Elisabeth Kubler-Ross entered social science history and obtained fame when she conclusively identified the five stages of experiencing a slow death. Old new lefty has gone through his own slow death experience lately by attempting to make contact with Teabaggers, and is here to report on the five stages that educated progressives go through in dealing with the 'baggers. For one thing, trying to communicate with them doesn't make you any younger, and manyof the 'baggers are in their golden years, so they're near slow death themselves.
LAUGHTER
Probably your first encounter with the Teabagger is by watching the John Stewart show, or maybe Keith Olbermann is feeling in a good mood that day. When you first see those misspelled signs on the Constitution or those signs saying, "KEEP SOCIALISM AWAY FROM MY MEDICARE" it's a truly WTF moment. I mean, what gives with these people anyway? Are they really that dumb? And the whole movement pretty much looks like a bad soap opera only without the sex.
CURIOSITY
Then you start to wonder. Is weird Uncle Harold a Teabagger? What about that old fart who lives down the street from you who always flies the American flag and has a pickup truck with a gun rack on the back? If you're an enquiring mind, you really want to know. So you screw up your courage and walk down the street to stand on Crazy Phil's lawn to get his view on political things.
BOREDOM
WTF turns into yadda yadda yadda pretty quickly. Chris Matthews says, "Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line," and in any initial questions of the 'bagger there will be some of the regurgitations he's seen on the F*x News. Something Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh said comes back to you as if you'd pulled the string on a Chatty Kathy doll. I don't know who the mastermind is who thinks up all of these zingers -- that everyone then immediately parrots as if it's the unquestionable truth. Maybe it's some pimply faced 20 year old intern chained to a computer. I don't know, but it's very important to get through this stage to the next one.
ANGER
If you continue with probing questions, eventually your blood is going to boil, and it won't be any damn good. One likely reason for anger is him (it usually is) spouting off birther nonsense about forged Kenyan birth certificates. Another source of anger is racism or homophobia. That one always guarantees a rise in your gorge. My anger stage came when I got a bagger to spout off nonsense like this.
"The hell the government is going to make ME pay for health insurance. I'd like to see them try. I want to see federal troops rush in to protect those IRS agents or whoever who's going to try to take me to jail. Ha! My pals in the police force and (fill in the blank on your military service) will get together, and we'll show them what!" This ends with a masturbatory fantasy about the Texas National Guard going all mano a mano with the Guard from the Peoples Republic of California.
Now this stuff isn't dreamed up by some intern in Washington, DC. This comes from our old pals the militia, Ku Klux Klan, White Power movement or whatever. You know -- the finest whitest elements of the USA. It's very important to get through Stage #4, because Stage #5 is the biggie.
CHEWING ON THE BACK OF YOUR HAND
Slowly you begin to realize that there might be a silver lining in all of this stupidity. By going down this road, the Teabaggers are fufilling the same function as the Weather Underground in the late 60s and early 70s. In other words when the revolution gets to the month of Thermidor, the true believers start to eat each other
The Weather Underground helped bring us Ronald Reagan. If the Teabaggers and their ilk kill themselves, this could pave the way for a really great president like Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The Teabaggers hate what they call "the parasite class," and they hate to pay taxes. If they had an independent brain they'd put one plus one together and agitate for a "tax the rich" thing. Then they might do something constructive for a change and have a chance of extending their length of survival.
In the meantime as the front part of your brain kicks in, you think to yourself, "Run, 'baggers, run! Split the GOP, and make both of you guys look like absolute fools. See what the results will be in November when you fail to dislodge even a chunky portion of Democratic Congressmen.
Finally you get to the most important stage of all.
WORRYING ABOUT YOUR HAIR
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
LEV JANASHVILI
Omnipotent Poobah
Donegal Descendant
Emily Holleman
MarianneSp
Reverend Billy Talen
Salon.com
Comments
I'm starting my own movement -- the Chai latte teabaggers. We'll drive Priuses and shop at Whole Foods...
R
I wonder where I track down Teabaggers in Manhattan. It would be fun to walk around on a beautiful spring day and ask everyone if they are Teabaggers. I will have to wear my redstockings.
I pray you are right.
1) Keep highlighting & celebrating our core democratic values to others that have ears to hear, eyes to see, a mind to comprehend, and a heart to receive what is right, good, fair, and just.
