I Don’t Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

The first post this blog did that generated any attention – and by that, I mean maybe 50-60 hits, in those days before this blog had any kind of regional following at all, back in the summer of 2002 or so – was the “DFL Dictionary”.  The post – which is, unfortunately, lost to history (for now) listed a series of common words that the DFL had re-defined for their purposes.  For example:

“Bipartisanship (noun): to belong to a non-DFL party, but to espouse and support DFL policies without any serious question”.

That kind of thing.

And it’s become almost a cliche among leftybloggers in recent months lately as long as I’ve been reading them;  a sort of inexorable “inflation” in pejoratives.  Conservatives never take umbrage, they “whine”; we don’t argue, we “melt down. 

Now, I’m a pretty lucky guy.  Generally pretty happy with life.  I have two great kids, a job I love, a couple of hobbies I love even more, great family, great friends – really, just about a guy could want out of life.  I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in decades, I’m feeling generally good about life, I’ve dispensed with a lot of real and metaphorical baggage in the past year or so, and while life has all sorts of inevitable twists and turns, things are generally going pretty dang well right now.  One of my hobbies – debating politics with strangers in writing and on the radio – has turned into a fun sideline; in this, I’ve been able to find some semblance of fulfillment, as well as some future possibilities, while honoring my sense of integrity.  In other words, I’m getting little bits and piece of happiness, and all in all it’s a pretty good stretch for me, knock wood.

Which, if you’re a gutless anonymous leftyblogger, means “angry”, “hateful”, bla bla bla.

No, really.  “Stove” from Cocky Slob just can’t get enough of trying to jam people into his own bigoted little template:

It came to Spot today, unbidden. In over three years of reading blogs and writing this one, Spot has been unable to find the word that summed up the festering Bund of the right wing blogosphere. But he’s got it now: bullies.

Ooh.  Another neo-Nazi reference. 

He must be writing about something serious.

What, after all, is a bully? It’s someone who is cruel and overbearing, a thug. Someone who picks on somebody else, preferably smaller and weaker, maybe to make himself feel like a big cheese, or even just appear to be one to the drooling sycophants he wants to impress. The words of the bully almost always have a tinge of intimidation in them, or sometimes more than just a tinge.

Or sometimes much, much less than a “tinge”. 

Indeed, in some cases it’s more of a “little corner of actual meaning that you’ve carefully sanded to fit your own  myopic, bigoted, deranged template through which you force all of your own perceptions”. 

As in “you read “apples”, and see “axles””.

There they sit on the bar stool of grudge and resentment, taking big swigs from their tankards of bile, belting out tuneless refrains of impotent rage. Then, tottering home in crazed and bilious humors, they sit down and write stuff like this.

He links to the piece I wrote Tuesday about former Minnesoros “Independent” writer Molly Priesmeyer and City Pages doddering troll Emily Kaiser. 

Rage?  Bile?  Crazed? 

It is no especial mystery why all the paranoid, poisoned, gun-toting crazies are all on one side.

(Although why some people need to vilify, defame and demonize those who disagree with them is an “especial” puzzler to those of us with fuller, richer lives) 

 The pathology is unremarkable. But its consequences over the last twenty five years or so have been catastrophic.

If only because they – “consequences” like people speaking freely and still disagreeing with “Spot”, gutless anonyme – seem to have driven their author around the bend into complete derangement.

Intimidation?  I wished Molly Priesmeyer good luck in her job searc, having been in her shoes all too many times (sometimes with kids to feed, to boot).  I’d like to be so “intimidated” by my nemeses.

Bullying?   I’m the underdog, you half-trained trick chimp.  I’m a little solo blogger from Saint Paul.  Emily Kaiser writes for a multi-million dollar corporation; Molly Priesmeyer wrote for a Soros front, and not being an untalented writer will no doubt get picked up by another sooner than later.

It is a period from which the barest signs of emerging have now just appeared. But the bud is nascent and the bullies will try to kill it.

Catch that?  It’s not just responding – “participating in life”.  It’s “bullying” and “crushing your hopes”. 

For some of us, the notion of “disagreement” and “dissent” isn’t a threat. For the others, there are anonymously-posted pictures of the Nuremberg Rallies.

Courage my friends.

“Courage”.  Heh.

This from a guy who blogs anonymously – who quite visibly panics, indeed, at the notion of being “outed”, when he’s not taking his defamatory, cowardly little shots at his betters.

The word we’re looking for is “deranged”.  

Look that one up on “Answers.com”. 

