A theory of ideas that fail to propagate within the attention economy—not because they are untrue or unimportant, but because their very structure resists memetic spread. Anti-memetic ideas are often complex, emotionally fraught, context-dependent, or inconvenient to power. Asparouhova argues that these ideas tend to disappear in systems optimized for virality, despite being the ones most worth preserving.
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Readings:
Book: Anti-Memetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading by Nadia Asparouhova (2024)