Drag
By Mitch Berg
James Joyner has an excellent piece on the defining-down of slurs in our current discourse:
Views held by pluralities of Americans are now routinely dubbed Fascist, Communist, treason, unpatriotic, or un-American.
Let’s not forget “neocon” – a slur that’s fairly unique, since almost nobody who uses it can define it in any sense – and, most recently, “teabagger”.
Which I bring up for a reason:
It’s an effective tool, at first, just as Saul Alinsky predicted: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” But, as he also warned, “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
I think “teabagger” – the favorite of a lot of dimwitted leftyblog shrieking-point recyclers and MSM party hacks – has upped the curve. I can’t put my finger on it, but I think the slur was starting to backfire on the left.
This next nine months will be interesting; the left’s been hitting the Alinsky playbook so hard it’s starting to get stale.
February 11th, 2010 at 8:57 am
So you think “neocon” ranks right up there with “Fascist,” “Communist,” “traitor” and whatever else Glen Beck and Ann Coulter are calling their books these days?
Shot in the Onion: where wingnuts come to suspend belief and drink delicious Kool-Aid.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:16 am
I think people usually suspend disbelief, angryclown, but I’m sure you meant exactly what you said. Thanks for the compliment! 🙂
February 11th, 2010 at 9:31 am
So you think “neocon” ranks right up there with “Fascist,” “Communist,” “traitor” and
In terms of intent? And in terms of being a mindless insult that makes less-intelligent smearers think they sound smart? Absolutely.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Mitch, you forgot “Wingnut”, Every time it’s used it reveal the shallow vapidity of the speaker.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:48 am
This is in the Strib last Saturday, in a frigging review by Kristin Tillotson of a collection of short stories…
They just cannot help themselves…
***
Written with startlingly original voice, careening imagination and an abiding fondness for what Teabaggers would call “the non-elites,” his stories are set in a surreal America we know, but aren’t sure we want to.
***
February 11th, 2010 at 10:48 am
some simple math, wingnut= conservative who is beating a liberal in a debate.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Jeff,
Wow. Just…wow.
Blog post to come shortly.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:36 am
The only “surreal America” I have seen lately is MSNBC.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
so is “surreal America” as dysfunctional as the “surreal life” on VH1? I smell another reality show.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Very nice post, Mitch. Thanks for pointing this out.
I just got a small handbook (meant for college students) in the mail from the Leadership Institute yesterday. It’s written by David Horowitz and called “Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model” It speaks to how President Obama won the ’08 election by claiming he was a moderate who would bring Americans together. Then, on election eve, President Obama stated, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Horowitz argues in this small book that the President’s election eve promise has been played out, in a way most Americans never dreamed. Horowitz says we are seeing the shocking results of a President mentored by three individuals “trained in the Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation” to follow Saul Alinsky’s playbook and political philosophy more “outside the American mainstream” than any “other occupant of the White House.”
February 11th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
[…] Cross-posted at Shot In The Dark. […]
February 11th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
My two favorite ones recently are “Tenther,” which is someone who apparently likes the 10th Amendment. There was an attempt in the Kos/MSNBC crowd to make this a slur when people suggested the national government was over-stepping its bounds — and then link it in a Kevin Bacon way to those who favored slavery. It didn’t go as far as they’d like, probably because some editor laughed it out of the room as weak, even by “Teabagger” standards.
The other new one is “Handjob,” referring to Palin’s notes on her hand. This one has a little life in it, but just enough people apparently think that throwing one more sexual joke at Palin might tip the boat. Letterman’s jokes finally got NOW to wake up, so they have to tread lightly.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Separating the wheat from the chaff? Excellent! Now let’s inspire our leaders to take the bull by the horns and make hay while the sun shines.