Courage, little doggie.  Now, run and play.  You are boring and predictable.

(Via Fut)

65 thoughts on “I Don’t Think That Word Means What You Think It Means

  1. Oh the irony:

    “”gutless anonymous leftyblogger,”

    and

    “This from a guy who blogs anonymously – who quite visibly panics, indeed, at the notion of being “outed”, when he’s not taking his defamatory, cowardly little shots at his betters.”

    –> is how ‘mitch’ describes someone that Mitch actually met in person at the garage (Actually, he met him while we were all sitting around a fire in my back yard). “Garage Rules” (very similar to Vegas Rules, what is said in the Garage stays in the garage). prohibit me from revealing any actual content of the conversation, but I will confirm there was one, and it was quite pleasant and respectful.

    Maybe your two personas need to spend more time together.

    Flash

  2. “Maybe your two personas need to spend more time together.”

    I assume you left a similar comment in one of Spot’s semi-weekly Mitch Defamation screeds.

    Because you’re fair minded. Right?

    Or isn’t Mitch allowed to defend himself from the crap this turd is always throwing at him?

  3. Or isn’t Mitch allowed to defend himself from the crap this turd is always throwing at him?

    No, no, that would be partisan.

  4. “Garage Rules” (very similar to Vegas Rules, what is said in the Garage stays in the garage). prohibit me from revealing any actual content of the conversation, but I will confirm there was one, and it was quite pleasant and respectful.

    It was.

    So it was to my immense surprise that he went on to take a bunch of really low-rent shots at me. When I meet someone, I generally find myself treating them as humans rather than collections of febrile stereotypes.

    I was kinda disappointed (although never surprised) that “Spot” didn’t see it that way.

    His ends justify his means, I guess.

  5. My guess is that flash agrees with “Spot” on the “humans as collections of febrile stereotypes” thing, hence the defense. Is that true?

  6. You’ve heard the phrase, “Pearls before swine,” haven’t you, Mitch?
    😉

    Don’t get me wrong. I certainly think you should make a reposte when dullards write gobbledegook laden smears. Set the record straight and return in kind.

    I enjoy your responses to such folks.

    Of course, you don’t expect any kind of acknowledgement or response from the original blogger. Clearly anything you say in an attempt to correct the blackguard is wasted breath.

    However, I love to see folks try to make excuses for the dimwitted dolt. At least, I’m waiting to actually see it… but that day may come, and it may come soon.

    They’ve got Obama Fever.
    (If only the cure was simply more cowbell.)

  7. Flash,

    Do you know what “the Bund” is?

    If not, you probably have no idea what an incredibly obnoxious, insulting reference it is.

  8. “I wished Molly Priesmeyer good luck in her job search”

    Honestly, I can’t for the life of me understand how anybody could have read Mitch’s post about Ms. Priesmeyer, and come away with the thought “bully”.

    Mitch was unbelievably charitable and gracious to her in her predicament.

    I went one step farther, and wished her a long happy life in the suburbs.

  9. The only way folks like Chunky Stool can describe the Not-We (from his persepective) is as Nazis.

    When everything that is Not-We equates to Nazis, actual Nazis, it make you wonder, “Why those folks just round us up in jail and put us on trial?”

    Perhaps I shouldn’t have given them the idea.

    Quite recently I said to a guy who confidently proclaimed that I was a racist (among other things), “What exactly do you want to do,” to the people he strongly disagrees with… you know, the Bush supporters, folks in favor of going to and winning in Iraq, folks who want to stamp out Islamic Terrorism, Republicans, conservatives, etc.

    Do you want to know what he said?
    First he said that he and his like-minded folks must stand up to such people (like me) and tell them how wrong they are and confront them and correct them and educate them.

    I asked what he would do if those people (apparently me included) do not want to be re-educated, if they stand their ground, or just are not smart enough to agree with his way of thinking.

    Do you want to know what he said after that?
    “That has yet to be determined.” Honest to God… he knew what he was saying.

    Frightening shit. I’m not fool enough to believe his is the majority opinion on the left, but it is an enthusiastic opinion from enough nutjobs and lose screws that we need to keep a close eye on folks who actually talk like that.

    What do you do if you witness someone foaming and frothing like that? What do you do if someone treats you like that?

    Let them talk, let them speak… but make sure you get them to do it in public… with lots of witnesses, especially folks who are more on their side of the fence than ours.

    [Dear God… I’ve written a Peev-length post!]

