I have long believed that those who use the “tea bag” smear (or any one of its variants) to describe those protesting the Obama Administration’s big spending/big government policies automatically discredit themselves as unable to comment honestly on our movement. That term, a sexual slur, shows they would rather deride us than engage with our heartfelt opposition to the ever-increasing size (and ever-encroaching power) of the federal government.
I thought I had blogged previously on this subject, but, a few hasty* google searches did not yield the post I thought I had written (so since I recall typing it, I must have said it in an e-mail or in a comment to another blog).
That said, Glenn offered a more succinct expression of this notion:
when I hear someone use it [the term, “teabagger”], I know that nothing they say on the subject is worth taking seriously. Either they’re deliberately using it as a sexual slur, or they’re too ignorant to be worth listening to.
*hasty because I’m getting ready to go hiking with my Dad and don’t have much time.
Juvenile slurs that try to ridicule or destroy opponents, rather than engaging them in reasoned debate, are the far Left’s standard repertoire. See Alinsky, or Orwell.
C’mon now… don’t be so sensitive. It is funny.
It is funny.
Okay, it MIGHT have been CLEVER the first few times it was said, but now it’s as clever as saying, “How come you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway”… meaning not at all.
Nah, it was always stupid.
Agreed that it is juvenile and elicited a mild chuckle the first couple of times I heard it (kinda like “tee-hee! he said penis!), but Glenn is spot on that this makes me tune out what the person using the term has to say as being unworthy of my time.
C’mon now… don’t be so sensitive. It is funny.
Maybe if you’re in the sixth grade and have developmental delays.
I think there is a distinction to be made between someone like Jeannine Garafolo or Dan Savage using the term versus someone like Anderson Cooper.
Hyperbole is a great tool in debate. Recently, Palin’s “Death Panels” was a masterstroke. She encapsulated the horrors of the bill and it’s dark portents in two simple words on a Facebook page and managed to derail Obama and his heralds from their talking points for weeks. I wouldn’t presume to take the same right away from our friends on the left.
But Cooper was speaking as a newsman on his own CNN show. That is disappointing, unprofessional and worthy of apology.
On the other hand, perhaps we should thank these journalists for finally wearing their cheerleading on their sleeves.
Best wishes,
-MFS
Here’s my sad life–I had to look it up to understand the slur. I’m still not exactly sure I get it.
When I hear that, my rejoinder is as follows:
“Sure, I’m a ‘teabagger,’ but YOU are a ball-s#cking wh#re.”
I thought teabagger was self deprecating humour. Sort of how kids called themselves punk in the 80s knowing what it implied in prison. When that liberal gay kid from the gender liberation front vandalized the DNC headquarters in St. Paul I joked he was “a different kind of teabagger”
+1 MFS
It’s a hyperbolic propagandist term, and should be taken as such. Like “death panel” and “Ma’am Boxer.” It is not necessarily a reason to tune someone out simply because their joke of choice implies that they disagree with you. In fact, that speaks quite poorly of your ability to listen to opposing viewpoints.
#8, It’s tounge to dangling testicles (tea bags). It is a sexual slur. At least, that’s how I learned the term along time ago. Now do you get it?
#12–Apparently not.
“Either they’re deliberately using it as a sexual slur, or they’re too ignorant to be worth listening to.”
– – – –
You’re judging lots of people based on the standards of your own generation, and you’re doing it inaccurately.
Just as an example – my parents are in their 70’s. Ex-teachers, great parents, wonderful friends, tireless foodshelf workers and fundraisers, smart, thoughtful . . . .
Mom thought the teabaggers thing was an attempt to paint a picture of prissy little old ladies making High Tea and deciding, on a lark, to go to some protest because “all the bluehairs at the rest facility are doing it.”
Dad knew there was some sexual undercurrent there, but had no clue what it was, and was never interested enough to google it.
Both of them have used the phrase, jokingly, withouot really knowing its origins.
Neither of them is too ignorant to be worth listening to. And there are lots of worthwhile people out there who, for some weird reason, never once ran across the correct usage of “teabagger.” Go figure.
I learned about it from the movie _Pecker_ by John Waters. It is not a porno, it is a cheerful and good-spirited film (in contrast to some of Waters’ other work). Pecker is a budding teenage photographer, a straight guy. Martha Plimpton plays his sister, a barmaid at a gay bar. She announces the stripper boys. The bar has a strict “no teabagging” rule – where “teabagging” means the stripper placing his balls on a patron’s forehead, for a tip. She lets the rule slide a bit and gets fired. She is heartbroken, and tells her boss “But Mr. _______ – Trade is my life!!!”
fair point, bobby b, about people like your parents, but not about people in the news media whose business it is to traffic in information. They should know better.
As should politicians who, in a democracy, should be aware of the concerns of their constituents.
The “teabagger” smear is unintelligent, unoriginal, and obvious. No wonder liberals think it so funny.
They use the term “teabagger” because they have already dismissed YOU.
I have yet to see a right wing argument on this subject that wasn’t a talking point or lie. Get your stuff together, and stop sounding like a bunch of paranoid crazies, and people might be more inclined to start listening to you instead of dismissing you.
Since you’re so familiar with the bland and dishonest “right-wing” arguments, please demonstrate this understanding by telling us exactly why they are so? And please show how we sound like paranoid crazies. I don’t want to sound that way and would like to know how I might change my rhetoric so as to sound more rational. Thanks, Dan]
Mandamus (#18)
I’m at a loss.
Various news organizations resort to gay slurs to demean concerned Americans. A gay-friendly blogger objects to both the slur and the condescension. So, you pronounce him “paranoid.”
Good grief! Cet animal est fort méchant, / Quand on l’attaque il se défend.
Do you really believe this?
Best wishes,
-MFS
#18: “I have yet to see a right wing argument on this subject that wasn’t a talking point or lie.”
I have yet to see a left wing talking point on this subject that wasn’t both a talking point AND a lie.
#18: Example: Mandatory preventative care for all saves money.
Talking Point? Check.
Lie? Check.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/31/AR2009083103854.html?hpid=topnews