I’m not implying they’re racist, I’m SAYING it. They’re racist.
And “valid criticisms.” heh heh. Good one.
Oh, much longer than that!
Honestly…if this is the best conservatives can come up with to get their panty’s in a wad showing how over the top the “liberal” MSM is the words “molehill” and “mountain” leap to mind.
At best this deserves a :rolleyes: at linking the two words. Hardly worth getting in a big fuss about unless “socialist” miraculously becomes a stigmatized word like the n-word is.
Compared to the the avalanche of craziness coming from conservative MSM outlets like Limbaugh and Coulter and Malkin and Beck and O’Reilly and Hannity (to name a few) this is a ripple in an ocean of absurdity.
Sorry, just cannot generate a lot of righteous indignation over this one. Maybe I have been desensitized to idiocy though. YMMV
Indeed. From The Nation:
You should watch the linked video more closely, because you’re the one who is incorrect.
He was NOT “calling ‘socialist’ a code word for the ‘n’ word,” as you suggest. As the quote provided by Marley23 shows, he was saying that socialist was becoming a code word in much the same way as the ‘n’ word.
He was not suggesting that the use of the word “socialist” had anything to do with race. He was suggesting that it is being used in a way similar to the way the word “nigger” is used, as a “generic…bludgeoning tool.”
I think hes right about the way the word is being used, even though i’m pretty sure that “nigger” was not the best comparison he could make here. There are other words that strike me as more analogous to the word “socialist” in this context, words that relate more to a person’s political worldview than to their skin color or physical appearance. Words like:
communist
anti-American
right-wing nutjob
tighty-righty
hand-stabber
fundy
tree-hugger
I’m sure there are plenty of others i’ve missed.
Current (over)use of the word “socialist” continues in the tradition of all these words, in that it is designed to condemn someone before they even speak, to poison people against them before their ideas are even expressed, and to shout their argument down rather than respond to it in a meaningful way.
Bullshit. Any number of words are used as generic bludgeoning tools. ‘Asshole’, ‘Jerk’, ‘Dick’, ‘Commie’, etc. Why not compare ‘socialist’ to them?
Instead, he very explicitly and carefuly chose the ‘n’ word so that the association was made that calling somebody socialist was racist.
In their case it usually is. One thing’s for sure. They aren’t actually using it to mean “socialist,” because it’s not applicable to their targets.
You’re a fucking retarded moron.
How’s that for a generic bludgeon? Except that, in this case, it’s specific to you.
I have to disagree with you there, actually. He was wondering if ‘socialist’ is becoming a code word for nigger, the same way words like ‘Canadian’ (to everybody’s amazement) sometimes gets used that way. “Nigger” isn’t a generic bludgeoning tool. It’s not used against everyone who conservatives get pissed at. A real example of those tools would be “anti-American.” The guy was wondering if some of the birthers and town hall people are calling Obama a socialist because they know they can’t call him a nigger.
While the birthers are racist, not all of the town hall people are. (I’m sure some of them are, since it’s hard to think of another interpretation for the screaming about ‘my country is being taken away from me!’) I haven’t heard these comments about lynching, and just yesterday, a somebody spray-painted a swastika outside the office of black Congressman in Georgia. So there is some racism mixed up in there, but it’s not being expressed by the word socialist alone.
You presume the people using the word (in the context of Town Hells and such) have a clue what the word means.
I am willing to bet they think they have a clue and are using it correctly but if pressed it would become immediately apparent they have no clue WTF they are talking about.
For you to be correct they’d have to actually understand the word and its actual meanings.
<snort!>
Bush started the bailouts? Next you’ll be telling us that Medicare is a public program! :eek:
Marley23:
Well, i guess the reference to lynching does, indeed, suggest that you might be right. I think the commentator should have been a little clearer about exactly what he meant, but i concede that i might have misinterpreted him. I’m not completely convinced, but i think there’s enough evidence that i shouldn’t have dismissed it out of hand.
Apologies to Sinaijon.
If you guys are right, and Watson was saying that people are “calling Obama a socialist because they know they can’t call him a nigger,” then i think that, while he might be right for a certain number of them (i don’t know how many), he is also reading way too much into this.
I believe that if, say, Hillary Clinton or John Kerry had been elected president, and had tried to enact the same sorts of policies as Obama, conservatives would have been just as liberal (heh) in their use of the word socialist. The people yelling “socialist” every time someone tries to make an argument for healthcare reform might be uninformed, they might be idiots, they might be bullies, but i don’t think that it’s right to say, just because they use the word socialist, that they’re racists.
Make that “left of and including.”
It’s a typical Obamabot maneuver - calling every criticism against Obama racist.
The veggie burger of their discontent, if you will.
I’m sure this is correct. But I’m also sure that it was not a coincidence that MSNBC used the “N-word” rather than all the other examples you just gave. As Obamabot central, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if people begin to associate the charge of socialism with racism in the same way that they are trying to associate just about every criticism made against Obama as racist.
Oh, well done.
A far more intelligent and defensible approach, at any rate, than usage of the word “Obamabot.”