Technology

I'm gonna be that guy and say most of this misses the mark. The point of stupid catchphrases is to make it extremely obvious why something is wrong in a manner that is personally relatable to the audience, nuance be damned. Not only does this not do that, it implicitly agrees with the original premise. Let's look at common examples and retorts.

"Black lives matter" -> "All lives matter"

The initial phrase is short punchy and too the point, but the retorts is as well. Instead of trying to address the issue, it reframes the original to give it a meaning that it doesn't have. (Black lives matter too)->(Only black lives matter). An effective* retort, but not a cache phrase of its own, lest the person be caught looking "liberal".

"Global warming" -> "Look, a snowball/Why is it so cold?"

This retort does the same thing by instead taking the words literal meaning and misinterpreting it deliberately, rather than engaging with the vast body of science that backs it up (our actions as humans have caused a consistent rise in global temperature averages which has caused ecological disasters and a financial apocalypse). The retort moves the perspective away from the original wide view point, and directs your personal attention to the "snowball/cold" (it's cold, therefore it is not warm) despite being incredibly stupid, this comes off as smug to their team, so they are going to repeat it. Excellent thought termination.

"Eat bugs" -> "Shrimp is bugs"

Congratulations to all of you that remember the original lemmy raids and psyop posting, so I'll go through this one for fun. This one stems from a right wing conspiracy theory claiming that due to impending food shortages all regular food will be given to rich elites and we will all be forced to eat bugs. Uhhhhh??? (Food anxiety, antisemitism?, "economic anxiety"/suffering under capitalism, invocation of gross) Shrimp is bugs succinctly acts as a retort because it reframes the issue. Bugs ain't cheap (you won't be forced to eat lobster???) Shrimp aren't gross/unfamiliar (Don't tell me you've never had seafood). Destroying a global cabal in under three words might take some workshopping. (half point for smug because it is stating the obvious)

"Couch-fucker/Weird" -> no retorts yet ...

10/10 no notes lmao. Being verifiably false and still accurate gives you the smugness point off of the bat. "Weird" invokes the gross which reduces support for people that wear spray tan makeup. Couch fucker is both distinct and specific enough to to be remembered, succinct in criticizing Vance's lack of charisma and hot-topic-esqe makeup, and cannot be easily misinterpreted without ceding the entire argument.

"Go woke go broke" -> Go Nazi get shot?

A retort should be:

1. Be smug/obvious about it. (x)
2. Make the people saying it seem gross/weird/weak. (x)
3. Explain/refute/sidestep the issue. (x)
4. Under 4 words/Writable with emoji. (✓)

I'm much more fond of "Follow your leader" although that's a general insult for people that are going mask off.

Much more fond of something that is inherently dismissive of the point like "go sleepy, baby". Always mock the fascist.