A heatwave is blanketing most of the Central and Eastern US this week, and while some are bracing for what could be record-setting triple digit weather, others are coping with, well, memes.
In the days leading up to a dangerous heat wave users are taking to social media to share America’s love of air-conditioning, an amenity that is notoriously absent in most of Europe—which went through its own record-breaking heat dome last week.
“The European mind cannot comprehend this,” a post to X said, alongside an image of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware painting, with an air-conditioning unit held by one of the soldiers.
Since then, air-conditioning has become a sort of American symbol on social media, with users flocking to share their own patriotic artworks featuring AC units.
“Life, Liberty, and Air Conditioning,” another post said, with an image of John Gast’s American Progress.
And others looked beyond art history for more generic references, like another post that shared an AI generated image of the Statue of Liberty holding an AC. Another simply overlaid an AC over the American Flag, no caption needed.
But beyond just silly memes, the trend has quickly escalated into a conversation about the politics of air-conditioning.
“How the f*ck did air conditioning become political ???” content creator Tiffany Fong said on X. While some leaned into the joke, with one user posting an image of various cooling methods like handheld fans and ACs, each labeled with a different political affiliation, others seemed simply annoyed. Another added, “air conditioning is not a right-wing technology, It’s just a pump that makes a room colder. Stop being an idiot.”
But the memes arrive in the shadow of Europe’s heatwave, linked to more than a thousand deaths. Air-conditioning specifically has become a talking point in the days following the extreme weather phenomenon, with critics pointing out how certain American behaviors—like air-conditioning—are a contributing factor to climate change and more extreme weather.
“As the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, you bear a significant amount of responsibility for global warming and the consequences we, in France, are experiencing,” the deputy mayor of Paris for international relations, Audrey Pulvar, said in a viral Instagram post. “Your cities, which are 90% air conditioned, are not unrelated to this.”