  10. My only point is that one can not be consider anonymous and afraid of being outed, when in fact, he is neither anonymous or afraid.

    I have no comment at all on your little catfight, that is between you two.

    Flash

  11. “My only point is that one can not be consider anonymous and afraid of being outed, when in fact, he is neither anonymous or afraid.”

    I’ll cede your point on him not being anonymous arguendo. On the matter of him not being “afraid” it’s instructive to note that he only seems to be cordial when he happens to be in the presence of the now physically fit 6′-6″ 250+ pound Mitch. Behind the relative security of his keyboard he’s quite different.

    Not afraid of being outed? Maybe. Cowardly. Definitely.

    Who knew that a dog could be such a pussy?

  12. “There they sit on the bar stool of grudge and resentment, taking big swigs from their tankards of bile, ”

    That reminds me, anybody going to Keegan’s tonight?

  13. “My only point is that one can not be consider anonymous and afraid of being outed, when in fact, he is neither anonymous or afraid.”

    Oh, so “Spot” has outed himself as Steve Timmer, of Edina?

    Great!

    Has Dianne Gerth, of St. Paul taken credit for her nom de asswipe “MNknOB”, or have I spilled the beans?

    Pffft.

  14. ““the Bund””

    Yeah, I know German. And I Googled around to find out why you may take offense, and found a reference you may have chosen to imply. But still, I think you, as usual, are making something out of nothing. The mere fact you used, what, three times as many words to fisk a rather benign screed is, well, proof of that! You claim your skin is thinker than that, but you never pass up a chance to prove yourself wrong!

    Flash

  15. BTW, I wonder if Timmer’s more successful neighbors know he’s the jealous lefty nutcase that’s been “spotted” [comment edited pending evidence.  Outing is hunky dory (and, pinky swear, Swiftee and I are not colluding), but I’d like to steer very clear of even the faintest hint of defamation – Ed.]

    HAHAHAHAHA!

  16. And I Googled around to find out why you may take offense, and found a reference you may have chosen to imply.

    Flash, I “chose” nothing. When one refers to “The Bund” in an American political context, one is referring to the large pro-Nazi political action group that was quite powerful in the upper Midwest from the mid-thirties until Pearl Harbor.

    But still, I think you, as usual, are making something out of nothing. The mere fact you used, what, three times as many words to fisk a rather benign screed

    Having someone call me a Nazi is, to me, not especially benign.

    And you miss the point; the fact that he uses little cutiepie Nazi references to refer to conservatives says a lot more about him than about me/us. Pointing that out doesn’t make me the bad guy…

    …as much as you seem to wish it so.

  17. You know, every time I see one of these pathetic lefty pricks post a tear stained complaint about being victimized by “bullies” it confirms my impression that a lot of them are the little twerps we all remember from childhood…you know, the ones that could always be counted to run right in to squeal on you and then squirt tears because no one wanted to play with them.

    These little punks have taken words like “hate” and “violence” and “bullying” and turned them into meaningless shields against anyone that stands up and declares them to be, in no uncertain terms, the asswipes they are.

    So go ahead little Stevie, go ahead little Kurt…squirt us some more pretty moonbat tears.

    Pffft.

  18. Lefties can be so damn funny. The pathology is unremarkable, and yet, the driving compulsion is to remark, and do so with prejuduce and lack of comprehension.
    Then Lefty #2 steps in and declares a personal attack as “fairly benign”. The fact that Lefty #2 is waiting to pounce on the expected response makes me wonder how large his “tankard of bile” is.

    But then I remember that all the paranoid, poisoned, gun-toting crazies are all on one side (really great writing, really btw), and I demur. After all, I wouldn’t want to be seen as a bully.

  19. “comment edited pending evidence”

    HAHA, with pleasure Mitch. With extreme pleasure!

    http://thecuckingstool.blogspot.com/2008/01/spot-car-ride-take-iv.html

    Can’t you just see the little prick, all green with envy slowly creeping up and down the street mumbling curses upon the owners of those homes.

    Indeed, Mr. Timmer is the quintessential liberal. The essence of what fuels the never ending grab for every wallet within reach, and beyond.

    Welcome to the sunshine, Steve and Dianne, welcome to the place in which we confront those we mock with the confidence that spurns anonymity.

  20. Well, ‘mitch’ that wasn’t even on my radar. In fact, that use of ‘Bund’ was so obscure I had to use ‘Nazi’ in my search to just find it. Bund to me is a generic term used to describe a group of like minded individuals, a fraternity or Union.

