About

AOC's Bar refers to a Ben Garrison political cartoon depicting Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a Bartender wearing a mid-drift tank top that reads "socialism is sexy," while serving drinks labeled "late term abortion," "tax on the beach," "Venezuelan surprise," "Marxarita," "Stalin Stale Ale" and "Green New Deal."

Origin

On February 11th, 2019, Twitter user Anand Giridharadas^[1] tweeted "@AOC is too busy slaying dragons to volunteer her bartending skills, but I do believe she might be persuaded to submit a signature cocktail recipe. It will be green, it will be new, and, at $4 before 5 p.m., it will be a deal" (shown below, left). The tweet gained 180 retweets and 3,572 likes in four days.
That day, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez^[2] (being a former Bartender) promptly responded with a tweet outlining her "Cocktails for the Revolution" (shown below, right). The tweet accumulated 7,800 retweets and 54,900 likes in four days.

On February 13th, libertarian cartoonist Ben Garrison^[3] posted a cartoon inspired by her tweet along with the caption "@AOC's Bar – Drink up Suckers! #New #BenGarrison #cartoon for #SocialismNeverWorks #OcasioCortez To the uneducated, #AOC ’s bar offers you the best in socialist hard liquor. To the rest of us, it just looks like kool-aid from Jonestown" (shown below). The post gained 400 retweets and 561 likes in two days.

Spread

On February 13th, Twitter user's immediately responded to Garrison's tweet with remarks about how they would love to go to the fictional bar. Twitter user @Snark_Attak^[6] responded saying "Don't threaten me with a good time" (shown below, left). The response received 20 likes in a couple days. @JustusArmstrong^[7] responded stating, "God I'm getting so hammered" which gained 10 likes in two days (shown below, right).

The comments continued noting the oddly sexual aspects of the image. Twitter user, @TherealBStotle[] tweeted "This, but unironically. Also Ben, your sexual neurosis is showing" (shown below, left). @praxischainsaw^[5] responded with a similar tweet: "I love it when right-wingers just put all their sexual psychosis on display" (shown below, right). The tweet gained 19 likes in two days.

@SomeSplicer^[4] replied to @feraljokes retweet of Garrison's image saying "I know this caricature is supposed to be mean but her abs look perf" which accumulated 29 likes in two days (shown below).

On February 14th, many tweets noted the racist bits of the image. Racism Watchdog, ^[8] retweeted the Garrison Cartoon which accumulated 910 retweets and 9,600 likes in a day (shown below, left). Twitter user @notorious_exg^[9] replyed with an actual image of Ocasio-Cortez noting that Garrison made Ocasio-Cortez's skin darker than it actually is (shown below, right). The reply garnered two retweets and 280 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External Reference