WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.040 If you happen to glance at the Apple podcast 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.379 title in the description for today's deep dive 00:00:04.379 --> 00:00:06.660 before you hit play, you probably noticed it 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:08.679 reads a bit like a search engine's dream. It 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:10.580 really does. Yeah, and it is packed with all 00:00:10.580 --> 00:00:13.619 these heavy hitting SEO keywords. Things like 00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:16.500 let's go Brandon meme origin and dark Brandon 00:00:16.500 --> 00:00:19.179 explain. Political internet memes. Right. And 00:00:19.179 --> 00:00:22.440 NASCAR crypto lawsuit. But we didn't just throw 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:24.420 those in there for the algorithm. No, we really 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:26.379 didn't. Because today we actually are looking 00:00:26.379 --> 00:00:30.920 at how a single. possibly misheard sentence at 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:34.799 a 2021 NASCAR race managed to spawn one of the 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:37.479 most pervasive political slogans of the decade. 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:39.780 And we are tracking how it sparked a massive 00:00:39.780 --> 00:00:42.619 multi -million dollar cryptocurrency lawsuit 00:00:42.619 --> 00:00:45.799 and how it eventually morphed into a laser -eyed 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:49.219 presidential alter ego. It is a wild ride. Our 00:00:49.219 --> 00:00:51.159 source material today is a comprehensive Wikipedia 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:54.340 article that meticulously tracks the Let's Go 00:00:54.340 --> 00:00:56.840 Brandon phenomenon and its unexpected counter 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.149 -meme, Dark Bandon. And our mission here is to 00:01:00.149 --> 00:01:03.049 unpack the fascinating life cycle of modern political 00:01:03.049 --> 00:01:06.549 internet memes. We want to understand how they 00:01:06.549 --> 00:01:09.569 are born, how they bypass traditional media to 00:01:09.569 --> 00:01:12.030 just spread like wildfire, and how they're ultimately 00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:15.180 weaponized, monetized, and co -opted. But before 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:18.019 we get into the weeds of race cars and meme coins 00:01:18.019 --> 00:01:20.680 and Internet culture, we do need to establish 00:01:20.680 --> 00:01:23.500 some very strict ground rules for you, the listener. 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:25.579 Yes, very important. The source material we're 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:28.140 examining today contains highly politically charged 00:01:28.140 --> 00:01:31.260 content, involves passionate and honestly often 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:34.019 vitriolic viewpoints from both the left wing 00:01:34.019 --> 00:01:36.099 and the right wing. Specifically regarding former 00:01:36.099 --> 00:01:38.379 President Joe Biden and his critics. Exactly. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:41.469 So we want to make it completely. unequivocally 00:01:41.469 --> 00:01:43.329 clear to you that we are not taking any sides 00:01:43.329 --> 00:01:45.709 today. None at all. We are not endorsing the 00:01:45.709 --> 00:01:47.829 viewpoints of the critics chanting the slogans, 00:01:47.849 --> 00:01:50.329 nor are we endorsing the viewpoints of the politicians 00:01:50.329 --> 00:01:52.590 co -opting them. Right. We are simply here as 00:01:52.590 --> 00:01:55.209 your guides, reporting impartially on the ideas, 00:01:55.329 --> 00:01:57.609 the timeline, and the history exactly as they 00:01:57.609 --> 00:01:59.390 are contained in our original source material. 00:01:59.849 --> 00:02:03.109 Okay, let's unpack this. Because to really wrap 00:02:03.109 --> 00:02:05.290 your hand around how this all blew up, we have 00:02:05.290 --> 00:02:08.990 to travel back to the fall of 2021. September, 00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:11.270 to be exact. Right, the early days. Now, if you 00:02:11.270 --> 00:02:13.810 follow politics even casually, you probably remember 00:02:13.810 --> 00:02:16.930 the basics of how this started. There was a very 00:02:16.930 --> 00:02:22.189 clear, very vulgar anti -Biden chant, F Joe Biden, 00:02:22.370 --> 00:02:25.610 that started organically breaking out in large 00:02:25.610 --> 00:02:28.530 crowds. Yeah, it was everywhere. It was reported 00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:31.169 at college football games across the American 00:02:31.169 --> 00:02:33.750 South. It spread to places like the University 00:02:33.750 --> 00:02:36.629 of Wyoming. It popped up at the Ryder Cup. Right. 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:39.419 and it was even chanted at a Megadeth concert. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:41.759 It was essentially this decentralized expression 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:43.879 of political frustration. There was no single 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:46.400 organizer. Right. No campaign manager passing 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.219 out flyers. Exactly. It was just a raw, unpolished 00:02:49.219 --> 00:02:51.939 chant catching on in these large, rowdy group 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:55.479 settings. But raw vulgarity has a hard ceiling 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:58.099 in mainstream culture. You can't broadcast it 00:02:58.099 --> 00:03:00.659 on daytime television. Politicians generally 00:03:00.659 --> 00:03:03.039 can't say it into a microphone on the House floor. 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:05.099 Right. So for a sentiment like that to cross 00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:07.780 over from a rowdy football stadium into the mainstream 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:10.449 political discourse. it really needed a catalyst. 00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:14.909 Which brings us to October 2, 2021, the inciting 00:03:14.909 --> 00:03:17.550 incident at the Talladega Super Speedway in Alabama. 00:03:17.810 --> 00:03:20.629 Right. So the Spark's 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series 00:03:20.629 --> 00:03:24.039 race has just ended. The winner is a driver named 00:03:24.039 --> 00:03:27.460 Brandon Brown. OK. And NBC sports reporter Kelly 00:03:27.460 --> 00:03:30.360 Stavost is interviewing him live on the broadcast. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:33.699 Now, in the background, the crowd is loudly chanting 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.719 that exact same vulgar anti -Biden phrase. And 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.159 it is very audible to the viewers at home. Very 00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:41.780 audible. But Stavost, who is wearing a heavy 00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:44.729 broadcast headset, tells the audience. You can 00:03:44.729 --> 00:03:46.250 hear the chants from the crowd. Let's go, Brandon. 00:03:46.409 --> 00:03:48.669 What's fascinating here is how the sheer ambiguity 00:03:48.669 --> 00:03:51.789 of that single moment allowed the phrase to transcend 00:03:51.789 --> 00:03:54.409 normal political channels instantly. What do 00:03:54.409 --> 00:03:56.689 you mean by ambiguity? Well, was it an honest 00:03:56.689 --> 00:03:59.069 mistake? An Associated Press journalist later 00:03:59.069 --> 00:04:00.849 noted that the chant was genuinely difficult 00:04:00.849 --> 00:04:02.849 to make out, especially if you're wearing a noise 00:04:02.849 --> 00:04:05.409 -canceling headset at a very loud racetrack. 00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:08.139 Oh, sure. That makes sense. Or... As many critics 00:04:08.139 --> 00:04:11.020 of the president quickly speculated, was it an 00:04:11.020 --> 00:04:13.699 intentional media cover up designed to conceal 00:04:13.699 --> 00:04:16.959 anti -Biden sentiment on a live national broadcast? 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:19.500 Wait, so the ambiguity was actually the feature, 00:04:19.699 --> 00:04:22.629 not a bug. I mean, if she had just ignored it 00:04:22.629 --> 00:04:25.430 or if she had correctly identified the vulgarity 00:04:25.430 --> 00:04:27.550 and apologized for the language, does this whole 00:04:27.550 --> 00:04:29.610 thing just die right there on the track? Almost 00:04:29.610 --> 00:04:31.910 certainly. Because of that ambiguity, because 00:04:31.910 --> 00:04:34.310 it could be framed as the media lying to the 00:04:34.310 --> 00:04:36.850 public in real time, the phrase instantly became 00:04:36.850 --> 00:04:39.750 a dual purpose weapon. I see. On one level, it 00:04:39.750 --> 00:04:43.050 was a sanitized, family friendly way to hurl 00:04:43.050 --> 00:04:45.350 a very vulgar insult at the president. You could 00:04:45.350 --> 00:04:47.250 say it anywhere. Right. You wouldn't get bleeped. 00:04:47.290 --> 00:04:49.810 Exactly. And on a second level, it functioned 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:51.920 as a built in. protest against perceived liberal 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:54.839 bias in the mainstream media. By saying, let's 00:04:54.839 --> 00:04:57.120 go, Brandon, you were signaling to everyone else 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:59.160 that you believe the media was trying to silence 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:01.879 conservative voices. Wow. It was a two for one 00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:04.120 political statement perfectly wrapped in a catchy 00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:06.399 slogan. And it caught on immediately. I mean, 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:08.800 it jumped from Twitter to clothing to billboards 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:12.259 to banners flown behind airplanes. It was everywhere. 