No one knows who first coined the defamatory nickname "Tea Baggers" for a group of people who simply oppose trillion-dollar government bailouts and high taxes. Some falsely credit CNN host Anderson Cooper, who actually was just the first to graphically explain the slur on live national t.v. to the shock of CNN's 11,000 viewers, the equivalent of a small Sarah Palin rally.
Regardless of its origins, "Tea Bagger" took off as the slur of choice for liberals everywhere, despite the fact that it described an oral sex act most Tea Partiers wouldn't have heard of as church-going traditionalists. Indeed, that seemed to be part of its appeal among the elite left.
Some sociologists say this reliance on a sexual slur to defame political opponents may reveal sexual frustration among typical liberals, who report less satisfaction with their sex lives overall than typical conservatives, if you believe recent studies.
"It's actually rather pathetic," said Martha Murtha, a sociologist at the University of California-Berkeley who is believed to be the only living conservative sociologist, and who is currently under 24/7 police protection. "Liberals are supposedly the tolerant ones, but they're using vulgar language to demean and marginalize ordinary Americans with whom they disagree. All I can say is, 'Tea Partiers, we rock!' And to my colleagues in the sociology department who hate my guts? All I can say is: 'Tenure's a bitch, isn't it?'"
A spokesperson for the We Hate Tea Baggers Society failed to respond to requests for interviews, but a blog post at its site, WeHateTeaBaggers.com, referenced an upcoming convention to commemorate the anniversary of the teabagging expression and to strategize with fellow haters. It called for a recommitment to slurring: "Join us as we begin our second year of
This whole "teabagging" thing takes on a whole new significance when you look at it in the context of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. One of Alinsky's rules is that you should always stay within the experience of your people, and go outside the experience of your enemies. This confuses and upsets the enemy.
ReplyDeleteWe are the Left's enemy, and the "teabag" thing is them going outside of our experience, while clinging to their own. As you say, it's a slur that most Tea Partiers would never understand, because we are largely church-going and traditional. But it IS a term the Left understands--you could say it is in their experience, and probably in a way that neither of us likely want to think about! They are using this technique to apply several of Alinsky's rules at once, by leveraging their common experiences to isolate, confuse, and ridicule us.
It's pretty fascinating stuff. I've written a lot about it in my brand new book. Thanks for posting!
Thanks Allie ... I've ordered your book. I can't wait to talk with you. Thank you for checking out my blog. I find your comments fascinating. It sounds like we are two peas in a pod! My goal is to ridicule the Left the way they have ridiculed the Right all these years. Ailinsky was right that ridicule is one of the most powerful weapons out there!!!
ReplyDelete