# Ask the conservative asshole **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 25, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299 "2017-09-25T19:00:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/401 "2017-09-29T14:17:04Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Sigh. > > Are you really this dumb, or do you take lessons at it? Why - are you offering masterclasses now? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/402 "2017-09-29T14:35:09Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No. It’s based on action, as has already been pointed out. > > If I am speaking to you and someone is behind you that you can’t see, and I tell you that I think that person is a wetback, can you derive the ethnicity of that person from the term? The simple answer is no. The answer that you might come up with will derive from your own personal biases. At one point maybe that’s what “wetback” meant, and that alone. But in the last 15-20 years I’ve heard it many times as a derogatory slur for Hispanic people, regardless of immigration status or how they got here. If lots of people are using “wetback” as a derogatory slur about Hispanic people, then it’s a derogatory slur about Hispanic people. That you don’t use it that way doesn’t change that it’s used this way by others. It’s no different than the assholes I grew up with who insisted that “nigger” only referred to the bad ones, not all black people – it’s still a racial slur, even if they only use it for people who do bad things. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/403 "2017-09-29T14:47:55Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No. It’s based on action, as has already been pointed out. > > If I am speaking to you and someone is behind you that you can’t see, and I tell you that I think that person is a wetback, can you derive the ethnicity of that person from the term? The simple answer is no. The answer that you might come up with will derive from your own personal biases. Or from the dictionary definition of the word. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/404 "2017-09-29T16:19:03Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No. It’s based on action, as has already been pointed out. > > If I am speaking to you and someone is behind you that you can’t see, and I tell you that I think that person is a wetback, can you derive the ethnicity of that person from the term? The simple answer is no. The answer that you might come up with will derive from your own personal biases. Great, really smart stuff. How’d it go at the cholo bar, by the way? Bones healing nicely? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/405 "2017-09-29T16:26:22Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No. It’s based on action, as has already been pointed out. > > If I am speaking to you and someone is behind you that you can’t see, and I tell you that I think that person is a wetback, can you derive the ethnicity of that person from the term? The simple answer is no. The answer that you might come up with will derive from your own personal biases. You’re speaking to me, and you see someone behind me you think might be a “wetback.” What features of the person behind me are you using to make that determination? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/406 "2017-09-29T16:30:11Z")
Pssst, **Clothy** , don’t say, “sombrero” or “Juan Valdez 'stache”. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/407 "2017-09-29T16:31:17Z")
10 quatloos on “dripping wet and standing in a growing puddle”. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/408 "2017-09-29T17:01:39Z")
Waiting for a response to post #388. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/409 "2017-09-29T17:05:33Z")
I am trying to imagine a conversation where it might be valuable to refer to somebody as a “wetback” rather than an undocumented alien ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/410 "2017-09-29T17:10:56Z")
I’ve only read the first 200 posts but will offer my comments. First: Hats off to **billfish678** for the bravery, patience and tolerance to insults to respond in this thread. I hate Trump as much as the next guy and agree that all Trump voters are, at best, underinformed _ **but bill is coming across much better than most of his detractors in this thread.** _ One poster repeated the same question over and over insistently until bill showed him the silliness: > [@billfish678](#): > > Dude…I’ve have to be like 80 years old…I’m not that old…but get off my lawn anyway. At least andy’s question was intelligent and relevant. Most have passed up the opportunity to look into the mind of a Trump voter by asking Gotcha questions or “Have you stopped beating your wife?” questions. Frankly, reading the insults here makes it easy to understand what he meant when he said reading SDMB led him to vote Trump! Read a few of the posts and decide who’s sincere and forthcoming and who’s blithering. > [@billfish678](#): > > Not really. > > He’s a lying asshole. But he’s a lying asshole who knows he’s a lying asshole and he knows you know he’s a lying asshole. > [@QuickSilver](#): > > Then you’re a blind lying idiot. > [@billfish678](#): > > Do YOU want to debate with a few dozen people coming at you about a bunch of different things? > > Ask a fairly straightforward question that can be answered in a like manner and I’ll do my best to respond. Having said all that, I’ll still ask bill a few questions myself. > [@billfish678](#): > > I’m against “health care for all” when most people can’t come to terms with the concept that there are limited resources and trying to save everybody all the time will bankrupt us all. Your ilk prattled about “death panels” and Obama dragging Grandma to the death camps 8 years ago. Can’t decide whether Obamacare is TOO generous or NOT generous enough, hunh? Just don’t like the “Obama” part? > [@billfish678](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Was Obama born in Kenya? > > Probably not. It is 100% certain that Obama was born in Hawaii. Your “probably not” tells us what we already knew – like most Trump voters you’re an ignorant and gullible twit. The cabinet appointments of Trump make many of us want to cry. When presented with two of the most egregious appointments … **bill** didn’t even recognize the names. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/411 "2017-09-29T17:35:51Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Pssst, **Clothy** , don’t say, “sombrero” or “Juan Valdez 'stache”. Or “calves like cantaloupes”. You’re not a Congressman. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/412 "2017-09-29T17:36:08Z")
