https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gdgw0v3dxo
The US president borrows the trademark Republican cap after joking with fire fighters.
For those who can't be bothered to watch the video: Biden talks with Trump supporter, signs a presidential hat, trades for the Trump supporter's hat, briefly wears it.
Also jokes about being so old he forgot his name, tells the guy "hell no" when asked if he wants him to sign the Trump hat, and tells people not to eat dogs.
Also it wasn't a "unity gesture". It was a funny moment for the people in the room and/or was intended to make the Trump convert more comfortable.
Either way, it was absolutely fine in context. The only concern is how it could be taken out of context, and fuck that. I'm tired of walking a tightrope worrying about what Fox News might say.
If it was a "unity gesture", it was for that one guy. It wasn't for the Fox News audience.
"I’m tired of walking a tightrope worrying about what Fox News might say."
I'm going to give you some advice that my great aunt Edna gave me 35 years ago, when I went to my first day at kindergarten, and the other kids made fun of me.
"Fuck 'em! Fuck the whole lot! Who gives a shit what they say? They probably poop the bed everynight!"
You'd be surprised how often that advice applies to current situations.
Probably not worth it in the electoral sense, but you know what? I'd rather have a human than a robot calculating the electoral effect of every interaction he has with another person.
This wasn't strategic. It was just human.
Eh. Sometimes people are jacked up on what everyone else is saying, so of he's willing to have a bit of banter with them it really breaks the ice and shows he isn't a bloodsucking satan worshipper or whatever people are saying
I don't think that type of fox news audience that would care about it out of context would change their mind
Biden has always had a good sense of humor. I remember the memes from 2010, he was funny then too.
Yeah, but the trump campaign won't make sure that everyone has carefully watched the video to see how sweet a moment it is. They will just use the image of Boden wearing a Trump 2024 hat.
I think it was a sweet moment there and made Biden appear as a friendly and self-ironic guy. I doubt the Trump campaign can leverage this photo as they are sharing AI stuff all day and compared to all these fakes, Biden wearing a Trump hat is pretty lame. :D
The Machines in our timeline discovered that we would instinctively reject their artificial world if it wasn't stupid enough.
That is the darkest part of The Matrix.
“We gave you paradise and you all threw a tantrum. So we made life hell and now you’re easy to deal with.”
And the longer I am alive, the more true that sentiment seems to be.
It was a nice interaction between two old men and people are upset about it. It's like football players swapping jerseys. But the USA is so divided that any friendly interactions between "opposing sides" is seen as treason. Good grief.
It's more akin to Biden donning a Klan hood or a swastika than 'swapping jerseys'.
Giving even a semblance of legitimacy to these fascist terrorists is fucking disgusting. There's nothing 'nice' or 'sweet' about it.
Uhg and groan. Listen 9/11 wasnt about solidarity between political parties. I mean the event did allow the parties to craft the Patriot act, and sell away alot of our freedoms for the lie of security… but i consider that a bad thing. It’s this attempt to find common ground with the republicans that has got me so upset at this political climate to begin with. 9/11 is in remembrance to those that died, don’t use it for anything political
If you watch the video, he wasn't using it for anything political. He's doing low stakes crowd work. He's chatting with people, gives a guy in a trump hat a signed hat while making some self deprecating jokes and good natured insults to the guy in the trump hat. Definitely makes like he's going to steal the guys hat, and puts it on for a second for a bigger laugh.
Optics good, bad, or neutral, it wasn't a planned "solidarity" thing like the headline makes it sound.
A better headline would have been "Biden borrows trump hat for laugh at lunch following 9/11 memorial event"
Fair enough. I’m just going to find something else to think about. Been worked up after unfavorable canidate talk
There’s a video you can watch if that helps.
It was actually a normal, endearing interaction, but people gotta be outraged anyway 🤷♂️
I know the Maga right will go nuts with this, but, maybe that's good? Maybe it will show how deranged they are to the people who can be swayed?
I've been surprised before. Some people bury their head and ay "they're both the same". This could be loud enough and stupid enough to penatrate that. Maybe.
You're being downvoted, but that is EXACTLY how this otherwise benign moment will be weaponized by the right.
Republicans WILL share this as a slander, and the Dems will utterly fail to clarify the truth. They suck at clearing up Republican BS partly because clearing up lies always takes longer than speaking the lie, but the Dems have a track record of falling on their ass in the attempt.
The ratchet effect is real, which is why "enlightened centrism" is nothing but a moronic farce that runs cover for the ratchet mechanism. Republicans are literally vile, selfish pieces of shit that do not know what America stands for (or rather do not like what America stands for), and they MUST be treated as such.
Literal traitors should NEVER get the benefit of any doubt.
Fuck Biden for not realizing how the MAGA crew is going to weaponize this photo op.
Edit: Biden putting on a Trump hat is like Biden waving a confederate flag because MAGA and Trump's campaign are based on racism. Context doesn't matter.
What on this Earth has led you to believe that they need actual true events to weaponize. Where have you been living that you think something actually needs to be true or to have occurred for them to weaponize it?
Absolutely nothing has led me to believe that things need to be real for right wing propaganda, since I don't believe that.
Doing something for real means that the actual real media will report on it and that could have an impact on low engagement voters who watch the real news and not Fox News or other right wing propaganda. The fact that it is on the real news means it is more easily weaponized against those low engagement voters, which Dems need to win.
Oh no. Are we forever to dance around the next moronic thing they decide to turn into propaganda? I hope you don't have a cat.
No, but we don't have to shoot ourselves in the foot either.
Biden putting on a Trump hat is just about the dumbest fucking thing he could do right now. It is like Biden waving a confederate flag or hugging Putin.
You're nuts lol
This small interaction will have an equally small affect on anything. If anything, it helped show one Trump voter that Biden is just a dude who can good around
