The Two Percent
My birthday was this past weekend. It’s my favorite time of year on Facebook, largely because I hear from all the people who are my friends; the people I know personally. The entire rest of the year my feed is inundated with memes, advertisements and tiktok snippets that despite my resistance mesmerize me and capture my curiosity.
Of all the memes I see, many of them come from something calling itself “The Other 98%” Friends of mine who are registered Democrats (a right they have, and I respect) repost these memes on their own pages. At first, I found them simply offensive. But of late, I am finding them positively divisive. I decided to investigate this to find out just who is “the other 98%”.
Through a swift google search, I located a site owned by the other 98.
First, I take notice of their slogan:
Together, we are the Other 98.
I am confused. Is the implication that by declaring themselves to represent the “Other 98” they are opposing the remaining 2 percent? And if that is in any way even remotely true – Who cares? Would a collection of 98 percent worry or make any attempt at persuading the remaining 2 percent to think the way they do? No response needed. They would not.
Next comes this:
Ain’t too proud to meme
Reaching millions of people every day on the world’s largest social networks.
Following are several memes which are affectionately entitled “Some of our greatest hits.” Underneath each meme is a tally of post impressions and engagements.
That is the end of that site. One page – to the point.
Then, on another site also entitled the other 98, I find this:
Whoever wins the battle of the story wins the war.
Other98 specializes in winning the battle of the story through meme warfare with some of the Internet’s most viral original political content. Our massive online storytelling machine aims to disentangle complex policy, connect dots between issues like climate justice and reparations, and provide a home for like-minded — and not so like-minded — people to take ownership of these memes, and fight for them accordingly.
My response to that is simply: Whomever stirs the pot incites the war!
But who are these “Other 98”. Located on yet a third site, the “team” is listed:
Our Team
John Sellers
John is Executive Director and cofounder of Other98. John is a principal at Agit-Pop (agit-pop.com) and President of The Ruckus Society. John worked with Greenpeace during the 90s, directing their Washington DC office, sailing with their Marine Division, and coordinating dozens of nonviolent actions throughout the US. In the last 20 years he has coordinated scores of creative actions for the dozens of organizations from the SteelWorkers to CREDO to SEIU to the Students for a Free Tibet.
Kelly Mears
Kelly is our Technical Director. He has an extensive background in web development and online strategy, having built websites, apps, content management systems and other online tools for organizations such as United to End Genocide, SEIU, Credo, and MoveOn.org. As a founding organizer of Occupy DC, Kelly trained dozens of “non-techies” in web development and livestreaming, and organized “hackathons” with groups like Sunlight Laboratories and the Open Technology Initiative at New America Foundation. He is based in Olympia, WA.
Caitlyn McClure
Caty is Other 98%’s Director of Development. A Washington, DC native, Caty has done development and communications work for several non-profit organizations and public elementary schools. She has also organized and played support roles for protests with groups like Anti-Racist Action DC and The Tribe. As a founding member of Occupy DC, Caty was responsible for providing content and strategy for the group’s social media feeds. Caty is also based in Olympia, WA.
Andy Menconi
Andy is the Artistic Director and Cofounder of Other98. Andy is a graphic designer and animator who has been creating viral content since 2000. While working as a web designer for Bank of America, he won ‘Bush in 30 Years’: a flash animation contest sponsored by MoveOn.org, which opened the door to being the graphics guy for many progressive political organizations. He went on to form Agit-Pop Communications, an award-winning viral media firm with partners John Sellers of the Ruckus Society and Andrew Boyd of Billionaires for Bush.
Genevieve Raymond
Genevieve Raymond is our Operations Director. Genevieve has an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA and has worked with Rainforest Action Network, the Ruckus Society, and Urban Strategies Council, providing research and data analysis to Oakland’s community-based organizations. Genevieve is also a co-founder of MOMS – Making Our Milk Safe, which advocates to reduce toxins in breast milk.
Ironically, the name that does not appear in the “team” list of members is that of Andrew Boyd.
Andrew Boyd (born 1962) is an American author, humorist, and veteran of creative campaigns for social change. He led the decade-long satirical media campaign Billionaires for Bush. He co-founded Agit-Pop Communications, a “subvertising” agency, as well as the netroots social justice movement, The Other 98%. (Wikipedia, 2024)
In case you were wondering, The Other 98 is classified as a 501C (4) tax exempt status. They are in Vashon, Washington and as of 2019 listed a budget of $346,129 revenue: $347,764 expenses of $145,032 in assets. Liabilities of $5,643. Comp of current officers, directors, etc. totaling $87,000. Program service revenue of $328,489 and contributions totaling $17,620. (Influence Watch, 2024) Of all this information those last two numbers piqued my curiosity. After all, a few people sitting around on computers generating memes and putting them out on Facebook doesn’t seem like it would have any “service” that would generate an income, much less $328k. It is curious – to say the least.
So, to recap, a handful of well-intentioned individuals have embarked on this path of political activism which has led them all to propagate memes on social media. I am willing to concede that despite the best of intentions, things can and often do go awry and are now escalating towards viciously stirring the pot; a pot which is dividing this country.
I always believed (still do) that what made America great was its melting pot quality that contained so much diversity, so much talent, and so much opportunity that we as a nation could find the best in each other and bring out the best in everyone – including ourselves. Dare I say these memes are having the opposite effect.
I would LOVE to hear some good qualities that Kamala Harris brings to the table as I have neither seen her accomplishments in the 3+ years she has served as Vice President, nor have I seen any memes highlighting her talents. Instead, this self-appointed team of lobbyists prefer to take the low road, badgering readers with hate, criticism and insults which would naturally bring someone to conclude that this is the side to be on? I think not.
Better yet, as a Birthday request, I could ask that my feed be returned to normal and I once again be permitted to see and read posts from friends that I would like to keep up with and know that they are happy, healthy, enjoying life, etc. (even if they are Democrats)!
References:
InfluenceWatch, retrieved from the world wide web on September 4, 2024 from https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/other-98-action/
The Other 98, retrieved from the world wide web on September 4, 2024, from https://other98.com/memes
Wikipedia, retrieved from the world wide web on September 4, 2024 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Boyd_(author)