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spread awareness of left-wing ideas in the online meme sphere. As such, the following section showcases the general type of memes posted by the page and how this reflects on its purpose:

while it does not vary in the type of content, it is rather more engaged in public discussion around certain events and actors from a cultural standpoint, offering a left-wing critique carried through memes.

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Figure 5: distribution of the meme type throughout the years.

By looking at the same figure, one key finding needs to be addressed: there are almost no Grassroots action memes present in the dataset. On one hand, this might seem unusual for a page which has left-wing ideals; an assumption could be made that Dezarticulat would be engaging more with other left-wing projects in order to help them gain visibility and raise their followers’ attention with regard to such projects. However, the dataset only contains the most engaged with memes, so in this regard, the takeaway is that people are simply not engaging with such posts. While there are instances where Dezarticulat are using calls to action, most of the times they refer to promoting their own merchandise or Patreon page, with the purpose of raising capital to fund other projects that they have planned.

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In this context, one example of a call-to-action meme showcases its memetic and tongue-in-cheek attribute. In 2017, during the national mock examinations for high-school applications, the dexonline.ro website – the largest online Romanian dictionary – had changed some of the definitions of the words present in the mock examinations, with the purpose of misleading and punishing students which would have cheated by using their phones during the test.

While this situation had evolved into a full-blown scandal, Dezarticulat posted the meme from figure 6, advocating for the nationalization of dexonline.ro through the creation of a petition.

The memetic character of this post also reveals a specific Romanian cultural undertaking from that period, where many petitions fighting against corruption were created and highlighted online by different activists, such as Florin Bădiță, founder of Corruption Kills (Commander, 2018). While the meme itself was not all that visible, as the page still had a small following in 2017, it does show that Dezarticulat deploy memes – even when they are obviously sarcastic – attempting to expose their followers to more radical left-wing ideas.

Figure 6: Call to action meme (translation: “Earlier we posted a revolutionary message regarding the trolling action made by the private company DEXONLINE.RO. We promised we will start a petition for the NATIONALIZATION of this capitalist enterprise. MASS-SIGN HERE: [...] Thank you to volunteer Florin Badita for the technical support without which this digital petition would not have

been possible”).

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Figure 7: Persuasive meme from December 2019, after the presidential elections (translation: first panel: “Say the line, Tibi” (in this context, Tibi is one of the fictional characters created by Dezarticulat, who most of the times is attributed to a ‘normie’ middle-class person); second panel:

“USR is the lesser evil”.)

Although they are not as prominent as the public discussion category, persuasive memes do play a specific role for Dezarticulat. The memes which fall into this category reinforce the page’s position in relation to other actors, either through direct references to their political

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positions or through emotional appeal, which most of the times is manifested through jokes at the expense of the actors involved. Figure 7 showcases such a persuasive meme, which has been placed under the ‘Emotional appeal’ sub-category. What can be extracted from this meme is a sense of inappropriateness stemming from the declaration that USR is the lesser evil, offering a rather obvious nudge to the idea that USR is now part of the same political mesh which has been governing Romania since the fall of communism.

Moving a level further and looking at the sub-categories of the analysis grid, figure 8 offers a more in-depth visualization of the meme timeline. As mentioned before, between 2017 and 2019 there has been an influx of persuasive memes; more specifically, memes categorized as

‘propositional rhetoric and/or pragmatic appeal’ as well as ‘seducing or threatening rhetoric and/or emotional appeal’ make up the bulk of this category. This is, in part, due to the rather antagonistic style of the memes, which focus more on the actors themselves, i.e., making fun of their political opinions, appearance or other personal characteristics. The page is less interested in exposing or providing detailed analysis of political actors, fact which can be seen from the small number of memes contained in the ‘Ethical and moral rhetoric and/or ideological appeal’. Thus, Dezarticulat’s page is underlined as not a place for debating or analyzing politics; it is a left-wing meme space which directly tackles shortcomings of political actors in a highly memetic manner.

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Figure 8: memes posted by Dezarticulat from 2015 to 2021, color-coded according to the sub-type of meme based on Table 1; size based on the number of total engagements.

