Wingnut Infestation Source Identified
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Whenever I notice a rise in the dumber than usual conservative comments I always know that some wingnut blog has linked. In today’s case its Townhall.com, the former Heritage Foundation site that was spun off and sold to conservative radio in order to counter DailyKos and the like. Like Redstate and the others, they’ve failed at that.
If someone could just develop something like wingnut-away, but that would be too easy. Conservatives get really upset when you point out that the foundation of their movement is based on racism, and that the largest domestic terror attack came from the right side of the aisle. The extreme right, no doubt, but on the right – you could xerox some of the rhetoric now mainstream on the right and it would sound identical to the stuff McVeigh was pushing about revolution.
These facts are often inconvenient, but as Al Gore showed us, they must be noted for the record.
UPDATE: And for those of you who think I’m reaching (read: making cons uncomfortable) look at this comment on that blog post:
I have spoken to special force Marines and soldiers (active and vets.) and they told me an American Revolution is comming it is (carved in stone).They did not go overseas to fight for freedom,risk their lives,come home without limbs and watch their brothers get blown up to come home to a socialist-communist country,and they would not shoot Americans even if they were ordered to.They would fight to take there country back.
Now, its pretty likely that the marines and soldiers in this guy’s mind are as real as the tooth fairy, but the mindset is out there. A lot of people have lost their minds as a side effect of having a Democratic president, let alone a black one.
As a side note, I know that I’m on the lower tier of liberal bloggers, and that doesn’t bother me because I know I’m true to myself, but one of the things liberals have got to learn about the right is that you have to give as good as they give. You don’t play defense – you go on offense. When you’re ahead you don’t kneel on the ball, you run up the score, you still go after their quarterback, you send them off the field not with their dignity still intact but with their spirits crushed.
If you’re not going to play for keeps, don’t even bother to play. This is why so many of the conservative bloggers hate my guts, and I love ‘em for it.
43 Responses to “Wingnut Infestation Source Identified”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
One nit to pick. I don’t think McVeigh can any longer be considered to be on the extreme right. In the last, oh say 9 months, his views have become mainstream GOP talking points.
“…take their country back”
This is a common phrase uttered among the wingnuts lately. They equate losing an election in a free society to a military coup, like something was wrongly and unjustly taken from them without their consent or knowledge. It’s always nice to know how their low-watt, talk radio infected brains think. It really is quite revealing into their small stupid minds.
If I read that quote blind, and had to guess the source I’d have gone for Glenn Beck.
I consider your attitude to be in the top tier of lefty bloggers.
I have had to tone things down a bit; I used to post on political message boards but the death threats by phone were making my wife a bit nervous. (Yeah, they got my phone number, what a dumbshit I was when I started this in 2000).
Well, someone Tweeted a link to this story and I thank them for it. I’ll be back.
Kicking ass & taking names in solidarity (but with gentle love),
Wexler
I wouldn’t put you far down on the liberal blogging totem pole, Oliver… just sayin’…
As for the soldiers… far more of them come home without enough benefits to deal with the mental ravages facing a war can bring. PSTD was not diagnosed during W’s tenure as CIC, because the military leaned on doctors NOT to make that diagnosis.
With medical technology growing leaps and bounds far more soldiers return with a far more difficult quality of life. I wonder how they feel about all this ideological revolution talk.
I have spoken to special force Marines and soldiers (active and vets.) and they told me an American Revolution is comming it is (carved in stone).They did not go overseas to fight for freedom,risk their lives,come home without limbs and watch their brothers get blown up to come home to a socialist-communist country,and they would not shoot Americans even if they were ordered to.They would fight to take there country back.
Take their country back from whom? Obama is ramping up things in Afghanistan. Socialist-communist? What do they call the VA health system? And it sounds to me like he’s accusing those that serve in the military of racism. Nice going wingnut!!
