The Jesusland map is an Internet meme created shortly after the 2004 U.S. presidential election that satirizes the red/blue states scheme by dividing the United States and Canada into "The United States of Canada" and "Jesusland".[1] The map implies the existence of a fundamental political divide between contiguous northern and southern regions of North America, the former including both the socially liberal Canada and the West Coast, Northeastern, and Upper Midwestern states, and suggests that these states are closer in spirit to Canada than to the more conservative regions of their own country, which are characterized by the influence of Christian fundamentalism in their political and popular culture.[citation needed] The Freakonomics blog opined that the map reflected the "despair, division, and bitterness" of the election campaign and results.[2] Slate also covered the image and posited that it might be the reason the Canadian immigration website received six times its usual page views the day after the 2004 election.[3]
Origin
editThe original image was created on November 3, 2004, by G. Webb, a poster on yakyak.org, an Internet message board for fans of the work of Jeff Minter.[4] It quickly became an Internet meme, which The New York Times described as an "instant Internet classic".[5]
Geography
editThe meme is in the form of a map of the U.S. and Canada which depicts a new hypothetical national border between the two countries. The "blue states" from the 2004 election (New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, the Pacific coast, and the Great Lakes states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) have been merged with Canada to form a single contiguous nation of more than 170 million inhabitants, which is labeled the "United States of Canada". The remaining "red states" are labeled "Jesusland". Some versions of the map include Alberta, Canada as part of "Jesusland" due to the province's predominantly conservative politics.
See also
edit
- Bible belt – region in the southeastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is common
- Blue wall (U.S. politics) – States that consistently vote Democratic in U.S. elections
- Cascadia (independence movement) – Bioregion, proposed country in North America
- Conservatism in Canada – Overview of conservatism in Canada
- Conservatism in the United States
- Deep South – Cultural region of the United States
- Ecotopia – 1975 novel by Ernest Callenbach
- Left Coast – American pejorative political expression
- Secession in the United States – A state leaving the Union
- The Nine Nations of North America – 1981 book by Joel Garreau
References
edit- ^ Bai, Matt (November 19, 2006). "The Last 20th-Century Election?". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
Since Bush's disputed victory in 2000, many liberals have been increasingly brazen about their disdain for the rural and religious voters; one popular e-mail message, which landed in thousands of Democratic in-boxes in the days after the 2004 election, separated North America into 'The United States of Canada' and 'Jesusland.'
- ^ Mengisen, Annika (November 9, 2009). "Maps: Fighting Disease and Skewing Borders". Freakonomics blog, from The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
- ^ Lithwick, Dahlia; Lithwick, Alex (November 5, 2004). "Moving to Canada, Eh?". Slate. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
- ^ "I've solved it! - Now the Jesusland watch thread". YakYak. November 3, 2004. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
- ^ Hitt, Jack (December 12, 2004). "Neo-Secessionism". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 13 December 2009.
A proposed map showing the United States of Canada just above JesusLand has become an instant Internet classic.