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:15.160 But to really understand why human brains latch 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:18.040 onto a phrase like this so hard, we have to look 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:20.680 at the linguistic mechanics. Our sources include 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:23.699 an analysis by John McWhorter. Right, the linguist. 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:25.600 Yes, he's a linguist writing for The Atlantic, 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.500 and he introduces this concept called a lanifa. 00:05:29.019 --> 00:05:32.379 Yes, lanitha is a linguistic term that originated 00:05:32.379 --> 00:05:35.519 in southern Africa. It refers to the substitution 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:38.399 of a forbidden word. Okay. And McWhorter uses 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:41.259 it to explain why Let's Go Brandon is so sticky. 00:05:41.379 --> 00:05:44.740 He compares it to military slang, like the term 00:05:44.740 --> 00:05:48.540 snaff. Which stands for situation normal, all 00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:52.199 effed up. Exactly. Or to political poor man toes 00:05:52.199 --> 00:05:55.319 like cuckservative, which blends cuckold and 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:58.040 conservative. McWhorter argues this isn't just 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.339 mindless name calling. It's a wild intersection 00:06:00.339 --> 00:06:03.500 of language, politics, wit and creativity that 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:05.899 allows people to participate in a shared inside 00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:07.899 joke. I have to push back on that a little bit, 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:10.459 though. I mean. Brilliant and creative feel like 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:12.420 strong words. You think so? Yeah. Isn't this 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:14.699 just the linguistic equivalent of middle schoolers 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:16.339 giggling because they figured out how to curse 00:06:16.339 --> 00:06:17.920 without the teacher sending them to the principal's 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:20.899 office? That's a completely fair pushback. And 00:06:20.899 --> 00:06:23.459 on the surface, it absolutely has that juvenile 00:06:23.459 --> 00:06:26.180 rebellious appeal. Right. But linguistically 00:06:26.180 --> 00:06:28.600 speaking, the brilliance McWhorter is pointing 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:31.680 to isn't about the maturity of the phrase. It's 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.399 about the efficiency of the in -group signaling. 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:37.220 Signaling. Yes. When you use a Hlonifa, you are 00:06:37.220 --> 00:06:39.980 instantly identifying yourself as part of a specific 00:06:39.980 --> 00:06:43.300 tribe. You are communicating a complex set of 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:45.560 shared grievances about the president, about 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:47.990 the media, about censorship, and just... Three 00:06:47.990 --> 00:06:50.269 words. Oh, wow. When you put it like that. Right. 00:06:50.389 --> 00:06:53.050 The human brain loves a secret code, especially 00:06:53.050 --> 00:06:55.470 one that the outgroup is forced to hear but can't 00:06:55.470 --> 00:06:57.930 officially punish you for. And that desire to 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:01.170 signal your tribe completely took over pop culture. 00:07:01.209 --> 00:07:03.449 It jumped from an inside joke into a massive 00:07:03.449 --> 00:07:06.269 monetization engine. It really did. By mid -October, 00:07:06.269 --> 00:07:09.149 just weeks after the race, it was dominating 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:12.129 the music charts. A rapper named Looza Alexander 00:07:12.129 --> 00:07:15.430 recorded a hip -hop track. called Let's Go Brandon, 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:18.069 that went viral on TikTok and shot to number 00:07:18.069 --> 00:07:21.730 one on the iTunes store top hip -hop rap songs 00:07:21.730 --> 00:07:24.970 list. And then a conservative Christian rapper 00:07:24.970 --> 00:07:27.790 named Bryson Gray released his own track with 00:07:27.790 --> 00:07:30.370 the same title. That one also hit number one 00:07:30.370 --> 00:07:33.209 on iTunes and debuted at number 28 on the US 00:07:33.209 --> 00:07:36.189 Hot 100. What is particularly notable about Bryson 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:38.569 Gray's track is that the music video included 00:07:38.569 --> 00:07:41.990 lyrics referencing COVID -19 vaccine efforts 00:07:41.990 --> 00:07:44.990 as lies. Okay. So YouTube actually took the video 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:48.160 down for medical misinformation. Which I imagine 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.439 didn't slow the meme down at all. Not even a 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:53.019 little. In the ecosystem of internet memes, censorship 00:07:53.019 --> 00:07:56.000 is often just fuel. The removals only validated 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.220 the rebellious nature of the meme for its supporters. 