National Review: Biden’s Embrace of ‘Dark Brandon’ Is Getting Creepy

What if Joe Biden’s embrace of the Dark Brandon meme isn’t funny? That’s my question in the National Review

Joe Biden likes his coffee dark. That’s what the president tells us in a video posted to his Twitter, in which he sips from a mug bearing an image that depicts him as having laser eyes. Biden’s team is sending a message to his meme-savvy supporters online that “Dark Brandon” is here for 2024. Memes are often difficult to trace back to their origin, but we know Biden’s alter ego Dark Brandon was born on Weibo, the Chinese blogging site, after “Let’s go Brandon” became a right-wing meme for dunking on the president. The joke was then mainlined into American social-media discourse by a viral tweet noting that Biden looked pretty cool as a malevolent dark lord, with fire in his eyes, perched upon a throne of seized AR-15s. Welcome to the internet. While it’s funny to see politicians dabbling in memes, there’s no escaping the truth that humoring the darkness is corrupting our political culture.

According to a report from Axios, Dark Brandon products account for more than half the revenue taken in by Biden’s reelection-campaign store. The “Dark T-Shirt” and “Dark Roast Mug” are best-sellers, among eight other villain-themed items starring the president. So much for the days of “Hope” and “Change” swag from the Obama–Biden campaign. Dark humor around political leaders is nothing new, but with the exception of Dick Cheney’s warm embrace of the Star Wars “Imperial March” in 2005 and of the “Cocaine Mitch” moment, there aren’t many past cases of politicians claiming the mantle of “bad guy” willingly. Perhaps the change is owed to the deep negative partisanship in our politics today, a situation in which support for a politician or official is strengthened by the intensity of hatred directed at them by the other side. It’s the best explanation for Donald Trump’s resilience in the face of indictment after indictment, and for why Dr. Fauci prayer candles ever came into existence.

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