How's That Whole Teabaggers-and-Obamacare-Opponents-Are-Racists Thing Working Out?
Over at The Weekly Standard, Mary Katharine Ham observes:
Now that voter discontent has appeared in the bluest of blue states, and it's focused on the president's handling of terror, taxes, and health care, it's become much harder to marginalize Tea Party activists and other critics of the administration […]
As of last night, the media have finally started to change their tune on the Tea Party movement. I was shocked to hear Chris Matthews concede that Democrats had not learned to talk to those critical of the administration, to assuage their worries. Perhaps that was partly because their picture of those critics was painted by…Chris Matthews, who called 60-something veterans "terrorists," and compared peaceful protesters to aspiring Timothy McVeighs. Maybe that had something to do with the lack of engagement.
Ham also includes some choice before-and-after quotes from David Gregory. Though apparently Keith Olbermann is still unmoved:
I explored whether Tea Partyers were racist in December, and Reason TV (unlike many of the event's critics) covered the Sept. 12 march on Washington in real time:
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Olbermann is a bit of a dick, huh?
Olbermann is a bit of a dick micro-penis, huh?
FIFY
Ghostbusters
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Ray Stantz: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
Walter Peck: They caused an explosion!
Mayor: Is this true?
Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray - in what may be the greatest deadpan delivery ever): Yes it's true.
[pause] This man has no dick.
Walter Peck: Jeez!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/quotes
Olbermann is absolutely insufferable to the point that I want to hit him in the face.
I seem to have to developed this compulsion to vomit on one's face. It all started with seeing Krugman on This Week, every fucking week. Thus, I would prefer to vomit on dipshit's face.
The German have a word for this, one which I think has come up around here before: "Backpfeifengesicht." Roughly translated, it means "a face begging for a fist."
I think that's been reported in the New York Post.
I'm somewhat surprised that Olbermann still has a job. He has been insulting half of America for years now, but his most recent vitriol must have violated even NBC's craven, lower-than-low standards. Then again, NBC seems to be tone deaf. The parties deserve each other.
We are considering replacing Olbermann with Jay Leno now. Or Vice Versa. Or Ricky Gervais. We won't stop until our ratings hit "30 Rock" bottom.
He was an insufferable prick even when he was at ESPN, and almost everyone there hated his guts.
That's why a few years ago when they celebrated their 25th anniversary, he didn't even get invited back to be a one day guest host.
Massachusetts to Teddy: 'F--k you.'
You're allowed to type fuck.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Hey MSM, you just got teabagged!
Right on!!!
There are two types of people in the world: teabaggers and teabaggees.
Keith Olbermann is a child-diddling, meth-dealing, shit-metal-listening, puppy-murdering, Hugo-Chavez-fellating, Arrested-Development-canceling, mentally-disabled asshat. And if he, or you, don't like that characterization, then my answer to you is simple: disprove it!
Metal listening? Olbermann thinks Third Eye Blind is metal.
That's shit-metal listening. Think Linkin Park or Slipknot.
No, no no. Even shit metal would cause him to poop his pants. I don't wanna know what metal would do.
Nickelback is way too heavy for Olbermann.
And fuck, now I have that Semi-Charmed Life song stuck in my head. Bastard!
And now I screwed up the nested commenting. Double-fuck!
See my link for cure.
Olbermann's just a homophobe - always afraid that people are coming to tea bag him.
What do you mean, harder? It has always been a terrible idea, let alone a hard one to pull out. Most people don't like it when they are compared to Nazis just for daring to disagree with their black president.
"Most people don't like it when they are compared to Nazis just for daring to disagree with their black light-skinned president.
FIFY
It's a bad choice of words, but you have been on the right side of history and issues to deserve my pardon.
It was very nice to see Olbermann and Maddow get their obnoxious smirks wiped from their faces last night.
You like apples?
Keith Olbermann fantasizes about three-ways with a choir boy and Hitler. If you don't like it, disprove it, because he certainly hasn't.
I think this is the greatest rhetorical tool ever invented by man. Not only can I say anything I want about anyone, but now I can make it sound completely credible by shifting the burden of proving a negative to anyone who disagrees! Keith Olbermann is a genius!
I don't think it's the greatest rhetorical tool ever invented by man. But then again, I can't prove it's NOT the greatest rhetorical tool ever invented by man, so I guess you win.
The greatest rhetorical tool ever invented by man is the province of democrats everywhere:
FOR TEH CHILDRENZ!
That bitch Olbermann totally stole my mad rhetorical skillz.
Keith Olbermann when he was a young man.
You are wrong. He likes four ways. You forgot to include the unwilling German Shepherd. The guy is a serial animal abuser.
