"Stop calling us weird" has become an unexpected but almost desperate protest among Republicans following a series of remarks from Democrats doing just that. And, as they so often do, the memes have followed.
Shortly after President Joe Biden stepped back from running for re-election and Vice President Kamala Harris announced her candidacy, a single line in a press release from her camp caught Democrats' attention: "Trump is old and quite weird?"
It was one of eight bullet points touted as the "main takeaways" from former President Donald Trump's appearance on Fox News earlier that day, alongside notes about Project 2025 and his stance on abortion. But something about simply calling him weird, particularly with the question mark that followed, resonated.
Harris's campaign isn't the first to call Trump or his followers weird. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walsh has received a lot of credit for deploying this insult against them in the past months. And he's continued to do so while pointing out objectionable stances Trump and other Republicans have taken.
"These are weird people on the other side," he said during an MSNBC appearance. "They want to take books away; they want to be in your exam room."
Other Democrat politicians and voters have subsequently latched on to the term.
Thinkpieces about why "weird" is catching on so well are already popping up across the internet. But whatever the reason, what we do know is that Republicans have been putting a lot of stock in it.
Immediately, high-profile conservative social media accounts began trying to reverse the tide and call Harris and her supporters "weird" in return.
When that didn't work, some tried to pretend it had never bothered them at all. It was...not very convincing.
Finally, they turned to just getting outright upset about the whole thing. And it has been fascinating to watch.
All of this has given way to "stop calling us weird" memes. Social media users have taken to mocking conservatives protesting the "weird" accusation by juxtaposing the demand with reminders of all the weird stuff they've totally done.
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