Why air-conditioning suddenly became the internet’s most patriotic symbol

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 r