I never thought that I would have to write this post, but today has been a hell of a day.
So, where to begin? I have a big mouth.
One major problem with having a big mouth, of course, is that I often find myself telling the same stories repeatedly or belaboring the same point ad nauseum. In order to save time, then, I often speak in a shorthand that only I am aware that I am speaking. This especially becomes a problem when I run into people who are not entirely sure to what I am referring. And nowhere does this problem become more pronounced than in the subject of politics.
On the whole, though, speaking in political shorthand does make for easier dissemination of ideas. Common phrases or memes can be easily distilled in a few words.
One of my favorite frequent targets for mockery in my online travails is the American wingnut. The Urban Dictionary has a rather succinct definition of such:
n. An outspoken, irrational person with deeply-held, nominally conservative, political views. A person who chooses on principle to be flagrantly ignorant. A “right-wing nut”.
Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Fred Phelps are examples of the wingnut element in modern America.
Simple, right? And that’s pretty much been the standing definition of a wingnut for the last eight years or so: an ignorant fool who thinks God sent George W. Bush to take us back to our white, antebellum, “Christian” roots and wants to replace the Constitution with a King James Bible that only they can read.
So how did this idea get twisted around to mean “anyone who disagrees with the Divine Obama”? I’m still puzzling over this development, myself.
I’ll show you what I mean:
Now, I’m not sure when the idea of disagreeing with Obama was somehow equated with being a wingnut, but I’d be willing to place a fair amount of blame on morons like this.
I can see where someone might get the idea that somehow all dissent is racist or wingnuttery. If you have that many voices throwing up that meme, then the idea is a difficult one to escape. But dissent on an issue is not something to be shooed away so summarily.
Having said that, allow me this clarification.
If you think that someone is calling you a wingnut when you are clearly not such, there is a simple catch-all question you can employ to divine if you are the subject at hand: Do you believe that Barack Obama is the legitimate president of the United States? If you answer “yes” to that question, then take heart – you are ***not*** the subject at hand. (If you answered anything other than a swift “yes”, then yes, we are talking about you. In fact, we’re probably laughing at you, too, but that’s a subject for another time.) Yes, I know, someone called me a wingnut when we were talking about [fill-in-the-blank]. Well, there are two probable reasons for that: (a) their head is firmly up their ass and you should ignore them or (b) your personal “I-me” switch is set too high and you should adjust it immediately. Either way, as we accounting nerds say, the singular of “data” is not “anecdote”.
Look, I’m one of those folks who has had issue with some of the ways Obama has handled his business. Health care? I dare anyone to tell me just what the heck Obama was selling when he was running for office. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Should have been out yesterday; the only surge we should be perpetuating is towards the exit. Warrantless wiretapping and the PATRIOT Act? C’mon, I’m a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t find myself gritting my teeth at something that either Obama or one of his subordinates says or does.
But me, a wingnut? Yeah, right. I’d run off and join a monastery first. Wingnuts don’t like dissent. Wingnuts don’t like anything that bucks the status quo. Wingnuts hate when their beliefs are questioned. That’s why they identify themselves as “conservative”. Because they want to keep things the way they used to see on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER.
So, to those who felt slighted at my assessment of what a wingnut is, I guess what I’m trying to say is: I’m sorry about my big mouth. You are not to whom I was referring. You are NOT the 27% of Americans who think that we were in Iraq to root out Gog and Magog.
Hope that clears that this up a little.
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To use your definition, I am not a “wingnut,” yet I find your use of the term offensive and derogatory. No, not to me—yet I find that it indicates a clear unwillingness on your part to engage in any useful or interesting dialog, and represents an attempt to foster hatred between various political groups. When I see “wingnut” in a post somewhere, I know that the poster has a closed, hate-filled mind, and has no interest in engaging in political discourse, but merely putting down another group and poking fun at them—it matters not to me whether they deserve it or not. It is a purely negative, pejorative term. It's saying, “You are a person of no worth, and your opinion doesn't matter, because I'm going to tell you what it is.”
Steven, I really like most of what you post in FriendFeed, and I'm sure we could have a decent discussion in person, especially if accompanied by enchiladas and appropriate beverages. But so much of what you post is simply derogatory name-calling that I usually hide it on site.