October 23, 2021

"In early Oct., a 'F--- Joe Biden!' cry broke out among the crowd at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway."

"Kelli Stavast, an NBC Sports reporter, was interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown live on air at the time, and she quipped, 'You can hear the chants from the crowd, "Let’s go Brandon!"' Trump supporters instantly saw signs of a coverup, claiming on social media that journalists were deliberately censoring anti-Biden sentiment. The brief video exchange quickly turned viral. The result has been a proliferation of chants in recent weeks, both of 'Let’s go Brandon!' — now used as a stand-in by the Trump faithful — and the more vulgar original, sometimes shorthanded as 'FJB.' Trump’s Save America PAC has even begun selling a $45 T-shirt featuring Biden’s black-and-white visage above the phrase 'Let’s go Brandon.' And the PAC sent a message to supporters that read, '#FJB or LET’S GO BRANDON? Either way, President Trump wants YOU to have our ICONIC new shirt.'... The vitriol has even entered the House chamber. Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) wrapped up a floor speech this week with the sign-off, 'Let’s go Brandon.'..."

From "Biden’s critics hurl increasingly vulgar taunts" (WaPo).

I've avoided talking about the "Let's go Brandon" trend. It irks me, because I favor civility. But I'm blogging this, because I police what I call "civility bullshit," which is the expression of concern by those who hope to suppress what they fear is the effective rowdy speech of their opponents and who will revert to defending and enjoying such speech when it's coming from their side. 

Now, that I'm talking about it, I want to say that it's funny that the civility bullshitters have to rail against a phrase that isn't vulgar at all: "Let’s go Brandon!" The original viral video is very funny, and it made the phrase well known as a stand in for what would be a very vulgar phrase. And some people are still saying "Fuck Joe Biden," which you might object to having foisted on you in public. But if you hear "Let’s go Brandon," can you still get mad, because of the words behind the words? 

I've said it irks me, but I mainly shut up about it, because it's like getting irked when someone says "shoot" or "phooey." I know what you're really saying. You can't fool me... but you could lure me into looking like a ridiculous prig. 

AND: Researching this post, I got into the topic of "Anti-Language" (a subsection of "Cant" at Wikipedia):
The concept of the anti-language was first defined and studied by the linguist Michael Halliday, who used the term to describe the lingua franca of an anti-society. He defined an anti-language as a language created and used by an anti-society. An anti-society is a small, separate community intentionally created within a larger society as an alternative to or resistance of it....

Anti-languages are developed by these societies as a means to prevent outsiders from understanding their communication, and as a manner of establishing a subculture that meets the needs of their alternative social structure. Anti-languages differ from slang and jargon in that they are used solely among ostracized social groups including prisoners, criminals, homosexuals, and teenagers. Anti-languages use the same basic vocabulary and grammar as their native language in an unorthodox fashion. For example, anti-languages borrow words from other languages, create unconventional compounds, or utilize new suffixes for existing words. Anti-languages may also change words using metathesis, back formation (e.g. apple to elppa), or by substituting their consonants. Therefore, anti-languages are distinct and unique, and are not simply dialects of existing languages.

In his essay "Anti-Language", Halliday synthesized the research of Thomas Harman, Adam Podgórecki, and Bhaktiprasad Mallik to explore anti-languages and the connection between verbal communication and the maintenance of social structure.... Halliday's findings can be compiled as a list of nine criteria that a language must meet to be considered an anti-language:
  1. An anti-society is a society which is set up within another society as a conscious alternative to it.
  2. Like the early records of the languages of exotic cultures, the information usually comes to us in the form of word lists.
  3. The simplest form taken by an anti-language is that of new words for old: it is a language relexicalised.
  4. The principle is that of same grammar, different vocabulary.
  5. Effective communication depends on exchanging meanings which are inaccessible to the layperson.
  6. The anti-language is not just an optional extra, it is the fundamental element in the existence of the “second life” phenomenon.
  7. The most important vehicle of reality-maintenance is conversation. All who employ this same form of communication are reality-maintaining others.
  8. The anti-language is a vehicle of resocialisation.
  9. There is continuity between language and anti-language.
Examples of anti-languages include Cockney rhyming slang, CB slang, verlan, the grypsera of Polish prisons, thieves' cantPolari, and possibly[weasel words] Bangime.