Just for laughs, I tuned in for the last few minutes of Chris Matthews; nothing of much interest or substance was said. Then ED! came on, weeping and wailing and gnashing his teeth about how STUNNED he was that independents would vote for Brown, who is EXACTLY LIKE DICK CHENEY.
Holy fuck.
Does MSNBC have a maximum IQ limit for their "personalities"?
Lead chips in the breakroom.
Does MSNBC have a maximum IQ limit for their "personalities"?
Yes! Unfortunately it takes all of them together to satisfy that limit!
The new Senator from Mass is hardly a tea party candidate - more a big tent independent leaning Repulican - embraces universaal healthcare on the state level - pro-choice - the tea baggers may have backed him because he was better than Martha and would send a message to Obama -- but sorry - as a libertarian I still get a feel of racism from a lot of tea baggers - and I may agree with them on a lot of stuff but they still come across as hysterical - conspiracy prone and caring way too much about politics
I think part of the problem is that the whole "Tea Party" label has been co-opted by so many groups that you really can't make blatant statements about tea baggers. While I think there are plenty of small-government libertarian types that are (or at least were) part of the movement, there are clearly plenty of back-water rednecks who have embraced the movement as well--hence the racism and conspiracy theories.
To be fair, there's racism and conspiracy theories among small-government libertarian types. There's also racism and conspiracy theories among big-government liberals. You can't have a political movement without some fringe idiots showing up.
The dismissal of all the tea party folks ends up being as silly as dismissing everyone against the war.
And the whole thing about "why didn't they oppose Bush" ignores that Bush and the Republicans did very badly in 2006 and 2008, so obviously some people were opposing them who previously did.
Honestly, losing support over small government from people who sometimes or usually vote Republican sends much more of a wakeup call to the Rs than having even more ferocious Internet criticism from people who "never vote" or "always vote Libertarian anyway." They care about losing (net) winnable votes, not about votes that they can't get without losing the entire center of the electorate.
What do you mean by "a feel of racism from a lot of tea baggers?"
Do they advocate the use of state power to achieve a racial outcome/objective? If not, what the hell are you feeling?
By feel of racism I mean - if Obama was white the tea baggers wouldn't be so riled up - nor would there be accusations he was Muslim and born outside the US.
Of course I don't care if Obama was a Muslim born in Mongolia or a white Christian born in Iowa - his policies suck.
Keep up the good work, spur... Olbermann can't do it all on his own, you know!
Isn't time that we stop getting our panties in a twist about such things. Racism is, first and foremost, about the use of state power to achieve a racial objective, i.e., a government program or policy based on race and support of the same.
Thus, if one supports affirmative action, one is a racist. In contrast, if a white guy finds black women repulsive, that is not racist-as long as the white guy does not advocate the use of state power to ban interracial datig, cohabitation and marriage.
If a group of black folk start a club just for blacks, that is not racist-provided the group of black folk do not advocate the use of state power to prevent interracial groups from starting clubs of their own.
If one is black and one always votes for democrats, that is racism because the vote is being cast, at least in part, because one hopes that by casting his vote for the democrat, that affirmative action will continue along with other policies designed to transfer wealth to blacks based on their skin color.
Those who think, speak and act upon the basis of group think are much more likely to be true racists.
You're all wrong, racism is any view held by a white man. My liberal college professor told me so.
I'm sorry - racism is about more than the use of state power. If I hate white people but don't advocate state intervention against them I'm still racist.
At its very basic/definitional level racism means judging people based on their race - one could be an anarchist/libertarian and be racist - I'd throw a big chunck of the Lew Rockwell libertarian wing in that group - in a similar fashion I've met libertarians who feel being gay pisses god off and stuff but don't think the state should act against the gays -person is still homophobic.
Mind you the use of state power to enforce racism/homophobia is my worst fear about racism/homophobia.
if someone refers to people as teabaggers, are they homophobic?
If you hate ******** people but don't advocate state intervention, you're prejudiced. It's the actions against said people because of that hatred that makes you a racist.
Wrong. The definition of racism is believing certain races are inferior because of their race.
Everything else really is just prejudice. And every human being is prejudiced in various ways.
What if I don't advocate government action, but I do go out and commit private acts of violence against people of another race, or advocate that others do so?
Geez, says you. But the meaning of a word is determined by how all people who speak the language it's in use it and understand it, not by any one contrarian individual. You're free to pretend "racism" depends on state action if you like, but don't be surprised when no one else knows what the fuck you're talking about when you use it that way.
That said, the use of the word *has* become pretty abstract in recent years such that it's pretty hard to pin down exactly what someone DOES mean by it a lot of the time.
I agree that the meaning of any word is subject to change.
