@FeatherTrap
I heard it was right leaning mockery at first. If it originated from there that would be hilarious.
@Mitchy
I wouldn’t call it framing, so much as pivoting, Biden tried to pull a basket of deplorables last night, like Hilary Clinton. Though more vague than her guesstimate 50% of Trump supporters being deploreables, he was trying to define a significant sum of them as bad/dangerous and probably got cold feet considering he did so from a way more prominent stage than Hilary making a off handed comment at a rally. If I were him, I would have not done that speech till after the mid terms and waited to see how the investigation against Trump turned out. Specifically it would be a smart move to focus on one thing and emphasize it over and over again so the headline is not “Biden, in a prime time address, said Republicans are bad” but something more along the lines of “Biden, in a prime time address, warns nation Trump over threats to turn over 2020 election: ‘Gross corruption and misconduct.”. Still, that would arguably be a unprecedented and politicized move but considering some of the things Trump is rambling on at truth social lately he might have greater moral authority than whatever this was.
As for unity. Biden was trying to pull together the moral consensus that is trying to be everything but Trumpism. That moral consensus I don’t think he can fully pull off in a good/healthy way for the country. Fundamentally, most of Trump’s most hard core support basis is from places that have issues that Biden/mainstream/Democrats/whatever else can barely bring themselves to acknowledge as a problem, let alone fix it. Too be fair, the Republicans I don’t think at this moment would have much better luck considering how much of their (our, I guess since I am technically one) politics is based on harnessing contempt for that establishment and everything remotely connected with it.
As for Civil War 2, possible, though plenty of other things could happen and though fearful, I am not a full on pessimist for the future. I think a Irish Troubles or Italy in the 1970s style conflict is more likely if violence occurs. Most men of fighting age are at least a little broken and a lot of apparatuses on the right and left are dysfunctional and prone to fighting each other at a moments notice over over being even
basically competent. Frankly
I am more worried over the creeping authoritarianism from our globalized and connected world than a civil war.
@Seiken
I guess I can see a certain appeal to the chaos, mean spirited fighting and gossip. Especially in a time of increasing restriction. I think the tighter things keep getting the more conors of the internet like this act as a pressure valve for better or worse.
@Officer Hotpants
>and sometimes even a good one.
We live in a world where everybody worships some influencer now and various groups can’t be criticized at all other than being accused of impurity to the cause. Lots of communities are completely incapable of handling abusers and otherwise problematic if not outright bad people (at least in a healthy way). Perhaps it may serve a noble purpose depending on where things go in this world of tightening restrictions. Still, I can’t shake the dark vibes I feel coming off the site itself even if I am not in team deplatformKiwi or whatever they call themselves.
@IvanSatoru
On the contrary, Dark Brandon is one of the first times I would say the left is memeing successfully. Nearly always when the right has a meme the left would not meme back but try to set the boundary of acceptable debate past that meme. It worked
some because of the amount of control and influence they have and the right became too obsessed with owning libs. It also though expressed a weakness as hiding from mockery is one of the lowest moves you can do when your a massive public figure, government or organization. It comes off especially stupid when it is
something they couldn’t easily cast as villainous Dark Brandon as a meme works by appropriating something from the right and turning into a good thing for their guy. What is one to do when is out to trigger the libs and they actually enjoy it? I think, at least at the moment, it is a win for them.
It is interesting seeing some of the reactions from there own boundary police as there is little hints of confusion and uncertainty amidst the amusement.
Like this
Who gets to decide what a meme means? Can a meme born in darkness — say, for instance, the racist corners of 4chan — ever come to have lighter meanings? Do we have a responsibility to purge our cultural vocabulary of memes with spurious origins, or does that just lead to the elimination of, well, all internet culture?
These are just a few of the complicated questions the rise of the “Dark Brandon” meme leads us to. In recent weeks, Democrats — including numerous politicians and White House staff members — have been using the meme, which began as an ironic take on the already-ironic “Let’s Go Brandon” meme from the right (in short, it’s code for “Fuck Joe Biden”). Attempts to reclaim “Let’s Go Brandon” for the left failed badly, but recently the “Dark Brandon” variant took off.
“Who gets to decide? complicated questions?” Oh please! It is just a meme.