I got started down this path by thinking that "Let's go Brandon" was kind of like Cockney rhyming slang.

ALSO: What is "resocialisation" (point #8, above)?

Resocialization or resocialisation (British English) is the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are re-engineered....

Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the institutional staff try to erode the residents' identities and independence.... The second part of resocialization process involves the systematic attempt to build a different personality or self...

That returns us to the subject discussed in the previous post

PLUS: "That returns us to the subject discussed in the previous post" and requires me to posit the questions: 1. Is the Google a total institution? and 2. Is Google making a systematic attempt to build a different personality or self?

91 comments:

Michael K said...

Now, if only they were burning down police stations instead of chanting "Let's go Brandon," civility would be the norm.

Iman said...

“the phrase well known as a stand it for what”

Think you’d meant to write stand in

Incivility they cry! I think back over the last 5 years and marvel at the Left’s level of hypocrisy. Unserious people.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

What words can be projected into (out of?) the mouths of people who kneel when the national anthem is played. Probably only wholesome goodness.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

My favorite iteration is the LGBT t-shirt: Let’s Go Brandon Team!

JPS said...

“and she quipped”

Was that a quip? I thought she either chose to hear something entirely different than what the crowd was chanting, or she knew quite well and was attempting to make a tactful cover.

But I’m open to the possibility that this woman has a wonderfully wry sense of humor, ready when she needs it.

wendybar said...

Fuck Joe Biden. We have heard worse things said about George W and Trump. Spare me the civility, when we have no clue what that is anymore after the last 4 years.

Tim said...

Since we are busy redefining words such as "gender" in order to promote the "resocialization" that the left is so desperate for, then how can anyone object when the pushback includes "Let's go Brandon" resocializing college students?

EAB said...

I can’t access the article, but does it acknowledge that the F Joe Biden chant was already happening throughout college football games? Students doing it. I’m watching College GameDay as I type, and this is the second weekend in a row that a hand-lettered “Let’s Go Brandon” sign is up front and visible. I personally would prefer politicians (elected or campaigning) stay away from it and let it remain an entertaining, juvenile, and unsanctioned prank. (I believe VA Tech is punishing students for the chant by limiting attendance. Stupid reaction.)

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Where was this BS civility in 2020 when “all lives matter” would get people ostracized or worse and the militant chant of BLM was officially endorsed with government force? Where was WAPO hand-wringing over ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS? To me smearing all law enforcement, with the rich diversity of the LEOs across this fruited plain, seems divisive illogical and fundamentally unfair. But sitting democrats in Congress endorsed ACAB, repeated it, called for defunding cops. FJB is harmless, has zero policy implications and unlike most mob actions we are used to seeing actually identifies isolates and ridicules the actual guilty party at the root of all that’s going poorly right now. That spontaneous Alinsky-like chant is so effective and infectious it scares the Left even more than COVID.

Achilles said...

The issue is that Biden is such a bad president.

He is corrupt. He is a rapist. He is a child molester. He has dementia. His policies are causing double digit inflation. He is flooding our streets with crime. He turned Afghanistan into a national embarrassment. He abandoned hundreds of Americans in Afghanistan. He lied about it. He called parents domestic terrorists. He is defending and covering boys in skirts raping girls in school bathrooms.

The other issue is that the 30% of americans that actually support him are such shitty people. You have to be a shitty person to support this. And they are loud and violent about it.

So the rest of us are going to be less and less civil about your obvious disgusting attacks on our freedom and prosperity.

rhhardin said...

"It irks me, because I favor civility."

The fuck Joe Biden chant is probably more for civility than Althouse is. There's nothing mean spirited about it. It's an enjoyable rejection of false pieties of this administration, among them Biden's mental competence, not to mention the false pieties of the polite society used to reduce speech.

Among the suppressed phrases, stupid cunt. Who would be motivated to suppress that, is the question. It's not polite but is it accurate. What's the suggested alternative.