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:00.639 Right, of course. By late October, iTunes had 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:02.980 different Let's Go Brandon songs sitting at the 00:08:02.980 --> 00:08:05.500 number one, two, four, and eight spots on their 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:08.720 charts simultaneously. That is insane. It even 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:10.860 reached the point where Kid Rock released a single 00:08:10.860 --> 00:08:14.079 in early 2022 called We the People that featured 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:16.319 the chant right in the chorus. And it wasn't 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.000 just music. We saw bizarre political applications, 00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:21.680 too. You had Congressman Bill Posey singing on 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:24.019 the House floor, Ted Cruz posing with a sign. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.379 And then a Colorado candidate named Dave Williams 00:08:27.379 --> 00:08:30.980 actually sued to have Dave Let's Go Brandon Williams 00:08:30.980 --> 00:08:34.179 listed as his official name on the ballot. He 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:36.620 failed, but he actually sued for it. Think about 00:08:36.620 --> 00:08:39.399 that for a second. It asks you, the listener, 00:08:39.559 --> 00:08:42.840 to consider just how strange it is when an inside 00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:45.240 Internet joke bleeds into official government 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:47.759 records and billboard charts. It totally blurs 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:50.500 the line between Internet trolling and real world 00:08:50.500 --> 00:08:52.620 legislation. It absolutely does. Well, we've 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:54.240 been talking about how a meme gets weaponized 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:57.620 for politics and profit. But there is a massive 00:08:57.620 --> 00:09:00.220 ripple effect when Internet culture collides 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:02.480 with real world business. And that brings us 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:05.159 back to the actual human being at the center 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:06.940 of this. Best hard driver, Brandon Brown. Yes. 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:08.679 Brandon Brown. Initially, you thought it was 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:10.980 kind of funny. He tweeted to all the other Brandons 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:14.039 out there. You're welcome. Let's go. Right. A 00:09:14.039 --> 00:09:16.220 very good natured response. But that amusement 00:09:16.220 --> 00:09:19.460 faded incredibly fast when the financial reality 00:09:19.460 --> 00:09:21.860 set in. Brown found himself in an impossible 00:09:21.860 --> 00:09:25.240 position. He is a Republican, but he stated publicly 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:27.940 that he had zero desire to be involved in politics. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:30.159 He just wanted to drive his race car. Exactly. 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.759 But suddenly the greatest achievement of his 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:35.340 professional career was completely overshadowed 00:09:35.340 --> 00:09:38.639 by a partisan culture war. And worse, it became 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:41.080 a massive financial liability. Corporate sponsors 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:44.039 are historically very risk averse. They didn't 00:09:44.039 --> 00:09:46.019 want to touch his racing team because his very 00:09:46.019 --> 00:09:48.820 name was now indirectly associated with a vulgar 00:09:48.820 --> 00:09:52.090 political. Which led to an absolute crypto catastrophe. 00:09:52.470 --> 00:09:55.669 Because traditional sponsors were fleeing, Brandon 00:09:55.669 --> 00:09:57.429 Built Motorsports was struggling financially. 00:09:57.769 --> 00:10:01.370 So in late December 2021, they announced a sponsorship 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:04.350 deal with a cryptocurrency token called LGB Coin. 00:10:04.629 --> 00:10:07.090 LGB obviously standing for Let's Go Brandon. 00:10:07.289 --> 00:10:10.029 Right. And the sources refer to it as a right 00:10:10.029 --> 00:10:13.480 wing ERC -20 token. For those of you listening 00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:16.279 who aren't actively day trading crypto, can we 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:19.179 explain what exactly an ERC -20 token is? Sure. 