2) Continue being a proponent of unity & our greater humanity, through peaceful engagement, meaningful communication, and extending help to others (that draws from the empathy & compassion within me).
3) Don't attempt to argue with a bagger (a.k.a. militia/kkk/etc). They are mere fools that spout rants & ramblings of malicious foolishness.
4) Baggers WILL self-destruct...shooting themselves in the foot, and cutting off their own noses, to spite of their faces. They are purely indicative of psycho-social dysfunctionalism. They will be the first to fall into their self-dug pits. Let them!
(5) Don't debate with a bagger; that only serves to legitimize and justify their deviant-perverted distortions; giving them a platform to articulate their insanity.
6) Keep my hair, my laugh quotient high, and don't let them get under my skin. They're pathetic losers and not worth my time or energy. The Tea baggers are just sad-little-fearful children feeling left out and left behind; looking for attention & wanting others to notice them.
7) Stay focused on the matter at hand; enhancing the quality of life for myself, my family (& my unborn son) and others; through persistent and loving good works.
Thanks Old/New Lefty...as I said...my hat's off to you, Sir!
xoxo
Thanks. I'm with you on this one.
Especially about the hair.
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/
Excellent post, sir.
"The Tea Klux Klan would be funny if they weren't so serious. I honestly don't know whether to laugh at them or fear for my future."
Why would you fear them? Your side has elected a KKK Grand Dragon and left him in the Senate for Decades. If you life up the white sheet, there is a giant "D" on superman's cape.
He says that while of course, not all Tea Party activists are members of right wing extreme hate groups, there are many who are. Also, almost all their rhetoric is borrowed from hate groups. Just because it's cut with the mainstream babble of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannitity doesn't mean the main ingredient has changed or is less insidious. Actually, the Tea Party is like the crack to the KKK's coke.
Anyone who denies this is ignorant, a liar, or wants so desperately to right that they would let themselves be both.
What your fellow citizens you sadly disparage by calling "tea baggers" are telling you is that they can see the trend in this country that you haven't been able to detect yet, and if you don't curtain it now it will pass a point where even you will wish it hadn't gone.
And what point is that? Because usually those who say "tax the rich" usually don't understand that 60% of the taxes in this country are paid by the top 2% of wage-earners. Now how exactly to you square that as being fair? When ever I hear someone say raise taxes I already know that they aren't the group that is paying the taxes.
If the burden were truly felt equally then you would most likely not only complain about it but you would realize just how criminally the government wastes your money.
I guess the government bureaucrat could drive past you in a new fancy car and wave to you as he goes on holiday and he grabs your wallet, but if criminality doesn't bother you that much you might just call out to them "have a nice day!"
Some of us are bothered by criminal behavior more than others.
Catnlion, I can only assume that you're a plutocrat. To quote Warren Buffet, "Why should my secretary have a higher tax rate than I do?"
Once again, these right wing alligators in the sewers mythologies spread like kudzu. Any analysis of the American taxation structure reveals the myriad exemptions, obscure clauses and special treatment that the ultrarich get in their taxes when compared to the little guy, who gets screwed.
When I was #2 guy in a major city business license tax bureau I actually got to look at Standard Oil's 1040. And guess what? You pay more in income taxes than Standard Oil, which has been losing money on its 1040 for a hundred years.
Maybe catnlion can donate some of his gelt to a worthy cause like the old new lefty Foundation.
I admire your decorum. Me, I cuss like a sailor.
It reminds me of the beginning of the old anti-war days when local reporters would show up with microphones and made more of the events than they actually were. It stirred up all the cowboys and cowgirls who wanted to get their picture in the paper, then of course, when push came to shove they "got in their VW bus with the "make love, not war" bumper sticker and were never seen again." (Tom Brokaw said that.)
But your post is funny.
Rock on lefty. R.
As for the source of this crap, this is the province of "masterminds" like Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and Terry Eskew, and their venomous spawn. I believe they refer to it as "framing the debate" -- that would be "framing" not in any constructive sense, but in the sense of getting someone convicted of a crime they didn't commit.
In this case, anyone who believes that members of a society have an obligation to each other is automatically framed and convicted of being a "communist" -- you know just like that long-haired hippie guy in sandals, who 2,000 years ago said "Even as you have done to the least of these, so also have you done unto me."