Cunt, in the American use, is a women who insists on woman-stuff at the expense of more general welfare. It's sex-specific in the sense of what sort of stereotypical thing is involved (feelings over structure); the British have generalized it to any unlikeable and unreliable person, man or woman, with no woman-specific connotation.

The polite alternative is what? Same thought, but approved words.

Mr Wibble said...

After eight years of vicious and ugly attacks on Bush, and four years of the same against Trump, I don't want to hear a damn word about how awful it is to mock Biden.

rhhardin said...

Sociologist Erving Goffman in "Asylums" investigates the underlife in total institutions explicitly. It's a very enjoyable book, by the way. A sociologist like no other.

Among the findings was that people in total institutions don't do what they organization says they do, and are often positively obstructions to their jobs. This led to closing down of mental institutions in the 60s, as everybody misunderstood the point. Goffman didn't regard it as a failure of the institution. It was typical of all of society.

He had a nice summary point at the end of the book

The simplest sociological view of the individual and
his self is that he is to himself what his place in an
organization defines him to be. When pressed, a sociologist
modifies this model by granting certain complications :
the self may be not yet formed or may exhibit
conflicting dedications. Perhaps we should further
complicate the construct by elevating these qualifications to
a central place, initially defining the individual, for sociological
purposes, as a stance-taking entity, a something that takes up
a position somewhere between identificaton with an organization
and opposition to it, and is ready at the slightest pressure to
regain its balance by shifting its involvement to either
direction. It is thus _against something_ that the self can
emerge. This has been appreciated by students of totalitarianism ...

I have argued the same case in regard to total institutions. May
this not be the situation, however, in free society, too?

Without something to belong to, we have no stable self, and yet
total commitment and attachment to any social unit implies a kind
of selflessness. Our sense of being a person can come from being
drawn into a wider social unit ; our sense of selfhood can arise
through the little ways in which we resist the pull. Our status is
backed by the solid buildings of the world, while our sense of
personality identity often resides in the cracks.

Goffman _Asylums_ ``The Underlife of a Public Institution'' p.320

Lurker21 said...

"Subculture" is a more accurate and less pejorative term than "anti-society." Millions of people either can't stand or are disappointed by Joe Biden. It seems like those who still like and admire him would be the "anti-society" -- and in more ways than one.

I don't like or approve of the obscentity either, but we may be crossing a threshold. People's usual political likes and dislikes may be passing over to real anger about the state of the country and the man who is responsible for so many of our problems.

I wonder a bit about the "like or approve" of the last paragraph, though. We don't like in Queen Victoria's or even in Eisenhower's day. Obscenity and vulgarity have long since become permissible and pervasive. Do I really dislike and disapprove, or do I just accept it as something people say? Does our liking and approving really matter?

mikee said...

Totalitarians cannot abide ridicule, it immediately removes the veneer of self-aggrandized authority they assume. Thus the civility bullshit "Let's go Brandon!" chant is even more effective at antagonizing and demeaning the left than "Fuck Joe Biden!"

Sarah Hoyt has #teamheadsonpikes, perhaps as hyperbole, for much the same reason. Suggesting that their opponents can only be stopped by violent incivility - thus ridiculing the left's passionate authoritarianism with equally extreme opposition to it - exposes the left's logical end game should their ideology succeed. If the hashtag isn't a joke, just remember that Ceausescu's last Christmas was indeed a glorious day for freedom and make merry yourself.

Unknown said...

Weren't numerous public officials leading the way with the F-bombs over the last year or two?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-chart-shows-the-obscene-amount-of-swearing-lawmakers-are-doing-in-public-2019-08-19

Temujin said...

"Let's go Brandon" is much more civil than 80,000-100,000 fans at college or NFL football stadiums shouting "F*** Joe Biden". And a key point was missed: this is not just being uttered by madcap Trump faithful. This crosses well into independent territory. Heck...I heard it shouted at the ALCS baseball game in Boston this past week. Boston not known as a Trump hotbed.

You have to love the civility of "Let's go Brandon" over the actual meaning it alludes to.

Wince said...

Biden’s critics hurl increasingly vulgar taunts

The evolution of WaPo headlines:

Republicans "Seize," "Pounce," and now... "Hurl."