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:21.759 To break that down simply, an ERC -20 token is 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:24.019 essentially a custom cryptocurrency built on 00:10:24.019 --> 00:10:26.480 top of the existing Ethereum blockchain. Okay. 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:28.259 The reason that matters is that you don't have 00:10:28.259 --> 00:10:30.019 to build a whole new blockchain from scratch 00:10:30.019 --> 00:10:32.179 to launch one. Anyone with a bit of technical 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:35.059 know -how can mint an ERC -20 token very quickly 00:10:35.059 --> 00:10:37.600 and cheaply. So a low barrier to entry. Very 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.399 low. And during this era, we saw an explosion 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:44.309 of meme coins. These were tokens with no underlying 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:47.169 utility or intrinsic value. They were driven 00:10:47.169 --> 00:10:49.789 entirely by Internet hype and cultural relevance. 00:10:50.009 --> 00:10:52.690 Just pure speculation. Exactly. An LGB coin was 00:10:52.690 --> 00:10:55.129 designed to capitalize on the sheer viral momentum 00:10:55.129 --> 00:10:57.769 of the phrase. So the racing team announces this 00:10:57.769 --> 00:11:01.149 meme coin as their primary sponsor. But NASCAR, 00:11:01.309 --> 00:11:02.970 who had previously stated they didn't want to 00:11:02.970 --> 00:11:04.809 be associated with politics on the left or the 00:11:04.809 --> 00:11:08.049 right, steps in and explicitly rejects the sponsorship 00:11:08.049 --> 00:11:11.429 in January 2022. And the fallout from that rejection 00:11:11.429 --> 00:11:14.690 was messy. It was highly litigious and devastating 00:11:14.690 --> 00:11:16.929 for the investors. What happened? An investor 00:11:16.929 --> 00:11:19.649 named James Koutoulis threatened a massive lawsuit 00:11:19.649 --> 00:11:22.990 against NASCAR and called for a boycott. Eventually, 00:11:23.049 --> 00:11:26.070 in September 2025, Koutoulis and the Let's Go 00:11:26.070 --> 00:11:28.730 Brandon .com Foundation filed a suit against 00:11:28.730 --> 00:11:32.629 NASCAR seeking a staggering $76 million in damages 00:11:32.629 --> 00:11:35.330 for the rejected sponsorship. $76 million? Yes. 00:11:35.370 --> 00:11:37.350 They argued NASCAR's rejection destroyed the 00:11:37.350 --> 00:11:39.950 value of the coin. Ultimately, it jury in Miami 00:11:39.950 --> 00:11:42.649 -Dade County ruled in NASCAR's favor in October 00:11:42.649 --> 00:11:45.690 2025. But NASCAR wasn't the only one getting 00:11:45.690 --> 00:11:50.049 sued over this. In April 2022, a class action 00:11:50.049 --> 00:11:53.210 lawsuit was filed in Florida by a plaintiff accusing 00:11:53.210 --> 00:11:56.549 the LGB coin cryptocurrency company and its promoters 00:11:56.549 --> 00:11:59.370 of running a pump and dump scheme. Right. And 00:11:59.370 --> 00:12:02.309 those promoters included Brandon Brown, NASCAR 00:12:02.309 --> 00:12:05.879 and political commentator Candace Owens. What 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:08.480 exactly does a pump and dump scheme look like 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:11.059 in a legal sense? A pump and dump scheme is a 00:12:11.059 --> 00:12:14.179 form of securities fraud. Legally, the plaintiffs 00:12:14.179 --> 00:12:16.000 are alleging that the creators and promoters 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.440 of the coin intentionally made false or misleading 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:21.399 statements to create a buying frenzy. Oh, that's 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:23.690 a pump. That's the pump. They hype it up, say 00:12:23.690 --> 00:12:26.029 it's going to the moon and get regular retail 00:12:26.029 --> 00:12:29.009 investors to buy in, which artificially inflates 00:12:29.009 --> 00:12:32.110 the price. Once the price peaks, the insiders 00:12:32.110 --> 00:12:34.029 who hold a massive amount of the coin sell off 00:12:34.029 --> 00:12:36.549 their holdings. That's the dump. Wow. This crashes 00:12:36.549 --> 00:12:38.909 the value of the coin, leaving the regular investors 00:12:38.909 --> 00:12:41.149 holding completely worthless digital assets. 00:12:41.629 --> 00:12:44.190 The lawsuit alleged that the defendants disguised 00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:46.789 the scheme as a legitimate sponsorship. It is 00:12:46.789 --> 00:12:51.139 just staggering. A muffled interview at a racetrack 00:12:51.139 --> 00:12:54.440 derailed a man's racing career and sparked years 00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:57.820 of multimillion dollar federal litigation. It 00:12:57.820 --> 00:13:00.340 really shows how volatile this stuff is. But 00:13:00.340 --> 00:13:02.980 I want to pivot here because memes aren't just 00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:05.600 weapons or financial tools. Yeah. They're subjective. 