TO THE EDITOR:
The recent editorial “The case against Soviet memes” suggests that college students and other meme lovers turn a blind eye to the historic implications (and, in many cases, horrors) of the Soviet Union’s legacy.
Insinuating that Russian bots are responsible for “Soviet fetishism,” the editorial provides no factual basis for this claim. In speculatively linking Stalinist memes, Russian bots and the Mueller investigation, the editorial trivializes an investigation that, if not taken seriously, threatens the vitality of the American political system.
From here, the editorial asserts that this “sex appeal of evil” comes at the expense of acknowledging the horrors of the Soviet regime. It is unquestionable that events such as the Ukrainian Holodomor, Katyn Forest Massacre and gulags are atrocious crimes against humanity.
But the USSR is not the only “bloody empire” to use consolidation or nationalism as grounds by which to expand. We need only look to our own history (and the bountiful list of symbols associated with American imperialism) to understand that packaging atrocities as emblems of ideological superiority is one of empire’s first exports.
Published on Friday, February 23 paper — the 125th Anniversary Edition of The Daily Tar Heel — this editorial leaves a blot on what it means to be, in the editorial’s words, “the college kids of America in 2018.” Yes, it is our duty as students to think critically about the media we consume and the messages it invokes. But to do this without facts or a limited, ahistorical lens is ineffectual, uninformed and careless.
Frances Cayton
History
Senior