Richard Aubrey said...

Your last graf; very apt.

John henry said...

If I say LGB! am I supporting lesbians gays and bisexuals of non supporting president* Joe Biden?

Interesting post on the semantics. I've never heard of "anti-language" before. I've always hear it called "cant" sometimes thieves can't, gypsy can't and do on.

As for LGB being like cockney rhyming slang, I'm not seeing it. Cockney rhyming slang starts with a word like feet.

From that it gets plates of meet which is then shortened to plates.

Orwell wrote a great essay on can't, rhyming slang and other oddities of the English language.

https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

Joe Smith said...

Trump was SAVAGED ever since he took that escalator ride.

There is nothing that can make up for the vitriol directed towards him from the left and the media (but I repeat myself) over these past many years.

And George W. before him to a lesser extent.

The left is evil because they are the enablers and cheerleaders of socialism and communism, and everything is in play to stop those scourges...

Bender said...

"Let's go Brandon" isn't offensive because of the dog-whistle implied incivility.

It's wrong because of the thoughtcrime -- the opposition to Joe Biden in whatever form.

Bender said...

when someone says "shoot" or "phooey." I know what you're really saying. You can't fool me

That really says more about the person who "isn't fooled" that it does about the speaker.

So if a six-year-old child in her innocence says "shoot" or "phooey," you're going to tell her that she's really thinking and saying "shit" and "fuck"?

How about we not presume the worst of people?

There comes a time when incivility bullshit is bullshit.

Kevin said...

The people have always had a means of fighting back against those who would censor them.

That's why authoritarian regimes ultimately resort to mass murder.

Merny11 said...

We listened to constant ridicule, name calling, and vulgarities for the last four plus years. If the left doesn’t like it that we are voicing some of our own just too flippin bad!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Of course even the headline is a lie: starting out as FUCK JOE BIDEN! and transitioning to LET’S GO BRANDON! is the exact opposite of “increasingly vulgar.” If you write, “During Trump’s presidency Robert Deniro became ‘increasingly vulgar’” then you would be onto something.

Maynard said...

I've avoided talking about the "Let's go Brandon" trend. It irks me, because I favor civility.

What is uncivil about that chant? People who avoid saying "FJB" due to civility concerns can now express their feelings. I would never wear a t-shirt that expressed things in a vulgar manner, but I love my new shirt with "Let's Go Brandon".

The phrase is also about the corporate media gaslighting us. That may be the most meaningful aspect of the popular chant.

Anonymous said...

I don't like the football chants of F Joe Biden. It's funny in a sense though because most of the people in a college stadium are left of center college students or their suburband liberal parents. College students demand to be transgressive. It's part of growing up.

As for Let's go Brandon? The reporter was doing a coverup, and In most settings, I think it's an amusing jeer that annoys the right people. I'm good with it. It's not appropriate on the House floor, by the military at any time or by public officals in their offical capacities where it can be construed as disrespect of the office.

The people who dislike FJB and its variants are the same folks who destroy innocent people. cancel them, yell at Trump officials in a dining setting. Attack folks at Trump rallies, try to blacklist former admin staffers, and generally breach all civil standards of behavior. e.g. Get in their faces! bring a gun to a knife fight!

Amadeus 48 said...

"...but you could lure me into looking like a ridiculous prig."

Nooo...do you really think so?

I think you have explained very well what irritates you about the euphemistic "Let's go Brandon", but you also sound a bit like the girls in my middle school class being disgusted at what the rowdy boys in the back row are snickering (perhaps even sni**ering) about.

The problem is that civility went out the window about the time that the Dems decided to go after Robert Bork, and George Mitchell figured out how to play George H. W. Bush like a fiddle. Then we had the Thomas hearings that managed to outdo the Bork hearings and the Clinton impeachment. Civility had been in the rear view mirror ever since Reagan figured out how to break up the New Deal coalition with a genial smile and common sense.

But if we can't use euphemisms, does that mean we have to behave? Good luck with that. Here are Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis having fun with women and men (courtesy of Billy Wilder) in "Some Like it Hot":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-f3TF2YHL0

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Of all the chants and the public opprobrium hurled at Trump and Republicans in general over the years and this one irks our host. Hmmm.