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.759 Yeah. Once language is out in the wild, it can 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:11.700 be interpreted in entirely unintended ways. Right. 00:13:11.799 --> 00:13:14.899 And our sources have one genuinely wholesome 00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:18.529 story. that proves this yes the story of brandon 00:13:18.529 --> 00:13:21.049 brundage in 2022 he was a nine -year -old autistic 00:13:21.049 --> 00:13:23.769 boy who started seeing the let's go brandon signs 00:13:23.769 --> 00:13:26.590 everywhere okay but he had no idea what the political 00:13:26.590 --> 00:13:28.929 meaning was he just saw his name and assumed 00:13:28.929 --> 00:13:30.529 all these people were cheering for him which 00:13:30.529 --> 00:13:32.789 is such a beautiful misunderstanding it completely 00:13:32.789 --> 00:13:35.309 changed his outlook the perceived encouragement 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:38.450 actually inspired this little boy to try swimming 00:13:38.450 --> 00:13:40.669 and riding his bike without training wheels that 00:13:40.669 --> 00:13:43.179 is amazing His mother, Shaletta Brundage, was 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:45.600 so moved by this unintended positive consequence 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:47.980 that she wrote a children's book called Brandon 00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:50.539 Spots His Sign. And eventually, the young boy 00:13:50.539 --> 00:13:52.759 actually got to meet the race car driver, Brandon 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:55.240 Brown. Oh, wow. It highlights a really important 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:58.320 concept. Language, no matter how politically 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:01.519 charged or cynically deployed, only holds the 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:03.700 meaning that the receiver gives it. I really 00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:06.100 love that story. OK, here's where it gets really 00:14:06.100 --> 00:14:09.610 interesting. Because in politics, every action 00:14:09.610 --> 00:14:12.909 has an equal and opposite reaction. Enter Dark 00:14:12.909 --> 00:14:16.029 Brandon. Ah, yes. We've talked about how the 00:14:16.029 --> 00:14:19.090 right weaponized Let's Go Brandon. But to understand 00:14:19.090 --> 00:14:21.450 the counter -meme, we have to talk about dark 00:14:21.450 --> 00:14:24.029 magia and a very specific internet aesthetic. 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:26.610 Right. To understand Dark Brandon, you have to 00:14:26.610 --> 00:14:28.629 look at the visual language of the internet at 00:14:28.629 --> 00:14:31.879 the time. Dark Mangiate was an aesthetic promoted 00:14:31.879 --> 00:14:34.840 by figures like former U .S. Representative Madison 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:37.559 Cawthorn. Right. It suggested that Donald Trump 00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:40.100 would return to power with a vengeance. And it 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:42.899 heavily utilized what our sources call a fashwave 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:45.480 aesthetic. Let's define that because fashwave 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:48.120 sounds incredibly niche. It is, but it's highly 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:50.539 influential. Yeah. Fashwave is a portmanteau 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:53.259 of fascism and synthwave. Visually, it blends 00:14:53.259 --> 00:14:56.779 the neon, grid -lined, retro -futuristic look 00:14:56.779 --> 00:15:00.460 of 1980s synthwave music with dark authoritarian 00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:03.419 political imagery. It features heavy shadows, 00:15:03.620 --> 00:15:06.259 glowing neon colors, and often characters with 00:15:06.259 --> 00:15:08.759 glowing laser eyes. Laser eyes, right. It's meant 00:15:08.759 --> 00:15:10.799 to look edgy, intimidating, and hyper online. 00:15:11.389 --> 00:15:14.009 In response to this, online progressives created 00:15:14.009 --> 00:15:16.750 Dark Brandon simply to parody that intense conservative 00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:19.409 aesthetic. They took the Let's Go Brandon meme 00:15:19.409 --> 00:15:21.710 and mashed it up with this sinister fash -wave 00:15:21.710 --> 00:15:24.590 look as a joke. So it starts as an online joke 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:27.169 by progressives. But the real turning point happens 00:15:27.169 --> 00:15:30.139 in the physical world in September 2022. President 00:15:30.139 --> 00:15:32.379 Biden gives his battle for the soul of the nation 00:15:32.379 --> 00:15:34.919 speech in Philadelphia. Yes, the staging of that 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.419 was striking. Very striking. He was framed in 00:15:37.419 --> 00:15:39.779 front of a brick background, illuminated by deep 00:15:39.779 --> 00:15:42.080 red lighting, flanked by two uniformed Marines. