'[...] first surfaced [...] as part of the usual gamut of memes and burns deployed by America's extremely online socialists—especially those who've found themselves feeling euphorically apocalyptic [...] "Dark Brandon" was a way to lean into despair. [...] trove of extremely dark viral tweets from the spring, where Dark Brandon could be found, say, pointing a gun into a woman's mouth [...] or overseeing public executions [...] The idea here is that Joe Biden was not the fuddy-duddy centrist he appeared to be, and instead represented some sort of satanic, Revelations-esque figure, way worse than anyone can imagine.
[...] mirrors the related DarkMAGA trend, where alt-right dead-enders and QAnon veterans have adopted an increasingly occultist tone to sheathe their reactionary beliefs. (Here, for instance, is an image of Jordan Peterson with the same facial tattoos as the rapper 6ix9ine.) The difference is that DarkMAGA posters fantasize about the return of an even-more-unhinged, gloves-off Trump, out for revenge. Dark Brandon, on the other hand, was the creation of people without much hope at all.
[...] The country does feel like it's perched on the precipice of some sort of prophetic rebirth, and perhaps, as our institutions erode into the sea, Dark Brandon is the harbinger of that final judgment.
[...]
But that all changed this week, when Dark Brandon was formally co-opted by the Democratic base. [...] He's killing people with drones? Good! "Dark Brandon is rocking it!" writes one poster, attached to a meme with a caption that reads, "Actions speak louder than golf." [Now do all the people! ...]
With the way things are going for Joe Biden, he might as well lean into the memes as much as possible. [...] If he can muster a
smidge of momentum from the al-Zawahiri assassination by pulling up the cowl of Dark Brandon, then that is surely better than whatever he's got going right now.
'
"Dark Brandon" meme, explained: How Democrats took it over.
This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 03 August 2022 - 08:51 PM