On Sunday, a reporter for the Atlantic wrote a 1200-word think piece on memes of Vice President JD Vance. The memes show him photoshopped in various ways, ranging from historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln to instantly recognizable cultural figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The reporter concluded in his deep dive by saying, “The best jokes always have a kernel of truth in them” and that, ultimately, the Vance memes work against him because “there is no silver lining to looking like a doofus.” He also said the memes reveal that “some conservatives do not see him as essential to the current MAGA movement,” and because of Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “he’s easier to forget about.”
For decades, I have been writing about the cultural divide that exists in our country between regular people and our cultural curators — the ones who control academia, government, media, corporations, and entertainment. The latter have very little in common with the people who read their work, watch their movies, send their children to their schools, sit in their seats, or buy their products. It is a disconnect that has affected much of the country’s trust in these entities and led to a slow but dramatic change in our politics.
People in power see the world differently than those who do not have power. That divide has never been more glaring than at the conclusion of the Atlantic‘s piece. The reporter is not a bad person. This is how he sees the world and how he views consequences in American politics through it.
What he does not get is that these memes of Vance do not make him a doofus in the eyes of voters. Even those who did not vote for him at all, such as Scott Paterno, a lawyer from central Pennsylvania, wondered if anyone in the media has any sense of humor at all, saying, “Vance, if nothing else, is comfortable in his own skin and confident in his own ability.”
Paterno, who wrote in Condoleezza Rice for president in November, said Vance jumped in on the fun because it is fun by reposting the meme of him as DiCaprio.
“His retweet was brilliant,” Paterno said.
Ribbing each other is normal behavior, explained Paterno, “It’s how we know you are cool. It is the guys who cry about it that you don’t enjoy hanging out with.”
And if it goes too far, the pack usually polices itself in person and online.
Wendell Lee in Missouri concurred. He said Vance isn’t being ridiculed, but he is being treated no differently than any of us treat one another when we are joking around in real life. This makes him, Lee said, “one of us.”
“Vance represents us. He represents all of these characters. All of the memes are us and Vance all at once. He fits all of the roles from comic to inspiring,” Lee said.
The neighborhood I now call home is filled with young parents under the age of 40 whose children scurry around the dead-end street on their bikes once the temperature hits over 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s a tight-knit community that holds several block parties over the year. The guys in the neighborhood are in charge of blocking off the street with orange cones, throwing the steaks on the grill, stacking the wood for our bonfires, and ribbing one another the entire time.
One time, a guy slipped on a red sweatshirt when the air got cold, and he was called Mr. Rogers all night. Another guy looks so much like a former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback that he is called the quarterback’s name more often than his own. They all throw insults at one another, and none of us in the neighborhood have ever thought it was abnormal.
Around here, it’s called “jagging around.”
They laugh more than they don’t when a family crisis happens. All of them have been there for one another — no different than the guys I grew up with in Pittsburgh who still, to this day, rib one another as they have been for nearly 50 years.
As someone who came from a family of many uncles, brothers, sons, nephews, and sons-in-law, I can personally attest that if they do not give you a rather undesirable nickname or find a way to give you “the business,” they do not think much of you.
During the 2024 presidential election, people I interviewed about Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said they picked him because that was who they thought middle America was like.
It became clear Walz was not, despite the stories about his Midwestern father street cred and his “weird” meme, which Vanity Fair called “Minnesota’s most devastating insult” that fell flat because there was no fun in it.
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As David Burge noted on X, “How does one achieve male adulthood in the United States of America while remaining unfamiliar with the concept of affectionate ball-busting among friends?”
In short, it is normal for so much of America, no matter where you stand politically, and reinforces that those in charge of our cultural institutions need to get out of their bubble if they ever want to understand the sea change in America.