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This is a fascinating tweet on many levels. 1) I think it's safe to assume that Joe Biden has no SEO expertise, which means that someone with the power to send

This is a fascinating tweet on many levels. 1) I think it's safe to assume that Joe Biden has no SEO expertise, which means that someone with the power to send the President of the United States out for a photo op does. They went out and found someone named Brandon for Biden to pose for a photo op with. 2) To me it's terrifying that Presidential actions are now being dictated by SEO concerns, but it is interesting. 3) I would have expected this kind of thing from Trump, since he was obsessed with his public image. But apparently Biden, or at least someone close to him, is similarly obsessed. 4) Reading between the lines, the fact they responded in this way makes it appear that the administration is becoming concerned with the the growing anti-Biden sentiment that has arisen in the wake of the Afghanistan debacle and issues with cognitive decline that are becoming increasingly harder to hide. That town hall was a disaster [1]. [1] https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-town-hall-strange-moments-cnn-anderson-cooper-1641533 https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-town-hall-strange-moments...

nomilk 5y ago
The 'reclaim' phenomenon is fascinating. I presume all politicians do this, well, all who have staff sophisticated enough to grok SEO and respond within a few days to unfavourable trending topics. Would be interested to know other examples of prominent politicians doing this. I'm pretty sure I recall a British politician doing this a year or two ago. I can't remember exactly who it was or what it was about, but I recall it seemed very obvious what was going on - moreso than this Biden/Brandon instance.
- the_jeremy 5y ago
  Boris Johnson: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-model-google-news https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-model-google-n...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Zuider 5y ago
  The 'reclaim' phenomenon is quite old, and it has happened quite often in politics that a party or politician has defused a pejorative or satirical label by embracing it. The elephant and donkey mascots of the two main parties in the USA were originally used to lampoon them.
lettergram 5y ago
> To me it's terrifying that Presidential actions are now being dictated by SEO concerns, but it is interesting. Does this really surprise you? - The opposing parties leadership is censored more than every authoritarian around the world. - stories about Biden’s son is censored - bad stories about Biden are censored - every person connected to the opposing party is being “investigated” - the DOJ literally sent out a statement saying they were going to investigate parents going to school boards as “domestic terrorists” (at worst, these are local crimes, if at all) - anyone who has claimed election interference on the 2020 election has been threatened with lawsuits, lost jobs, etc - a majority of the opposition media figures are censored - no one could attend the inauguration even What does this all have in common? They want the opposition to have no voice and theirs to be the only one you see. They try to intimidate and censor such that they have the only voice. “Let’s go Brandon” was too hard to censor, so they’re now doing this. Remove, rewrite, repeat The reason I say that is now opposition content is removed, they can put out their content.
- _kbh_ 5y ago
  I'd like to see evidence for a lot of these claims that come from reliable sources cause I don't think the majority of them are true. > - anyone who has claimed election interference on the 2020 election has been threatened with lawsuits, lost jobs, etc I feel this is an especially interesting claim because the only people i've seen get hit with law suits for this have continually defamed specific companies and not just someone shouting in the street that it was fraudulent.
  - downandout 5y ago
    I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to argue that the Hunter Biden stories weren't suppressed until after the election. Those stories and corresponding evidence were around before the election. They were completely buried wherever possible, and dismissed as conspiracy theories by the mainstream media when they couldn't bury them. It was only after the election that they were forced to admit that the Hunter Biden stories were factual.
    - 5y ago
EastOfTruth 5y ago
Is the full video of that town hall meeting available anywhere?
- downandout 5y ago
  https://youtu.be/R8R2545fHCo https://youtu.be/R8R2545fHCo Oddly, it’s pretty well hidden in search, while other, older town halls came right up. I had to select a number of specific options in YouTube’s search just to find it.
  - edgineer 5y ago
    Last year I had a similar experience searching for CNN's interview with Biden and Harris. In that case, I cound only find CNN Brasil's release of the full interview (with Portuguese spoken over it). Some of what he says is embarrassing, but those parts are difficult to find on YouTube. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epjmkbGerqw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epjmkbGerqw
    - downandout 5y ago
      Yes, it’s worth noting that this town hall was also a CNN affair, and the only full video I was able to find was not posted by them. It’s on some other random channel. Someone at CNN and/or YouTube decided this was bury worthy.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - EastOfTruth 5y ago
    thanks a lot, not sure why they are trying to hide this one, it isn't that bad... even if most of his answers use scripted answers that are only a bit related to the question.
TrispusAttucks 5y ago
We were duped! I fell for it! News straight up lied to control the 2020 election narrative and outcome. We have watched an unprecedented fast fall into authoritarianism. Major networks are all but complete propaganda departments. Biden criticism was swept under the rug to protect him all the while the media held no punches for his opposition. Rational nuanced discussion of pandemic and related policies were off the table and we were just dictated mandates. People didn't vote for this. Our country has stumbled from one self inflicted crisis to the next as the coverage of the failures goes either unreported or censored. Kneejerk mistruths drive doomed to fail federal policy ( border control horse whips!) This administration is so unbelievably incompetent. People are rightly angry as hell. This discontent isn't limited to specific groups. It includes: Blacks, whites, lefts, rights, zoomer, boomer. It's not a small group either. "Let's go Brandon" is being shouted across the country. We should listen. We should ask why. We were told successes were failures. Now where told failures were successes. People don't like being lied to or ignored. "Let's go Brandon!"
- iammisc 5y ago
  It's understandable you fell for it. Good on you for admitting it. It takes a strong mind to change their mind
mercy_dude 5y ago
Anyone who thinks or thought before the election Joe Biden is going to be the one running the country as a president they were naive to say the least. The only reason Democratic Party had to throw Joe Biden to everyone’s face was he was the only electable candidate they had left as the mouthpiece of the establishment. Pete was the other one out of the 15 candidates they had, but then his sexual orientation wasn’t going to fly well in mid America. Joe Biden doesn’t run the country. DC Establishment does. It always has. The very same thing they accuse others of such as causing big tech monopolies, wealth inequality, climate change etc, the same establishment protects those interests all. He was the most backed candidate by the Wall St. for a reason. Enough said.
tekknik 5y ago
> 3) I would have expected this kind of thing from Trump, since he was obsessed with his public image. But apparently Biden, or at least someone close to him, is similarly obsessed. This is all they’re concerned about. Both the left and the right. They hire groups of people specifically to manage their public image. This is why MSM didn’t want negative coverage of Biden during the race.

