The Kirby “eat their frame” meme.

The Kirby Frame is a tool for dealing with bad faith arguments. I first posted it as a meme on Bluesky with a running thread of examples, but I’m writing it up for reference (here’s the template file).

It’s based on George Lakoff’s observation that “negating a frame reinforces it.” For example, when Secretary of the Department of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr says autism is bad and autistic people are a drain on society, there is a natural instinct among decent people to point out that those claims are wrong: actually many autistic people are very productive members of society, these famous people are autistic, etc.

But if you do that, you are stepping into their context. You are now having a discussion about the value of autistic people. When you negate their frame, your arguments are shaped like their arguments: if they say autistic people are costly, you cite economic statistics about work. You are responding as though they are acting in good faith, as though they are your audience, as though they might change their mind if you prove that what they’re saying isn’t true.

This is a trap. They will not change their mind and they are not your audience. They are lying because they want to do something. Your audience is not the liar, but other people hearing those lies. Your goal is to help other people understand what those lies are meant to accomplish.

To avoid the trap, you have to eat their frame. By “eat their frame,” I mean respond with a frame that contains and explains what they’re doing.

In this case: RFK Jr is pushing eugenics. He wants disabled people to not exist. He wants to accomplish that by letting them die, stopping them from being born, pretending they don’t exist, and defining a “correct” kind of body: straight, white, male, cisgender, not disabled (where disability is defined as deviation from the correct body). That’s why he’s telling lies about autism.

In this frame we are not having a discussion about the value of autistic people. We are having a discussion about RFK Jr and why he is pushing eugenics. Instead of focusing on bad faith arguments, we focus on the people making them. We can still make sense of what he’s saying: he’s lying to advance the goals of eugenics. Having explained why he’s doing this, we dismiss his arguments instead of treating them as valid points we have to refute. He is now in our context. We eat his frame.

And our argument is shaped like Kirby.

For those unfamiliar with the cartoon or videogames, Kirby is a small friendly pink blob who is surprisingly powerful. His strongest move involves opening his mouth and literally inhaling his enemies, allowing him to temporarily copy their powers or spit them out as a destructive burst of energy shaped like a star. And yes I know, inhaling is technically not exactly the same as eating, but his enemies still enter his mouth and cease to exist.

To use Kirby framing, think through this template:

Frame: autistic people are a drain on society
Negation: no, austistic people are great and productive
Kirby: THEY’RE DOING EUGENICS

First, we identify the bad faith argument. Then we think about what negating it would look like, so we can avoid doing that. Then we find the Kirby frame: we say what’s actually happening, shifting the focus from bad faith arguments to the person making them and what they are trying to do.

Once you’ve got the Kirby frame, you can toss the first two and just focus on communicating what’s really happening. Examples —

Here are some examples from my running thread.

  1. Frame: DOGE was a govt efficiency project to save money
    Negation: Actually it made things less efficient and cost money
    Kirby: DOGE WAS A PROJECT TO BREAK AND PRIVATIZE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
  2. Frame: This public service costs too much, it isn’t making money
    Negation: It’s actually very efficient and it could make more money
    Kirby: THEY ARE ATTACKING THE VERY IDEA OF PUBLIC SERVICES
  3. Frame: Des Moines Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts is here illegally
    Negation: actually his paperwork is in order
    Kirby: THIS IS A RACIST ATTACK BY FASCISTS because a Black man is leading a school district. The better he’s doing the more they hate him
  4. Frame: ICE is targeting criminals
    Negation: No, they’re targeting ordinary people!
    Kirby: THEY’RE WHITE SUPREMACISTS DOING ETHNIC CLEANSING which is why they’re saying everybody who isn’t white is a criminal
  5. Frame: Food stamps are used by undeserving / Black people
    Negation: Actually many people on food stamps are deserving / white
    Kirby: THEY ARE STARVING PEOPLE ON PURPOSE. They are using racist tropes to justify it bc many people will find that persuasive. Everyone deserves to eat
  6. Frame: These African women soccer players aren’t really women
    Negation: Actually they were all assigned female at birth.
    Kirby: TRANSPHOBES ARE ALWAYS RACISTS. They are trying to define whose bodies are acceptable. The National Women’s Soccer League must reject that project, not claim to meet its standards
  7. Frame: Smart glasses are just like an iPhone.
    Negation: no, they’re different in important ways.
    Kirby: THIS IS A SURVEILLANCE TOOL. THEY WANT TO NORMALIZE CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE. They are making a bad faith comparison to try and move the boundaries of acceptable behavior
  8. Frame: Estimates of AI water usage are exaggerated / less than other industries
    Negation: actually these studies show it’s still pretty bad and it’s hard to make good estimates when they hide all the data.
    Kirby: “how much water does it take to disrupt the careers of millions of people? how much water does it take to make deepfakes of underage kids? how much water does it take to exacerbate people’s mental health crises? is there a good number? is there an acceptable number?”
  9. Frame: The humanities are an unprofitable burden to universities
    Negation: Actually many depts make money, students with humanities degrees do very well
    Kirby: IT’S AN IDEOLOGICAL ATTACK. Even if it’s profitable they don’t want people asking questions about society or imagining alternatives
  10. Frame: Trans women have an unfair advantage in sports.
    Negation: no they don’t, these studies and stats etc etc
    Kirby: THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT SPORTS THEY WANT TO ELIMINATE TRANS PEOPLE and they’re actually very open about this.