War Recast as Meme Culture

Have you seen the video of the US military bombing Iran spliced with clips of SpongeBob Squarepants? It’s an official video released by the US government and represents a new kind of wartime propaganda.

This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto and Peter Balonon-Rosen, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Andrea Lopez-Cruzado, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King.

A screenshot from a White House X post about the Iran war titled "Operation Epic Fury."

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