Any self-respecting “meme historian” would refer to themselves as a memeologist.
They would know the history of the word “meme” and that it is explicitly intended to be analogous with the word “gene”.
We don’t call them gene historians, we call them genealogists.







When the meme is in a digital format, then yes you can cut and paste.
Memes live in many formats though. Everything you have ever said is a meme in an audio format. Every thought you’ve ever had is a meme in the “thought” format. I’m not sure how you might crispr those.