I don’t use the term, but it’s obviously an insult. Now, these are people begging to be insulted. They actively seek the destruction of the American economy. They are the most hateful group of people in politics. But calling them names is a little silly.
teabaggers are generally clueless asshole reincarnation of the moral majority. The fact that they self-styled themselves as “teabaggers” without knowing the slang meaning means it’s totally cool to mock them with the double-entendre term.
Cite?
Truth be told, though, for the most part conservatives haven’t actually been using the words in such a way as to lend themselves to double entendre. With one or two exceptions, almost all of it has actually been coming from the left, which seems to have adopted the joke en masse during an earlier round of these protests back in February. After many hours of investigative journalism – the kind that makes you wish you’d just gone to law school instead – I think I’ve traced the meme’s birth back to February 27th, when blogs like Instaputz and Wonkette started using it independently of one another. They were inspired by a photo that the Washington Independent’s David Weigel shot of one protester carrying a sign that was, if you knew that second meaning, pretty funny: “Tea bag the liberal Dems before they tea bag you !!” (sic).
The timeline linked to by crowmanyclouds actually shows the opposite- altho the Tea party did use the term “tea bag” they did not refer to themselves as “teabaggers”, that was due to the press making sniggering remarks.
Am I the only one who found out the sexual definition AFTER the political dfinition?
When they first came out and were calling themselves that, sure, it might have been justified. But they stopped calling themselves that a long time ago.
And, really, I think their policies stand on their own as stupid, and no belittling name is necessary. The only reason I would use it would be if I was so angry I wasn’t thinking straight. It gives them an out, and keeps them from feeling bad for their actions.
And I don’t think that is actually being political, as I am not explaining why I think their policies are stupid.
The poll for conservatives has an option that reads
and seems odd to me. The “use for us” implies an equivalence or at least an acceptance of Tea Party by mainstream GOP. That no conservative has yet objected to this in the other poll seems frightening. I would have hoped that “conservatives”, though those of today are hugely misdirected, would have realized that those of the Tea Party are even much more misdirected. No?
I voted, “Yes it’s an insult” but not because of a sexual pun. “Tea Partier” and “present-day Republican” are also insults, AFAIC. Any Republican today is either an evil hypocrite or has the brain of a polliwog.
I voted “Other”.
I use it more in a teasing capacity, sort of a good-natured ribbing. Basically, I just like reminding them that they used the word first, and that kind of underscores the fact that the Tea Party movement was manufactured instead of evolving naturally.
That said, though, I honestly can’t remember the last time I used the word.
No, you are not. Within weeks, if not days, of the first political use the sexual meaning went into wide circulation. The anti-deficit protesters continued using the term for months, cluelessly IMO. :smack: The term only shifted to “Tea Party” after mainstream media news readers could no longer keep a straight face while reporting on the anti-deficit protests.
What cmc said, with the caveat that they might possibly not have been the first to use the term “teabagger,” they certainly came out saying that people should “tea bag” the Democrats first.
I don’t use the term much if at all; I’ve been calling them “tea-partiers.”
I knew the sexual term first, and I laughed my goddamned ass off when I saw the “tea bag the Liberal Dems” sign flash up on the TV screen. I play World of Warcraft and other online games, and you always get the occasional obnoxious dude who ‘virtually’ “teabags” a fallen opponent.
I would probably call them something like that if it didn’t have the vulgar meaning, but since it does- so much the better!
I think it is used more to say “Tea Parties are so stupid they even called themselves Tea baggers” than for the “lol they got balls in their mouth” meaning.
It’s like liberals started a movement calling themselves “Your Tax $ for Abortion Pussies” and then realized how bad that sounded, and no longer wanted to be called that.
I figured it’d be two or three millennia before that got boring for conservatives.
As someone who saw John Waters’ film “Pecker” in the theater, I had been introduced to “teabagging” in the sexual sense years before. So I’ve been snickering at the self-described “teabaggers” since they first appeared. Toss in the phenomena of deeply closeted anti-gay activists, we get a potent combination of irony and cluelessness that it pretty much irresistible.
Valid point. I phrased that poorly. I should have had options separating the tea partiers from the other conservatives.
Please, guys. I asked nicely. I started this thread to find out about the intent of using the word “teabagger,” not as a place for you to dump on your political opponents. There are probably 100 threads in the Pit and GD where you can do that.
PLEASE?
Yes. A well deserved insult.
If it is taken as an insult, that is good because that is how I mean it. They invented the term for themselves and then disowned it when they found out the sexual connotations. That is about how worldly their selfish little viewpoint is.
A party that was funded by rich corporations that convinces people to vote against their own interests, is not going to be lauded by me. They are convinced by slogans and sound bites. I have zero respect for the party .
Take your government hands off my Medicare.
Calling an ultra-conservative activist a “teabagger” is insulting to scrotums.
I use it as a term of mild derision.
Didn’t even know about the “other” meaning before I looked it up today!
I’m in a dog class with someone who is proud to be a teabagger. She’s a nice lady, we leave our politics at the door.
Yes, it’s an insult. I snickered the first four or five times I heard it. Then it got old. No, I don’t use it. As annoying as I find Tea Party rhetoric, I prefer civil discourse.
And unicorns.
You took the balls, oops, I mean, you took the words right out of my mouth.
They were quite pleased to be known as teabaggers - and somehow I think the term fits.
It is a lot more polite than what I would really like to call them.