"don't understand that 60% of the taxes in this country are paid by the top 2% of wage-earners."
Oh, we understand all too well, they're asked to pay most because they profit most from the system -- but it is a statistical fact tehy don't pay their fair share, given how well the profit from that system. I remind you that during the glorious Fifties of which Consumatives are so fond -- the days that Raygun wanted to return us to -- the top tax bracket was 92% and the wealthy had an average tax burden around 50%.
Now the rich pay around 15%, and that promised Morning in America that was supposed to be the result of "supply-side" "increase revenues by lowering taxes" canard has become a living nightmare for the poor and middle class, while the top 1/2 of 1% are living high on the hog. During the last decade productivity rose nearly 80%, while real wages remained static -- where do you think that money went? I seem to recall some of it went for $6,ooo shower curtains and million-dollar birthday bashes -- now that's "investing"!
Those who don't like to pay taxes are perfectly free to earn (a misnomer in its own right since most of them produce nothing) a lot less -- which will substantially reduce not only their taxes, but their wasteful lifestyle. Or using Reaganomic logic, they can go on welfare, and they won't have to pay any.
I go out of my way to talk to the Teabaggers - but even more so to the ignorant rabble who parrot the Faux News talking points. We have to face them down, speak in small words and be ready to counter all the lies that have been put into their vacuous little heads. But it aint easy and it aint fun. You really have to try hard not to use words like "vacuous."
The fact is, the rich in this country are the biggest welfare chislers of all. The things I've described above are legal tax dodges. But no!!!! Lots of richies have to try to go for illegal tax dodges like money laundering, phony foundations (Sean Hannity), and "non profit" one man insurance companies.
And of course, under W the IRS was pulled away from auditing and examining these tax dodges that could have brought billions and billions of dollars into the federal treasury, instead focusing on lower income people to gouge them with minimum tax payment audits.
I met Elisabeth Kubler-R0ss, by the way, more than 10 years ago, in her home in Scottdale, Arizona. (She died in 2004.) She spells her first name with an "s." And she designated five stages.
Just sayin'.
I appreciate your response but I must say I find it very confusing.
You say: "Now the rich pay around 15%." If you take the time to look at the IRS's own statistics, you'll see that's not true. This blogger has quoted those stats from 2006 (reading them on the IRS site can cause eye-strain) and helps put them in perspective:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/24425.html
The only income bracket paying close to your 15% would be people making between $75,000 -- $100,000. Anyone above that pays more like 27%, and people below that average around 10%.
As he says: "In 2006, there were roughly 4 million taxpayers with incomes above $200,000—the target group for Obama's higher taxes. These taxpayers account for 39 percent of total AGI [adjusted gross income] among actual taxpayers but pay 53 percent of all income taxes. "
May I remind you this is from the IRS's own stats.
When you say "the top 1/2 of 1% are living high on the hog ... $6,ooo shower curtains and million-dollar birthday bashes." I assume you are talking about rich liberals like Oprah or other Hollywood personalities. Fine. Let's tax them more. But if you look at the stats, even if you take them at %100 (including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett) it still won't accomplish anything, because most of the taxes are paid by those "rich" making over $200,000.
You might like to hate Oprah for her mansion, but someone making over $200,000 -- if they are able to keep more of their money that really will result in "investing" and money being spent much wiser than if the government were to spend it.
The myth that the rich aren't paying their fair share is a useful myth for democrats to propagate, because it helps them sell their social programs to their constituency -- which is mostly people who pay little if anything in taxes, unless their the super rich Hollywood liberals who want you to believe they are kind-hearted.
If you're a salaryman and you make $250,000 a year you pay more taxes than anyone. But then you make more in salary than anyone, and how many of you guys know people whose average annual is that much? Presidents of the United States and US Senators is the only class I know of that uniformly gets that salary.
So retalbo wants to decrease the taxation level on the people he dislikes the most. He must be very saintly. Now someone living off of royalties, debentures, dividends and what not has the wherewithall to hire a lot of accountants and lawyers to make their "income" disappear into a variety of trusts and corporations (sometimes shell corporations!) that puts them in the same tax bracket as Exxon, which is ZERO! And they're also huge landowners, which means they've passed through a bunch of property tax loopholes in their states to insure that granny living in her one bedroom family home pays through the nose.
