By the time the Arizona Republican Party's digital billboards urging Phoenix residents to EAT LESS KITTENS and Vote Republican! went up on Tuesday, the story they referred to had already been widely debunked.
While the story has so far not proved credible, it has proved meme-able – and that has given it a life far beyond the right-wing internet.
Their over-the-top imagery gives them the feel of an inside joke. A just kidding is implied, allowing political figures who might otherwise have hesitated to circulate debunked material to get in on it.
More than once, memes that are mostly or completely detached from actual events have spilled off the internet into the three-dimensional reality of the campaign itself.
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