Imagine no teabaggers

[Measure for Measure]

...and give every poster the respect they deserve.

When evil is armed, words aren't enough.

Bush and Cheney believed this: react to the US's security challenges with maximum hysteria. Conservative supporters of Axis of Evil analysis, like The Facts, step well beyond what is legitimate self defense - they reside in the land of the paranoid. So if Iraq might have weapons of mass destruction, we should invade. Since the government is well armed, individuals need their own arsenal.

Now magellan01 might argue that there are distinctions among his conservative breatheran, and I guess he's right. Some conservatives don't like Tea Partiers, for example -and now we know that the Tea Party has conservative opponents among both the more and less mentally stable. I was worried for a while that The Facts was a progressive. I apologize Mr. Facts: I didn't realize that you were an ultra-neo-conservative.

 

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Yes. All four of them.

 

[xtisme]

Lots of us. Keep your stinking little right wing paws off mine.

Leaving aside of what orientation my paws are or aren't, I'd say you have more to worry about, gun grabbing wise, from the left than from the right, ehe?

How do you have reasoned debate with people who are either misinformed or not informed at all? Debate relies on pre-existing facts and persuasion, neither of which are useful at all if the other side refuses to acknowledge facts that aren't featured or highlighted on Fox News.

IOW, 'debate' for you means that both sides think exactly the same way, and if they don't, or if they get their news from a source no approved by you, then no 'debate' is possible.

Can you get reasoned debate from all 'teabaggers'? Of course not...maybe not even most. However, you guys are all painting with ridiculously broad brushes in this thread, as if every 'teabagger' is in lock step with every other one, all being racist monsters, ignorant AND stupid, neo-Nazis and probably duck fucking closet homosexuals to boot. You are demonizing them, in other words, because it makes you feel superior...plus it's so much easier to dismiss someone if you think of them the way you are thinking of them.

Here's the irony...conservatives have been doing the same thing about liberals (and greens, and lefties, etc etc) for decades now. Many of them feel exactly the same way about YOU and YOU feel about THEM. And so, our political system has gotten to the point where partisan politics is the be all and end all...there IS no debate, because both sides have build constructs and pigeon-holes for their opposition, and thus can simply dismiss them without thought or bother. Currently the leftwing THINKS it's in ascendancy in the US (and for all I know, they actually are), so they don't think need to bother with those scruffy 'teabaggers' (even the name is derogatory, since while they self selected it the didn't do so in the way it's used now). There is a healthy measure of pay back thinking as well, since the left and 'liberal' has been put down and dismissed in the past, and now that they are on top they are going to get some back.

What's funny, to me at least, is that this is nearly identical to what brought conservative thought to the supposed ascendancy, and is nearly a mirror image (even to the wishful thinking that they would all just die and go away, dismissal of them as drooling idiots in lock step, caricaturization of their supposed positions and stances, etc) of what THEY did when they were on top.

Pride comes before the fall...keep that in mind when the worm turns and those idiots on the right take control again. From my perspective, both the left and right in this country are slowly destroying it, and, from the heart, I say...A pox on BOTH of your houses.

-XT

 

[Villa]

Leaving aside of what orientation my paws are or aren't, I'd say you have more to worry about, gun grabbing wise, from the left than from the right, ehe?

Probably not, speaking for myself. My right to own is pretty safely protected by the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Of course, many of the teabaggers and their hateful fellow travellers would like to see me removed from the ranks of people protected by either that document or the federal constitution.

 

[Shot From Guns]

That would be a Yes to the alcoholic haze question, then. Hope you enjoyed it.

Prove it. Show me hucksters who got all the attention of, say, Oily Taint or whatever the hell her name is. Show me people in the military who refused to serve under Clinton because he wasn't a legal President. Show me people who got their names on ballots for anything other than County Dogcatcher.

 

[Squink]

What I've trying to determine is if you think a doctrine of pre-emption is justifiable or not? Which is it?

