STICKS AND STONES
Nigger. Kyke, slope, honky, cracker, ofay, dago, limey, kraut, zipperhead, spic, chink, casper, and so on. Have I offended you? Well you shouldn't be. Recently Orson Bean wrote an article on Big Hollywood reminding people of a bit leftist radical and comic Lenny Bruce did live once:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
What does brillig, slivy, toves, wabe, mimsy and so on mean? Nothing, but when used in context they seem to mean something. Dungeons and Dragons took the word "vorpal blade" from this poem and turned it into a fantastically sharp and deadly weapon that tends to decapitate its enemies.
Yet consider: when the left chooses to attack and discredit the right, they don't argue logically or based on facts, they don't debate the merits of the right's arguments. They cry racist and pretend that someone said nigger at some point. Now, part of the most recent furor is an attempt to shore up President Obama's sliding polling numbers among black voters. The Democrats absolutely have to pull in about 90% of black voters or they lose every single election, so they can't let that slide. What's their remedy for that? To claim Republicans are nonstop bigots and one bedsheet away from being in the klan.
Mind you an actual klan leader is considered the "conscience of the Senate" by Democrats, and the Klan was made up of Democrats, but history is irrelevant when you're working on scaring and fooling people. The fact that no one actually called a single member of the Congressional Black Caucus that deliberately walked slowly through the Tea Party rally with cameras rolling a nigger doesn't matter either. The charge is enough for many to believe it and the left to push the narrative of the bigoted right. Will it work to sway black voters? Who knows, it certainly worked after Hurricane Katrina.
Yet Bean's primary point in his article is that the Tea Party shouldn't have cared about being called "teabaggers" by the left. That words shall never hurt me and if the right just shrugged and went along with it, then it wouldn't have any impact or power. I disagree that the name could be negated by adopting it, this wasn't so much a calculated attempt to attack the Tea Party as it is an example of immature giggling on the left like 6th graders saying "testicle" and giggling uncontrollably. Its naughty and helps them disregard a real, significant movement of ordinary people. There's something deeper wrong with the label, though.
One night at the Vanguard I watched in shocked amazement as he pointed to a customer and said, “Oh look, we’ve got a nigger here tonight.” The crowd froze. “And another darky is with him and a third jigaboo.” The silence was deafening. But Lenny was an advocate of the old show business maxim: if you’ve gone too far… go farther. He’d only just begun “Look over here”, he said, “A kike. And a mocky* is at the table with him. And we got two spicks in the back. Hey, there’s a fag at the bar.” Slowly, the laughter began. Lenny said nigger a hundred times. Finally the crowd was howling. The pure outrageousness of it all had gotten to them and they simply had no choice.He was talking about the news report when supposedly some folks in Little Rock were yelling "nigger" over and over at black children being escorted into a white school to force integration. I think Lenny had a point: words in and of themselves have no power or meaning, they only mean what we agree upon. If I declare that the word "fhnagu" means "to sing like Tiny Tim" then it means that only if others agree and start using it. Unless that happens, it's just nonsense like the Lewis Caroll poem Jabberwocky. Carroll built an entire poem around nonsense words; words which seemed plausible but didn't exist or mean anything:
When Lenny had them where he wanted them he turned serious. “It’s all arbitrary,” he told the crowd. “We agree to be offended by certain words. What if we decided that the word dentist was offensive. You dirty rotten dentist! Then that would become the insult du jour. But what if we simply decide not to be offended. What if we just take the sting out of these words and use them as terms of affection. ‘Hey niggah, how ya doin’? ‘Fine, honky, an’ you?’ What if we all just agreed that words can’t hurt? Then nobody could scream insults at a poor little Black girl in Little Rock.”
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
What does brillig, slivy, toves, wabe, mimsy and so on mean? Nothing, but when used in context they seem to mean something. Dungeons and Dragons took the word "vorpal blade" from this poem and turned it into a fantastically sharp and deadly weapon that tends to decapitate its enemies.
Yet consider: when the left chooses to attack and discredit the right, they don't argue logically or based on facts, they don't debate the merits of the right's arguments. They cry racist and pretend that someone said nigger at some point. Now, part of the most recent furor is an attempt to shore up President Obama's sliding polling numbers among black voters. The Democrats absolutely have to pull in about 90% of black voters or they lose every single election, so they can't let that slide. What's their remedy for that? To claim Republicans are nonstop bigots and one bedsheet away from being in the klan.
Mind you an actual klan leader is considered the "conscience of the Senate" by Democrats, and the Klan was made up of Democrats, but history is irrelevant when you're working on scaring and fooling people. The fact that no one actually called a single member of the Congressional Black Caucus that deliberately walked slowly through the Tea Party rally with cameras rolling a nigger doesn't matter either. The charge is enough for many to believe it and the left to push the narrative of the bigoted right. Will it work to sway black voters? Who knows, it certainly worked after Hurricane Katrina.
