Munich Security Conference

[LDAHL]

Yeah. You mean the book where he was humping a couch?

Fell for that one, did you?

[bae]

Fell for that one, did you?

That was a dead giveaway - in Ohio they are generally known as "sofas" or "davenports", at least in his era.

[Alan]

Yeah. You mean the book where he was humping a couch?

I wasn't familiar with that allegation so I had to look it up.

The rumors and memes about JD Vance and a couch originated from a
false claim posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in July 2024.

Here is a breakdown of the incident:

• The Origin: On July 15, 2024, the day Vance was announced as Donald Trump's running mate, an X user (later identified as @rickrudescalves) posted that Vance's 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, included a passage about having sex with an "inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions".
• The Truth: The claim is entirely fabricated. The supposed passage does not exist in the book, and the words "sofa" and "glove" do not appear in Hillbilly Elegy.
• The Spread: Despite being a complete fabrication, the joke went viral, spawning countless memes and becoming a staple of online mockery.
• The Retracted Fact-Check: The Associated Press (AP) published a fact-check article with the headline "No, JD Vance Did Not Have Sex With a Couch," but later deleted it, noting it had not gone through their standard editing process.
• Response: The author of the original post acknowledged it was a joke and later made their account private. The joke was later referenced by political figures, including Tim Walz during the 2024 campaign. NPR +6

In summary, JD Vance did not write about or engage in the act described in the meme; it was a widely spread internet hoax.

[catherine]

I wasn't familiar with that allegation so I had to look it up.

The rumors and memes about JD Vance and a couch originated from a
false claim posted on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in July 2024.

Here is a breakdown of the incident:

• The Origin: On July 15, 2024, the day Vance was announced as Donald Trump's running mate, an X user (later identified as @rickrudescalves) posted that Vance's 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, included a passage about having sex with an "inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions".
• The Truth: The claim is entirely fabricated. The supposed passage does not exist in the book, and the words "sofa" and "glove" do not appear in Hillbilly Elegy.
• The Spread: Despite being a complete fabrication, the joke went viral, spawning countless memes and becoming a staple of online mockery.
• The Retracted Fact-Check: The Associated Press (AP) published a fact-check article with the headline "No, JD Vance Did Not Have Sex With a Couch," but later deleted it, noting it had not gone through their standard editing process.
• Response: The author of the original post acknowledged it was a joke and later made their account private. The joke was later referenced by political figures, including Tim Walz during the 2024 campaign. NPR +6

In summary, JD Vance did not write about or engage in the act described in the meme; it was a widely spread internet hoax.

This is why I subscribe to Snopes. I don't like JD Vance, but no one should be a victim of viral falsehoods. Unfortunately, that's the world we live in now. It's so maddening.

[bae]

Also, the phrase "inside-out latex glove" is problematic:

- How could an observer know it was inside-out? The account seems unnecessarily specific.
- "Inside-out" is itself troublesome, for reasons that might be evident
- Latex? Nobody sane would use latex for such a practice, latex is well known to produce allergies. I fund out local reproductive health services to distribute non-latex condoms for this reason.

The account has all the hallmarks of "urban legend", before you even consult Snopes.