The Supreme Court is rebuffing an appeal from a Michigan woman fighting a school district’s ban on shirts with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” a jab at then-President Joe Biden with a coded reference to profanity.

The mother of two boys says their First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the sweatshirts she bought them for Christmas in 2022.

A lower court disagreed, finding that the veiled vulgarity of the phrase, which functions as a stand-in for “F-— Joe Biden,” allows schools to ban it.

The woman’s attorneys argued that the decision wrongly gives school officials wide latitude to squelch political speech based on their personal ideas of what is vulgar. The phrase itself doesn’t contain any swear words or sexual implications, they said.

The school district urged the justices to reject the case, arguing that messages with lewd implications have no place in school, even if they touch on political topics. There has been evidence that some students wore clothing that read “Make America Great Again” or had messages supporting President Donald Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Biden, a Democrat.

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[–] 45 points 4 days ago (26 children)

For the life of me I can't figure out why young people are right leaning so much. Gen x we hated the wealthy and authority and especially the religious.

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  • [–] 19 points 4 days ago (14 children)

    They aren't. High school aged kids are being twatty edge lords as always but statistically the younger generations lean left.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 days ago* (13 children)

    I don't know man. There's a lot of 7-12 grade kids that are far right. Or part of that toxic manosphere

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  • [–] 7 points 4 days ago (8 children)

    Yeah they also can't vote yet and by voting age the statistics are and have been for like a hundred or so years shifted left towards 60 and back right after that.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 days ago* (7 children)

    But there's a lot of sympathy in college campus for things like turning point. Pre 2014 those people would have been ran off campus and sometimes were. Now you don't see that

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  • [–] 5 points 4 days ago (3 children)

    Because to the naïve, far-right nonsense feels edgy.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    And I don't get that. To me being against wealth, nuclear family, religion is the non conformist route

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    I suspect there has to be a lot of indoctrination involved. Note how these edgelords are also deeply religious, or at least claim to be (not getting into how they do or don't actually follow the tenets of their religion).

    Musk (edgelord extraordinaire) said publically in a recent post that he just couldn't bring himself to attack cops in a video game. I guess violent video games are a problem again. It's all the same tired conservative nonsense but it's been sold to a generation that doesn't have the backstory.

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  • [–] 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 child)

    I mostly blame online creeps like Andrew Tate and Clavicular deliberately targeting vulnerable tween and teen boys who then carry the toxic ideology with them into adulthood.

    Millennials in general and Gen Z women are mostly left wing, though, especially ones who aren't white.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    I feel like everyone "acted" right leaning when we were teenagers.

    We used "gay" as a derogatory. I recall friends and I using talking points that in hindsight was very incelly. Mocking idealistic lefties etc.

    But I don't think I truly felt that way, and I know my friends I've kept in touch with post high school don't/didn't.

    I think a lot of it is performative, to fit in. And now I'm an openly raging lefty

    I hope it's the same case with kids these days

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  • [–] 1 point 4 days ago (4 children)

    we hated

    According to https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/ every single decade birth year associates with Gen X associates with R+x to some extend (in particular with men).

    I think your use of the past tense is appropriate.

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  • [–] 24 points 5 days ago (3 children)

    I had a friend who wasn't allowed to wear his Beavis and Butthead shirt because it said butt on it. So his mom took yellow paint and painted over the "butt" making it Beavis and Head which was hilarious and A-Okay with school staff.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    On 9/11/02 I woke up late and forgot about 9/11.

    No one would believe my "bad cop, no doughnut" shirt was a coincidence or that anyone would forget 9/11.

    My attempts to ask what making fun of bad cops had to do with 9/11 in the first place didn't help, but I got off of school, which was pretty cool...

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  • [–] 5 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    On 9/11/02 I woke up late and forgot about 9/11.

    How could you?! Alan Jackson would be very disappointed.

    "bad cop, no doughnut" shirt

    I forgot about those!

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  • [–] 6 points 5 days ago

    Yeah, I got called out immediately after making the time to take the "scenic route" that morning as well.

    But anyways, it is a good example of how context needs to be part of it.

    I didn't have any ill intent, but I'd have spent all day explaining that and derailing every class I walked into.

    Like, people had been joining up on their 17th birthday and waiting to graduate to deploy for a year by then, someone probably would have tried to fight me.

    People don't understand how crazy shit really was right after 9/11.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 days ago* (1 child)

    Really seems like the school district was doing those boys a favor. Can't think of something more lame for middle schoolers to wear than matching Let's Go Brandon sweatshirts. They saved those boys from their mom's political boomer humor.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago*

    Amazing mom, that one.

    /s

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  • When I was in middle school we couldn't wear Levi's 501 'Button Your Fly' shirts because it drew attention to the crotch.

    One day, after Pee Wee's Big Arrest, I wore a shirt that said "Hey Pee Wee, Button Your Fly" and I made it all the way to 4th period before I had to turn it inside out. My 4th period teacher asked me who my first 3 teachers were for the day, because she couldn't believe I'd made it that far in the day... and when their names all started with "Mr." she just rolled her eyes and said "Figures."

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  • [–] 10 points 5 days ago (20 children)

    Students are citizens with rights. But rules about profanity are reasonable measures for good discipline.

    If a student wore a You Can't Lick Our Dick button to class, what teacher do?

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    [–] 2 points 3 days ago

    I'm sure that mom is a real Karen.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 days ago* (2 children)

    These people are morons but trying to ban a sweatshirt is just as dumb.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    If they don't have any problems banning books then they should STFU about banned shirts

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  • [–] 2 points 4 days ago

    Because I have problems with book bans I also have problems with sweatshirt bans. A nation with fewer first amendment rights isn't one that favors those out of power. We're not one election away from instituting a "good" authoritarianism.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago

    So being critical of the case, let's ask what exactly does the statement "Let's Go Brandon" mean to you? Who is Brandon to you? Personal friend?, are you an advocate for them? what does it mean to support them, i.e. "Let's Go"? If these words and phrases can't be giving legitimate answers, then it's clearly understood what it is meant within the conservative cultural. Fucking Duh!

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