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:45.120 Our sources note that The Guardian called the 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:47.440 aesthetic dark, and New York Magazine said it 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.960 prompted numerous comparisons of Biden to Hitler 00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:52.139 and Satan by conservatives. Right. The right 00:15:52.139 --> 00:15:54.340 started using the dark brand and laser eye imagery 00:15:54.340 --> 00:15:57.440 to genuinely mock him, framing him as a sinister 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:59.879 authoritarian figure. But this is where the political 00:15:59.879 --> 00:16:02.840 jujitsu happens. Historically, when a politician 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:05.440 is painted as a villain or an authoritarian by 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:07.940 their opponents, the instinct is to retreat, 00:16:08.100 --> 00:16:10.960 to soften their image and to act defensive. Sure. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:13.740 You try to look harmless. Exactly. Instead, Biden 00:16:13.740 --> 00:16:15.720 supporters and eventually the official Biden 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:18.279 campaign itself did the exact opposite. They 00:16:18.279 --> 00:16:21.259 embraced the villainous alter ego. Why does that 00:16:21.259 --> 00:16:23.960 work? Why lean into the villain trope? Because 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.690 it completely disarms the attack. Reclaiming 00:16:26.690 --> 00:16:29.370 a negative meme is a classic power play tactic. 00:16:29.549 --> 00:16:31.509 Right. By co -opting the narrative, they took 00:16:31.509 --> 00:16:33.429 an aesthetic meant to paint the president as 00:16:33.429 --> 00:16:36.169 a dangerous threat and flipped it to project 00:16:36.169 --> 00:16:39.529 strength and competence. Wow. An Agence France 00:16:39.529 --> 00:16:41.909 press journalist wrote that it rebranded Biden 00:16:41.909 --> 00:16:44.509 from an ineffectual grandfather figure to a kind 00:16:44.509 --> 00:16:47.269 of political terminator. It allowed his campaign 00:16:47.269 --> 00:16:49.850 to celebrate legislative victories with an edge 00:16:49.850 --> 00:16:52.529 of online swagger that his typical branding completely 00:16:52.529 --> 00:16:55.730 lacked. That the campaign leaned in hard. They 00:16:55.730 --> 00:16:57.990 put dark Brandon imagery complete with the glowing 00:16:57.990 --> 00:17:01.289 red laser eyes on their website's 404 error page. 00:17:01.509 --> 00:17:03.990 They started selling official merchandise, mugs, 00:17:04.190 --> 00:17:07.430 T -shirts, you name it. And the financial impact 00:17:07.430 --> 00:17:10.430 was staggering. It really was. According to the 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:12.690 campaign, dark Brandon merchandise accounted 00:17:12.690 --> 00:17:15.069 for more than half of the online purchase revenue 00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:18.410 on Biden's official website store. It was a massive 00:17:18.410 --> 00:17:21.230 fundraising engine born out of an insult. And 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:23.509 the president himself started participating in 00:17:23.509 --> 00:17:26.740 the joke. In August 2023, Biden posted a reel 00:17:26.740 --> 00:17:29.079 on Instagram where he took a sip of coffee from 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.220 a mug featuring the dark Brandon laser eyes. 00:17:32.460 --> 00:17:35.859 That single video went viral with over 9 million 00:17:35.859 --> 00:17:38.640 views and half a million likes. He even used 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:40.700 it to troll one of the biggest pop culture events 00:17:40.700 --> 00:17:44.680 of the year. In February 2024, right -wing circles 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.420 were floating a conspiracy theory that Super 00:17:47.420 --> 00:17:50.000 Bowl LV8 was rigged for the Kansas City Chiefs 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.519 to boost Biden's reelection. Right. The theory 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:54.559 involved Taylor Swift and Travis Kelchie being 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.259 part of a deep state plot. Right after the Chiefs 00:17:57.259 --> 00:17:59.339 won the game, Biden's account posted a picture 00:17:59.339 --> 00:18:01.640 of Dark Brandon with the laser eyes and the caption, 00:18:01.779 --> 00:18:04.579 just like we drew it up. It is a masterclass 00:18:04.579 --> 00:18:07.640 in using weaponized irony to diffuse a conspiracy 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:11.490 theory. By claiming responsibility for the absurdity 00:18:11.490 --> 00:18:13.630 as Dark Brandon, the administration made the 00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:16.509 conspiracy theorists look foolish without ever 00:18:16.509 --> 00:18:19.529 having to issue a formal, serious denial. Very 