Gahrie said...

She "quipped"? What evidence is there for this assertion? I am not aware of the reporter commenting on the incident at all. At the very least she was attempting to cover up the chant for the benefit of the TV broadcast, which to be fair is part of her job. Given the behavior of the MSM over the past ten years, it is not unreasonable to assume that she was attempting to cover up the chant for the benefit of Biden.

J Melcher said...

For me, the "Let's Go Brandon" chant is less about opposition to the incumbent and more a mockery of the mainstream media's increasingly failing effort to distort truth.

"Pay no attention to your own ears! That crowd is cheering for the driver I'm now interviewing. They are NOT stealing my platform, spotlight, and megaphone to send a political message. *I* choose who is named, and how they are named, and the masses who seem to say otherwise are not really there at all."

Sarcastic double positive. "Yeah, right." Let's go.

Big Mike said...

Obscene chants at sporting events are still no match for burning down cities and Molotov Cocktails and harassing people in their homes and killing people you don't much care for. We of the right have to up our game.

Roger Sweeny said...

Anti-languages ... are used solely among ostracized social groups including ... teenagers.

Either that was poorly phrased or the writer is an idiot.

Yancey Ward said...

Civility for me died last year- it is now the equivalent of war. Fuck Joe Biden and all of his remaining supporters.

LawGuy5000 said...

I wonder if you went back to all off your posts tagged with "civility bullshit", would you find one where you did not point out that you were tagging it with "civility bullshit" in the post itself? I guess there is nothing wrong with being very proud of your "civility bullshit" tag.

Gospace said...

Ebonics- Is it an anti-language?

Deevs said...

'I've said it irks me, but I mainly shut up about it, because it's like getting irked when someone says "shoot" or "phooey." I know what you're really saying.'

That's interesting, because when I use "shoot", I mean a mild expression of disappointment. "Shit" would be reserved for conveying a more intense message. However, I do dislike substitute F-words like "freak" and "frick" for the same reason "shoot" and "phooey" irk you. Maybe "shoot" has just been around long enough that its meaning for some of us is almost completely divorced from its scatalogical counterpart.

cfs said...

Ah, the return of the "let's all be civil and respect the institution of the Presidency" b.s. It's amazing how that disappears immediately when a Republican is elected President. Then, the mantra switches to the "Resistance is Patriotic" theme. The left was bad when Bush (2nd) was President with the "Bushilter" slogans, but I've never seen anything like the vitriol against Trump,not only by the left, but also by the media. The "F" bombs against Trump were non-stop, in signs, slogans, and chants. So, screw their requests for civility! That ship has sailed, gone over the horizon, never to be seen again!

That being said, Let's Go Brandon and FJB!

Bilwick said...

I dislike vulgarity; but you know what's REALLY not civil? Statism. I'd much rather have someone yell at me, telling me to go have sexual intercourse with myself, than point a gun at my head while lifting my wallet, as "liberals" and other State-shtuppers like to do.

Sebastian said...

"and she quipped"

She deflected. She redirected. Quick on her feet, sure. But the attempted redirect became the joke, adding to the humorous effect of LGB.

Narayanan said...

It is the Chant of the Powerless and Clueless which irks the Powerful and Clued in who want to remain in the dark shadows

Andy said...

If you’re interpreting “Let’s go Brandon” as a replacement for “F*ck Joe Biden” then you are missing the point. If you think of the origin of the phrase, its use by the current president’s opponents highlights the willingness of corporate media to cover up his growing unpopularity.

Bruce Hayden said...

Thanks. Interesting take. One of the reasons I come here so frequently.

One thing that I find interesting here is that, there is a definite allure to being on the inside of one of these movements. Most people seem to prefer to being in the In Crowd. For example, do you want to be the last person in the room who doesn’t understand “Go Brandon”? When Google, FB, etc, finally wake up and ban these disruptive thoughts, the right will just make something else up, just as subversive. We saw this under Trump with the inability of the left to understand Q. But it has accelerated significantly since the Dems stole the 2020 election through massive election fraud. The problem here for the Dems and the left is that they are, by necessity followers, yet they are rapidly being marginalized and laughed at. If it were just Republicans versus Democrats, it wouldn’t matter much. They could just call the right cultists. But most everyone gets a secret thrill with knowing the In Crowd’s secret signals, and that ultimately means here the the humor impaired left is getting more and more marginalized, as they are abandoned by Independents, including by a lot of traditional Dem constituencies.

stutefish said...

