I’m glad this meme appeared in a Libertarian group because it helped me remember that I’m not a mindless drone who just repeats talking points. By God’s grace, I’m capable of independent thought and I detect bad ideas even when they come from ‘my tribe.’ I’ll dissect this meme to show you what’s wrong with it.
The meme is a joke. Literally. It is a well structured bit of humor. The message is intended to support the position that drugs should be legal. I’m not going to get side-tracked discussing the topic of legalized drugs because THAT is not what’s wrong with this meme. (I’ll tell you what I think about legalized drugs some other time.)
The first line makes you think this is an anti-drug meme. Almost everyone agrees that drugs are potentially harmful. Putting the first line in context with the rest of the meme reveals that the phrase, “Drugs could ruin your life,” is a misdirection. The comedic term for this is, ‘setup.’ The phrase is worded in a way that leads you to make a false assumption. You understand the meaning of the first line to be, “Using drugs could ruin your life.”
However, this meme isn’t about drugs at all. It’s about criminal behavior. But if the first line was, “Criminal behavior could ruin your life…” there would be no joke. The ‘punchline’ of a joke reveals how the setup was a false assumption. In this case, the punchline reveals that the cause of your ruined life is not drugs, but the police officer who arrests you for using drugs.
The problem is that the message is NOT TRUE. Comedy must be true in order to work. Drugs do not ruin your life unless you use them incorrectly. The policeman who catches you abusing drugs is not ruining your life either. Your poor choices ruin your life, even if you never get arrested.
People who blame the police for arresting them spend their whole lives getting arrested. They believe they are victims of their circumstances. They think they have no choice other than to break the law. These people aren’t helped by a cleverly worded meme that justifies their bad ideas.
Here’s a meme that isn’t funny, but it tells the truth: “Lawless living will ruin destroy you. You are the one who suffers the consequences of poor choices.”
“Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.”
– 2 Peter 3:17