Yet Bean's primary point in his article is that the Tea Party shouldn't have cared about being called "teabaggers" by the left. That words shall never hurt me and if the right just shrugged and went along with it, then it wouldn't have any impact or power. I disagree that the name could be negated by adopting it, this wasn't so much a calculated attempt to attack the Tea Party as it is an example of immature giggling on the left like 6th graders saying "testicle" and giggling uncontrollably. Its naughty and helps them disregard a real, significant movement of ordinary people. There's something deeper wrong with the label, though.
The truth is, calling me "honky" doesn't even ruffle my feathers. I don't care, the word sounds silly to me. I personally liked Clint Eastwood's curmudgeon in Gran Torino, not just because he was a noble and heroic man but because he was crusty and hard edged. Here's a sample of the dialog to help illustrate what I mean (language warning):
Yet the teabagger slur is a bit different. This isn't a personal slur or some funny word to use to describe someone. It is an attack on the very concept of what's being promoted in the Tea Parties. The Tea Party its self is a venerable and revered event in not just American history, but world wide for being the first great stab at tyranny and toward true liberty and democracy. It is the Rubicon at which humanity strode away from monarchy and rule by distinct classes of people toward a greater freedom and self-rule. Mocking that name with a particularly offensive sexual slur (primarily associated with homosexuals) is an attack on the very foundation of liberty.
I don't care if you call me names. But if you call other people names, I might get upset, especially if they are my family and friends and neighbors and people who never, ever get up and march in protests unless something really, really upsets them. The Tea Party movement isn't some contrived reaction to the Democratic Party majority, the Democrats have had a majority in US government for most of the lives of everyone alive in the country at present. This is the next step in a long, long line of continual annoyances, frustrations, and embitterments that is finally boiling over. These are people who simply do not get involved in rallies and protests and even politics period beyond voting. When that happens, its like when the townsfolk get so tired of Denton Baxter's men they take up guns and chase them out of town.
Its one thing to have the sheriff and the perpetually offended upset at you. Its another when the public at large rises up. I think the left knows this, deep down. I think they understand that this is something bigger and more significant than the pathetic, top-down, carefully crafted and staged "anti-war" rallies in the last decade. And that's why they're trying to destroy the entire movement. Yet the more they stomp and scream and demonize, the more upset people get.
And think about it. The very same people who are shocked and horrified that black congressmen were called nigger 15 times (even though it never happened) actually use the term teabagger to describe Tea Party Rally attendees. That PC multicultural tolerance has always been a rank, deliberate lie on the same lines as Animal Farm's "all animals are equal." Some have always been perfectlya cceptable to attack, hate, deride, offend, and mock. The multiculturalist's claim that all cultures are relatively equal is a deliberate lie: the white European heritage has always been presumed less and more pernicious. People have always been annoyed with and mocked that, but they're getting fed up.
And ultimately that's what's wrong with words like ofay and frog and jigaboo (what on earth is that supposed to mean anyway?). It isn't the sounds, but the ideology behind them, the hate and will to destroy, or at least suppress and tyrannize. The same motivation to oppose and stop those words from being used should stop these people from using teabagger as a slur. The same motivation that tries to keep people from being offended and hurt should fight for liberty for us all because it is the desire to control and oppress that all Americans should oppose.
And think about something else. At Ace of Spades HQ, Ace brought up another knucklehead actor's vapid thoughts on the war on terror, this time Matthew Modine:
That's why the teabagger slur isn't just another racial epithet or slander. Its an attack not just on the people there, but the country and what it stands for, it is a slur against the concept of liberty, the constitution, and the principles of freedom and America that has led for more than 200 years. These "Progressives" don't want to progress, they want their system and slowing of civilization, not achievement and forward motion. These "Liberals" don't want liberty, they want obedience and silence. And in the end, that's something all Americans should oppose and even fear. mean words don't matter, but mean ideas do. Words can't hurt me but the ideology that drives them can.
*Mocky is a really obscure slur for Jew.
(The old, balding barber MARTIN finishes cutting WALT'S hair.)Now, Walt is consistently offensive through the whole movie. Without apology or shame he calls every single person he meets by some ethnic or personal slur. Its so much a part of him he does it every time he talks, just by nature and habit. Many people call Walt a racist. He's not. He treats every single person with the same mannerisms, no matter who they are. He calls his own people Pollacks. I wouldn't recommend that, because it tends to hurt some peoples' feelings but it is a slice of culture that is dying out and was funny to watch. Words cannot hurt someone, but some people will be hurt despite that. If you understand that and live life with that understanding you'll be a lot better off.
BARBER: There, you look like a human being again. You shouldn't wait so long between haircuts, you cheap bastard.
WALT:
I'm just amazed that you're still alive. I keep hoping you'll die and they'll get someone good in here, but you just hang in there, you dumb, Italian-Wop-Dago, you.
