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Let’s Go Brandon

Published on 84 Comments on Let’s Go Brandon

Just in case you don't know it, "Let's Go Brandon" is a conservative code phrase for "Fuck Joe Biden." You are better off if you don't get this, but if you insist on knowing, this is as good an explanation as any.

84 thoughts on “Let’s Go Brandon”

  1. Joel

    “Unless you are living in a cave, you know what it means”

    I don't live in a cave, but I was today days old when I learned what it means.

    "But it’s done with a little bit of a class"

    The word he's looking for is 'crass.'

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      I like how the GQP is celebrating the uncouth conduct of SEC fratbois by embracing the bowdlerizing of a clear FCC violation (which NBC putting "fuck Joe Biden" over the public airwaves is).

      We've come a long way from those same GQPers lambasting Janet Jackson's titty.

  2. rational thought

    The ap story misses one important point that liberals seem to miss on why many conservatives have switched from saying " fuck joe biden " to " let's go Brandon ".

    I think it has less to do with trying to be more civil and not use obscenity while making the same implicit statement. And more to do with mocking the liberal mainstream media which clearly tried to pretend that what was really being said at the Nascar event was not what was obvious. It was hilarious and revealing that, initially, some in the media kept up with the ridiculous idea that somehow it was not clear what the crowd was chanting .

    If conservatives really were just trying to disparage biden , they would have stuck with the original chant . But mocking the media is even more important to them .

    Plus it is funny . And adding any humor in criticizing your political opponent is usually deadly.

    In a related vein , what about " Tikigate"? I wonder if many of you have the same impression.

    My main thought about it is less how outrageous it is to try to falsely slime your opponent but how overwhelmingly stupid it was. I mean using clear democratic operatives, including one who was black , to pretend to be white supremacists while wearing sunglasses in the rain to hide their identity, is just moronic.

    You might think that it was intended to be just satire and not an attempt to actually pin this falsely on youngkin . And perhaps those organizing it really did only plan on that. But then the McCauliffe campaign and some other democrats like swallwell ( who always seem to be involved in the dumbest stunts ), jump on it as real youngkin supporters. I mean, how stupid can you be to see that photo and not recognize right away it is a fake?

    2. gesvol

      Who in the any media, liberal or not, was trying to claim that anything other than 'F*ck you Biden" was being chanted? Must of missed those stories.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        NBC sports sideline reporter, who is prolly a Trunp supporter, was trying to reduce the volume of angry letters to the FCC over her network broadcasting obscenity by claiming that obscenity wasn't being said.

      2. colbatguano

        Yeah, a color commenter on a NASCAR race isn't exactly all of the mainstream media. It just let's mouth breathing MAGATs pretend they're being clever.

    3. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Think of the children, RT.

      The flagrant abuse of the public airwaves -- nay, public trust -- in projecting the coarse verbiage of a common negro hippity-hopper is not something that we as a nation should be celebrating.

      The Tri-Kaps from Auburn University need to think before they speak.

    5. HokieAnnie

      It's not funny rational thought. I'm deeply ashamed that Fuck you Joe Biden has become a regular chant at Hokie Football games, it devalues my diploma, it is a black mark on the school. Also the tiki torches were stupid, stupid, stupid.

      I'm spending the weekend in a dark, foul mood as all the work we have done to try and bring Virginia to the 21st century might come to a crashing halt. We'll go to the dark place the state was in when my brother had to flee to keep safe as it was not a welcoming place for a gay man.

      2. rational thought

        I would agree that " fuck joe biden " is not basically funny. And I do not like any such chant at a football game where people of all persuasions should just be able to watch a football game without politics or profanity.

        But we're you also so upset with all the same sort or worse sort of incivility regarding trump? If not, then your feelings have only to do with how you feel about the person being attacked, and not disappointment re incivility itself.

        And , if you want to pretend that there was no such type of behavior from the left against trump ( or Bush too) like in trying to deflect my point re world cup by bringing up an irrelevant other incident at the world series, then you are being self deceptive.

        From what I see in your posts here, you are strongly left wing but have not degenerated as much into some of the hate filled talk. So maybe you are generally concerned about the behavior of both sides and are willing to condemn it . I will reserve judgement there. But many others who are hyperventilating re lets go Brandon are clearly hypocrites from their prior actions.

        At this point, I do not think we can go back and this behavior on both sides will continue. Might as well get used to it.

        The tiki torches incident would have been deeply immoral if it had been done in a smarter way . They might have pulled off a last minute fake smear of youngkin if they had used all white men and not those identifiable as known democratic operatives. As it is , it does just stand out for incredible stupidity. What you get for associating with the Lincoln project clowns.

