Trust America’s favourite leftie, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, to turn a viral meme into a capitalism-crushing philanthropic cause. The socialist US senator from Vermont raised over $1.8 million for charity this week after a photograph of him from Biden’s inauguration went viral. You’ve definitely seen the pic, by AFP’s Brendan Smialowski; if you haven’t, Google it. Sanders sits cross-legged and huddled, wearing knitted mittens: a stark contrast to the formality and glitz of the inauguration. Soon, we saw Bernie turning up all over the internet, pasted into famous images: from Sheldon Cooper’s couch on The Big Bang Theory to Game of Thrones’ spiky seat of power. Sanders’ campaign store started selling sweatshirts featuring the iconic photo and all the proceeds are going to charity, CNN reported. In response to the meme, Sanders told CNN: “[the meme] will be a good thing, not only a fun thing.” 

This brief was originally published in The Wrap here.

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