That's what I generally call "Nickelodeon thinking," since Nick used to run six-hour blocks of kids' sitcoms where the average adult IQ was about 4. True, it's a kid's-eye view of the world: adults care about things that aren't important, make up stupid rules that don't make sense, and don't give kids the attention they deserve.

But it also reinforces the idea that adults can't be trusted and aren't worth listening to. I think a steady diet of a single message can cause it to be imprinted on the psyche, and it's one more reason parents need to monitor the influence TV has on their children and act quickly to point out and neuter bad memes.

One thing my parents did right was to inoculate me against television commercials by pointing out the different types of advertising pitches. Memes are like gneechees: give 'em a good hard look and they're gone.