How I, Thorsten Meyer, deploy AI‑generated memes to warn the world about the coming job quake—and build a post‑labour economy before the dust settles.
The 90‑second problem
In a mobile feed you have, at best, 90 seconds to pull someone from dopamine scrolling into serious reflection. White‑papers die in that window; memes survive and multiply. From Russia’s 2016 troll farms to Bloomberg’s influencer campaign, the last decade proved that memes move public opinion faster and cheaper than traditional ads . If weaponised disinformation mastered the craft, it’s time pro‑human voices did the same.
What “memetic warfare” really is
NATO strategist Jeff Giesea defines memetic warfare as “competition over narrative, ideas and social control in a social‑media battlespace.” His 2015 paper argued that the West must learn to fight with cultural “payloads” rather than kinetic ones .
Memes are not jokes; they are replicating units of culture. Their virality obeys evolutionary rules—variation, selection, retention—that can be engineered.
The narrative we need to win
According to McKinsey, 400 – 800 million jobs could be displaced worldwide by 2030—nearly one‑quarter of today’s workforce . The public hears that number, shrugs, and scrolls on. My mission is to turn that statistic into an emotional reality they can’t ignore:
| Threat Archetype | Memetic Emotion | Desired Action |
| “Your boss is upgrading you” | Fear + humour | Share → demand reskilling budget |
| “Who owns the robots?” | Justice | Retweet → lobby for automation dividend |
| “Post‑labour paradise” | Hope | Click → read UBI explainer |
Generative AI: the meme‑factory floor
Three years ago you needed Photoshop skills. Today Midjourney, DALL·E, and Stable Diffusion create studio‑grade images from a sentence, and GPT‑4‑class models spit out a dozen punch‑lines in seconds. Wired called DALL‑E Mini the internet’s “favourite AI meme machine” after it flooded Twitter with surreal mash‑ups in 2022 . Since then:
- Prompt‑tuning lets me generate multiple narrative angles (“CEO firing staff / ‘AI replaced you’ comic strip”).
- A/B testing on X or TikTok identifies the top‑performer for <$20 of ad spend.
- Template libraries turn outputs into remix‑ready Canva/Figma files for volunteer “memetic militia”.
Anatomy of a high‑impact meme
- Signal hijack – Use familiar formats (Distracted Boyfriend, Drake Hotline) for cognitive fast‑lane entry.
- Relevance twist – Replace characters with AI job‑loss tropes.
- Caption punch – 7‑word payload; numbers okay, jargon fatal.
- Breadcrumb – Tiny QR or URL: “postlabour.xyz/faq”.
Average reach per €1 now beats static infographics 12:1 in my dashboards.
Distribution tactics that matter
- Multi‑network swarming – Launch the same meme pack across X, Insta Reels, Telegram, Discord within 30 minutes to game trending algorithms.
- Meme amplification loops – Encourage followers to localise (language, currency, national unemployment stat) and repost.
- Influencer micro‑contracts – 50 k‑follower accounts paid in custom AI art of themselves as “Chief Austerity Officer”.
Measuring the battle‑field
Forget “views”. Track narrative penetration:
- % of comments that cite your key phrase unprompted.
- Spike in Google Trends for “AI job loss” following drops.
- Petition signatures or policy paper downloads within 48 h of a meme swarm.
Building the economic landing pad
Memes without policy is just lulz. The call‑to‑action is Universal Basic Income funded by automation rents. The LSE recently argued a guaranteed income is the simplest way to cushion wage collapse and inequality in the AI era . Tech leaders from Musk to Altman publicly concur .
Ethics, or how not to join the Dark Side
Extremist groups are already using generative AI to mass‑produce hate content . My rules:
- Truth over traction—no fabricated data, no deep‑fake quotes.
- Punch up, not down—target systems, not vulnerable workers.
- Source transparency—link evidence in the thread; every meme has alt‑text for accessibility.
- Opt‑out—any individual depicted can request removal.
Enlist in the #PostLabour Meme Corps
- Download the open‑source template pack (PSD, SVG, prompt files).
- Remix with local stats—Germany’s Kurzarbeit, Bali’s tourism layoffs, your town’s factory closure.
- Deploy Tuesday 18:00 CET—the peak engagement slot for tech & politics Twitter.
- Report back impressions, shares, and policy wins to our public dashboard.
Further reading
- McKinsey Global Institute — “Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained” (2017).
- Jeff Giesea — “It’s Time to Embrace Memetic Warfare” (NATO COE, 2015).
- Wired — “DALL‑E Mini Is the Internet’s Favourite AI Meme Machine” (2022).
- LSE Business Review — “UBI as a New Social Contract for the Age of AI” (2025).
Bottom line: If they can use memes to sell lies, we can use them to sell a livable future. Grab a template, pull the trigger, and let culture replicate our way to a humane post‑labour economy.