Good lord, did you read all of the comments under the original post? I just wonder if the writers/contributors to Town Hall and other righty blogs ever just sit & read the comments and think, “gibberish, pure gibberish.” I am a firm supporter of the public school system, but if those comments are representative of the critical-thinking skills that are being supposedly taught, then a great revamping is in order. Or maybe “none a them grateeated 6th grade.” Why must the wingers always sound so illiterate and illogical? Don’t they care how they sound in print? Never mind, they’re proud of not having any book-larnin’
Oliver, by my count you’ve got three full-time wing-nut trolls on your forums, one of whom rises daily at 4 AM commence with plastering GOP talking points up and down your pages. (It’s cute how he claims he’s an “Independent.”)
This is proof-positive that you’re doing something right. And your recent calls for Obama to get back on track and play offense are spot on.
“If you’re not going to play for keeps, don’t even bother to play. This is why so many of the conservative bloggers hate my guts, and I love ‘em for it.”
Cheers brother!
Ahhh Jesus. This is the last site that needs more trolls.
I agree. When we fight we need to start playing by their rules which means no rules. The sooner people on the left understand that the sooner we start winning public opinion. I am not into moral victories, I like the real thing too much. Keep doing what you do O Dub and we will keep supporting it.
I like this place fine. I must say, though, folks get really unwound in these parts. I suppose I can get used to that. Heh.
[...] Oliver Willis: one of the things liberals have got to learn about the right is that you have to give as good as they give. You don’t play defense – you go on offense. When you’re ahead you don’t kneel on the ball, you run up the score, you still go after their quarterback, you send them off the field not with their dignity still intact but with their spirits crushed. [...]
believe it or not, the main reason I come to this site to see what type of batshit crazy myopic hypocritical nonsense OW’s resident neocons decide to manufacture each day.
“foundation of their movement is based on racism”
Wow, you don’t even know what you don’t even know. That is so funny. Obama’s problem isn’t that he is black or half black, it’s that he is trying to shift the country much farther left than it wants to go. Sure 1/3 of the electorate is reflexively anti Democrat, same as roughly 1/3 is anti Republican but the middle swings both ways.
It’s the middle that elected Obama and it will be the middle who decides his future. Most people aren’t political junkies like all of us here. But people can count and divide and do basic math. They are worried about the vast amount of money Obama has budgeted to spend, they are worried that their doctor may end up working for the DMV and that decisions about their health will be made by federal employees.
Obama promised transparency and delivered huge spending bills that were voted on before they were read. You guys can rationalize all you want but normal people are beginning to notice that Obama in power is not the same as Obama trying to be elected. Anything might happen politically in the near future but to cast the conservative movement as based on racism may make you feel better as a victim but it won’t help much to try to understand the nation. In case you guys haven’t noticed the real world doesn’t really fit the popular liberal narrative.
“decisions about their health will be made by federal employees”
That’s not what his plan does. And as of now, lawyers and accountants are the ones who have ultimate life-and-death decision-making abilities. Americans of all stripes don’t like this state of affairs.
“half black”
Unconscious bigotry at its finest.
“Anything might happen politically in the near future but to cast the conservative movement as based on racism may make you feel better as a victim but it won’t help much to try to understand the nation.”
Not all Republicans are bigots, but all bigots are Republicans.
Jaim,
None is so blind as he who will not see.
Nobody knows what may be in the bill because it has not been finalized. I said people are worried that federal employees will make those decisions. They are worried. Obama has not kept his promise to make things transparent so people worry about what might be stuck in a bill. People are worried because of published statements by Zeke about rationing. They are worried because of published statements by Obama that bring up the spectre of rationing. They are worried because rationing is a fact in some european countries.
Your comments about lawyers and accountants belie that you don’t actually know much about what happens when people go to the hospital.
Half black is unconcious racism? LOL care to explain that one, never mind, victim mentality is a byproduct of your world view.
“but all bigots are Republicans.”