"Let's go, Brandon!" isn't just a bowdlerization of "Fuck Joe Biden!" It's a double entendre. It says, "fuck Joe Biden, and fuck the mainstream media that will not forthrightly report on something as newsworthy as mass public outcry against the president." It is, in every way, an improvement on the original.

Mikey NTH said...

Civility bullshit it is, the expressions of shock coming from those who regularly accuse opponents of being Nazis, slavers, and murderers.

Mattman26 said...

Not so sure Kelli was “quipping,” but neither would I (or anyone else I know) characterize it as a “cover-up.”

Get a grip, people.

And BTW, if this is limited to the Trump faithful, there seem to be quite a few of them.

rehajm said...

Fuck civility.

tim maguire said...

Let’s Go Brandon is such a forgettable phrase that I had to look it up when it became a thing even though I had read the original story when it came out. It just didn’t stick the first time. That said, I like it. The phenomenon is fun, which is something you generally only see from the right. Cheekiness is anti-authoritarian, which is why the left stopped being cheeky.

Personally, I subscribe to the theory that the reporter wasn’t covering for Biden, he (she?) was trying to protect the interview from the censors, who might decide to keep it off the air because of the profanity. But now it means fuck Joe Biden. Which is funny.

Joe Smith said...

Just paid $5.10/gallon for gas.

#LGB

Rocco said...

ME: [Posts sign in my window]

SIGN: Let's Go, Brandon!

Washington Post: [points finger] "...INCREASINGLY VULGAR TAUNTS!"

ME: [Pulls sign, scribbles, puts back up]

SIGN: Let's Go, WaPo!

Michael K said...

I agree that the left has been humorless since, at least, Monica Lewinsky. The joke about "How many lesbians does it take to screw in a light bulb?" is an example.

The left used to have a sense of humor. Saturday Night Live was an example. Is anything the left does funny any more?

rhhardin said...

Pilots' last words are "Oh shit" often not because they're vulgar but because a non-linguistic brain function is activated. Tourette's syndrome just activates that center inappropriately and often. That's somebody's theory.

Anyway it explains why Fuck is not a verb, along with other bad verbs.

Not much to do with civility.

Ted said...

I recently re-watched the early-2000s "Battlestar Galactica" series (so good! so terrible!), and was reminded of how the show constantly used "frack" and "fracking" as slang substitutes for "fuck" and "fucking" (both in the sexual and expletive senses of the words). It allowed the characters to speak the kind of vulgar language that would be common among military officials and fighter pilots (in space), without triggering network censors. But given the similar sound and obvious meaning of these words, it was amazing that the writers were able to get away with just changing a couple of letters.

Howard said...

The Democrat stream media is making a mistake trying to hide this.

cubanbob said...

Lets go Brandon or Fuck Joe Biden are hardly civility bullshit. When the people shouting those slogans start rioting, looting, burning and shooting then it will uncivil.

BoatSchool said...

Interesting that, to the best of my knowledge, the reporter has yet to have been directly asked why she said the crowd was supposedly chanting “Let’s go Brandon.” as opposed to what they were very plainly and clearly actually saying.

Bender said...

Is anything the left does funny any more?

That depends. You mean funny "ha-ha" or funny "crazy and strange"?

RoseAnne said...

I am inclined to go easy on Kelli Stavast. A lot of people are making money off of "Let's go Brandon" but she isn't one of them.

rhhardin said...

Is anything the left does funny any more?

Droll but lofty planet. - Lautreamont

Saint Croix said...

All I know is, the rap song is awesome.

3 million views on youtube.

I don't know what cracks me up more, the hat, or calling Biden a Commie. Dude.

Wouldn't it be amazing if Biden unites the country in opposition?

Chuck said...

Let's go Brandon!

Bunkypotatohead said...

