skippy the bush kangaroo: old, crazy, on medicare and white is the new black

Friday, May 07, 2010

old, crazy, on medicare and white is the new black

teabaggers with attitude

apparently the grumpy old men and women of the tea party movement (and we mean "movement" in every sense of the word) are finally realizing that when they call themselves a dirty name, other folks might find it humorous.

dave neiwert of c&l expands on the history of when the social security wing nuts decided that being called a teabagger was actually not a good thing:

there's nothing quite like those moments on fox when megyn kelly and monica crowley share the set, because nobody kvetches louder than these two. yesterday they had a special segment where they whined about president obama reportedly referring offhandedly to the tea party movement as "teabaggers."

the whole segment, as usual, was rife with disinformation. crowley tries to characterize the dhs bulletin describing right-wing extremists as a potential terrorist threat as an attempt by the administration to demonize ordinary conservatives -- a simply risible (not to mention deeply irresponsible) claim. kelly tried to claim that this was the supposedly the "second time" obama had been caught using the term -- even though, in fact, he didn't actually say it to earl blumenauer...

but most amusing of all is the notion that calling tea partiers "teabaggers" is a horrendous, unforgivable slur. as dave weigel says, it's clear that tea partiers find it offensive now, so that's probably reason enough not to use it if you're interested in conversing with them. that's a big if, though.

moreover, as jay nordlinger at national review admits, the term "teabagger" was introduced to the political lexicon by tea party movement leaders:

the first big day for this movement was tax day, april 15. and organizers had a gimmick. they asked people to send a tea bag to the oval office. one of the exhortations was “tea bag the fools in d.c.” a protester was spotted with a sign saying, “tea bag the liberal dems before they tea bag you.” so, conservatives started it: started with this terminology. but others ran with it and ran with it.

neiwert provides many examples of early instances where the hardly-ever-right wing called themselves teabaggers, and evan morris-santo @ tpmdc points out that dave weigel fact-checks nordlinger to find the first instance the term was used (by the right, we might add) was feb. 27 of last year.

we are of many minds on this, all of them hilarious. first of all, as veterans of the 60's and 70's we can in no uncertain terms tell the tea partiers that when you actively work against the system, you can't really expect folks to give you respect. you never heard the dirty f'in hippies cry because people called them dirty f'in hippies. if you're going to be anti-establishment, don't be surprised when the establishment is anti-you.

secondly, we are unsure why being linked to a sexual act that gives incredible pleasure (trust us, we know first hand) is a slur. it's not like the left is calling the tea partiers baby killers or grandma rapists. we believe that because the right is pretty uptight about sex to begin with, they are certainly over-reacting to nothing more than street slang.

(and, while we're at it, we'd like to set aside the idea that "teabagging," in the sexual context, is anything exotic or obscure or exclusively homosexual. fer cryin' in the sink, we first learned about it on tbs during a rerun of sex and the city. so how 'underground' can it be? grow up and learn there are other people doing things in the world besides you and glenn beck, tea partiers!)

but mostly, we are rofloao at the idea that being called a 'teabagger' is tantamount to being called a 'nigger.' we can most assuredly tell you that it is not. set aside the aforementioned point that teabaggers coined that phrase (yes!) themselves, whereas no african american slave in the early history of this country said to his buddy, "hey, i know, let's call ourselves niggers! that's a good idea!'

instead, we will make you this proposition to prove our thesis: go to any tea party rally you want, and yell out 'hey, teabagger!' and see what happens.

then go to south central la, or harlem, or downtown dc, or detroit, or the like, and yell out 'hey, nigger!'

have the hospital tell us how that works out for you.

posted by skippy at 1:34 PM |