In recent years, in our public discourse, arguments have become distilled down to the point they could be considered memes--not the ubiquitous, clever social media images--but memes more in the sense of how Richard Dawkins meant it when he coined the term in 1976. The proliferation--or even weaponization--of arguments as memes can have a negative effect on our public discourse, as we abandon complete sentences and complete thoughts and open-mindedness for standardized snap-arguments that people keep in their social media argument toolkit. What can we do? Each one of us can read and listen carefully and critically, and above all, spend the time to actually think about what you think.
