raid Photo, à la Pete Souza’s famous Situation Room snapshot, which showed President Barack Obama and his national-security team tracking the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound. But then you see what’s behind Hegseth: a large screen displaying an X feed. The photo is blurry, but it seems to show Hegseth and company using X’s search function to monitor tweets about the raid. On the screen, hovering over Hegseth’s left shoulder, is a giant face-holding-back-tears emoji (🥹). The photo quickly spread around the internet on Saturday—mostly as a way to mock just how terminally online the Trump administration appears to …