#TakeAKnee: Symbolic Protest Meme is Antifragile

Having been outspoken against Trump since before the election, I am encouraged to see that we may have found a particularly effective form of protest in #TakeAKnee (or #TakeTheKnee). We have the initiative of Colin Kaepernick and those who followed his lead to thank for that. I realize that this started out as a protest against police violence as part of the Black Lives Matter movement during the Obama administration. I believe it has the potential though to morph into a broad and effective protest against Trump without losing its important origin.

One of the particularly frustrating aspects of watching the ascendancy of Trump was how impervious he was to any rational critique. In fact, his campaign was designed to obliterate such an approach by embracing outright lying and outrageous statements from the get go. Trump was extremely effective at labeling individual opponents in ways that made them seem weak. He was aided in that online by a large meme creation army.

But now Trump has found an adversary that is of a different nature: a symbol that can spread and be adopted by anyone. TakeAKnee has the potential to be the first truly successful Trump protest meme. And like other memes it is antifragile. The more Trump and his supporters attack it, the more media time it receives and the more it spreads.

What makes it so powerful is that it appears Trump is taking TakeAKnee as disrespectful of him personally (his rhetoric about flag or anthem notwithstanding, everything with Trump is persona). So when he sees it he can’t help himself but react and tweet, which then gives it coverage, gets more people to participate and sets off another round. Trump is easy to provoke. This is one of the attributes that makes Trump so inappropriate as a leader and is playing itself out with potentially terrible consequences vis a vis North Korea. TakeAKnee aims straight at that weakness.

So with this in mind, here is a cartoon that captures the potential. Exercise your right to free speech, help protest violence against black lives, and give Trump more opportunity to show his true nature by sharing this meme and if you have the opportunity participating.