Some of the most prominent sub-categories of memes are specific cultural allusions and jokes about current events, which cater precisely to the sensibilities of the page’s followers. One of Dezarticulat’s main attributes, as seen from figure 8, is that their content is highly topical, relevant and relatable, which allows it to become easily shareable. However, it must be noted that not all of these memes are necessarily left-wing, yet it is precisely because not all content is ideologically loaded that Dezarticulat has the ability to reach a broader audience. On 27 September 2020, Bucharest held local elections and the candidate backed by USR-PLUS, Nicușor Dan, became the new mayor. The meme in figure 9 was posted on the same day, after the results had been determined, and represents a screenshot from the 2019 film, Parasite.

Dezarticulat remixed the original screenshot from the film in order to tackle an on-going problem with Bucharest, which had been having issues with the access to residential hot water due to the mismanaging of the infrastructure.

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Figure 9: Meme posted in 2020, categorized under ‘Jokes about current events’. Original post is accompanied by a description (translation: Now, in the University Square, party with hot water), but

the post was not available anymore by the time of the writing.

Finally, the last thing which is analyzed in the current section is the dankness dimension. This attribute contributes to painting an accurate picture of how the page reaches its audience. A meme which is categorized as ‘dank’, for example, would require a higher literacy of meme culture, obscure Romanian cultural specificities, past references made by the page or other subcultural references. The dankness of the meme resides in its requirements to be properly decoded by the reader, as it requires a certain familiarity with the content posted. On the other end of the spectrum, a ‘normie’ meme represents a meme which can be easily deciphered even by a ‘mainstream’ audience, as it does not have any prerequisites in understanding it.

Generally speaking, memes which fall into this category are references made to well-known events or popular cultural allusions.

As it can be observed from figure 10, the dankness dimension has not seen any sizeable changes over time. In the earlier days, the page would post a larger number of normie memes,

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which can be attributed to the need of gaining a following as the page shifted its attention from creating comics to memes. Once it had gained a bit of traction, the page started to cater to its followers, which is one of the main reasons for the spike in dank memes posted between 2017 and 2019. This particular period represents a consolidation of the page’s position in the culture war, as it started to engage more and more in social and cultural commentary regarding the dominant ideology in Romania. Finally, the most recent period marked a turn to normie memes. Once again, this change comes with the popularization of the page and a shift in attention towards a model of monetization (by selling merchandise). The appeal to a broader audience, however, does not come with a change in the ideological content of the memes; on the contrary, the memes have become more focused towards the public discussion category.

Figure 10: Dankness dimension between 2015-2019; green represents ‘dank’ memes, purple represents ‘normie’ memes.

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In-depth meme analysis

In this section, the information gathered from the findings and quantitative analysis sections will be expanded using a close reading for some of the memes posted by Dezarticulat. By overlaying a qualitative approach to the previous data-driven analysis, a more precise view of Dezarticulat’s role in the Romanian culture war can be extracted. The memes analyzed in this section have been manually curated from the dataset as to belong to each of the periods mentioned before. The main reason for a manual selection is that it allows for a more comprehensive and detailed representation of each period. Due to the fact that grassroots memes do not have a significant presence in the dataset, I have picked the memes based on the following criteria: one meme for each main category (persuasive and public discussion memes) for each of the three periods described in the beginning of this chapter; the memes were manually selected from the most engaged with content posted by Dezarticulat, based on their attribute of being representative for each period. Apart from the qualitative analysis, contextualization and a translation for each meme will be offered.

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Figure 11: persuasive meme from 2015. Translation: first panel: “I invite on stage the gypsy-loving zionist, Radu Jude.”; second panel: “As the President of the UNATC (National University of Theatre and Film) Senate, I would like to withdraw the Silver Bear prize because of the gypsy propaganda present in Aferim”; third panel: “I will now hand the prize to director and interim dean, Ovidiu Georgescu, for the artistic mastery of ‘Ultimul Zburător’, a brilliant film part of Romania’s authentic cinematography”. Full-size image here: https://i.imgur.com/5qcPqli.jpg.

