The tweet seems to have sparked a slew of parody Gritty fan accounts on Instagram and Twitter–the most notable of which, @FellowGritty, paints Gritty as an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist mascot. A subreddit, r/Gritty, also features memes of Gritty scaring off Republicans, killing Nazis, and encouraging public riots.

The antifascist movement featured Gritty’s image at a rally against Donald Trump in Philadelphia on Oct. 2, chanting “Gritty hates Trump” outside the convention center where the president was giving a speech:

It’s unclear why left-wing activists believe that Gritty is the perfect embodiment of their beliefs. Perhaps it’s because, as Stacey Ritzen of The Daily Dot writes, “Everyone loves an underdog.” Or maybe it’s because of Gritty’s role as a symbol of Philadelphia, a city with strong blue-collar roots.

Gritty’s transformation into an Antifa icon is typical of an age where everything is politicized, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Jillian Kay Melchior. She wrote in an editorial that “in an era when everything from Nike and the NFL to your local restaurant is a political battlefield, this development is as predictable as it is sad.” But the New Yorker’s Ian Crouch was quick to counter that if the left hadn’t embraced Gritty, he might have well gone the way of Pepe the Frog: ”It’s more fun to love Gritty than to hate him, and, recognizing this, the left grabbed him before the right got the chance.”

And what does Gritty think about all this? It’s beside the point, according to Reddit user BrinxJob: “The man” (Muppet?) “can’t even vote as he’s likely a registered felon.”

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