If you were trustworthy I’d gladly wager your yearly wages on the validity of that statement. Didn’t you take any classes that might have shown you why you would lose that bet? That may be the single most ignorant thing you have ever posted. Please oh pretty please put your money up, if I could find enough gullible fools to actually wager on your flawed premise I’d retire an extremely wealthy man.
Maybe AO believes we should have stayed the Dubya course instead?
Well said, Amused Observer, I would like to comment on the race issue that seems to underlay this site. First it is the first Rule of the Obamanation, that if someone disagrees you call them racists, and at this time I would like to congratulate, all of the Obamatons in the ether for executing his orders so blindly, you are truly followers of a great man. But, as to calling Republicans racists, perhaps the history books in the public schools are flawed, but you should have learned certain facts along your travels in life, so let me refresh them for you. 1. Lincoln – freed the slaves. (Republican) 2. Martin Luther King – Supported Voting Rights (Republican) 3. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (80 percent republican support) and only 63 percent support by Democrats and they controlled both houses, oddly enough it was al gore’s father who tried to stop the legislation. Now a Pop quiz, how many democrats where lynched between 1882 and 1968? 0. Ok it’s a trick question and that is because all 4,743 people lynched in the United States in that time where in fact Republicans, or killed for trying to register as a Republican, and the Race break down roughly 75% where Black and 25% where white. Oh and who was doing the lynching, Democrats, they did not want to see Republicans in the south, or concede voting rights to the Blacks. Oh, and I do not recall a member of the KKK serving in congress, or the White House, the same cannot be said, even today of the Democrat Party.
Every time I read on a blog about racist Republicans it makes me weep for the poor education system that has lead the uneducated down the path to total ignorance.
I can defend Republican Ideals, and name calling rarely becomes part of the discussion with enlightened individuals.
So Sayeth the Impaler!
“I said people are worried that federal employees will make those decisions.”
And yet the wing-nut misinformation plan has been all about scaring people, many of whom are already on government plans such as Medicare, Medicaid, or the VA system.
This was never about having an honest debate about the facts, this was about you and your pea-brained hooligan friends trying to derail any positive attempt by Obama to improve the health-care system.
Some of you want him to fail because he’s black, some of you want him to fail because your are petty and simple-minded. Take your pick. Half of you are bigots, half of you are assholes. Many of you are both.
“They are worried because rationing is a fact in some european countries.”
Rationing is a fact already in America. If you can’t afford health insurance, you don’t get health care. France, England, Germany, and other wealthy European countries have a better system than America. Hell, Korea has a better system, and while it’s a first-world nation, it isn’t nearly as wealthy as the US.
“Half black is unconcious racism? LOL care to explain that one, never mind, victim mentality is a byproduct of your world view.”
Very much so. It goes back to 18th and 19th century attitudes as to how one is “tainted” by black blood (octaroons, for example). And it’s really not surprising, coming from a bigot like yourself.
“but all bigots are Republicans.”
Please show me an Obama supporter who attacked McCain for his whiteness. Or who wanted to assasinate him because he was white, for that matter.
Jaim, wow quite an enlightened response. “Half of you are bigots, half of you are assholes. Many of you are both.” Now I need help here on the math, if 50 percent are aholes, and 50 percent are Bigots, then the math works, but if many are both, then who are the percentage not accounted for? this is a tough one, you must be a mathematician, perhaps Harvard?
One other point that bothers me, (I was never very good at math) and that is “Half black is unconscious* racism” so if AO said, “Obama is half white” wouldn’t you find this racist as well? My point to this is Jaim is before you go throwing the word Bigot around, you need to be able to view things from both sides, failure to do this may end up in making you the bigot. Just a suggestion from one human to another.
So sayeth the Impaler!
*denotes spelling correction
“In case you guys haven’t noticed the real world doesn’t really fit the popular liberal narrative.”
It will soon.