        1. Jerry O'Brien

          See, what-about-ism won't persuade many here.

          If you're against incivility, call it out whenever. But the time to complain about people being rude to President Trump is past. You could have complained about it then. Did you?

          Would a lot of partisan Democrats have been moved to speak out against it? Probably not. But they have the opportunity now to tell you how fitting it was to perform such anti-Trump chants, and yet I'm not seeing it. If you're trolling for that, it's not working.

          1. Jasper_in_Boston

            See, what-about-ism won't persuade many here.

            I'm ok with a certain amount of whataboutism when it's valid or accurate: it can be useful in pointing out hypocrisy. But that's the problem: whataboutism claims made by folks on the right are so often strained and tenuous. I mean, look at the current president (basically a courtly, polite, decent politician of the old school). And look at the previous Democratic president (a similarly gracious and graceful character). And then look at the Republican president who came in between them. When you look up "vulgar" in the dictionary you see his face.

            Both sides of the political spectrum in America have their unsavoury elements. But crassness, rudeness, vulgarity, profanity (and yes, a taste for violence) have reached the commanding heights of the right. And it goes well beyond Trump.

        2. HokieAnnie

          The thing is chanting lock him up after he was impeached, after a preponderance of evidence of collusion with Russia, locking up children in cages *and* a month long furlough even though the President's party controlled all branches of government and doing so at one of the only opportunities they had to reach a President who famously hid from anyone but his most rabid supporters. That pales in comparison to drunken frat boys behaving like Confederates cheering on John Wilkes Booth.

          An no the crowd wasn't chanting Fu Trump it was more Lock Him Up to mock his continual chanting of Lock Her Up in the 2016 election and afterwards.

        3. Michael Friedman

          If you oppose politics at football games did you also oppose players taking the knee during the National Anthem?

    2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      I was a lifelong liberal Democrat until Warren "Trey" Mitchell Hodgkiss III from the University of Mississippi's Beta Kappa Upsilon house said "fuck Joe Biden".

  4. kenalovell

    It's got the Trump Republican kids giggling all over the country, like 'Don't Fauci my Florida'. Not only is it what passes for side-splitting humor on the right, but it's another in the endless supply of highly inventive laser pointers right-wingers create to keep the media kittens amused.

    3. HokieAnnie

      I don't disagree but notice that Republican humor is all about cruel mockery not one iota of self deprecation or witty absurdity.

    4. iamr4man

      Republicans are always inventing little codes to give themselves deniability from their disgusting opinions. It’s all the same as the Purple Heart band-aids, the “ok” white power gesture and saying “Democrat Party”. I view it as a sign of cowardice.

        1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

          When I was an elementary school student, asking someone, "Homosayswhat?", was a guaranteed banger.

          That was 1989.

          Thirty years on, it's still a banger... but only at CPAC.

  5. akapneogy

    Reminded me of measuring the breaking strength of a material by subjecting it to ever increasing stress. Seems to me that's what is being done to the nation.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        But at least with that Southwest pilot about to get dropped, the GQP is starting to understand right to work states.

  6. Justin

    I like to hear that so I know my enemies. It came up where I work recently. Now I know that guy is the enemy.

    Meanwhile…

    Advisers said President Biden, who has promised to make the United States an arsenal of vaccines.

    I wonder if he knows that much of the vaccine is made outside the US. Pfizer, for example, makes a lot of it in Belgium.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/europe-backs-expansion-pfizers-belgium-facility-making-covid-19-vaccine-2021-06-01/

    Personally I’m in favor of cutting production of the vaccine now. No one really wants it. The crisis is over. Now it’s just a profit center.

    I’m glad Joe Biden is President, but he really needs to be more… humble.

      1. Justin

        Yeah - Cutting vaccine production isn't going to happen, but lots of people are so resistant to the idea that much of it will go to waste by this time next year. Besides... these companies are being told to give the technology away to others.

        "Trust in one’s government influences vaccination uptake. In West Africa, Afrobarometer reported high levels of mistrust in governments’ ability to provide a safe vaccine. Those who did not trust their government were five to 10 times less likely to want to be vaccinated. In Ghana, 40% of those who are unwilling to be vaccinated cited mistrust of the government while in South Africa, those who believed the president was doing a good job were more likely to be vaccinated.

        "Religious beliefs also inform vaccine acceptance. Close to 90% of individuals surveyed in Niger and Liberia said that prayer was more effective than the vaccine."

        I mean... come on man!

  7. KawSunflower

    I don't think that the phrase slamming Biden is remotely humorous; whether the people shouting it think they're being "cute" by avoiding their often shameless language or not, it is just one more tiresome example of juvenile behavior behind which they can claim to be actual civil humans.

