Robin Hood Political Memes: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Far Right’s Appropriation of the English Outlaw

Summary

In her book Memes in Digital Culture, Limor Shifman argues that while “memes are seemingly trivial and mundane artifacts, they actually reflect deep social and cultural structures.” The participatory culture ingrained within internet communities and the creation and dissemination of memes allows for an individual to seamlessly enter into the online political discourse, ingest the message and meaning within the meme, and then transform that signifying matrix into political action. Audiences can transfer that meme to another person, comment on one in a Twitter feed or online forum, replicate it or its message at a political rally, or embrace the ideology of the meme and put it into action at the voting booth. In the present world of new media, Shifman sees memes working in three interconnected ways: they can function as forms of persuasion or political advocacy; as grassroots action, where participants are empowered through the message of the meme to coordinate and organize online and also on the ground; and as modes of expression and public discussion. This essay is a focused venture into the intersected world of medievalismist Robin Hood and political meme culture of the nasty, malevolent, lulz variety from the 2000s and 2010s. I am especially interested with the ways in which authors and artists have corrupted the good outlaw Robin Hood and his ideology into something nefarious and degenerate. The Robin Hood memes that form the basis of this essay are those that reimagine Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama as versions of the outlaw, and these memes share several characteristics. Both Clinton and Obama are linked with communist iconography, and the two are portrayed as questionable capitalists. The adage “It's the economy, stupid” is not lost on these memeists, for they stoke the fear of an economy going under at the hands of Clinton and Obama, the former rendered as one whose corrupt family and foundation will use their political connections to bankroll their own interests, and the latter as a socialist in disguise who will expand the welfare state to the detriment of the free market and the benefit of “urban” (black, multicultural, multiethnic) communities.