Can we please stop referring to Joe Biden as Uncle Joe?

[TexasTowelie]

Uncle Joe is a slur used by Republicans against FDR to imply that he was a communist. The basis of that slur is that FDR was friends with Joseph Stalin when they discussed strategy during World War II.

As Democrats we shouldn't provide fodder to the GOP to insult either FDR or Biden. While we might use Uncle Joe affectionately, the GOP will leap at the opportunity to refer to Democrats as "Uncle Joe and his comrades."

Thanks for your help to avoid such terminology.

[Cha]

1. Thank You, TexasT! I hate it when

I see him called that. I didn't really know the background but I had read it was a repub slur.

But, I just don't like it.. he's not the "uncle" type.

[George II]

2. Thank you, sir. Joseph Stalin used to be referred to as "Uncle Joe"....

....I'm sure some who use it today do so intentionally, not as a homey complement.

[Cha]

6. More reason!

[DoctorJoJo]

3. How About GREAT Uncle Joe?

[UniteFightBack]

4. That's OK we've re appropriated it. TAken it just like snowflake. nt

[bloom]

5. I agree that it is not endearing

regardless of where the term came from.

[underthematrix]

7. Okay. I just used it in a reply to a post. I didn't realize it

had a derogatory history. I will stop using it. Thank you for the heads up.

[Cha]

8. Thank You, underthematrix!

Wow.. you're supporting Biden!

[underthematrix]

14. Yep. Once Joe Biden jumped in we were not only happy. We were

relieved. We know Biden has the experience, ethics, and relationships to restore our Democracy. It's gonna be a very heavy lift.

[Cha]

17. That's the way I feel about it, underthematrix..

Thank You!

[Uncle Joe]

9. I'm just thankful FDR preferred Uncle Joe to Uncle Adolph, if it were Trump

there is no doubt it would be the other way around.

Thanks for the thread TexasTowelie.

[Duppers]

23. +1 😁

[Honeycombe8]

24. LOL!nt

[Honeycombe8]

25. Oh-oh. How are we supposed to refer to YOU, Uncle Joe? nt

[Uncle Joe]

27. You can call me UJ, just don't call me OJ, even orange juice has a bad name now.

[Honeycombe8]

29. LOL. Poor UJ. You've been painted into a corner by urban slang. nt

[TexasTowelie]

35. You're welcome.

And please know that I was not intending any disrespect to you personally. The first time I encountered the reference was about seven years ago when one of the contributors to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, Dr. Donald May (Mr. Conservative), used it against President Obama with the implication that he and Biden were communists.

In soccer parlance, it's the equivalent of an :"own goal" for the other team when Democrats use that phrase.

[BlueStater]

10. I wouldn't use it even if I was a big fan of him.

He's a lot of things, but he definitely isn't my uncle.

[Uncle Joe]

20. What if your name was Joe and you were an Uncle but not a father?

Would your change your name from Joe or refuse to be called Uncle?

Personally I like it better than Grover Cleveland's nickname.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Abraham+Lincoln&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFmJQYtfP1TdIr8rQkspOttIvSM0vyEkFUkXF-XlWeZnJ2XmJuamPGEu5BV7-uCcslTNpzclrjGlceBQLeXCxueaVZJZUCtkJ2XAJBKUmp-aVBBSlFmemABnFQhpcHD75yYklmfl5QjJcvFKcIBdYJpuXG2gwSHFzIbg8i1j5HZOKEjMScxV8MvOS83PyAADXYrCzAAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGl-6rrO_hAhUR7awKHR3DD0wQri4IOw

[IndyOp]

11. Thank you! Helpful history lesson. (nt)

[sheshe2]

12. Thank you TexasTowelie.

Agreed. Uncle Joe is a slur.

Bad enough we have someone called a "daddy". Then again his campaign hires are promoting that. Who knew.

Me? I don't want an uncle joe, I want the candidate JOE, or a daddy. I want a candidate that will fight tooth and nail for EVERY AMERICAN.

[Cha]

16. Exactly, she! It's

been annoying the heck out of me when I see that.

Joe Biden is Not our Uncle. He's a former Vice President of the United States, and a former US Senator from Delaware.

And, now a candidate for the President of the United States of America.

So, Please!

[sheshe2]

18. This, Cha.

Joe Biden is Not our Uncle. He's a former Vice President of the United States, and a former US Senator from Delaware.

And, now a candidate for the President of the United States of America.

[cwydro]

38. That "daddy" thing is beyond weird.

Kinda icky.

[sheshe2]

41. Agreed!

[caraher]

13. I never noticed that

I knew Stalin had been called "Uncle Joe" but never heard it that way when applied to Biden. Probably because likening him to Stalin is such an insane stretch that it's credible only to idiots who would also buy into Q Anon craziness.

[rusty quoin]

19. Yes, but the right has always done that. It's like calling us the democrat party.

No party has ever existed. They have always used phrases to confuse people. We have to think about policy because our ideas actually work. It’s harder. Their job is to fool the people.

[caraher]

26. That's right

The Democrat thing drives me nuts. Even worse, when I lived in Indiana even a lot of Democrats would talk about the "Democrat Party," I guess because it sounded normal to them

[rusty quoin]

28. I lived in Indiana too. Do you remember Evan Bayh? Oh boy he was a piece of work.

The one thing that was guaranteed was that when I called his office, he would vote with Republicans.

