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Anonymous ID: ef39c6 Oct. 18, 2018, 2:13 p.m. No.3523606   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3630 >>3822 >>3833 >>4103 >>4155 >>4197

HEY YOU FAT FUCKS STOP THE MEMES ALREADY

 

Memes lead to teenage obesity, lawmakers told

 

(CNN)It's been a bad few weeks for memes.

 

In mid-September the European Parliament passed a new copyright law that some have dubbed a "meme ban."

Then Sweden's advertising watchdog ruled that the popular "distracted boyfriend" meme is sexist.

Now, academics have told British lawmakers that internet memes may be contributing to the UK obesity crisis and doing harm to teenagers on a significant scale.

Memes carry dangerous health-related messages and make light of unhealthy eating habits, researchers from Loughborough University wrote in a letter sent to a British parliamentary committee.

"A substantial number of individuals on Twitter share health-related Internet memes, with both positive and negative messages," they wrote, noting that many "contain inappropriate material."

'Distracted boyfriend' meme is sexist, says Swedish ad watchdog

'Distracted boyfriend' meme is sexist, says Swedish ad watchdog

A picture of an overweight child with the caption "Free food? Count me in!" was sent along with the letter as an example of a meme the researchers found dangerous.

The academics were also concerned by a meme that created a human-like body from pictures of pizzas and hamburgers, with frankfurters used for limbs and a smiley-faced potato for a face.

The body was captioned "me" and placed alongside images of three well-defined bodies for comparison.

"The vast majority of sharers display little, if any, emotion when sharing these memes," the academics commented.

"Just washed this chocolate bar with soap," read the caption to another image included in the letter, along with #cleaneating.

"Internet memes are generally viewed as entertaining but they also represent a body of cultural practice that does not account for the specific needs and rights of teenagers," the researchers warned.

"Unhealthy lifestyles cost the NHS billions every year," they added, suggesting that "the dangers of inaccurate/inappropriate health messages" contained in memes could be a contributing factor.

 

Call to scrutinize memes

The letter was sent to a committee analyzing the effects of social media use on young people's health.

Its authors suggested teenagers should scrutinize the underlying themes in the memes they see, rather than simply enjoying them.

"It is worrying that Internet meme content… produces a predominate sense of happiness regardless of the underlying tone or image used," they wrote.

"If Internet memes carry political, corporate or other agendas without priorities tailored to the needs of 13-16-year-olds then they have the potential to do harm on a large scale," they added.

They also noted that memes "have the potential to normalize undesirable behaviors," and often "contain inappropriate material or ridicule others by race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, body shape, religion, diet."

 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/internet-memes-obesity-intl/index.html

Anonymous ID: ef39c6 Oct. 18, 2018, 2:56 p.m. No.3524038   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4066

HIJACK this: write letters to unlikely voters in swing districts

 

Handwritten, heartfelt "please vote" letters to unlikely voters in swing districts

 

Sponsored by: MobilizeAmerica, Daily Kos, and Vote Forward.

 

https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/event/46256/

Anonymous ID: ef39c6 Oct. 18, 2018, 2:58 p.m. No.3524066   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>3524038

DETAILS HERE:

https://votefwd.org/faq

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Already signed up but need help? Try our support page.

 

What does the letter-writing process entail?

When you first sign up, you’ll be asked a few basic questions to make sure you’re a human being with good intentions. We review and approve new volunteers at least twice a day, so within 12 hours or so, you should receive a welcome email with detailed instructions. After clicking a button to “adopt” some voters, you’ll download and print a PDF, then hand-write a single sentence on each letter, address, stamp, and set it aside to send on October 30.

 

Want to see the process in action? Here’s a printed overview and a video.

 

How many letters do I have to complete?

The minimum commitment is five letters, but you can do as many as you like!

 

Who pays for the stamps?

Vote Forward is a bring-your-own-stamps operation. We understand that the cost can add up. That’s part of why the minimum commitment is low (five letters).

 

How long does it take to get approved?

We typically review new volunteers once each day, so on average, you can expect to be approved within about 12 hours of completing the signup process. Please be patient, we’re welcoming you all as fast as we can!

 

What should I write?

Heartfelt personal messages are best. Some people mention civic responsibility (“it’s my duty as a citizen…”). Others talk about how hard-won the right to vote has been. You could also describe memories from childhood of going to the polls with your parents, or doing the same with your kids. It’s fine to mention specific issues, just be careful not to assume the recipient agrees with your policy preferences. And make sure not to mention candidates by name!

 

Can I write postcards instead of letters?

We ask that all volunteers use the template and prepare the letters as the instructions describe. Our experimental evidence suggests that letters are significantly more effective than postcards, so we’re confident this is the right approach. Also, all Vote Forward campaigns are also randomized experiments; keeping the format consistent ensures the integrity of those experiments, so we can accurately assess the impact.

 

Are we sending letters to everyone, or just Democrats?

We are carefully targeting letters to voters with the greatest influence on control of Congress. In most cases, voters are less than 75% likely to cast a ballot, but if they do vote, are more than 90% likely to vote for the Democratic candidate.

 

How did you choose the districts?

Starting from Swing Left’s list of 78 target districts, we selected districts that the 538 congressional model projected in mid-August 2018 would be closest. These are the districts most likely to determine control of the House. We also prioritize districts in states with important Senate and gubernatorial races.

 

Do I have to use my full name and home address?

No! If you prefer not to sign your full name, you can use your first name and last initial. Also, we provide an in-state address, a UPS store mailbox, to use as the return address. This way, volunteers don’t have to reveal their addresses. By centralizing the returns, we can also determine after the election which letters were not delivered.

 

Why wait to send the letters until October 30? Wouldn’t it be better to send them earlier?

There’s convincing evidence that the effects of this kind of message fade very fast, so we’re pretty sure October 30 is the optimal sending date, getting letters in mailboxes as close as possible to the election without missing it. There may be some benefits to sending letters earlier, because recipients have more time to act. But those benefits would almost certainly be outweighed by the downside, that many people would forget about the letter by the time election day arrives. The one exception is if you’re sending letters from Alaska, Hawaii, or somewhere else outside the continental US, in which case you should probably send them a few days earlier.

 

Where do the addresses come from?

Ultimately all the addresses originate with state election boards. They make voter rolls and histories available to the public in the interest of electoral system transparency, and to facilitate campaigning by candidates and organizations like Vote Forward. In most cases, we purchase data from Catalist, which standardizes the data into a unified format. Catalist also provides vote propensity and partisanship predictions.

Anonymous ID: ef39c6 Oct. 18, 2018, 3:05 p.m. No.3524148   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4164

You Can Help!

Sending a Vote Forward letter is one of the easiest things you can do. It takes two minutes and one stamp, and meaningfully increases the odds that the recipient will vote. A concrete action you can take, no matter where you live, to get unlikely-to-vote registered Democrats to the polls in November.