Ron Paul: Difference between revisions

{{quote|[[Memetic Mutation|GOOGLE RON PAUL]]}}

 

What Paul is probably best known for, on the internet and in the "old media", is his highly devoted and motivated base of young supporters. Many of these supporters first rallied around him during the 2008 election due to his opposition to [[The War on Terror]], his support for drug decriminalization, his [[Cool Old Guy]] image, and the perception that he was a [[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington|"Mr. Smith"]] in a field of [[Sleazy Politician|crooked career politicians]], and his support base grew to include supporters from both the Tea Party and Occupy movements. He tends not to get much attention from mainstream news outlets (which some of his supporters feel to be [[Old Media Are Evil|an attempt to marginalize him]]), unless they're talking about how the winner of the Republican primary can appeal to the young people who voted for Paul. On the other hand, he is omnipresent in the [[Blogosphere]], where his supporters can be found in countless comments sections, [[YouTube]] videos and message boards, to the point where some of them have been accused of using [[Astroturf]] tactics and [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/10/ron-paul-camp-gets-over-enthusiastic-with-spam.ars spambots]. Paul's internet status is borderline [[Memetic Mutation]]—even [[Know Your Meme]] has [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/ron-paul acknowledged] this.

 

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* [[Astroturf]]: His supporters have been accused of this.

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Acts like a nice, genial old man, but his attack ads can be downright scathing.

* [[Yank the Dog's Chain]]: Sort of. He [[Throw the Dog a Bone|finally won the popular vote somewhere]], in the Virgin Islands to be precise, but most of the delegates had already pledged to Romney.

 

* He had a cameo appearance in ''[[Bruno]]'', where he was portrayed pretty negatively.

{{quote|Cost to buy an ad on every story on a major news site every day until the election: $1,500,000.

Cost to pay five college students $20/hour to camp the site 24/7 and post the first few comments the moment a story goes up, giving you the last word in every article and creating an impression of peer consensus: $200,000. }}

** He [http://xkcd.com/497/ also] has a zeppelin that he uses to duel with Cory Doctorow, and can [[Pokémon|evolve]] into [[Tron]] Paul, complete with light cycle.

* Paul is a favorite punching bag on [[Something Awful]]. Whenever they [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/ronpaul-kidz-page.php crack] [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/conspiracy-theory-911.php jokes] about him, the sentence "[[Trust Me I'm a Doctor|I'm a doctor]]," or a close variant, tends to show up as a joke reason for why his political platform should be taken seriously.

 

[[Category:Politicians]]

[[Category:Ron Paul]]