askchapo

It's been ages since I read about this, so all the names have been forgotten. Sadly this turns a true tale into a moralising myth, but please listen anyway.
In the 90's a neo-nazi movement robbed a bunch of banks in the us. The movement used this money to fund other movements and minor terrorist actions. Before the group got busted, one of its members donated 10.000$ to some rotten little alt-right rat we all know of today. The purpose of this donation? To set up a solid internet connection, give them a good computer, and make them go online and spread right-wing agitprop.
Thru the years the operation has expanded, gotten more complex and - some would say - effective. Right wing memes and terminology have become the norm.
No other group noticed the potential of the internet to spread propaganda peer-to-peer as early as the Nazis did, and that can be felt.

Is that little endowment the reason for racism online? Of course not! Did it have a meaningful impact? Maybe. At that question we are moreso discussing wether agitprop works at all.
I believe it does.
Was that 10.000$ donation the best use of that money? I believe that at the the time, it was a very good investment. Though I doubt I would think so if that was all they'd donated to.

Memes are, in some sick sense of the word, culture. Culture shapes the way we perceive and interact with the world, and so making culture can help push people in one direction or another (24Hours got quoted by lawmakers to justify torture for a quick example).
However it is not the artists of the world that are currently fighting the IOF. It is not artists making shells, smuggling arms and aid into Gaza. It is not artists that turned a desert into a forest in China. It is not artists that developed Cubas Healthcare or taught kids to read.
So to answer your question: Yes they do help, but how helpful they are depends on the time and the place, and if you ask me, these days there's much more directly helpful stuff able to be done by most. We should not give up discourse to the right, so that they can shape the story how they want, but much more importantly we should not give up the real world