Shining City on a Hill Copypasta

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About

The Shining City on a Hill Copypasta is a copypasta often posted by conservative Americans in response to President Joe Biden's tweets to ironically tout Biden as the best President who is "leading us to a Shining City on a Hill," a reference to Jesus's sermon on the mount that is used in political rhetoric to call America a worldly "beacon of hope." The copypasta began in September 2022 after Biden made a speech warning about extremist MAGA forces.

Origin

The phrase "City on a Hill" is a reference to Jesus's "sermon on the mount," which appears in Matthew 5:14. In 1630, John Winthrop made a speech referencing it.^[1] In 1989, President Reagan used the example of a "shining city on a hill," directly referencing Winthrop, to describe American exceptionalism and paint America as a beacon of hope on the world^[2] (shown below).

On September 1st, President Biden made a speech where, in part, he claims that America's democracy is at risk due to what he deems "MAGA forces" in the country.^[3] On September 2nd, he posted an image macro to the @POTUS Twitter^[4] account with a quote from the speech, garnering over 45,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in five days. On September 2nd, Twitter^[5] user @BushPosting made a satirical comment saying Biden is leading America to a "shining city on a hill after four years of Trumpian darkness," garnering over 400 likes in four days (shown below). This is the first known use of the copypasta.

Mr. Biden, I'm a conservative Republican, and I think I speak for every fair and reasonable American when I say that out of all the presidents we've had, you're the greatest of them all. You're leading us to a Shining City on a Hill after 4 years of Trumpian darkness.

Spread

The tweet spread as a copypasta over the following days, often posted under tweets from the @POTUS Twitter account (examples shown below).

On September 4th, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @Conn4Patrick posted an image compiling multiple comments using the copypasta, writing, "To prove my point of libs pretending to be 'ultra MAGA'." On the same day, Twitter^[7] user @letthem_eatcrow posted the same image under an @POTUS post accusing the users of being bots, garnering over 2,000 likes and 1,000 retweets in two days (shown below). On that day, a Redditor posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[8] asking about the copypasta.