Regular readers of this site — both of them — know that I use f(ornicate) rather than another word beginning with an ‘F’ when that other word seems appropriate. The also know that I use the formulation [insert slang term for the rectum here] to describe myself, and others, when the seven letter word is appropriate.

And it’s more than just how I write; that’s usually how I speak as well. A (somewhat) good Catholic boy, I actually do try to limit profanity. But I’m also a strong proponent of freedom of speech.

Biden’s critics hurl increasingly vulgar taunts

By Ashley Parker and Carissa Wolf | October 23, 2021 | 6:00 AM EDT

BOISE, Idaho — On a quiet street south of downtown Boise, Michael Dick has festooned his front yard with homemade signs, including a large yellow placard that facetiously thanks President Biden for a growing list of grievances — $4-a-gallon gas, inflation, Afghanistan, covid-19. In capital letters in black marker, Dick, 59, recently added “dead civilians” and “dead U.S. soldiers” to his bill of particulars.

A photo of this appears in the Washington Post original.

In another part of town, alongside a “No trespassing” sign, Michael Schwarz, 60, used black spray-paint to scrawl “Joe Blows” across an electric-pink poster board.

And that’s mild compared to the sentiments some people — largely in conservative areas — are expressing in their front yards and on the signs they lug with them to greet Biden as he travels the country.

On Wednesday, when the president visited Scranton, Pa., he was greeted at the corner of Biden Street by a woman holding a handmade “F— Joe Biden” sign, with an American flag as the vowel in the offending word. And back in Boise, Rod Johnson, a retired gunsmith, has hung a blue flag from the roof of his home that reads “F— Biden.” Underneath, in smaller letters, he added, “And f— you for voting for him!!”

Sadly, Lackawanna County, in which Scranton is the largest city and county seat, did give a majority of its votes to Joe Biden, 61,991 (53.58%) to 52,334 (45.23%) to President Trump, which wasn’t too much of a surprise, given that the odious Hillary Clinton also carried the county in 2016, a year in which Mr Trump won the state overall.

There’s more at the original, and the authors do make something of an attempt to note that Mr Biden is hardly the only American President who has been subjected to coarse insults:

Boos, jeers and insults are nothing new for politicians, especially those who reach the White House. Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as Trump, were all heckled, weathering protests along their motorcade routes and at some of their events. At one 2011 fundraiser in Los Angeles, a heckler called Obama the Antichrist; “F— Trump” graffiti adorned some walls in Washington.

President Bush was burned in effigy uncounted times, and the credentialed media treated it as normal, though the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Editorial Board described armed, but still peaceful, protests and the hanging of Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) in effigy as the work of “a bunch of armed thugs.”

As you’d expect in The Washington Post, the writers have decided to blame President Trump for what they see as increased vulgarity directed at Mr Biden. Perhaps that’s the case, in public signage and chants, but were they not paying attention to online communication and posts while Mr Trump was in office?

Then there are the chants. In early October, a “F— Joe Biden!” cry broke out among the crowd at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway. Kelli Stavast, an NBC Sports reporter, was interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown live on air at the time, and she quipped, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go Brandon!’”

I’ve wondered: did Kelli Stavast really think that the crowd was chanting, “Let’s go, Brandon,” was she simply trying to suggest that what was background noise for her interview wasn’t the vulgarity that people heard to protect NBC Sports, or was she really trying to hide from the viewers the sentiments of the crowd at Talladega? Was it her original, or was it suggested to her, through an earpiece, from a director?

Regardless of what is the actual case, I absolutely support “Let’s go, Brandon!” as a substitute for “F(ornicate) Joe Biden!” And the chant, and expression, has caught on; it’s really a great meme.