Oliver: you are not on any “second” tier of progressive dem bloggers. I read about 300 blogs daily, and you are right up there among the best. as a vet, I can assure you that most enlisted turn dem upon leaving the service ( the bullshit factor ). if the nutjobs on the right want to start something… we are more than capable of answering them.
other than being a redskins fan, I believe that you are a fellow truth seeker and smart guy ( go Pack ).
keep up your excellent work on behalf of those of us who believe in education and the truth… we need you.
Second badgervan and the others. OW is usually my first stop in the morning on my political blogger run.
We need to keep fighting against the status quoists like Town Hall who constantly don the kneepads for the vested interests. John Aravosis said yesterday his health insurance premiums are going up 25 percent a year. All the right has is to scream “socialism!”
When I see the regional breakdown of the polls, Obama’s numbers are low only in the American South, and, really, as a native Southerner, that’s the last place to serve as a standard for what the country does or doesn’t want.
My idiot neighbors think that just because they and their stupid gossip is against Obama, that suddenly they’re “the country”.
Well, Dixie don’t lead U.S. politics no more, Democrats can win without the idiot Southern stone around their necks, and saner states like Virginia and North Carolina peel away. If Republicans work harder and harder at getting Latinos to hate them, maybe they’ll lose more of the Southwest, too.
“…take their country back”: This is a common phrase uttered among
the wingnutsHoward Dean.If that phrase is so odius, you guys sure weren’t very critical of him using it as the slugline for his campaign.
Because, SaveFarris, no one has reason to suspect that Dean was saying “take the country back from this black guy who was born in Kenya,” but that’s exactly what many of the birthers, birchers and deathers mean when they say it.
Because, SaveFarris, no one has reason to suspect that Dean was saying “take the country back from this black guy who was born in Kenya,” but that’s exactly what many of the birthers, birchers and deathers mean when they say it.
I see. So you’re saying that the whole “take back the country” language would NOT be uttered if the same policies were being enacted by a white guy?
Give me a break. I realize you guys are going to try and tie EVERY SINGLE CRITICISM of Obama back to racism, but you’re going to look like asses doing so.
Of course, I’m already seeing the rumblings that the Van Jones nonsense came about only because he was black and not because he was a LEFT WING FREAK who is a 9/11 truther.
Wilbur, it would have saved everyone the time and effort if you’d have just typed IOKIYAD.
“IOKIYAD”
If the “O” stands for “Obvious there’s a difference between saying ‘take back the country’ in the context of an ongoing election campaign and yelling it at rallies among the unhinged and confused and possibly disturbed”, I totally agree.
Impaler,
All of the Republicans that voted for the Civil Rights Act would either be called RINOs today and primaried by the Club for Growth or would simply be Democrats. All of the Democrats who voted against the CRA either later became Republicans (Hi, Strom!) or would be Repblicans if they were in office today.
In addition, yes, from about 1861-1877, the Republican party was the “progressive party” in this nation. But, then they sold out fully to Big Business and then in the 1960′s, sold out to the Segregationists to win the South.
Jesse, your larger point is true. But the Republicans were only the progressive party from 1860-1876, when they agreed to a withdrawal of all federal troops from the South in exchange for an essentially-tied presidential election being awarded to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. They didn’t do jack on civil rights after that.
From the end of the Grant administration until at least the Roosevelt administration, neither party could plausibly call itself the champion of civil rights. Things begin to move forward in the late 1940s: Truman integrates the military, a Republican Chief Justice signs an opinion for the plaintiff in Brown v Topeka, and a Republican president sends federal troops into Little Rock to enforce that judgment. Only in 1964, when party bellwether Barry Goldwater aligns with the apartheid states of the South, do the lines in the civil rights battle clearly appear.
actually, that’s exactly what you were saying. More coffee needed.