I liked Richard Lugar better and he was a Republican. He worked with Obama in securing highly enriched uranium around the world.

And today we have one crazy shit who ...who will do anything to stay in power and get back at them...the ones who pop up in his mind. It’s crazy now.

[caraher]

37. Evan Bayh sure made a career off his last name

And it was a shame what the Hoosier Republicans did to Lugar, primarying him and running a tea party idiot. For them, "not crazy" = RINO. The silver lining was Mourdock couldn't keep his stupid ideas about rape and abortion to himself, so we got 6 years of a Democratic senator from Indiana.

[brer cat]

15. Thanks for pointing that out, TT.

The last thing we need to do is provide fodder for the GOP.

[Leith]

21. There's a good response to any rethug who tries to call us commies

WE are not the ones who are all cozy with the Russians. It's hair furor who wants to be besties with Kim and Putin while bowing to the murderous Saudi prince.

[Gore1FL]

22. I always thought of the Petticoat Junction Character.

[MichMan]

33. Loved Edgar Buchanon as a character in that show

You prompted me to look him up and I found out he was a dentist before going into acting

[MichMan]

30. Also tired of hearing Maxine Waters called "Auntie Maxine"

[janx]

40. That one's even worse!

Where did it come from and why?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

49. A lot of people on Black Twitter use it.

[Raine]

45. Yup I HATE that one

[Celerity]

31. this OP is non-factual, it was NOT a slur that Republicans used on FDR, Churchill and FDR themselves

gave Stalin that nickname.


https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no1/article02.html

Stalin’s intelligence arm, the NKVD, or People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, extended all manner of mechanical eyes and ears throughout the nation to reinforce the Bolshevik party’s totalitarian control. Closed borders, internal passports, censored presses, political purges, and forced-labor camps—all of these features of the Soviet system were common knowledge in the 1930s and 1940s, as even Mission to Moscow acknowledged, but FDR, like Davies, brushed them aside. He wanted no criticisms from Bullitt, Standley, or anyone worried about the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in Katyn Forest, for example. To keep the war effort united and to work for postwar democracy, he wanted to please Iosif (“Joseph”) Stalin, whom he liked to call “Uncle Joe.” His primary purpose was to makes friends with a man widely believed to have murdered his wife, liquidated his closest political comrades, and ordered the assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico in August 1940. As Thomas Fleming notes in The New Dealers’ War: FDR and the War Within World War II, Churchill once said that making an alliance with Stalin would be the same as “shaking hands with murder.” But that was before he, too, warmed up to Uncle Joe.



https://www.polishgreatness.com/winstonfranklinunclejoe.html

In 1940, Stalin, one of the most hated
men in the world made the cover of
Time Magazine as Man of the Year.
Three years later, Stalin was suddenly
transformed into a serene and saintly
figure. Churchill and Roosevelt called
him "Uncle Joe".




https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2015/0305/Roosevelt-and-Stalin-details-the-surprisingly-warm-relationship-of-an-unlikely-duo

Butler isn’t a master storyteller, but she has a firm grasp on dozens of other details from FDR’s infamous non-stop talking to Stalin’s honey-colored eyes and fireplug body. (An American says he’s “the coach’s perfect dream of a tackle” with huge hands “as hard as his mind.”) The two men bond by making fun of an annoyed Churchill, and Stalin even teases FDR by acting offended to learn he’s called “Uncle Joe” behind the scenes.



Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945

[luvallpeeps]

32. It just reminded me of the Joe Paterno Jo Pa thing. n/t

[David__77]

34. I think it's fine.

...

[Cha]

36. I don't care what it's suppose to

be associated with or not.

Biden is not our "uncle".

[customerserviceguy]

39. Words and phrases

change meaning over time. About the only people still alive during the FDR presidency are folks like my Mom, who was a child during those years.

And if you don't think that the GOP'ers will ALWAYS find some way to demonize our eventual nominee, then you may need to pay better attention.

[rusty fender]

42. Oh boy, I weep for Daddy Warbucks

“Don’t call him Daddy, he’s not your daddy.” Jeebus

[m-lekktor]

43. It's much more endearing than the other nicknames he's been given! nt

[Cha]

44. Joe Biden doesn't

need an "endearing" nick like "uncle".

He's not our "uncle" .. He's a former US Senator from Delaware, a former VP of the United States of America, and Candidate for the Presidency of the USA.

[Raine]

46. I didn't know that and I bet most don't so

saying "Uncle Joe" really has no connection to that past and repugs sure don't call him "Uncle Joe". It's used affectionately by Dems and shouldn't be taken from those who want to use it affectionately toward Biden. Biden's not my pick so I don't use it.

[Hortensis]

47. I'm fine with Uncle Joe. A couple of huge assets he brings

are his capacity for giving people warm fuzzies, that he is the kind of person who could be called Uncle Joe, and also that practically our entire 200,000,000 registered voters feel we already know him. He's far less vulnerable to character assassination than any of the others.

Those who would adopt a swiftboaters' line that Joe was a commie would also be happy to believe he's a Venusian invader who eats children's faces in Hillary's pizza parlor.

They're also a big part of why the nation is feeling a real need for some warm fuzzies.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

48. Huh, I always took it as a reference to his work during the Obama years -- a warm, steadying presence

who brought experience, familiarity and a guiding hand to Obama’s youth and newness.