However, each individual is free to define and use a word as they see fit. Rest assured, I am not the only person who defines racism as a government policy or program based on race. Its been in the dictionary for decades.
Sure, one will find other definitions in most dictionaries; however, the definition that has been around the longest is as I define it.
I can only speak to the events I've been to and the video coverage I've seen online on sites like Reason and PJTV.
Given that caveat, my experience has been that the tea party movement is unified primarily around the theme of less govt/anti-statism. All of the anti-Obama signs I saw were in this vein (painting him as a statist of some sort: communist/socialist/fascist).
The wingnuts have been on the fringe. When they have reared their heads, they've been roundly criticised by most of the tea party folks. I witnessed this at one event in Southern California where they were asked to leave and also saw some video of similar reactions to the wingnuts elsewhere in the country.
Why should we give you that benefit of the doubt if you won't give it to other people?
There are some such people, sure. (Just as there are people of all races who voted for Obama because of his skin color.) But I remember some people being insanely riled up against Clinton his first two years, with accusations about cocaine running and killing Cabinet members. There's always a crazy fringe in any political movement, but the fringe isn't the whole thing, not then, not with Bush and war opposition, not now.
It's better to type out
concern trolls never slee-eeep (/neilyoung)
Lets say a big government authoritarian like Mikey Huckabee was president - would these tea baggers be out in force with as much vigor as they are against Obama? Would Fox/Glenn Beck be rallying against him? Highly unlikely. If Mike Huckabee was a black Democrat on the other hand...
Oh yes, they just loved Clinton in 1993. No insane articles in the American Spectator at all. Nope, as a good-ole' boy Southerner from Arkansas, he got a pass from them.
Do you really think Huckabee would be pushing as big and intrusive expansion of government power with mandatory health insurance purchases, massive energy cost increases via cap and trade, and all sorts of tax increases all over the place as is the case with Obama.
I't apples and oranges - an invalid comparison.
Other sites referring to the election yesterday have commenters posting about how "The rednecks fucked up the vote for us up here in MA." The idea that people wanting to block health care are rednecks and the people "in their blue bubble of urban sanity" is hilarious.
DAMN!
"The people in their blue bubble of urban sanity" are supposedly enlightened.
Another idea delusion that seems to give the dems Hope? is that the voters simply want the republicrats to cooperate and "get things done".
So the beatings will continue ....
After mocking the Teabaggers for the better part of the year, liberals finally woke up to the fact that it's far worse to be the teabaggee.
You have to give credit where credit is due! After Olbercock's little diatribe (he's like a retarded Dennis Miller wannabe) last night, he is holding tight to all 8 of his viewers. You have to remain loyal to your core audience.
My biggest disappointment is having to see that POS on Sunday Night Football. Watching him cry over at a "the place for politics" isn't a big deal. He's so stinking clever. I wonder if he pays Beck royalties?
At least MSNBC isn't partisan like FoxNews. I was concerned they were until Valerie Jarret cleared that up for me. Thank goodness.
Some people have said, and others have mentioned that Mr. Run On Sentences is an actual gimp who loves the feeling of getting the crap beaten out of hm by other men, while bound and gagged and with an eggplant shoved into his assiduously tempered rectum.
But some may have said that, and some believe it to be true.
"Tea-Partiers", right?
I hope you're not going the way of "Pursuit of Happyness", that formulation always bugged me, although I've never seen the movie. What is that, ebonics for 'happiness'?
Hey Keith! How do my teabags taste now?
what website is linked here today?
Ace of Spades HQ. heh heh.
Chris Matthews admits he's a Marxist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbwfq6-RTbQ
Old Mexican, where were you last night? Were you over at Tony's going over your financials, making sure you "deserve" whatever you have. Or was that Chad that decides what people need? I get them confused.
Also, I am guessing by some of your comments that you are in fact an actual old (whatever old is) Mexican. So, I have a question. Please disregard that I am a white devil and inherently racist. Do you find George Lopez funny? You know, being Mexican; perhaps from a Mexican perspective. I think he's the Mexican Dane Cook. He just isn't fucking funny.
either olberman has really tiny feet or a very huge maw. also, how does he know what people are saying in their sleep? Does he creep around people's homes at night?
We both know these children HAVE NO FUTURE!
(children and teachers stare at him aghast)
Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong.
While still a teenager, Olbermann was tied to a theater chair, drugged, and with his eyelids pinned open, made to watch films of people making uncoerced choices in an extended order of human cooperation.
And now when he sees anything similar, he becomes aware of, like, not feeling all that well...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30.....8#35025138
Olbermann truly apologizes for his babyish name-calling after playing a clip of Jon Stewart ridiculing him.
He just isn't fucking funny.
I just don't see how this can end well.