It's a load of crap, but I'll happily apply it to those who believe in it, so as not to insult their cultural norms.

 

[Der Trihs]

Seriously? I didn't know left wingers would even touch guns...

You know quite well I was talking about the teabag scum and their violent propensities.

 

[xtisme]

You know quite well I was talking about the teabag scum and their violent propensities.

Certainly I do...it was you posting, after all. I was just riffing off of the literal reading of your post, since it seemed amusing, to me at least. That said, however, I haven't seen much more ACTUAL violence out of 'teabaggers' than I saw out of leftwing loony types during the Bush administration...just similar verbal attacks and venom. To me it's all about oxing gores, and I find it infinitely amusing that the lefties get their panties in a bunch when the right wing comes out with what seems to me to be a mirror image of what they put Bush through (granted, with more reason) during his presidency. Whether the 'teabaggers' will be able to expand their fire and brimstone to appeal to a larger audience is questionable (since, to my biased mind at least, they have a lot less reason to actually be pissed at Obama than the left wingers did against Bush), but time will tell I guess.

In the mean time I have to admit that I'm enjoying the show!

-XT

 

[Enfant terrible]

Progressives wishing for death to the Teabaggers is exactly what they want. They are, based on their propensity to bring guns to political rallies, a brutish breed, waiting for an overt green light to begin engaging in violent actions. We almost saw the start of it, IMO, when windows of Democratic congresspeople were being shattered.

I have noticed the propensity of those on the right to first accuse the left of something, anything, in order to obfuscate the issues at hand and inoculate themselves from accusation. In this way, when they are rightly called out for their irresponsible behavior, the overall impression of the Milk Party (my term for the masses who are not politically engaged) is of equal and equally corrupted tit-for-tat.

So while I can understand the sentiment, especially after boiling over my own self here in the Pit a couple days ago, I'd have to say it would be more effective to hold off, in public places, vocalizing the idea that the world would be a better place without the teabags. It gives them cover. And beyond that, it would be far more satisfying to defeat them the American way: through better speech, through more activism, and at the polls.

 

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Teabaggers are not comparable to liberals or conservatives. They are a just fringe loonies. They don't even really have an articulable ideology or platform. They don't stand FOR anything, they are defined purely by hysterical opposition to Obama. When you get past the racism, the birth certificates, the antichrist paranoia, the Bible thumping, the gun fetishism, the homophobia, etc., there's nothing left. They are nothing but an aggregation of religious and social issue cranks, conspiracy theorists, racists and morons. They do not actually have a platform or a philosophy or a strategy or a solution to anything. Their entire raison d'etre is hating Obama. They don't have any policy proposals or alternate ideas, just personal animosity towards the President.

At least the liberals hated Bush for a REASON.

 

[Duke]

Teabaggers are not comparable to liberals or conservatives. They are a just fringe loonies. They don't even really have an articulable ideology or platform. They don't stand FOR anything

Often amusingly so. There's a car I often walk past which has a number of Tea Party-friendly stickers (including one supporting the doomed gubernatorial campaign of Carl "HORSE PORN" Paladino). It's also got one sticker ridiculing global warming activists...and another castigating Big Oil and offshore drilling.

 

[Der Trihs]

Option 3: he disagrees with you. And you are the one that is delusional.

And I think the odds on #3 being correct are short indeed.

They have made threats. They have engaged in violence. Those are facts. There's zero chance he's right.

Since you are a liar and a bigot yourself I'm not surprised to see you defend them. As for Sam; he's such a kneejerk the-Right-is-always-right sort that I'd be surprised if he didn't defend them.

 

[Shot From Guns]

That's right! Because saying on a random message board that it might be nice if all the teabaggers just dropped dead GIVES THEM POWER! SHIT, THE SDMB IS GOING TO BE ON FUCKING HANNITY AND COLMES TONIGHT!!!!!!!

 

[Damuri Ajashi]

Which amounts to the same thing in this case.