> [@](#): > > …\*\* bill\*\* didn’t even recognize the names. You mean like Cruella De Voss for Education? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/413 "2017-09-29T17:40:22Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > You mean like Cruella De Voss for Education? I much prefer Rick “I want to eliminate the Dept. Of Energy because I didn’t know what they did including overseeing our nuclear arsenal” Perry. Drawback being it doesn’t fit on a t-shirt and the bumper sticker would barely fit on a semi-. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/414 "2017-09-29T18:58:44Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’ve only read the first 200 posts but will offer my comments. First: Hats off to **billfish678** for the bravery, patience and tolerance to insults to respond in this thread. > > I hate Trump as much as the next guy and agree that all Trump voters are, at best, underinformed _ **but bill is coming across much better than most of his detractors in this thread.** _ One poster repeated the same question over and over insistently until bill showed him the silliness: > > At least andy’s question was intelligent and relevant. Most have passed up the opportunity to look into the mind of a Trump voter by asking Gotcha questions or “Have you stopped beating your wife?” questions. > > Frankly, reading the insults here makes it easy to understand what he meant when he said reading SDMB led him to vote Trump! Read a few of the posts and decide who’s sincere and forthcoming and who’s blithering. Scolding delivered. > [@](#): > > Having said all that, I’ll still ask bill a few questions myself. > > Your ilk prattled about “death panels” and Obama dragging Grandma to the death camps 8 years ago. Can’t decide whether Obamacare is TOO generous or NOT generous enough, hunh? Just don’t like the “Obama” part? > It is 100% certain that Obama was born in Hawaii. Your “probably not” tells us what we already knew – like most Trump voters you’re an ignorant and gullible twit. > > The cabinet appointments of Trump make many of us want to cry. When presented with two of the most egregious appointments … **bill** didn’t even recognize the names. :smack: Hypocrisy present in full force. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/415 "2017-09-29T20:27:54Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > No. It’s based on action, as has already been pointed out. > > If I am speaking to you and someone is behind you that you can’t see, and I tell you that I think that person is a wetback, can you derive the ethnicity of that person from the term? The simple answer is no. The answer that you might come up with will derive from your own personal biases. What do you call it when a person decides that words aren’t part of language? That their meanings can be decided by a single person, and it doesn’t matter that literally everyone and everything else including dictionaries disagrees with them? No, seriously, I’m curious what word you’d use to describe this situation. Maybe Telephone? Earwig? Spic perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/416 "2017-09-29T20:32:20Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > What do you call it when a person decides that words aren’t part of language? That their meanings can be decided by a single person, and it doesn’t matter that literally everyone and everything else including dictionaries disagrees with them? > > No, seriously, I’m curious what word you’d use to describe this situation. Maybe Telephone? Earwig? Spic perhaps? I call it “awesome”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/417 "2017-09-29T20:48:51Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It’s hard to say. When I walked in, I was absolutely prepared to vote Clinton. I had spent the last several months going from disbelief to low level fury as Trump survived the primary process. I couldn’t stand him. > > But when I got to the ballot, and started marking, I marked all the downstream races and then thought, “How can I vote for Hillary Clinton?” She’ll be a nightmare. Why on Earth would you think that Ms. Clinton as president would be a nightmare? Why on Earth would you not realize that Trump would be a horrendous president? What, specifically, was the calculus you used that took you even one step down that road? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/418 "2017-09-29T21:02:43Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Why on Earth would you think that Ms. Clinton as president would be a nightmare? Why on Earth would you not realize that Trump would be a horrendous president? What, specifically, was the calculus you used that took you even one step down that road? He did mention that Clinton would have probably put non-fundamentalist supreme court justices in. If you like the idea of fundamentalist judges legislating from the bench, Clinton would have been bad news. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/419 "2017-09-29T21:13:23Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > > [@Clothahump](#): > > > > Nobody has said that it’s not derogatory. I sure haven’t. The issue earlier was whether it was racist. It isn’t. > > You really are too fucking stupid for words. Of course the term is racist. It is consistently and often used by racists to refer to hispanisc and others who the racists believe to be hispanic. (Take a wild guess on what feature the racists rely on to make that determination.) I must admit though that I am thoroughly enjoying Clothahump’s twisting in the wind here since he accused me of being a bigot and has yet to apologize for that nonsensical accusation. Now here he is defending the use of a racist term. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299/420 "2017-09-29T21:19:56Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > He did mention that Clinton would have probably put non-fundamentalist supreme court justices in. If you like the idea of fundamentalist judges legislating from the bench, Clinton would have been bad news. I wonder how he’d feel if the Senate refuses to seat Moore. Too bad the current senate is too cowardly to do such a thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-conservative-asshole/797299.md?page=22)