Uckfay Oejay idenbay.
Civilly.

Saint Croix said...

holy shit!

youtube just censored the "Let's Go Brandon" video.

3 million views and they took it down.

Fox news is on it.

Youtube claims it violates the "medical misinformation" policy.

"Why is the most censored rapper in the country someone that doesn’t even curse in songs?" Gray told Fox News. "Why can you rap about murder, sex, and drugs but when I rap about questioning the government I get banned? Is this still America?"

Saint Croix said...

LOL, there's more than one rapper singing "Let's Go Brandon." The original is still up.

MadisonMan said...

I suspect Let's Go Brandon shirts would sell like hotcakes.

Joe Smith said...

Reminds me of an old Letterman gag...

Whenever a joke bombed and the audience booed, he would say, "That's not booing ladies and gentlemen, they're saying Daaaave."

: )

Michael K said...


Blogger Howard said...

The Democrat stream media is making a mistake trying to hide this.


I agree and this is part of why the left has no humor anymore.

I'm Not Sure said...

"I've avoided talking about the "Let's go Brandon" trend. It irks me, because I favor civility."

I suppose one could talk about pretty plywood murals covering up the busted-out windows of people's defunct businesses instead. Much more civil.

Yancey Ward said...

Fuck Chuck.

Yancey Ward said...

К черту Джо Байдена

walter said...

It's a bit like "Bless his heart."
Trans Language

Drago said...

Pro-marxist pro-CRT Biden voter LLR Chuck: "Let's go Brandon!"

The fact that you continually refer back to this same obscure story day after day in the face of the global FJB/LGB phenomenon, reminds one of the very small child, thinking in childlike ways, that he could turn back the tide by throwing his little bucket of water into the waves.

Its adorable.

And as always, we'll just assume its the gin and tonic talking for you, particularly after your latest humiliation at Althouse blog re: National School Board Association/Merrick Garland where BOTH the NSBA and Garland publicly repudiated your most recent far left democratical lies!

Lets Go Brandon!

Critter said...

This is an organic idea beyond a mere political attack. It has risen from a sense of government overreaching in its personal attack on people related to the unscientific vaccine mandate - wanting people to lose their jobs for not taking an experimental shot even if they have survived Covid and have natural resistance to Covid far greater and longer lasting to that offered by the shot, even before considering the known and unknown side effects of the shot. America is still a country ruled by the consent of the governed. I wore a “Let’s Go Brandon” t-shirt on a flight last week and had verbal support from airline union workers. Not Republicans. The sentiment behind the chant is not fundamentally partisan. It is a reflection of American spirits rising. Add to the bill of particulars a president who clearly screws up everything he touches and is clearly mentally diminished. Remember Obama promised us this future with Biden. He shows no empathy for immigrants abused by the cartels, including those being sold into sexual slavery. Nor to allies he left behind in Afghanistan, including Americans, at the mercy of Taliban terrorists. He is also provably corrupt but protected for political reasons. Americans are slow to acknowledge troubling things, but are not fools.

stephen cooper said...

Reagan fired air traffic controllers in his first year, and replaced them with military until new ones could be hired. Probably a mistake on his part, but nothing like the mistakes of ...
The poor dementia puppet Biden, whom I cannot dislike because I know how awful it is to be old and stupid after a life time of selfishness and lies: the poor un-self-aware creature has tried to fire millions of heroes of last year's coronavirus epidemic. The dementia puppet spent most of that time in his basement, and now he wants to fire the front line workers. Coz' they disagree with his right to force them to alter their immune system on the say-so of his half-wit science advisors.
His "patience is wearing thin", the poor despicable man said.

rehajm said...

The Democrat stream media is making a mistake trying to hide this.

Streisand Effect.

rehajm said...

The Democrat stream media is making a mistake trying to hide this.

Streisand Effect.

MadTownGuy said...

rhhardin said...

"Pilots' last words are "Oh shit" often not because they're vulgar but because a non-linguistic brain function is activated. Tourette's syndrome just activates that center inappropriately and often. That's somebody's theory.