I was actually talking about Sam Stone.

I was in town when they had that Tea Party march on Washington, there were a lot of people but probably not 100,000 people. Most of them were just sore that we elected a Democratic president but a few seemed upset that we elected a black president.

I tried talking to them but by last September (BTW WTF does 9/11 have to do with the tea party, does it make them more patriotic or are they just trying to capture the sense of panic of that day?), folks had forgotten that Obama had nothing to do with TARP or the first stimulus plan, that the Obama stimulus plan was passed with broad bipartisan support.

When you broke it down for them what you were left with was Obama fulfilling a campaign promise to pass health care reform (there were issues like AIG and GM as well but the really big issue that had left on the table after you reminded them that neither stimulus packages nor the tarp could really be laid squarely at Obama's feet).

Self-defense. Should I wait until I get shot at before firing? As far as I'm concerned, they've had me in their sights and are waiting until November to pull the trigger.

Are you speaking metaphorically? Because I don't think anyone is literally going to shoot you. You did not seem to be speaking metaphorically when you proposed the death of the teabaggers. This is simply not how you win arguments.

I sympathize, really I do. Being President, Treasurer, and Chief Box-Gobbler of the Hillary Fan Club is obviously a demanding set of roles, and it's perfectly understandable that you might, in all the hurly-burly, lose some perspective.

I'd rather be Hillary than Obama right now. I mean she can still become President in 2016 and she can avoid the shitstorm that is going on right now.

(Spoken, incidentally, as someone who is currently quite disenchanted with Obama and feels that he fully deserves a lot of shit, just not of the type we're discussing.)

Yeah I hear you. He turned out to be such a pussy.

When evil is armed, words aren't enough.

Well, can we wait until they are accumulating yellowcake and have amassed WMDs? There is not every many whackos in the tea party that weren't whackos before the anyone even thought of them. This just puts them all in one place so its easier to keep track of them.

 

[Enfant terrible]

Prove it. Show me hucksters who got all the attention of, say, Oily Taint or whatever the hell her name is. Show me people in the military who refused to serve under Clinton because he wasn't a legal President. Show me people who got their names on ballots for anything other than County Dogcatcher.

Yes, this is a great point! The Tea Party right does get more than their fair share of attention, and it empowers them to gain name recognition and even credibility from the punditocracy.

And it is far more developed in the current era of consolidated, corporate media than it was in the '90s.

 

[Stoneburg]

Often amusingly so. There's a car I often walk past which has a number of Tea Party-friendly stickers (including one supporting the doomed gubernatorial campaign of Carl "HORSE PORN" Paladino). It's also got one sticker ridiculing global warming activists...and another castigating Big Oil and offshore drilling.

Funny and sad at the same time. Is there a smilie for that?


+ =

 

[Diogenes the Cynic]

You didn't see war protesters saying Bush wasn't really American, carrying ominously threatening signs, bringing guns to his appearances, threatening to kill his children or openly screaming racist and homophobic profanity at US Congressmen.

 

[Enfant terrible]

That's right! Because saying on a random message board that it might be nice if all the teabaggers just dropped dead GIVES THEM POWER! SHIT, THE SDMB IS GOING TO BE ON FUCKING HANNITY AND COLMES TONIGHT!!!!!!!

*sigh* Did you miss the part where I said in public places? I don't consider the SDMB public.

 

[ElvisL1ves]

Prove it.

Here's your sign.

 

[BrainGlutton]

Race isn't a choice. There are no intrinsic qualities to being Black or Hispanic, other than phenotypic ones. Political ideology, on the other hand, says a hell of a lot about you as a person.

I dunno . . . I think it's largely one of those things about your personality that is shaped by the cultural environment in which you were raised. You can make a conscious break with all that, just like you can break with your background religion, but it ain't easy psychologically. I think most people, even most intelligent people, even most intelligent people seriously interested in politics, are not political intellectuals of any kind and do not examine their own ingrained political assumptions very critically very often.