    Again, you can’t state “”Conservatives never take umbrage, they “whine”; we don’t argue, we “melt down. “” And then Literaly Whine and Melt down.

    And Mr’ D says I’M projecting, Sheesh.

    Flash

  21. Flash, your not knowing the meaning of the term “Bund” in American political context speaks not to it’s obscurity but your ignorance.

  22. Considering the context of Stool’s comments, flash, how could you not even consider the Nazi connection with the word Bund?

    That seems a little willing to suspend your disbelief.

  23. “But guess what, you get to pick what I am. Isn’t that cool!”

    You mean like how Spot always “picks” to call us Nazis?

    Take your “objectivity” (that’s the word you were groping for) and shove it up your “open” ass.

  24. So let me get this straight, Mitch, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to (fatuously, and I suspect knowingly speciously) call the Nazi movement ‘leftist’ – but lest someone ascribe to your form of political theatre a term meant to describe the incessant spin, the complete intolerance of consideration of facts from both sides, lest someone do THAT and liken it (rightly and accurately) to the nature of Joseph Goebels’ form of propoganda, well then THAT, THAT is crossing the line.

    The only thing I see, is, that like Flash said, your skin is anything but thick.

    One thing Mitch – I certainly could/can take REAL offense at being called an Anti-Semite, yet I don’t remember you apologizing. I also CAN take some small offense at you calling my father’s religion essentially one not standing for anything, again, no apology, nor restraint from your side. If you want restraint, practice it – and THAT my friend, is something you don’t do on your blog as it relates to making sweeping, and profoundly insulting, generalities. Before lecturing Flash on using the word ‘Bund’, you might consider the path you’ve trod yourself.

    Frankly, I think this may be alligator tears being spilled, but if you took real offesne, write on his blog- you know, engage in discourse, rather than having the two Ven Diagrams of discussion continue to NOT intersect, and therefore, continue to not make any progress, thus proving the worthlessness of both endeavors.

    BTW Foot, I strongly suspect that like me, this guy isn’t particularly afraid of Mitch, in shape or otherwise. Fist fights are for dullards, and Mitch isn’t a dullard – a zealot maybe, but not a dullard. Calling the guy a coward, is in iteself cowardly. It ducks having to actually find anything out, and just dismisses the nature of the person without fact, rather than trying to find out the truth. Perhaps then it’s just craven. Probably so.

  25. “Calling the guy a coward, is in iteself cowardly. It ducks having to actually find anything out, and just dismisses the nature of the person without fact, rather than trying to find out the truth.”

    Pfft.

    We know everything we need to know about you Peevee, or at least I do.

    You, like many of your cowardly ilk, are big on spouting off under cover of what you believe is the safety of your keyboard as shield.

    We know how big a mouth “Spot” has, now we’ll get to see what Steve Timmer has to say for himself.

    Timmer was unmasked from almost the minute he jumped into Eva Young’s dumpster a few years ago. Every time he thought he was doing the masked asshat dance, I saw Timmers little pecker flapping around.

    Now how about you big mouth?

    You gonna stand up behind your mouth, or are we gonna have to drag you to the sunlight kicking and screaming like the pathetic, cowardly little lefty you are?

  26. The fact that you cannot find anything “socialist” about the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” is a personal problem that only you can solve, penigma.

  27. So let me get this straight, Mitch, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to (fatuously, and I suspect knowingly speciously) call the Nazi movement ‘leftist’ – but lest someone ascribe to your form of political theatre a term meant to describe the incessant spin, the complete intolerance of consideration of facts from both sides, lest someone do THAT and liken it (rightly and accurately) to the nature of Joseph Goebels’ form of propoganda, well then THAT, THAT is crossing the line.

    Peev, the nazi’s called themselves “national socialists”. The did this to differentiate themselves from the “international socialists” who were Stalinists and trotskyites (and the international labor movements that they controlled). They were not capitalists. They were not seeking a return of the Kaiser or rule by the Junkers, which is what a real ‘conservative’ party of the 1930’s would have done.
    “Militarism” is not the same thing as fascism. Germany under Bismarck was militaristic without being fascist, as was Russia under Stalin. Nazism is inseperable, however, from both socialism and nationalism. Obama’s dream of creating various quasi-miiltary civilian “corps” is closer to national socialism than anything Bush has done, but if it makes you feel better, peev, you (and RickDFL, and Flash, and AC) can spend some time every day staring into a mirror and telling yourself you are not looking at a fascist.

