In season twenty, episode one of South Park, the audience was introduced to member berries. Describing these characters, one source states, “Their main function is to remember [i.e., ‘member] pop culture icons, bringing about nostalgic feelings for the supposed good times of the past.”
The sentient fruit serve as a form of escapism—the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy. When thinking of their function, I’m reminded of another term.
A “truth bomb” is a blunt, undiplomatic statement of something that is true and which others may not want or expect to hear. If member berries reflect on the past and truth bombs relate to reality, I propose the term “member bombs” in relation to not forgetting the factual existence in which we live.
For instance, do you member when in 2022, a “Freedom Convoy” took place in Canada when hundreds of vehicles and potentially thousands of people protested COVID-19 mandates? I member, do you member?
Do you also member when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who per one source, “accused Conservative MPs sympathetic to the trucker convoy of standing with ‘people who wave swastikas”? I member, do you member?
Do you further member when the Canadian government took authoritarian measures by freezing bank accounts of hundreds of protesters? Member when people who exercised free speech through protest were subject to criminal proceedings? I member.
Let’s juice these member bombs with reality of the moment, even if there are people who may not want to member anything beyond the Mandela Effect of delusion. Part of what truckers in Canada were protesting was vaccine mandates. According to Yale Medicine:
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said that there’s a “likely association” between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and reported cases of heart inflammation. This inflammation may occur in the heart muscle (myocarditis) or in the outer lining of the heart (pericarditis).
Member being told that COVID-19 vaccines were “safe and effective”? I member, do you member? This member bomb is getting sticky.
Do you member, as one source highlighted of the Canadian convoy, “Nazi symbolism was seen on protest signs, some likening Covid-19 health measures to Jews under Nazi persecution. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies criticised the use of those symbols as ‘a heinous form of Holocaust distortion”? I member.
Hey, do you member just the other day when Canadian parliament members gave a standing ovation for Yaroslav Hunka—a Ukrainian man who allegedly volunteered with the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), a literal Nazi unit—in support of the proxy war in Ukraine? I member!
Member that bloodthirsty war mongers who infringed upon the rights of free speech later applauded an accused Nazi. Member that moving forward.
As a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) practitioner, I can tolerate and accept a great number of things. Namely, I use unconditional acceptance to acknowledge the fact that I have zero control and little influence over most elements in life.
Therefore, I don’t disturb myself with irrational beliefs about authoritarian governments, Nazis, or Orwellian pandemic measures. Be that as it may, I don’t forget these occurrences. I want member bombs rather than member berries.
According to one source, “Never again’ is a phrase or slogan which is associated with the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides.” After all, how can one pledge to never again venture down the path of genocide if one doesn’t member what occurred?
On the 1998 album The Swarm, Wu-Tang Killa Bees featured a song entitled “Never Again,” in which the hook states:
Never again shall we march like sheep to the slaughter
Never again leave our sons and daughters
Stripped of our culture, robbed of our name
Raped of our freedom and thrown into the flames
Forced from our families, taken from our homes
Moved from our G-d and everything we own
Forgive? Sure. Tolerate and accept that the past is unchangeable? No doubt. However, forget atrocities of old, deny that authoritarianism in the modern era rhymes with the past, and applaud an actual alleged Nazi? No fucking way! Member!
If you’re looking for a provider who works to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost old school hip hop REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply helping you to feel better, I want to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
Austen, I. (2022, February 22). Canada ends its freeze on hundreds of accounts tied to protests. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-protest-finances.html
Austen, I. (2023, September). Canada tries leaders of anti-vaccine protest that jammed Ottawa. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/world/canada/trucker-protest-trial-ottawa.html
BBC. (2022, January 31). Freedom convoy: Trudeau calls trucker protest an ‘insult to truth.’ Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60202050
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, September 12). Safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/safety-of-vaccines.html
Hiphopinstrumentall. (2010, March 1). Wu Tang Clan - Never again [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/oxU_iLKJQAI?si=No6E740Z2643CBvX
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Moriarty, C. (2021, June 24). The link between myocarditis and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Yale Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/myocarditis-coronavirus-vaccine
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