An intrepid reporter at the Associated Press has done a service to the country by explaining the wild popularity of the slogan “Let’s Go Brandon.” The vast majority of Americans tune in only to the mainstream media (if anything) and thus have never heard that chant, but thanks to the AP’s Colleen Long, some now know it’s “code for insulting Joe Biden.” Then again, if you haven’t heard or seen the slogan — anywhere from signs at ballgames to the sign-off from your Southwest Airlines pilot — then maybe you’ve been living under a rock.

It all began with those regrettably vulgar “F*** Joe Biden” chants going around college sporting events and elsewhere. Those chants are unfortunate because children are present, as well as adults who’d rather not hear that word at all or listen to jeers that so crassly insult the president of the United States, even if he is doing an abysmal job. Yet the chant’s popularity marks a fascinating cultural moment because those young people at college games are a key Democrat constituency who have no compunction about deriding Biden. And it’s only spreading.

Early in October, an NBC reporter interviewing Brandon Brown, the winner of a NASCAR race, heard the vulgar chant in the stands and suggested people were really saying “Let’s go Brandon.” We can’t say for sure, but it’s hard to believe she didn’t know exactly what the crowd was saying. If so, rather than just ignore the crowd or otherwise acknowledge it, she chose to gaslight viewers with an alternate reality.

In any case, “Let’s go Brandon” became a favorite taunt for conservatives and others who want to voice their objections about the utter malaise Joe Biden has brought to nearly every facet of American life, but without the vulgarity of the original. Republican politicians are even joining in, and Donald Trump smiled as the crowd at Game 4 of the World Series chanted it around him. Thus, the AP now finds it to be “a not-so-secret handshake that signals they’re in sync with the party’s base.”

(That’s better than other “reporters” who assert it’s akin to saying “Long live ISIS.”)

The AP’s Long is right to say that “meanness” in presidential politics is as old as the Republic, and she’s also right to conclude that what’s new is “the amplification [such sentiments] get on social media.” Mysteriously, however, Long almost entirely forgot all the “F*** Trump” chants (often in public by celebrities) and merchandise that were so prevalent during his presidency, all while criticizing Trump for his own “often-coarse language.” Biden, the self-proclaimed “good Catholic,” used the word to describe ObamaCare on national TV, but never mind that. Furthermore, Long’s attempt to pigeonhole the new slogan as only a phenomenon of the far Right is another bit of gaslighting.

The aforementioned Southwest pilots, already incensed over Biden’s vaccine mandate wrecking ball, don’t have much longer to comply. That goes for every other airline, as well; it’s just that Southwest has been particularly prominent with widespread flight cancellations. Then it’s up to the airlines to either look the other way or fire unvaccinated employees. Southwest says it will fire them — just in time for the busy holiday travel season.

When you hear your pilot give his speech to passengers and then end it with “Let’s Go Brandon,” now you have some context. So does Long, who was actually on that flight. That pilot, by the way, is now under investigation by the airline.

(And The Narrative might be falling apart](https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/11/01/the-southwest-airlines-lets-go-brandon-narrative-may-be-crashing-and-burning-as-we-speak-n1528604).)

On a final note, did we mention that nearly half of the top 10 hip-hop songs on iTunes are variations on “Let’s Go Brandon”?

(Updated.)