Two years ago, the storming of right-wing nationalist Trump supporters on the Capitol shocked the world – Joan Donovan, however, was not surprised by the incident. She studies misinformation on the Internet for Harvard University and expected such an incident. She fears the worst for the 2024 presidential election campaign.
Under the slogan “Stop the Steal” Trump’s supporters understand the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump was cheated of his election victory.
Memes are one of those idiosyncrasies of the internet that are difficult to explain, but once you understand them, the virtual world suddenly makes more sense. Memes are cult-like images, videos or gestures, enriched with catchy sayings, which spread rapidly across a culture via the Internet. They create an “us” versus “them” feeling. You know which group you fall into based on whether a meme offends you, makes you feel understood – or just doesn’t get it. Sometimes memes are funny and innocent, other times there are huge conspiracy theories behind them: for example with “Stop the Steal”, i.e. the idea that a corrupt political system cheated Donald Trump out of his election victory and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. Or at «China virus»-Memes – the theory coined by Trump that the pandemic is actually a Chinese bioweapon against political rivals.