Anyway it explains why Fuck is not a verb, along with other bad verbs.
"

Aside from the word's syntactic function, its incivility derives from its meaning in current and historical use. It's not an invitation to a please way to spend an evening. It lands, semantically, somewhere between 'mayhem and 'rape. It's a word of violence, at least in most contexts.

Not much to do with civility.

wendybar said...

Let's hold up a bloody head of Bidens ala Kathy Griffin, and see how much they like that!!!

gilbar said...

you know, i'm rethinking all this.

Resident Jo Biden CLAIMED that he was going to "UNITE" the country. I scoffed
I shouldn't have! The Bipartisan Unity forming Because of Resident Biden is NOT to be denied


CHUCK JOE BIDEN

dreams said...

"I've avoided talking about the "Let's go Brandon" trend. It irks me, because I favor civility.

What is uncivil about that chant? People who avoid saying "FJB" due to civility concerns can now express their feelings. I would never wear a t-shirt that expressed things in a vulgar manner, but I love my new shirt with "Let's Go Brandon".

The phrase is also about the corporate media gaslighting us. That may be the most meaningful aspect of the popular chant."

Yeah.

dreams said...

"Reagan fired air traffic controllers in his first year, and replaced them with military until new ones could be hired. Probably a mistake on his part, but nothing like the mistakes of ."

It wasn't a mistake. it showed the Democrats and the Soviet Union that Reagan had the backbone to back up his words.

stlcdr said...

Did the reporter simply mis-hear and truly believed it was ‘let’s go brandon’ or was she sharp enough in the moment to cover it up? I’m guessing the former, but haven’t really bothered to find the answer.

I do suspect that the left and the media (but I repeat myself) will escalate this to be racist, sexist, white supremists, or a terrorist phrase - or all of the above.

dreams said...

""Let's go, Brandon!" isn't just a bowdlerization of "Fuck Joe Biden!" It's a double entendre. It says, "fuck Joe Biden, and fuck the mainstream media that will not forthrightly report on something as newsworthy as mass public outcry against the president." It is, in every way, an improvement on the original."

Yeah.

Michael McNeil said...

Boston not known as a Trump hotbed.

Neither is California — yet more than 1 out of 3 Californians voted for Trump in the 2020 election (2016 didn't make that fraction).

Maynard said...

OK Mike.

Now I can't stop wondering how many lesbians it takes to screw in a light bulb.

I won't Google it because it's Google.

wendybar said...

Meme out now....
I'm old enough to remember the media celebrating lunatic celebrities acting out the assassination of Trump, calling for the White House to be bombed and threatening his 12 year old son with pedophile rape.

Strick said...

Shoot, "Let's go, Brandon" isn't being used because it's a euphemism. It's because it gets the same message across while mocking the media that attempted to protect an obviously incompetent president from spontaneous protests.

This example supporting Jim Teacher's famous quote, "Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving." didn't work, and the media needs to be reminded that more often than they realize, we see through them.

Bob said...

I note that commenter "Gospace" asked the question I intended to ask, which is "Is Ebonics an anti-language?" And even more - - is African-American culture deliberately Anti-(white)Culture? I think that perhaps at one time blacks might have been interested in assimilating into the majority culture in the US, but that changed with the civil rights movement in the 1960's, which led to hardening of attitudes into culture and anti-culture.

Aggie said...

I think you may be missing the point. 'Let's Go Brandon' isn't a stand-in for the uncivil F*ck Joe Biden,' that's just how it got started. It's the reaction of a lot of people to the man that occupies the White House and to the relentless misrepresentation of things that are patently and obviously untrue, by the Establishment Media, who seem to relish rubbing this type of thing in our faces. And it has become more and more accepted as currency of the realm in modern popular culture, and that is the real problem - the sentiment has matured in a clear way that everybody understands: A rejection not just of Biden, but of The Party and its cultural / political mores. The Democratic Party is outraged because so many of the population are buying into the phrase, using it, and increasing its circulation. That makes it dangerous.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Well, Maynard,

According to Duck Duck Go, it's the title of a paper on lesbians (that being one of ht first hits)

A later hit has a redit thread. Official answer: That's not funny
Funnier answer: Well it only takes one. But it takes the whole emergency room staff to get it out.