Figure 11 is one of the earlier posts of the page which blurs the line between being a comic and being a meme. This is, in part, due to it pertaining to the transition period, when Dezarticulat was slowly shifting towards making memes, getting rid of comic strips. Bearing this in mind, the premise of the meme is built upon a larger scandal involving academics from UNATC, film critics and film directors; the meme itself, however, is exaggerating some

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controversial statements made by the newly-appointed president of the UNATC Senate, Sergiu Anghel. From the start, it becomes apparent that Dezarticulat is contesting some serious problems with Romanian society – antisemitism and the discrimination of Roma people – on an ideological level. While these issues themselves are not necessarily exclusive to left-wing politics, subtle nudges are present in the comic – such as the medallion resembling a swastika on top of the curtains. The movie itself – Aferim! – tackles a sensitive and undiscussed part of Romanian history, that is the slavery of Roma people. On the other hand, the comic draws humor from the fact that the two films mentioned – Aferim! and Ultimul Zburător – have had very different performances. Whereas Aferim! won a plethora of awards, Ultimul Zburător has been rather unremarkable.

Setting aside the facts mentioned directly, this meme touches upon the latent corruption which has been ongoing in Romania after the 1989 Revolution. Nepotism and cronyism have been constant problems that Romania has faced, and anti-corruption has been present in the political agendas of numerous political parties, including USR. In this sense, Dezarticulat point out the hypocrisy of the situation, where a critically acclaimed film director would get his reward stripped in favor of a less-deserving figure. The meme makes use of an ethical and moral rhetoric, and while it does not refer directly to the political actors, it tackles corruption in a cultural environment and showcases its relevancy by touching upon a recent event, all while inserting a subtle ideological critique in the meme.

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Figure 12: Meme posted in 2016, under the public discussion category. Translation: “How are you, hustlers? Same capitalism? Same capitalism?”. Description of the post: “If I offer you my dialectics, your body will go crazy. Have a good 1st of May and here’s to less capitalist exploitation, proletarians!

Kisses, Marx!”

Compared to the previous meme, the one presented in figure 12 shows a stark difference in both the content and style. At this point in time, Dezarticulat had already cemented their position as a meme page and completely gave up on creating comics. The image itself is self-explanatory – a picture of Karl Marx, which Dezarticulat posted on the 1st of May, day in which Romania is celebrating the International Workers’ Day. However, the text and the description of the meme need some clarifications for a non-Romanian speaker, as it is making a highly-specific reference. The odd speech is taken directly from a figure who became an internet celebrity – Andrei Versace – who was subsequently made into a character by actor Mihai Bendeac, on his comedy sketch show. Andrei Versace is representative of a social typology present in Romania – wealthy, relatively young people, who are known for being rich and spending money in expensive nightclubs. These people usually come from families

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which have made their fortunes after the fall of the Ceaușescu regime, through different avenues – some legal, some not.

The meme in figure 12 interpolates such a character, with its particular speech, onto the figure of Karl Marx. Considering that in Romania there is a strong anti-communist sentiment, the meme contributes to normalizing such controversial figures, by superposing them onto a more familiar and ‘usual’ character, such as Andrei Versace and the actor who is impersonating him, Mihai Bendeac. The meme falls under the ‘political commonplace’, as the focus of the meme is not necessarily Marx, but rather an image of Marx as the character Andrei Versace. As such, the meme advocates for less capitalist exploitation in a highly memetic manner, which makes the meme less susceptible to criticism and antagonism compared to asserting such a statement straightforwardly. Similar to how some extremist communities, e.g., 4chan’s /pol/, use irony under the pretense of joking, Dezarticular also employs this type of discourse in order to escape the responsibility or repercussions that posting an image of Karl Marx would entail in Romanian society. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, this period marks the transition to more memetic content with left-wing ideas. While not all memes from this period are explicitly left-wing, Dezarticulat are starting to flirt with such ideas in order to gauge the reaction and interest of their followers. The form of the memes themselves, presented in figure 13, underline the fact that this is a transition period – they are using popular meme formats (such as the galaxy brain meme, or ‘he protec but he also attac’) and memes resembling comics, which goes to show that the page was still in its infancy regarding its own conceptualization as a participant in the online Romanian culture war.

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Figure 13: image wall containing the memes from the earlier days of Dezarticulat.

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Figure 14: 2019 persuasive meme. Translation: “Hello, hi, it’s us, Ligia and Tibi, the pigs from your city or village, always on duty. If you are assaulted on the street, if your boss is harassing you, if you are bullied at school, whatever would happen, we will NOT help you! but if your landlord wants to evacuate you, if you go to the Victoriei protest, if you use a bathroom other than your gender’s, be sure that we will be there to kick you out of your precarious home, spray tear gas directly in your face until you have a heart attack, and question you until you become dizzy because we think that the citizens which we defend are lying. our main mission is to protect the private property of business owners and use the baton in the direction that capitalism is pointing to because we’re not here to use our own brains.