Retalbo still hasn't owned up to his plutocracy, and unless he's stinkin' rich he's fallen into the same trap as the poor 'baggers who are doing the work of the rich guys like Rupert Murdoch and the Kochs, whom we always know only have the interests of the poor at heart.
Read Thomas Frank's book, What's the Matter with Kansas?
You're math is off. I'm sure you'll understand if I place more faith in billionaire Warren Buffet's opinion than in yours. Here's his:
"The taxation system has tilted toward the rich and away from the middle class in the last 10 years," Buffett, the nation's third richest man, told Brokaw. Buffett said he did an informal survey of federal taxes paid by his own office staff, and the average was 32.9%, compared to his 17.7%.
"There wasn't anybody in the office, from the receptionists on, that paid as low a tax rate," Buffett stated, noting that "I have no tax planning, I don't have an accountant, I don't have tax shelters."
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/NBC_Warren_Buffett_wants_more_taxes_1030.html
you'll forgive me if I find two things amusing from your response. First, saying my math is off when I'm going by the IRS's own statistics, and that you would use Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world (an anomaly), as a meaningful example when talking about the tax burden unfairly borne by wage earners making more than $200,000.
I already said if it makes you feel better to give IRS agents the authority to raid the houses of Warren Buffet and Oprah, take their jeweled shower curtains as well as empty their bank accounts, go ahead. The government will spend whatever they get in a day. But if you makes you feel better I guess it's worth it. (By the way, if you really want to feel better, go back in time and invest some money with Buffett and see how much his frugal philosophy not only pays off for him but for a lot of other people as well).
This post (and others) here at OS don't "get" the tea party movement. The reason is simple if you want to actually listen to what they are saying. They are fed up with paying more than their fair share of the taxes, including all the "hidden" taxes (fees that are really another tax) of which the new health care law is an example.
I'm pretty sure Buffett's own staff is in the "over $200,000" group, so your post is making my point. They are paying too much. Our priority should be to lower their tax burden and spread it more equitably.
I start work tomorrow with the ACLJ (No, not the ACLU) Look us up.
Do I agree with their position on abortion? Drug regulation? Corporate Oversight? Banking Oversight? Gay Marriage?
No
But I find it’s time to make common cause against the wave of HATRED that is being whipped up against the grassroots citizens who honestly ( and I am becoming more convinced, justly) fear the federal governments bid for control of their lives.( Just as I did when G. W, Bush was in office)
We could debate “whether they /I justly fear the government”, the point is that no one DOES debate. Both sides are shouting “Shut UP!” as loud as they can and wondering why it isn’t any quieter. Based on the level of debate here, I made a choice. Job well done, guys.
And lest anyone believe that all the violence and threats are being done by “Teabaggers”Here are some videos from Breitbart.com:
http://biggovernment.com/amarcus/2010/03/30/video-the-egg-man-of-seachlight-nevada/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7IHaHJamE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT-SSpEHLus&feature=player_embedded
http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2010/03/30/i-am-the-walrus-jesse-walker-ibew-local-357-in-las-vegas-is-the-eggman/
That darn Andrew Breitbart! Harassing those reasonable and non-violent protesters while they exercise their “Right” to throw eggs at the Tea Party Express busses!
What this Country needs in the wake of the acrimony of the Health Care Bill is a President who is Big Enough and Wise enough to follow the words of “His Idol” Abraham Lincoln and address everyone
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds”
while we undergo at least a few weeks of healing.
What we have is a President who is RIGHT NOW engaging in angrily inciting one half of America to destroy the other. This is our HOPE? This is our CHANGE? The problem with “State” ists” of any stripe is that ANY individuals are insignificant. In the quest for the “well regulated society” the death of millions of innocent individuals is not a tragedy, it’s just the means to the end. As individuals, we all need to fear such disdain for the peace and safety of our Nation. Let’s all stop shouting before we start shooting
I will be happy to debate you all summer long here, but I have to tell you, there you go again! Just what remark did President Obama make saying that one half of the country should destroy the other half? If these are his exact words, there would be 100 point headlines in all the papers for days, and that's all you'd hear on all the TV news for a week.