    Sure, we can tell our enemies by such tactics - but after years of such slimy behavior, don't we already recognize them for what they are? The worst of them have been so emboldened by trump that there are many "tells" besides red MAGA hats.

    2. rational thought

      If you define your enemies by the tactic of yelling fuck at your political opponent, I assume you also are the enemy of numerous democrats re saying that about trump.

      If you remember, one episode was when the chant " fuck trump " was broadcast live by fox sports and the big story in the media was not the coarseness of the language and how disrespectful that was, but that trump complained about it .

      And , sure, that nbc reporter was a trump support, Monty. That explains it . If you had just theorized she was trying to avoid angry responses to her network, you would have had an arguable point. But you make your position nonsensical instead .

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        I think it wasn't "fuck Trump" you heard at game 5 of the 2019 World Series but instead "lock him up", which is actually funny because it turns El Jefe's nonsensical taunt supposing that that Wm. Safire promised indictment of Hillary is finally coming after 20 years back on the Big Guy.

              1. rational thought

                That was supposed to be for a comment below.

                But boy you are sexist. I did not say men's world cup, did I? Women's world cup 2019. Look it up . Google fuck trump world cup and you will see all the stories.

                And , if you do, notice the difference in reporting there vs. Fuck joe biden or let's go Brandon. Somehow no outrage re civility when it was trump on the receiving end from most of the liberal media. Instead it was a funny story making fun of trump.

                Look I understand you hated trump and think biden is a good man. And thus are annoyed at a fuck joe biden chant while having no problem with the same re trump . But the difference is your opinion of the man being attacked. Don't try to pretend it is some nonpartisan concern for civility.

                2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

                  Sorry.

                  When I think of El Jefe & World Cup, I think of his memorable Norway joint press conference with Putin, where Poots presented his asset with an official World Cup Russia ball.

        2. HokieAnnie

          Yes it was lock him up not the F word. This was in Washington DC where primarily wealthy white crowd was left of center and fed up with all the abuse Trump heaped on the city. I know because I was watching the game live, I've been a Nats fan for many years.

      2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        Also, if you don't believe a sideline reporter for a lamestream media company's sports side is liable to be a Trumper, just Google that piece of shit Michelle Tafoya.

        1. rational thought

          Is it possible for a sideline sports reporter to support trump . Sure it is possible.

          But in your post you said " prolly" ( which I assume is an ignorant way of saying probably) . In the same sentence as saying that the intention was to just cover up the mistakenly broadcast profanity for the network.

          The first idea that she was probably a trump supporter made no sense, especially with the arguable second point you made . Why would wanting to cover up a network mistake that embarrass biden too indicate she supported trump ? Do you think she could have anticipated how her comment would have transformed into something used against biden ? Ridiculous.

          I was laughing at your silly comment that anything indicated she was " probably " a trump supporter. And you respond falsely attacking why I thought she could not be a trump supporter. Which I never said.

          Her actions could imply she was a Democrat and was trying to help biden . Or she was just protecting the network which would not indicate any political leaning, although still more likely she is a Democrat as most sideline sports reporters ( but not all) likely are . Or most likely some combination.

          1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

            I meant a Trumpite sideline reporter would have no inclination or motivation to say they weren't saying "fuck Joe Biden" just for partisan reasons, only broadcast reasons.

            1. rational thought

              Cmon

              If that was all you meant, no way you would have made the first comment you made and then continued to argue about it .

              Look you made a stupid comment, actually a good point that the reporter could have been motivated by non political reasons, and then messed it up by saying she was probably pro trump which is contrary to that point.

              And , when challenged, you just keep digging a hole and finally say basically you meant what I was saying all along.

              OK, I will guess I will just accept that .

  8. Joseph Harbin

    "Let's go, Brandon" is only a story because one of those fine, upstanding pilots at Texas-based Southwest Airlines thought it was a good thing to say to a planeload of passengers of a flight Friday morning.

    https://www.tiktok.com/foryou?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7017901136095022341#/@thatpatriotmom/video/7017901136095022341

    Not sure why any explanation of "Let's go, Brandon" would leave out that part of the story.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2021/10/31/southwest-pilot-trump-lets-go-brandon/?sh=4aa3e99f2d23

    SWA "apologizes" for the incident. I would think something more is needed.

    One thing this story does is give a lot more oxygen to the anti-Biden noise machine.

    Another thing is show that the tiresome debate we regularly have about civility is a crock. (In case you don't know, that means: a crock of shit.)

    1. rational thought

      It was a story way before that incident.

