First Seen
2023-07-04T18:50:11+00:00
simple-description (qwen3.5_2b-q8_0)
This meme satirizes the stereotype that the average American is a patriot by portraying them as the actual villain of the United States. The text suggests that "Actually That Was America" is a show being filmed, where the creator claims they are screaming that the US is a "hated country" while the average American is actually the group the US despises.
simple-description (llama3.2-vision_11b)
The meme is a screenshot of a Twitter thread from a user named @CantRead, where they express their frustration with the lack of accuracy in a TV show called "That '70s Show" which is set in the 1970s. The user claims that the show is "anti-American" and that the show's writers are "trying to make us hate America".
detailed-analysis (gemma3-27b-vision)
Okay, let's break down this tweet from Caitin Johnstone using the frameworks you've provided.
Visual Description
The image is a screenshot of a tweet on Twitter (now X). The background is a dark, navy blue, common to the Twitter platform. The tweet author, Caitin Johnstone, has a profile picture that appears to be stylized cartoonish imagery. The text is white, making it stand out against the dark background. The tweet is formatted as a list of instructions or steps, suggesting a planned "project" or social experiment. The presence of capitalization (e.g., "ACTUALLY") and exclamation marks conveys a sense of urgency, agitation or performativity.
Foucauldian Genealogical Discourse Analysis
This tweet is ripe for a Foucauldian analysis.
- Discourse & Power: The entire "project" proposed centers on controlling and shaping discourse. Johnstone isn't interested in simply presenting facts about American history (the "evil things"). The core strategy is manipulating how those facts are presented—framing them as actions of a hated “other” country—to observe the resulting reactions. This is explicitly about a power dynamic – manipulating what is presented as truth to elicit particular responses.
- Genealogy & History: The proposed content of the show ("evil things America did") draws upon a history—but not a history treated as objective truth. It's a selective history, positioned as a shock or revelation designed to destabilize pre-existing understandings. The "genealogy" is interested in how the understanding of these actions has been constructed and how it's become normalized.
- Subject Formation: The planned reaction capture aims to observe how subjects ("average Americans") are formed through discourse. The idea is that the shock of relabeling these actions as belonging to a hated foreign power will disrupt the American subjects' self-understanding and reveal underlying assumptions.
- Normalization: The statement “It never gets old” and “You never run out of evil things” suggests that the history of evil America will always be available for re-examination.
Critical Theory
This tweet strongly aligns with the Frankfurt School’s critical theory.
- Ideology Critique: The project is fundamentally an attempt to expose what Johnstone sees as the ideological foundations supporting American national identity. By presenting "evil things" America has done and re-framing them, she’s aiming to shatter the illusion of American exceptionalism or moral superiority.
- The Culture Industry: The idea of a "show" frames this critique as part of the culture industry. The format is intended to make the critical message more accessible and potentially viral, turning historical critique into a spectacle for consumption.
- Enlightenment Critique: The project implies a critique of the Enlightenment ideals of reason and progress. The implication is that historical “evil” is a persistent feature of American identity, suggesting a rejection of the idea that societies inevitably progress towards moral improvement.
- False Consciousness: The project aims to reveal the 'false consciousness' of 'average Americans' by exposing the contradictions within their national narrative.
Marxist Conflict Theory
While not explicitly Marxist, the tweet can be interpreted through a conflict lens.
- Class and Ideology: The "average Americans" targeted implicitly represent a specific social class—likely the middle and working classes. The project assumes their understanding of American history is shaped by dominant ideologies that serve the interests of the ruling class.
- Power Struggle: The act of revealing "evil things" and re-framing them can be seen as a power struggle—a challenge to the dominant narrative of American history.
- Contradictions of Capitalism: The “evil things” referenced could be connected to the exploitative practices inherent in capitalism (e.g., colonialism, slavery, imperialism), and the project aims to reveal these contradictions to the American public.
- Hegemony: The project assumes the American worldview is governed by a hegemonic ideology.
Postmodernism
Postmodern elements are noticeable in the tweet:
- Deconstruction of Narrative: The project seeks to deconstruct the American national narrative by challenging the idea of a unified, coherent history.
- Relativism & Subjectivity: The emphasis on reaction suggests a rejection of objective truth and a focus on subjective experience. What matters is how people respond to the information, rather than the “truth” of the historical events themselves.
- Simulacra & Hyperreality: The “show” itself can be seen as a form of simulation—a constructed reality that replaces lived experience. The re-framing of historical events creates a “hyperreality” where the simulation becomes more real than the actual history.
- Critique of Grand Narratives: The project is implicitly skeptical of “grand narratives” like American exceptionalism or the belief in progress.
Queer Feminist Intersectional Analysis
This is the least directly applicable lens, but can be considered:
- Marginalized Histories: The "evil things" potentially include the oppression and violence experienced by marginalized groups (e.g., Indigenous populations, enslaved Africans, women, LGBTQ+ people). The project could be seen as an attempt to center these histories that have been historically suppressed.
- Power Dynamics: The project highlights the power dynamics inherent in history-telling and how dominant narratives often erase or distort the experiences of marginalized groups.
- Intersectionality: Depending on the specifics of the “evil things” referenced, the project could reveal how different forms of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, colonialism) intersect and reinforce one another.
- Challenging Authority: The project, in its confrontational approach, mirrors queer and feminist challenges to established authorities and norms.
Let me know if you'd like any of these analyses expanded, or explored in more detail!
simple-description (llama3.2-vision)
This meme is a humorous list of "rules" for a fictional TV show called "Actually That Was America". The rules include making a show that's a satirical commentary on American history, with tongue-in-cheek instructions like "Make a show called Actually That Was America", "Tell average Americans on the street about evil things America did EXCEPT you tell them it was a country the US hates", "Film their reaction", "Scream ACTUALLY THAT WAS AMERICA!", "It never gets old", and "You never run out of evil things".
tesseract-ocr
& __ Caitlin Johnstone % - x” @caitoz - Make a show called Actually That Was America - Tell average Americans on the street about evil things America did EXCEPT you tell them it was a country the US hates - Film their reaction - Scream ACTUALLY THAT WAS AMERICA! - It never gets old - You never run out of evil things