Earlier this year, a “nihilistic penguin” went viral. The short clip shows a penguin on the ice leaving its colony and wandering alone across the endless frozen expanse – behavior that is highly unusual from a biological perspective. This scene presents a tragic allegory open to many interpretations. The footage comes from a 2007 documentary by filmmaker Werner Herzog.
Memes have now become a permanent part of online culture and are here to stay. They also play an increasing role in political discourse – shaping people’s perceptions and even opinions. This trend is particularly visible in the US, where an ever-increasing flood of memes have influenced elections and permeated everyday life since at least 2016.
It’s a worrying development, says cultural scientist Wolfgang Ulrich, author of “Memocracy.”
“Excessive, aggressive, often offensive social media content, especially memes,” he explained, “often influences political discourse—resulting in people debating with each other less and less.”
“Each side tries to mobilize its own followers by using witty, often scandalous, spiteful images and comments,” Ulrich told DW. Politics is also beginning to look like memes, he says, “meaning they’re designed to be as sharp and provocative as possible – as if the goal was to deliver a punchline rather than simply present an argument.”
Trump and his meme warriors
US President Donald Trump is particularly adept at capturing people’s attention. He follows the logic of social media, where the most extreme or provocative posts attract the most attention.
Trump’s so-called “meme warriors” are more than happy to help him. These supporters churn out AI-generated images and memes every day to promote their political agenda. “And of course, everyone hopes for their ideal [Trump] “They’re going to get a lot of reposting of their content,” Ulrich says — like in mid-April, when the US president posted an AI-generated image of himself portraying a Jesus-like savior after a dispute with the Pope. He quickly removed it after criticism from fellow conservatives.
Ulrich says this type of polarized communication is harmful to democracy. Discussions become so emotional that “meaningful debate is no longer possible.” A strong democracy requires these kinds of discussions – presenting logic rather than insults and provocations.
bordering on sarcasm
The image portraying Donald Trump as a saint-like figure may have been a caricature created by one of Trump’s opponents, intended to ridicule the president’s self-glorification. Then the effect would have been different, Ulrich explains, because “images take on meaning only through the context in which they are used,” Ulrich says.
Like traditional caricatures, memes can serve to criticize the ruling elite and question social structures. But when they become the primary tool for the head of a global superpower to ridicule political opponents or mock those with less power, it takes them out of the realm of satire, Ulrich says. “It’s an absolutely perverse form of everything that satire and caricature traditionally is.”
curtain for questionable politics
What’s more, serious subjects are being treated with undue carelessness. To take one example, Ulrich points to a June 2025 post by the US Department of Homeland Security on X. It featured an AI-generated image of a planned immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz”. A line of crocodiles wearing ICE caps stood in front of the fence. The caption reads: “Coming soon!”
“Such memes completely distract from the fact that we are talking about human lives as well as processes that are questionable under the rule of law.” While the post sparked criticism and debate over whether or not the depiction was acceptable, it only served to draw public attention, Ulrich explains, “and the real crux of the matter – the people – falls out of view.”
At the end of the day, Ulrich says, recall of political communication plays into the hands of those with authoritarian tendencies. This creates room for ambiguity, as users can always claim that it was all just a joke.
develop counter strategies
Ulrich explains that the most important way to avoid being manipulated by memes is to understand the workings of social media and observe your own and others’ reactions.
“We have become accustomed to totalitarian rulers who arrive with extreme grandeur and frighten and destroy us with violent fantasies – like Leni Riefenstahl did.” [Editor’s note: Riefenstahl shot propaganda films for the Nazis.]
By contrast, memes are small and seemingly harmless: “This is a new approach to politics through aestheticization, which is very clever, very populist, very suggestive,” says Ulrich. “And I think we need to raise more awareness about it.”
This article was originally written in German.