nomilk 5y ago

The 'reclaim' phenomenon is fascinating. I presume all politicians do this, well, all who have staff sophisticated enough to grok SEO and respond within a few days to unfavourable trending topics. Would be interested to know other examples of prominent politicians doing this. I'm pretty sure I recall a British politician doing this a year or two ago. I can't remember exactly who it was or what it was about, but I recall it seemed very obvious what was going on - moreso than this Biden/Brandon instance.

the_jeremy 5y ago
Boris Johnson: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-model-google-news https://www.wired.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-model-google-n...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Zuider 5y ago
The 'reclaim' phenomenon is quite old, and it has happened quite often in politics that a party or politician has defused a pejorative or satirical label by embracing it. The elephant and donkey mascots of the two main parties in the USA were originally used to lampoon them.

lettergram 5y ago

> To me it's terrifying that Presidential actions are now being dictated by SEO concerns, but it is interesting. Does this really surprise you? - The opposing parties leadership is censored more than every authoritarian around the world. - stories about Biden’s son is censored - bad stories about Biden are censored - every person connected to the opposing party is being “investigated” - the DOJ literally sent out a statement saying they were going to investigate parents going to school boards as “domestic terrorists” (at worst, these are local crimes, if at all) - anyone who has claimed election interference on the 2020 election has been threatened with lawsuits, lost jobs, etc - a majority of the opposition media figures are censored - no one could attend the inauguration even What does this all have in common? They want the opposition to have no voice and theirs to be the only one you see. They try to intimidate and censor such that they have the only voice. “Let’s go Brandon” was too hard to censor, so they’re now doing this. Remove, rewrite, repeat The reason I say that is now opposition content is removed, they can put out their content.

_kbh_ 5y ago
I'd like to see evidence for a lot of these claims that come from reliable sources cause I don't think the majority of them are true. > - anyone who has claimed election interference on the 2020 election has been threatened with lawsuits, lost jobs, etc I feel this is an especially interesting claim because the only people i've seen get hit with law suits for this have continually defamed specific companies and not just someone shouting in the street that it was fraudulent.
- downandout 5y ago
  I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to argue that the Hunter Biden stories weren't suppressed until after the election. Those stories and corresponding evidence were around before the election. They were completely buried wherever possible, and dismissed as conspiracy theories by the mainstream media when they couldn't bury them. It was only after the election that they were forced to admit that the Hunter Biden stories were factual.
  - 5y ago

EastOfTruth 5y ago

Is the full video of that town hall meeting available anywhere?

downandout 5y ago
https://youtu.be/R8R2545fHCo https://youtu.be/R8R2545fHCo Oddly, it’s pretty well hidden in search, while other, older town halls came right up. I had to select a number of specific options in YouTube’s search just to find it.
- edgineer 5y ago
  Last year I had a similar experience searching for CNN's interview with Biden and Harris. In that case, I cound only find CNN Brasil's release of the full interview (with Portuguese spoken over it). Some of what he says is embarrassing, but those parts are difficult to find on YouTube. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epjmkbGerqw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epjmkbGerqw
  - downandout 5y ago
    Yes, it’s worth noting that this town hall was also a CNN affair, and the only full video I was able to find was not posted by them. It’s on some other random channel. Someone at CNN and/or YouTube decided this was bury worthy.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- EastOfTruth 5y ago
  thanks a lot, not sure why they are trying to hide this one, it isn't that bad... even if most of his answers use scripted answers that are only a bit related to the question.

TrispusAttucks 5y ago

We were duped! I fell for it! News straight up lied to control the 2020 election narrative and outcome. We have watched an unprecedented fast fall into authoritarianism. Major networks are all but complete propaganda departments. Biden criticism was swept under the rug to protect him all the while the media held no punches for his opposition. Rational nuanced discussion of pandemic and related policies were off the table and we were just dictated mandates. People didn't vote for this. Our country has stumbled from one self inflicted crisis to the next as the coverage of the failures goes either unreported or censored. Kneejerk mistruths drive doomed to fail federal policy ( border control horse whips!) This administration is so unbelievably incompetent. People are rightly angry as hell. This discontent isn't limited to specific groups. It includes: Blacks, whites, lefts, rights, zoomer, boomer. It's not a small group either. "Let's go Brandon" is being shouted across the country. We should listen. We should ask why. We were told successes were failures. Now where told failures were successes. People don't like being lied to or ignored. "Let's go Brandon!"

iammisc 5y ago
It's understandable you fell for it. Good on you for admitting it. It takes a strong mind to change their mind

mercy_dude 5y ago

Anyone who thinks or thought before the election Joe Biden is going to be the one running the country as a president they were naive to say the least. The only reason Democratic Party had to throw Joe Biden to everyone’s face was he was the only electable candidate they had left as the mouthpiece of the establishment. Pete was the other one out of the 15 candidates they had, but then his sexual orientation wasn’t going to fly well in mid America. Joe Biden doesn’t run the country. DC Establishment does. It always has. The very same thing they accuse others of such as causing big tech monopolies, wealth inequality, climate change etc, the same establishment protects those interests all. He was the most backed candidate by the Wall St. for a reason. Enough said.

tekknik 5y ago

> 3) I would have expected this kind of thing from Trump, since he was obsessed with his public image. But apparently Biden, or at least someone close to him, is similarly obsessed. This is all they’re concerned about. Both the left and the right. They hire groups of people specifically to manage their public image. This is why MSM didn’t want negative coverage of Biden during the race.