After all the Republican Party did to bring equal rights to the South, what do African=Americans do? – vote for Democrats. How ungrateful. On the other hand, when all those former segregationsits like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms realized the folly of their ways, they embraced the Republican Party for it’s enlightened views on civil rights and worked tirelessly to make sure blacks would never be disenfranchised again. Clearly it is the Repbublican party that elevates peopel to positions of influence based on the content of their character – Just ask, GWB, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michael Steele, Joe the Plumber or Newt Gingrich – I’m sure they would all agree.
The way I see it, if someone wants my respect for their opinion they should HAVE A RESPECTABLE OPINION.
Maybe self-impaler unconsciously longs for the good ole days?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/1896_Electoral_Map.png
Doesn’t everybody debate today’s issues using what was relevant back in Lincoln’s time?
At least Jay here tries to keep his theoretical conservative masses separate from today’s wingnut mob.
Wilbur, it would have saved everyone the time and effort if you’d have just typed IOKIYAD.
No, if there were a huge number of racists and birthers in the democratic party, then Dean’s use of the term would be just as disturbing, but there isn’t, so it isn’t.
So you’re saying that the whole “take back the country” language would NOT be uttered if the same policies were being enacted by a white guy?
It may well be uttered, but would have a different contextual connotation. I would add that if it were a white guy who has been accused of the crime of foreign birth by a large percentage of the utterers then yes, there would disturbing connotations that are not present in Dean’s utterance.
I realize y’all’s ability to process language may not extend to unfulfilled conditional sentences but trust me.
I realize you guys are going to try and tie EVERY SINGLE CRITICISM of Obama back to racism,
Not every criticism of Obama is racist, but every racist criticsm of Obama is racist.
Not every right winger is a racist, but there are an embarrassing number of racists among the right wingers.
This is news to me, and I’m sure it’s news to the millions of Soldiers who see the headlines about various physical and mental health surveys they’re required to take. I’ve also spent the better part of the past 8 years having to make sure my Soldiers complied with the required post-mobilization screenings which specifically ask about PTSD and the warning signs for PTSD.
Seriously, if you’re going to try and slander military personnel, do so with talking points from a conflict before the Gulf War.
It may well be uttered, but would have a different contextual connotation.
Oh please. That’s so utterly stupid it defies comprehension.
Not every criticism of Obama is racist, but every racist criticsm of Obama is racist.
Except the left is accusing just about any criticism of Obama or his policies of being racist. It’s a nice way to deflect attention away from the criticism itself and attempt to make it about race. You have only 44% of Americans approve of the way he’s handling health care policy. He got 52% of the vote. What, did that many Americans suddenly become racists? According left wing pretzel logic, yes…they have.
Jay, I expected the right to be opposed to Obama’s agenda – after all, they’re stupid and wrong. But the virulence is far different from what we saw vs Clinton, Gore, or HRC. Why? Its rooted in Obama being black. I don’t think you have that problem, but you keep pretending like it isn’t an issue on the right, like Obama hasn’t been the subject of racist attacks from the right before he was even elected.
but you keep pretending like it isn’t an issue on the right, like Obama hasn’t been the subject of racist attacks from the right before he was even elected.
I’m not saying it isn’t an issue Oliver. I am just so sick and tired of people making the ONLY issue.
Is some of the opposition to Obama in part based on race? Sure. But for a small sub-section of people. The ones who are pretending are liberals who attempt to make race the CENTRAL and OVERWHELMING reason why the MAJORITY of conservatives are opposed to Obama’s policies. And the racism nonsense went back before he was elected. Obama and his supporters had no problem whatsoever yanking out the race card even against the Clintons (of course, Hillary was no better, trying to attack Obama with accusations of sexism) prior to the election.
I’m just tired of what seems like every criticism of Obama, his policies or his appointments turning into accusations of racism. It’s a cheap ploy designed to put the critic on the defensive instead of Obama or his supporters defending their poor choices.
Jay,
I agree with you, the accusation of racism means they have no argument.
You might enjoy this:
E-mail to a fellow columnist.