this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Memes

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As it should be in the Fediverse (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago by Custoslibera@lemmy.world to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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[–] Jorgelino@lemmy.ml 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Do we really call ourselves "lemmings"? I fee like that kind of portrays the wrong image of us.

I mean, it's like voluntarily going by "sheeple" or something. Do people not know what lemmings are anymore?

[–] Aremel@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Lemmings don't actually jump off cliffs. The source of that myth comes from a documentary where the documentarians made them jump off cliffs.

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56

[–] Jorgelino@lemmy.ml 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I mean, still. I associate them with the games more than anything. And that's definetily not the kind of look i'd want out of a community that originated specifically because they DIDN'T want to just follow the herd and use what's popular regardless of how shitty it gets.

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

Well maybe you should make your own community without that rule and it's NSFW.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 14 points 11 months ago

So embrace it ironically then ;)

[–] pixelscript@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Idk, crusading against common myths is something that's pretty hot these days. Stuff like:

  • Christopher Columbus didn't actually discover America, and he was actually kind of an asshat
  • Bell didn't invent the telephone, he was simply the first to patent and subsequently litigate
  • "Frankenstein" is the name of the scientist, not the monster
  • Many modern tropes about Christian Hell stem from a 17th century political satire novel

Crusading for truth in easily verifiable matters feels very on-brand for the kind of people who use Lemmy. In that light, reclaiming a negative term that's only negative because of a false premise to describe ourselves doesn't sound so bad. At worst, we become a little insufferable as we have to introduce the term with a "well, ackshually", which a lot of us would probably do anyway.

[–] drev@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Personally, I think "lemming" is infinitely better than "fedditor".