Clinton’s words were played over clips of Trump’s admiring supporters. In 2016, when presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that half of Donald Trump’s supporters could be put in a “ basket of deplorables,” the Trump campaign released commercials using it. Republicans have proved just as adept at this as Democrats.
Chelsea Clinton went on to publish a series of books honoring women entitled “She Persisted.” Warren’s supporters quickly seized upon the slogan, proudly using it to celebrate women who resist being silenced. A good example is “ Nevertheless, she persisted.” Republican senator Mitch McConnell first used it to rebuke Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, who read from a letter by Coretta Scott King during a confirmation hearing after McConnell had warned her not to.
Several other cases of linguistic appropriation have recently occurred in U.S. By doing so, they drained away the epithet’s negative connotation.Ī similar process has occurred for the use of the word “queer.” Once a highly offensive slur directed at gay people, the LGBTQ+ community adopted and rehabilitated it. Real Time with Bill Maher/YouTubeĪs with minced oaths, there’s an equally long history of insults being adopted by the groups being disparaged.ĭuring the English Civil Wars, for example, Parliament supporters mockingly referred to the backers of Charles I as “Cavaliers.” In a feat of verbal judo, the royalists adopted the moniker to refer to themselves. The dizzying linguistic arms race eventually rendered the phrase meaningless.Ĭomedian Bill Maher jokes about President Biden taking linguistic appropriation to the extreme. This is itself a callback to the earlier “ Thanks, Obama.” Republicans often used the phrase to sarcastically criticize the 44th president, but it was later reappropriated by Democrats who used the phrase literally. And as a variant, some of the president’s supporters have begun to employ, “Thank you Brandon.” Some Biden supporters are turning the phrase into one of support for him. The “Let’s go Brandon” phenomenon also illustrates the process of linguistic reappropriation or reclamation. In these cases, the goal is to circumvent constraints imposed by a network’s standards and practices, with certain terms used by characters in place of profane language, whether it’s “ frack” in “Battlestar Galactica, ” fork“ in "The Good Place” or “ fudge” in “South Park.” Even Homer Simpson’s oft-repeated cry of dismay – “D’oh!” – is a minced oath for “damn.” Taking language back Minced oaths have also been used extensively on television. “Darn” in place of “damn” emerged by 1800, while “heck” and “shoot” became popularized by the 1870s and the 1930s, respectively. Such oaths have a long history in English an early example is “Zounds,” a euphemism for “God’s wounds” that started being used around 1600. These are euphemisms used in place of a taboo or blasphemous expression.
The enthusiastic adoption of the phrase by President Joe Biden’s detractors suggests that “Let’s go Brandon” is best described as a minced oath. Examples include mishearing Elton John’s “ Tiny Dancer” as “Hold me closer, Tony Danza.” If she had, her error would be classified as a mondegreen, which is a slip of the ear. Judging from recordings of the interview available online, it is unlikely that Stavast misheard the crowd’s chant.