  28. “BTW Foot, I strongly suspect that like me, this guy isn’t particularly afraid of Mitch, in shape or otherwise. ”

    Since my observation is based on facts (he’s nice to Mitch’s face; a shrieking, invective flinging jerk to him when they’re separated by 15 miles), and your observation is based on a weird combination of nothing and bizarre post hoc “logic”, I’ll stick with my theory.

  29. “”(he’s nice to Mitch’s face; a shrieking, invective flinging jerk to him when they’re separated by 15 miles),””

    Sounds just like the Right Wing Blogosphere!

    Seriously, I read the term ‘bund’ generically meaning a group of people. It is pretty clear, upon further review, that his capitalization of ‘Bund’ meant more than that. Yes, my ignorance shows, bully on my. It also shows I don’t read the worst into everything I see.

    With that, I sent Spot an E-Mail, poor form on his part. We can have a much better dialogue if we can back off the unnecessary invectives. But that is assuming you even want a dialogue.

  30. Flash, I think you will find (on this blog, anyway) no suggestions that Obama is anything less than the legitimate President of the United States. This puts the level of discourse on Mitch’s blog higher than what you’ll find Huffpo, Kos, or Atrios.

  31. Terry, I beg to differ. The commenters on this blog, and ‘mitch’ have pretty universally referred to him as every thing form the second coming to the messiah himself. A passing reference to him as President doesn’t not mask that reality!

    If I am going to be lumped into, and attacked as if I were a member of this lefty group you refer, it must then be noted that, at least on my blog anyway, I accepted and respected Two Term President George W Bush as the legitimate President. And his picture is proudly displayed in my den. At noon on a day in January, 2009, I do look forward to replacing that picture, for it is a spot dedicated to the office of President, regardless of who holds it. That is what I teach my children.

    Flash

  32. “With that, I sent Spot an E-Mail, poor form on his part.”

    Good on ya’. I take back that line about you shoving things up your butt. 🙂

  33. “If I am going to be lumped into, and attacked as if I were a member of this lefty group you refer, it must then be noted that, at least on my blog anyway, I accepted and respected Two Term President George W Bush as the legitimate President. And his picture is proudly displayed in my den. At noon on a day in January, 2009, I do look forward to replacing that picture, for it is a spot dedicated to the office of President, regardless of who holds it. ”

    I do the same thing, Flash. Though I’ll probably buy a new frame now that I’m moving the Presidential photo to the mantel from the toilet bowl.

  34. “! accepted and respected Two Term President George W Bush as the legitimate President. And his picture is proudly displayed in my den.”

    Ha! I bet you drew devil’s horns, a Hitler mustache and an arrow through his head!

  35. Clown, no one wants to hear about what kind of pictures you look at when you are in your bathroom.
    “wide stance” joke to follow, I’m sure . . .

  36. Cute, Terry, God knows I was tempted, but it is the office I respect too much. Mitch has been in my home often enough to verify A) the picture is there, B) it is unvarnished and C) no where near the dart board *grin*

    Flash

  37. So let me get this straight, Mitch, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to (fatuously, and I suspect knowingly speciously) call the Nazi movement ‘leftist’

    Look, Peev, I don’t know any way to get around whatever disability you seem to have on this topic, whether it’s bad reading comprehension or inadequate knowlege of history. I didn’t “call the Nazis leftists”. I said – correctly – that Hitler borrowed and adopted many aspects of Lenin’s approach to totalitarianizing society. He also steered clear of some of his Lenin’s egregious mistakes.

    You really don’t have to take my word for it. Read Paul Johnson’s “Modern Times”. Read any number of scholarly pieces on the history of the era. Naziism was an amalgam of ultra-right rhetoric and ultra-left methods.

    I should point out, since you continually miss it, that saying (factually) that Naziism borrowed from Lenin doesn’t actually impugn American liberals, unless they really want it to.

    Which, curiously, you seem to.

  38. flash said:

    “Sounds just like the Right Wing Blogosphere”

    Are you really here to defend the “Left Wing Blogosphere” this way, flash?

    The “reality” of referring to the President-Elect as “the one”, “messiah”, or similar is pretty damn tame, no? Is it more disrespectful to the man, the office, or to lemming-like followers.

    And exactly how does it compare to referring to the current President as an animal, as mentally deficient, as an evil genius, or as a widely reviled dictator?

  39. Even worse, some people have stated the W is “Not My President”… they will “celebrate” the departure of the man from office. This rankles me enough that I (shock) blogged about it earlier this week.

    Maybe I’m just old fashioned.

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