In that half hour that we’re actually patrolling in order to do justice and punish criminals, we do it by fining parcangii (meaning people who are illegally asking drivers for money to allow them to park in public spaces), old ladies selling dill at the market, sex workers, and if you are Roma, we might chase you a bit to stay in shape. Safety and trust, hahaha!”

The meme described under figure 14 showcases a typical meme for the period between 2017 and 2019, when Dezarticulat started to post highly memetic, subcultural and dank memes;

this meme in particular was chosen in order to properly explain the style and content of this

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period. The translation offers the general sentiment regarding police, yet there are other things to unpack. First of all, ‘Ligia’ and ‘Tibi’ are two fictional characters created by Dezarticulat and are very similar to floating signifiers. While they usually refer to middle-income, urban, corporate young adults, in this scenario the names refer to ‘normie’ police officers, who took up the job because of its benefits and are less interested in enforcing the law. The anti-establishment sentiment is prevalent throughout this meme; all of the events mentioned in the meme are based on reality, as they have happened numerous times in that specific time period. All of the problems signaled in the meme have one thing in common – they refer to the oppression of minorities, disadvantaged or discriminated members of the Romanian society.

The message of this meme is straightforward, yet an interesting attribute of it is the form;

oftentimes Dezarticulat post memes with very long text, usually formed in an unstructured way. However, this represents the solidification of Dezarticulat’s specific style, characterized by its highly memetic and subcultural attributes. Memes with lots of text are a staple of this period, along with seemingly non-sensical sentences. This is one of the main reasons why the memes from this period are categorized as dank, because they require familiarity with the page, current events and cultural specificities. The meme in figure 14 is one of the more coherent ones, this being one of the main reasons that it has been chosen. Nonetheless, the ideological position of Dezarticulat is strongly reinforced through its disdain for an institutionalized force of repression aimed at disadvantaged people.

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Figure 15: Public discussion meme posted in 2019. Translation: “In their 2000 hit, ‘Inima mea’, the band A.S.I.A.’s lyrics ‘Take my heart with you / And hide it in your luggage / Take it with you there, in America / or in Asia’ bring a critique of Orientalism, as defined by Edward W. Said, as a stereotypical representation of “Eastern” societies as being exotic, primitive or inferior, thus the “East” is seen as

“the other”, and this type of thinking justified the imperialism and colonialism promoted by the “West”.

In this context, ‘Inima mea’ becomes the knowledge of eastern societies which is obscured (hidden in the luggage) and taken to America (seen through the biased perspective of the West) and then brought to Asia (as a colonizing force).”

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This meme makes use of popular Romanian culture through the well-known song ‘Inima mea’

(‘My heart’) in order to educate its followers about colonialism and imperialism. The cleavage between the song, which is nothing more than a generic pop hit, and the theory presented in the meme causes it to be particularly humorous. The intended purpose of this meme is to take a piece of Romanian popular culture and use it as a vehicle for a left-wing critique of imperialism. On one hand, this meme appeals to its in-group, made up by people with left-wing sensibilities or those who have read Edward Said’s work and are familiar with their ideas. But what it also does is to articulate a point of view which is not necessarily discussed or brought to the public eye in Romania, as issues of colonialism are practically unknown outside of small circles in academia.

The main characteristic of this meme is that it is similar to the one in figure 12: in a sense, it is an unnecessary meme. The fact that its purpose is to try and educate Dezarticulat’s followers is an added benefit, but the meme itself and the obscure reference to Edward Said is what makes it a dank meme. This is a tactic used by Dezarticulat on different occasions – not necessarily with a wider significance for the culture war itself, but with the purpose of educating people in regards to a range of important subjects for left-wing politics. Figure 16 shows the broader selection of memes from this period, where it can be observed that this timeframe represents a crystallization of the fact that Dezarticulat are creating their own meme formats. In this sense, Dezarticulat are not only using Romanian political and cultural specificities for the memes, but the form of the meme is highly specific for the page as well.

This fact is directly related to the ‘dankness’ of the period, translated in both the format and the content of the memes.