As close as I can figure, your paranoid projections came from advice that President Obama gave to an Ohio congressman who was worried about his electoral chances in November. This was done in a private meeting with D congressmen, and transmitted to the press by Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Portland, OR. This is what Blumenauer said what the president said:
"Does anyone think the teabag, anti-government crowd are going to support them (Ds) if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit Democratic voters, and it will energize the extremists."
Just what in that statement says that the president is somehow encouraging civil war?
You people are great in not being able to actually listen to what other people have to say. And you take what people say, and then you twist it into something unrecognizable that conforms to your own narrow mindset. And you certainly have a very unhealthy obsession about the possibility that someone, somewhere might be fomenting violence.
The fact that the ATF and FBI raided the Hutaree compounds is no accident. These people do not represent the totality of Teabaggers, but they take the Teabagger philosophy to extremes. And just as the Weather Underground didn't represent the philosophy of the civil rights or antiwar movement, they decided that they didn't have to pay any attention to the laws of the land. So they are all looking forward to serious jail time.
Your threats about violence are what the schoolyard bully says, and if your crazy pals in the militia do act out, they'll get what's coming to them.
Can you tell me what advantage you get by talking like this, other than making you look like crazy assholes?
done trying to talk to you until you can do a little listening- probably not in my lifetime
if I thought you had read my remarks with any care I might consider responding to you, but I actually have no idea who or what you are talking about.
Don't "read into" what someone says. Take their comments for what they are and on good faith.
This is an example of what happens when you try to establish a dialogue with Teabaggers. Retablo has strong opinions about how taxes are bad, but he doesn't have a clue about the special privileges that the ultrarich have over 99% of all Americans. Instead he seems to be concerned about how much people are taxed who make more than $200,000 a year. He will only go so far, stuck on his 100% anti-tax stand without reference to oil depletion allowances or phony foundations.
Similarly, Token says that people better pay attention to what the 'baggers are talking about, or else there's going to be violence. He has the agenda of wanting to talk about the ACLJ, which is kind of like the anti-ACLU in its pursuit of breaking down the wall between church and state in the USA.
And when you challenge any beliefs even just a teeny bit, they say that there's no use talking to you because they have a stranglehold on the truth.
I'm happy talking to people who are willing to establish a dialogue on issues, even if it comes to the point of agreeing not to agree with each other. But it doesn't appear that we can even get that.
Such appears to be the nature of the 'bagger.
Don't you just love the sound of "Teabagger"?
All contemptuous and hateful "Like a Georgia Cracker with a mouthful of N*****" (OOOOOhhh now get upset that i would DARE compare the terms- and how you use them ) I recognize you Lefty, you're one of the pompous egotistical authoritarian assholes who destroyed the PEACE movement back in the '60s by forming the SDS. We started out on the same side back then, your kind opted for Power rather than Peace So PEACE on you brother. You couldn't possibly more contemptuous of me than I am of you.
"I find it’s time to make common cause against the wave of HATRED that is being whipped up against the grassroots citizens who honestly ( and I am becoming more convinced, justly) fear the federal governments bid for control of their lives.( Just as I did when G. W, Bush was in office)"
Really Token? Seriously? Anything negative being said about the Tea Party movement is generated by their what they themselves say and stand for. It's disingenuous at best to say that hatred is being "whipped up" against them, and I'd have expected more intelligent commentary on the topic from you. What are people supposed to think about a movement which any objective observer can see is based largely on fear, hate, and ignorance, and which has made its name by shouting down pe0ple who don't agree with them, and by carrying signs saying things like "We Came Unarmed - This Time" and by spitting on c0ngressmen and calling them "niggers" and "faggots." If those are the people you identify with, I feel sorry for you.
Would have to be the transgender spawn of Rove and Goebbels, now wouldn't it???
I posted in my Facebook page!
Besides Token likes Phil Ochs and once gave all the money he had to a poor lady in the parking lot. I know I could talk to him.
“A point of clarification is needed here. I never once heard you say any racial or homophobic epithets. When I went to a health care town hall meeting in Springfield, OR this August I made contact with teabaggers who were both racist and birther. Oregon can actually be a pretty racist state I admit, but the Tea Bag Movement has at least a noticeable minority of people in it who fit into the birther, racist, and homophobic slots. And in watching F"x News in Eugene, I saw members of the Tea Party collecting tea bags, so the term teabaggers is a natural, whether it came from the media or whatever.”
