I maintain that this is not political, but it does convey disdain and poke fun at the smarts involved in deciding to eat horse dewormer to avoid covid.
There is certainly a contingent out there who would insist that this is political, since this idea arose among the supporters of a certain politician. In fact, they’re so zealous that they’ll go to the wall for it, medical advice, facts, and ahem horse sense be damned.
I also maintain that it’s funny, which is really the point of posting memes in the meme place. Funny is really the reason we’re all here anyway. And yeah, freaking out and overreacting at a perceived slight to the point of wearing clown noses is funny.
Before I decided to post that, should I have carefully considered the feelz of those who would take it as a political attack? Or those who maybe think eating horse paste is a by golly great idea for avoiding a non-horse-worm-related illness, no matter their politics? Or those that think the Willy Wonka character is just a snide jerk who dislikes children? Maybe people who hate purple?
I’m not trying to argue with you, just trying to illustrate my point and facilitate more discussion. This doesn’t necessarily have to be about that meme.
I agree that there is fact in here. Regardless of your political bearings, taking a veterinary medication without a prescription because some guy on the idiot box said it would work is pretty damned stupid. That isn’t politics, that is (used to be) common sense and is supported by tons of empirical and anecdotal evidence. Just because people of one political persuasion are doing something doesn’t mean it is political, even when it is being pushed by political figures.
However, posting this meme basically signals tacit approval of stupid people poisoning themselves. That’s a little rude. I’m sure many who lean right would see this as a political attack, because self-poisoning with ivermectin is very much in their lane. If someone told me they thought it’d be great if I choked because I was wearing a mask (totally a dumb example), I don’t want someone to say “good.”
Without agreeing or disagreeing on the meme itself, I agree with your general point. If we aren’t supposed to discuss politics but you are approaching a subject that someone might find political, tread lightly.
See, here’s the rub: you just said the point was correct. At that point it is not entirely political, and we are dealing in fact, not opinion. I’d argue that makes the subject fair game. Not fair game to say something mean, though.
Strife was not my intent in contributing to this post. Yes, my intent when I posted that meme last Fall was to poke fun, which, as Pantalones has pointed out, was a bit rude.
As they say, “The poison is in the dose”. People were buying the horse dewormer, as it could be gotten without a prescription, but the dose for a horse is substantially larger than that for humans, thus people were actually poisoning themselves.
Of course the meme does not make that distinction, but is likely counting on the audience to already know that.