Who Would Jesus Bomb? The Republican Jesus Meme and the Fracturing of Ideology

Abstract

This project joins a growing conversation about the cultural significance of memes (and Internet memes in particular), offering a critical analysis of Republican Jesus—one popular image macro that mocks contemporary American conservatism—in order to illustrate the rhetorical potential of these putatively harmless do-it yourself (DIY) creations. Ultimately, I argue that Republican Jesus offers a critique of contemporary conservatism that creates “perspective by incongruity” and, thereby, creates a space for ideological struggle.