Reply
Thanks for the comments. One of the wonderful things about the Tea Party movement is that it is a true “Grassroots” movement and has many small “organizations” forming one big movement. E pluribus Unum. No central rule making body. I can only claim to represent the Tea Party movement in the same way The Unorganized Militia represents the US Military. I’ll dust off my rifle and come if you call me, but I haven’t been able to take the time to participate so far. I let my brother the Frat boy and his friends go to the actual demonstrations. ( and supply me with Tea Party” people to interact with and observe.) My brother and his friends use the term “Teabagger” among themselves in an ironic and sarcastic way that keeps them reminded of what their opponents think of them.. ( Frat boys are aware of the practice from hazing, and none of the ones I know would ever admit to having experienced it, either as aggressor or victim; any who “enjoyed” either role in the game, do best to keep it to themselves.) ( Frat boys and hazing, jeez- for my brother and his friends that was a long time ago- don’t know if Frats still do that.) I always ask him how his “teabagging” is going because I know it “Fires him up”
Personally, I speak with authority as a “Teabagger” cause that’s the label Old New Lefty and others hung on me when I expressed my political views. Like I said, if a 5 year old calls you a Doody –Head, who cares? If it makes it easier for him to talk to you, to think of you like that, great. Most of what I do on OS is set out Turing Tests, hoping to be able to distinguish the real people from the Liberal BORG. ( My Theory is that most “Liberals” are actually very kind and compassionate, artistic and intelligent people who don’t realize that the government has been taken over by the evil BORG and the “Mad Scientists” (Lawyers) who created it. ) This particular “Turing Test” has so far netted me three delightful humans and one suspected organ of the BORG.
It’s never bothered me what people think, I take the Davey Crockett advice to “Know you’re right, then go ahead.” I suspect that is true of most of the Tea Party People. But the time has come to point out the Anger, Hatred, Condescension, and Ridicule of some “Lefty’s” use of the Term “Teabagger”.
Most liberals use the term unknowingly, much as my relatives and others in the area I grew up used the terms “N******”, Negro, colored, ”D*rky”, which are all simply descriptive of “Black”. Even the ( African American? Black? ) in the area referred to themselves as “Colored” with no more nor less pride than we thought of ourselves as “White”.
But, just like “A Georgia Cracker with a mouthful of N*****”, the “Lefty’s” on OS in particularly, and the “Lefty Media” in general, have tuned the word “Teabagger” into “HATE SPEECH” and it is time to call them out and denounce their cowardly sniggering insults for what THEY mean “TEABAGGER” to mean.
@Old New Lefty
The definition of “Prejudice” ( Pre Judgment) is Labeling people so that you can tell yourself you understand them without having to actually listen to them. “Birther, racist, and homophobic slots” pretty much shows me the labels you have all printed up and pre-glued to slap on people who disagree with you.
“And in watching F"x News in Eugene, I saw members of the Tea Party collecting tea bags, so the term teabaggers is a natural, whether it came from the media or whatever.”
And N***** being Tran scripted from “Niger”, L:black and Akin to Negro Sp:black is also a “natural “ descriptive term. But the meaning of a word is never its “denotation” , it is always one of its “connotations”
I remember early on watching the “coining” of the term “Teabagger” by (”Matt Lauer(?-) some liberal MSNBC talking head rumored to be gay- I don’t bother to keep track of them.) and the utter delight he got out of what a smart ass he was being.. Doesn’t matter what Tea Party People thought of the term to start with, most of them weren’t aware of the double entendre. What matters is what the “Lefty’s” MADE it mean. I lived in a commune in a the black ghetto in Cincinnati in the early 70’s, and on a few occasions I had black kids seek to ingratiate themselves with me by referring to themselves as Little N*****. I told them never to do that, not because the word was bad, (they did call each other that in familiarity). But anybody who was PLEASED to hear him refer to himself that way was someone you want to avoid.
The Gauntlet’s thrown down . You PC people made the rules. “Teabagger” is officially “Hate Speech” It doesn’t matter what you say it means. It matters what it means to those to whom you apply it. If you use the term from now on, “Smilin” when you say it won’t let you off the hook for the Hatred, Fear, and Ignorance in your heart.
It's definitely a problem.
Seriously, I love how you put this together. Thanks :)