BARBER: That'll be ten dollars, Walt.
WALT: Ten dollars? Jesus Christ, Martin, you keep raising the price. You sure you're not part Jew?
(Martin laughs at Walt)
MARTIN: It's been ten bucks for the last five years and you know it, you thick-skulled, old Pollack son of a bitch.
WALT: Here's ten, keep the change.
MARTIN: See you in three weeks, you prick.
WALT: If you live that long, dipshit.
(Walt and Martin shake hands and Walt walks out.)
Yet the teabagger slur is a bit different. This isn't a personal slur or some funny word to use to describe someone. It is an attack on the very concept of what's being promoted in the Tea Parties. The Tea Party its self is a venerable and revered event in not just American history, but world wide for being the first great stab at tyranny and toward true liberty and democracy. It is the Rubicon at which humanity strode away from monarchy and rule by distinct classes of people toward a greater freedom and self-rule. Mocking that name with a particularly offensive sexual slur (primarily associated with homosexuals) is an attack on the very foundation of liberty.
I don't care if you call me names. But if you call other people names, I might get upset, especially if they are my family and friends and neighbors and people who never, ever get up and march in protests unless something really, really upsets them. The Tea Party movement isn't some contrived reaction to the Democratic Party majority, the Democrats have had a majority in US government for most of the lives of everyone alive in the country at present. This is the next step in a long, long line of continual annoyances, frustrations, and embitterments that is finally boiling over. These are people who simply do not get involved in rallies and protests and even politics period beyond voting. When that happens, its like when the townsfolk get so tired of Denton Baxter's men they take up guns and chase them out of town.
Its one thing to have the sheriff and the perpetually offended upset at you. Its another when the public at large rises up. I think the left knows this, deep down. I think they understand that this is something bigger and more significant than the pathetic, top-down, carefully crafted and staged "anti-war" rallies in the last decade. And that's why they're trying to destroy the entire movement. Yet the more they stomp and scream and demonize, the more upset people get.
And think about it. The very same people who are shocked and horrified that black congressmen were called nigger 15 times (even though it never happened) actually use the term teabagger to describe Tea Party Rally attendees. That PC multicultural tolerance has always been a rank, deliberate lie on the same lines as Animal Farm's "all animals are equal." Some have always been perfectlya cceptable to attack, hate, deride, offend, and mock. The multiculturalist's claim that all cultures are relatively equal is a deliberate lie: the white European heritage has always been presumed less and more pernicious. People have always been annoyed with and mocked that, but they're getting fed up.
And ultimately that's what's wrong with words like ofay and frog and jigaboo (what on earth is that supposed to mean anyway?). It isn't the sounds, but the ideology behind them, the hate and will to destroy, or at least suppress and tyrannize. The same motivation to oppose and stop those words from being used should stop these people from using teabagger as a slur. The same motivation that tries to keep people from being offended and hurt should fight for liberty for us all because it is the desire to control and oppress that all Americans should oppose.
And think about something else. At Ace of Spades HQ, Ace brought up another knucklehead actor's vapid thoughts on the war on terror, this time Matthew Modine:
Imagine if somebody were to really sit down with Osama Bin Ladin and say, "Listen man, what is it that you're so angry at me about that you're willing to have people strap bombs to themselves, or get inside of airplanes and fly them into buildings?" That would be the miracle if we can get, sit down and talk to our enemies and have a fine way for them to hear us.Ace asked a simple and obvious question:
Hey, man, why don't you stop butchering people? It's a buzzkill, man.The fact is, this doesn't even occur to them. The left is often so ready to appease everyone on earth but their own countrymen. When Tea Partiers stood up and started yelling "hey, stop spending so much and stop raping the constitution!" the left should have been right there with them, if they were consistent. After all, we heard continuous howling and gnashing of teeth from both left and right about the deficits and debts under President Bush. Now that a Democrat is in office, well who cares, right? He's doing the right thing, so it doesn't matter.
You know, guys like Matthew Modine are so charming and empathetic and stuff that if only they'd had the chance to sit down with Adolf Hitler and have a real good (air quotes) "rap session," why...
I'm quoting that because the liberal media never pauses for a moment to ask the pertinent question, "Why does the American public hate us, and what can we do to appease them?"
That's why the teabagger slur isn't just another racial epithet or slander. Its an attack not just on the people there, but the country and what it stands for, it is a slur against the concept of liberty, the constitution, and the principles of freedom and America that has led for more than 200 years. These "Progressives" don't want to progress, they want their system and slowing of civilization, not achievement and forward motion. These "Liberals" don't want liberty, they want obedience and silence. And in the end, that's something all Americans should oppose and even fear. mean words don't matter, but mean ideas do. Words can't hurt me but the ideology that drives them can.
*Mocky is a really obscure slur for Jew.
posted by Christopher Taylor at 10:42 AM
2 Comments:
You forgot ICEBACK!
Whatever, snowbilly
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