00:18:19.529 --> 00:18:22.029 clever. But as our sources point out, there is 00:18:22.029 --> 00:18:25.029 a very delicate life cycle to these things. Reception 00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:27.910 of the meme eventually became mixed. Right, because 00:18:27.910 --> 00:18:30.509 at the 2023 White House Correspondents Dinner, 00:18:30.710 --> 00:18:34.160 Biden put on aviator sunglasses. and actually 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:36.880 joked about Dark Brandon to the crowd of journalists 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.299 and politicians. And many Internet culture critics 00:18:39.299 --> 00:18:42.200 argued that that moment inherently killed the 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:44.740 meme. The unwritten rule of the Internet is that 00:18:44.740 --> 00:18:47.140 memes derive their power from being subversive. 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:48.759 Right. They belong to the subculture. Exactly. 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:51.079 Once the establishment officially adopts the 00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:53.579 joke, explains it, and prints it on official 00:18:53.579 --> 00:18:56.380 campaign mugs, it ceases to be cool. The edge 00:18:56.380 --> 00:18:59.000 is just gone. So we've gone from a crowd chanting 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:02.460 a vulgar phrase at a football game to a misheard 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:06.589 quote. a NASCAR track in Alabama, to a $76 million 00:19:06.589 --> 00:19:09.730 cryptocurrency lawsuit, to number one rap hits, 00:19:09.809 --> 00:19:13.490 and finally to a laser -eyed presidential alter 00:19:13.490 --> 00:19:16.329 ego driving official White House merchandise 00:19:16.329 --> 00:19:19.390 sales and trolling the Super Bowl. It's an absolutely 00:19:19.390 --> 00:19:22.569 insane journey for a single phrase. So what does 00:19:22.569 --> 00:19:24.630 this all mean? If we connect this to the bigger 00:19:24.630 --> 00:19:27.049 picture for you, the listener, it reveals a profound 00:19:27.049 --> 00:19:29.170 truth about the modern information ecosystem. 00:19:29.869 --> 00:19:32.069 We are traditionally taught to think of language 00:19:32.069 --> 00:19:33.950 as something we use to describe our culture. 00:19:34.190 --> 00:19:37.109 But in the Internet age, language consumes culture. 00:19:37.289 --> 00:19:39.029 Yeah, that's a great way to put it. A single 00:19:39.029 --> 00:19:41.430 adaptable phrase supercharged by the mechanics 00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:43.970 of in -group signaling has the kinetic energy 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:46.930 to destroy a race car driver's corporate sponsorships 00:19:46.930 --> 00:19:49.390 while simultaneously funding a presidential campaign. 00:19:49.750 --> 00:19:52.269 It shows how porous the borders are between online 00:19:52.269 --> 00:19:55.019 trolls digital finance and the highest levels 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:57.059 of executive power. It really makes you look 00:19:57.059 --> 00:19:59.980 at every trending hashtag, every meme coin and 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:01.759 every political slogan a little differently. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:03.740 Right. You start to see the machinery behind 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:07.279 the joke. It does. Which leads to a final lingering 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:09.849 question for you to consider. This raises an 00:20:09.849 --> 00:20:11.690 important point about the future of political 00:20:11.690 --> 00:20:14.529 discourse. In the cases of both Let's Go Brandon 00:20:14.529 --> 00:20:17.349 and Dark Brandon, political campaigns were mostly 00:20:17.349 --> 00:20:19.769 reacting to and co -opting organic accidental 00:20:19.769 --> 00:20:22.950 Internet phenomena. But now that political operatives 00:20:22.950 --> 00:20:24.869 have seen exactly how effective and lucrative 00:20:24.869 --> 00:20:27.529 these viral memes can be, what happens when they 00:20:27.529 --> 00:20:30.009 stop waiting for happy accidents? What happens 00:20:30.009 --> 00:20:32.970 when politicians and their super PACs start using 00:20:32.970 --> 00:20:35.329 artificial intelligence and coordinated troll 00:20:35.329 --> 00:20:37.869 farms to artificially engineer these cultural 00:20:37.869 --> 00:20:40.740 viruses? moments from scratch. Moving forward, 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:42.940 how will you know what's a genuine grassroots 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:45.680 movement expressing real frustration and what 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.420 is just a manufactured meme explicitly designed 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:51.140 to manipulate you? A slightly terrifying but 00:20:51.140 --> 00:20:53.160 entirely necessary question to leave you with. 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:54.779 Thanks for diving deep with us today.