Lt. John Pike, UC Davis pepper spray cop goes viral and becomes a Meme

Are we witnessing the rise of a new form of self regulating social control?

In light of all the doom and gloom on ATS, I wanted to share this tidbit for a quick laugh and maybe witness the birth of a new trend.
Link-Uproxx

If you havent already read the story on this incident, there is a good existing thread if you are unfamiliar with this story.

Police Officer peppersprays nonviolent student protestors at UC Davis

As i stated in the title, this story has gone viral on the internet, resulting in an explosion of "lol-pics" or meme's.
The google trends on the keywords have gone through the roof, if you need proof!


here are some of the funniest ones I found.













I saved the best for last. This one spoke volumes to me!




So the question I asked at the top of the thread was "Are we witnessing the rise of a new form of self regulating social control?" And I would say yes.

If you hadn't noticed before, kidding, or shunning is a form of social control. when we look at the etymology of kidding we get

When the OED gives a fairly half-hearted sounding explanation of a word's origin, you know that no one really knows where the word came from. The verb to kid is one of those. It's likely that it came from the noun kid "the offspring of a goat". That dates in English from about 1200, and it is thought to be the same word as Old Norse kið (Swedish and Danish kid), which takes us back to the Old Teutonic root kiðjom "young goat". By 1599 the word's meaning had been extended in English to refer to human children (if you have ever seen young goats playing, you may understand why). How did we get from human children to joking? In 1811 to kid meant "to coax, hoax or humbug" in thieves' slang, and by 1839 it had softened a bit (and expanded from the circle of thieves) to mean "tease playfully, talk jokingly". It is thought to come from the "human child" meaning, with a notion of "to treat like a child", or from the sense "to make a kid (fool, ass) of"

So from this we see that kidding can be thought of as "Coaxing, to treat like a child, to make a kid of".
And by doing this, we hope to change upon or improve ones behavior, such as when we tease people into making a decision. With the birth of the internet culture, we are seeing this behavior on an almost global scale. Now if you get caught on tape acting in an inappropriate manner, the whole world can shun and kid you, as Lt. Pike is now finding out!

Know your meme: Pepper Spray Cop

S+F for comedy factor alone.

Remember this one?

Chinese faked photograph leaves officials on street of shame...

Mockery is a powerful tool, and the creativity of internet memes can definitely help a message spread. I think you're definitely on to something here.

The pension one was pretty funny.

HAHA, wow. This is great stuff. I still can't believe that guy. How dumb are these cops nowadays? To do something so ridiculous like that? This just shows that the Police Departments are indeed looking for idiots to enlist in the police force. Now that I think about it, all the really bad kids I grew up with.......all want to be cops now. Haha

Makes sense! Thanks for the post!

LOLCops?

Awesome!

One thing I've noticed about all these protests that differs from anything I've ever seen before, is nearly everyone is armed with some kind of recording device. Every one of these videos I look at has literally dozens of citizens recording the whole thing.

This might be one of the things that saves us.

Is it a staged event to try and get other protestors to be as peaceful as possible? Psyop?

This one's my favorite:

How about " Okay, next we'll try the sound weapon"...


'

reply to post by magicrat


hey great addition to the thread! Thats certainly another example of how public opinion can be swayed through pics.
I wouldnt agree with attempting to make a legitimate photoshop of someone breaking the law in order to get them in trouble.
however the ones we see here, the jokes and shunning I would agree with. And I do believe we are seeing something new. Global shunning through the internet. I guarantee we will see more of this in the years to come!

OP to your question... yes and no. This is nothing new, in and of itself, it is new in the fact that the general public can now participate in what had been the private domain of the the well connected.

Technology has given the average person the ability to communicate thoughts, ideas and opinions with ease and effect.

The power to sway opinion no longer lies exclusively with those that control the mainstream media.

...as for the picture, I see a pudgy kid that lives in mom,s basement surrounded by "star wars" action figures playing dress up as an officer of the law. It is hard to be upset with the officer(?) for brutalizing these kids, as he was only trying to impress his buddies after all.(sarcasm)

The body language of this officer seemed to be that of someone "showing off" for his peers.

Meme for picture "WHO IS THE BIG MAN ON CAMPUS NOW ?"

reply to post by Backbiter


?



Lol these are really easy to make. I just wish memegenerator was offline at the moment.

reply to post by VonDoomen
Happy to help - the use of Guernica really hits it out of the park for me - the context is absurd and perfectly accurate at the same time. And I think you've hit on a meme to promote the memes: "Global shunning through the internet." I love it!

Originally posted by deepred

This is nothing new, in and of itself, it is new in the fact that the general public can now participate in what had been the private domain of the the well connected.

That's a good point - the basic idea isn't any different than what Jonathan Swift was doing with "A Modest Proposal" (first example off the top of my head). Satire has always been one of the strongest tools for social change, and truth can frequently best be seen through laughter.

The difference is that every single one of us now has the ability to be the court jester, and the satire can spread globally in an instant. This changes the game - probably in a more profound way than we know, or the elite expects.

reply to post by tjack


I couldnt agree with you more!!

If you look at the very first picture, you can count 15 people that are recording this event, and thats only from that angle. But yes, every demostration ive seen so far seemed to have more people taping than actually protesting.
Imagine if digital recorders and the internet were this advanced back in the 60's!?

The future sure aint what it used to be!

reply to post by magicrat


The whole global shunning really is something new!
I mean can you imagine the feeling of waking up and slowly realizing that the whole world seems to be singling you out for shunning via the internet and funny jokes? It has happened to very few people, but it has, and I bet they see the world as a whole new big place!

My personal favorite.



If you just Google image Lt. John Pike Memes, you will find SO many. I might be inspired to make one.

Originally posted by magicrat
reply to post by VonDoomen

 

Happy to help - the use of Guernica really hits it out of the park for me - the context is absurd and perfectly accurate at the same time. And I think you've hit on a meme to promote the memes: "Global shunning through the internet." I love it!

Originally posted by deepred

This is nothing new, in and of itself, it is new in the fact that the general public can now participate in what had been the private domain of the the well connected.

That's a good point - the basic idea isn't any different than what Jonathan Swift was doing with "A Modest Proposal" (first example off the top of my head). Satire has always been one of the strongest tools for social change, and truth can frequently best be seen through laughter.

The difference is that every single one of us now has the ability to be the court jester, and the satire can spread globally in an instant. This changes the game - probably in a more profound way than we know, or the elite expects.

If I were to become much too flowery, I might say... " the truth is bitter medicine, more easily digested when sweetened with humor"

Here's one, because people sitting down can be so unpredictable and dangerous:

reply to post by VonDoomen


My personal favorite...




(I don't know how to imbed sorry)

Know what I see?
I see one fat slob controlling a bunch of unich's. That idiot couldn't run 100 feet without having a heart attack and those "young men" all appear healthy enough to defend themselves, at least now the ridiculous "hoodie" fashion trend finally makes sense.
I hope that pisses you off.