2/21/2023 0 Comments Into the trash it goes memeThe further it’s embedded in our post-tragedy lexicon, the more it’s mocked as a form of civilian slacktivism, and more recently as a form of political obfuscation.Ī chart of Google queries shows that the phrase spikes during natural disasters and mass shootings. The devolution of “thoughts and prayers”-like sentiment has been years in the making. “There are, and the thoughts and prayers of politicians are cruelly hollow if they are paired with continued legislative indifference.” “It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren’t public policy responses to this epidemic,” he said in a statement. “This isn’t a time for prayers, and study and inaction,” he wrote in a Facebook post, “it’s a time for prayers, action and the asking of God’s forgiveness for our inaction (especially the elected officials that ran to the cameras today, acted in a solemn manner, called for prayers, and will once again do absolutely nothing).”Īfter the Las Vegas shooting last October, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy called out the phrase’s odd and complicated role in the cycle of mass shootings, grief and inaction. Just days after the tragedy, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo had desperate words for people who were content to remain inactive on gun control reform. In May, a teenager shot and killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School near Houston, Texas. Some politicians' condolences in the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting were criticized because the senders have a history of financial support from pro-gun organizations like the NRA. All have staunch pro-gun stances and financial ties to the NRA. Politicians like Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio and even President Donald Trump were taken to task for their “thoughts and prayers” messages after the Parkland shooting. In fact, in the years following Sandy Hook, more states loosened gun buying restrictions than tightened them. There has been no major gun-control legislation in the nearly six years since Sandy Hook, the tragedy that was supposed to change everything. And to #ThoughtsAndPrayers critics, the repetition of mass shootings exists because no one is doing much else besides offering thoughts and prayers. The repetition of “thoughts and prayers” is a product of the repetition of mass shootings. Jokes, mere hours after a deadly shooting? To the voices behind the dark humor, the persistence of “thoughts and prayers” is the real joke. “The first truckload of your thoughts and prayers has just arrived.” In one highly-shared image that circulated after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in February, “Thoughts and Prayers” is imprinted on the side of a garbage truck. It’s not a good kind of trending: Among the earnest pleas for social and legislative action, the aftermath of each successive shooting inspires more and more memes and cynical jokes. “Thoughts and prayers” has reached that full semantic satiation.įor the last few years, after every mass shooting, the term immediately trends on social platforms. But it also becomes something ridiculous, a jumble of letters that feels alien on the tongue and reads like gibberish on paper. Semantic satiation is the phenomenon in which a word or phrase is repeated so often it loses its meaning.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |