President Joe Biden had conspiracy theorists in a tizzy after posting what appeared to be his reaction to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win on Sunday night.
“Just like we drew it up,” Biden posted on X alongside a photo of “Dark Brandon,” the meme created by hardcore—and very online—supporters of Donald Trump that Biden and his team loved so much they adopted it as their own.
The post was apparently referencing far-right conspiracy theories which posit the NFL and high-level government operatives conspired to rig the Super Bowl in Kansas City’s favor to give maximum exposure to a yet-to-be-announced endorsement from Chiefs star Travis Kelce and his girlfriend Taylor Swift.
People with critical thinking skills are able to recognize that left and right have different meanings depending on the frame and context. In an American economic frame, Democrats are left, but in a European economic frame their beliefs are center right.
Similarly, in an American social frame, Democrats are left, and in a European social frame, their beliefs are left as well. Labour is disgustingly TERF, and significantly further right than Democrats when it comes to trans rights.
Immigration as well, the American frame tends to be more left than Europe. The recent bipartisan agreement was rather center for Europe, but right for the US. European immigration policy tends to not be as leftist.
Frankly, it’s just economic reductionism to say “the American left is actually right”. I can look at Europe and see pretty clearly that Democrats are solidly left on social issues to the point of exceeding some European parties.