      And yes the debate about civility is mostly now a crock. Which was the point I was making. Democrats now complaining about civility after their actions about trump is hypocritical. Of course democrats could say that republican complaints about trumps treatment were hypocritical given their treatment of Obama and you can go back and forth that way a long time .

      Or democrats could say that trump deserved it and biden does not, from your perspective agreeing with biden and hating trump. But that is the point. If you are going to have a rule about civility, then it has to apply regardless of your opinion of the politician.

      Civility has declined throughout the years towards the president as an institution. In my opinion the ratcheting down seems to be more where democrats make it worse for a republican president and then Republicans respond with the same. At least since Clinton - easier to argue that Republicans went to new lows with Clinton that democrats did not go to with Bush 1. But since then more like democrats pushed civility lower first.

      1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

        Still whitknighting for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was cruelly removed from a Virginia locavore restaurant in a cruel echo of Jim Crow?

      2. iamr4man

        Republicans went deep into the lower depths with Clinton, including calling his daughter a “dog”. Nothing Democrats did even comes close to the vile racist hatred leveled at Obama and his wife. Your attempts to give them the moral high ground are just tells me you agree with them.

        1. HokieAnnie

          Rational has been voicing his ideas from the GOP point of view for quite some time now. Trump must have been a bridge too far for him but he's not yet ready to admit that his party is long gone. It's been the party of dirty tricks for over 50 years now.

        2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

          I would not begrudge Chelsea shitting on Rush Limbaugh's grave.

          Or John Mc Cain's for that matter. (He said Chelsea was so ugly because Janet Reno was her dad.)

  10. rational thought

    I do think it is an interesting conversation to have re how this affects the actual final political result . Which largely comes down to how it plays with those voters in the middle who are somewhat persuadable.

    In general, they are turned off by political incivility by either side. And such incivility, or just the appearance of it, can turn such voters away from the side that practices it.

    But that can be offset by a few things. One is " normalizing " the behavior where it can become just expected. Democrats have a big advantage here as they have far more influence in the media and entertainment industry ( i.e. so many sitcoms making jokes about trump or any republican) . So that the incivilty becomes to seem the norm and thus not really incivil. Republicans cannot play that game directly.

    But the other is to make it more humorous and somewhat less antagonistic appearing. And, in reality, clearly saying let's go Brandon is just not as bad as ever saying fuck you anyone, no matter what it represents. And I know even some democrats who think it is funny .

    And many democrats and liberal media are playing into republican hands with their over the top hypocritical reaction to this. In fact, that just illustrates the point to an extent .

    The best thing biden could do with this is to get into the joke himself and laugh at it. Even if he really is angry about it. Find someone named Brandon to say let's go to. Give a speech in Brandon fla and call on the town to let's go. Make a joke of it yourself and it's power is defused .

    Trump never learned how to do this and it cost him. He was very good at attacking back and being funny albeit harsh mocking his foes but showed little sense of humor about himself. Can biden do better there?

    And most of the outrage here is coming from the media, not democratic politicians. Who are very thin skinned and sense they are being mocked as much as biden .

  11. rational thought

    And some do not understand the main reason the fuck joe biden chant started .

    It was not mostly chanted by hard line conservatives, many of whom are very religious and would be upset at the profanity . The fact that such language did sometimes break out at trump rallies was a bad mark against trump for some staunch conservatives .

    It started mostly as a chant by young people at large gatherings like college football games. And the intent was largely re frustration with covid restrictions. It was saying " here we are enjoying ourselves in crowds without masks " so fuck your restrictions, we want to party. It was not some sort of thoughtful protest against general left wing policies.

    In that way, it was more dangerous to democrats than the same sort of attacks against trump, which mostly did come from strong left wing ideologues.

    By softening it with lets go Brandon, now it was able to be adopted by the broader right wing anti biden ideological crowd too.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Those economically anxious blue college very religious Jefistas aren't putoff enough by profanity to not repeatedly vote for Donald "Two Corinthians grabbed their ladies by the pussy" Trump.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      The in-group can say "fuck them" but the out-group can't.

      It's the career of Cheddar Bob Ritchie in one sentence.

      (Mr. Blue Lives Matter Kid Rock, on his 1999 hit "Cowboy"*, touted that he can "smell a pig from a mile away".)

      *His only good song. Joins Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" & Red Hot Chili Peppers's "Under the Bridge" in the Band Has One Good Song Club.

  14. Goosedat

    Prosecution of Assange: "Let's Go Brandon"
    Cuban, Venezuelan, Iranian sanctions: "Let's Go Brandon"
    China/Taiwan pivot: "Let's Go Brandon"

  15. azumbrunn

    This incident gives us an excellent view into the kind of sense of humor (or rather "humor") that conservatives apparently like....

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