Not long after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers for this yearâs Super Bowl title, President Biden sent out a bizarre post on his X account. In the post is a picture of Biden in a blue suit with his arms crossed and an affable smile on his face. But the picture is odd because you canât see the presidentâs eyes. Theyâve been replaced by what look like red laser beams. Joe Biden (or someone on his media team, presumably) also attached a description to the picture, one that simply read âDark Brandonâ, and above the picture is the caption âJust like we drew it up.â
If you donât get the reference, the picture looks creepy. If you do get the reference, the picture looks, well, even creepier, especially considering what was happening in Gaza at the moment this post was sent out into the world.
Thereâs a fair bit going on here, but to begin with, the president is trying to be funny. Heâs attempting to troll the right wing of the Republican party (otherwise known as the Republican party). Heâs drawing attention to loony rightwing conspiracy theories so he can mock them, by appropriating a meme of himself, known among the memerati (ie those who know memes) as âDark Brandonâ.
Dark Brandon begins with âLetâs go, Brandon,â a phrase that owes its origin to the NBC sports reporter Kelli Stavast. In 2021, Stavast was covering a race at the Talladega Superspeedway racetrack in Alabama. While she was interviewing Brandon Brown, the winner of the race, a crowd began yelling âFuck Joe Biden!â, which Stavast relayed as âLetâs go, Brandon!â while on air. And lo, a meme was born.
Across the rightwing memeosphere, âLetâs go, Brandonâ has become shorthand for insulting Biden and has even made it on to the floor of Congress on more than one occasion. âLetâs go, Brandonâ then evolved into Dark Brandon. In this version, the president has the laser-red eyes, the sinister look and the mastery of some kind of malevolent art to accomplish his job. He is something like a video game character, and the video-gamification of our society presses on, at a cost to actual human connection. Regardless, for more than 18 months, the White House has been pushing the âDark Brandonâ meme, attempting to usurp the Republican partyâs âLetâs go, Brandon!â message and to portray Biden as someone who accomplishes his agenda.
But he also just looks evil.
Before the Super Bowl, a wacky conspiracy theory also emerged. In this (letâs call it) âunique version of realityâ, the Super Bowl was fixed and Kansas City destined to win. And since the Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce is dating the zillionaire superstar Taylor Swift, according to the conspiracy theory, the predictable Super Bowl triumph would solidify Taylor Swiftâs endorsement of Joe Biden for president, which will elevate his chances to the stratosphere, hence Bidenâs joke: âJust like we drew it up.â By the way, this unique version of reality is believed by nearly one in five Americans.
Meanwhile, this is what actually happened while the Super Bowl, watched by over 120 million people, was taking place. Israel launched its latest offensive on the town of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are seeking shelter with nowhere else to go. Gazans described the bombing as a ânight full of horrorâ. Dozens of people, including women and children, were reported killed.
A spokesman for the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah said that the hospital received at least 15 bodies and 50 wounded. âThere were a lot of body parts,â the spokesman said, after âsuccessive and suddenâ Israeli strikes.
Israel stated that two people taken captive on 7 October had been freed during this campaign. According to the journalist Barak Ravid, the Israeli air force âconducted heavy airstrikes in Rafah as a diversion to allow the extraction of ⦠two hostagesâ. Civilians being killed âas a diversionâ would almost certainly qualify as a war crime. The White House, by the way, was notified as soon as the operation was complete.
Of course the White House was notified. Without approval from the White House, Israel would not be able to carry out one of the deadliest, most destructive and plausibly genocidal military campaigns in recent history. The White House secures the finances, the weapons and the political cover for this horror to take place.
Biden was subsequently ridiculed all over social media for his Dark Brandon post, as he should have been. Despite what Biden and his people may think, an evil-looking Joe Biden is not some funny reversal of the rightwing messaging system. Itâs tone-deaf to the cries of humanity. And until the president exhibits a resolve and acts to stop Israelâs extraordinary and unfathomable violence, an evil-looking Biden looks much less like a clever joke and much more like a statement of fact.