# Our Marxist President **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 23, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251 "2023-02-23T18:33:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/81 "2023-03-09T15:38:01Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Wouldn’t it be cool if we could vote for the Democratic party as described by the Republicans? They sounds like a party I could get behind, 100% committed to ending economic and racial inequality, unified and unafraid of appearing too radical. Absolutely nothing like the real Democratic party. I third that (e)motion, and chafe at suggestions by some doctrinaire centrists that the Democratic party should tack to the economic right in an attempt to prove their “centrist” bona fides, and in so doing, willingly cede ground to a reactionary opposition party that’ll call them marxists/communists/soshulists ( SIC ) anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/82 "2023-03-09T16:35:41Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Just talkin’ 'bout Daithi\_Lacha… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q429AOpL_ds/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgXShTMA8=&rs=AOn4CLBJqGG9r4G-Xeeyvd2Jp-FX39UH0A "Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft (1971)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q429AOpL_ds) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/83 "2023-03-09T16:37:03Z")
Can you, or can you not, dig it? ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/84 "2023-03-09T16:38:59Z")
I can dig it. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/85 "2023-03-09T18:59:40Z")
Look, she’s a complicated woman, and no one understands her but Q. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/86 "2023-03-09T19:02:42Z")
Constipated, maybe 😄 ---
**Author:** ![lum\_s\_husband](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lum_s_husband/32/3698_2.png) [@lum\_s\_husband](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lum_s_husband)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/87 "2023-03-09T19:15:21Z")
I _could_ dig it, but choose not to. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/88 "2023-03-09T19:21:43Z")
I wouldn’t dig that with _your_ shovel! Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2023, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/89 "2023-03-09T19:56:27Z")
I admire your propensity to call a spade a spade. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/90 "2023-03-10T17:24:20Z")
[Moderating] Let’s avoid using racial slurs in jokes like this, please. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/91 "2023-03-11T14:06:22Z")
Just an open apology. I _considered_ whether that expression had racist overtones, but erroneously decided that it probably didn’t. Miller’s note prompted reflection. Between that and this article … > **[Is It Racist To 'Call A Spade A Spade'?](https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/19/224183763/is-it-racist-to-call-a-spade-a-spade)** > > For almost half a millennium, the phrase "call a spade a spade" has served as a demand to "tell it like it is." It is only in the past century that the expression began to acquire a negative, racial overtone. I apologize. I’ll know better next time. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/92 "2023-03-11T14:52:15Z")
Huh. When I was growing up, as far as I knew, calling a spade a spade meant you weren’t calling it a shovel. They’re different shapes and have different purposes. Paraphrased, it meant you were calling something by a specific, more accurate name rather than a generic one. These days I have to stop and check myself as it doesn’t mean that anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/93 "2023-03-11T14:54:51Z")
It’s the kind of thing that can provoke recreational outrage in fum ducks- like “niggardly.” ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/94 "2023-03-11T15:31:22Z")
I actually know what a niggard it, too! Not a useful thing to know, nowadays, but I know it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/95 "2023-03-11T15:39:36Z")
See the article that @DavidNRockies linked to. The TLDR: > [@](#): > > Mieder concludes his case study with the argument that “to call a spade a spade” should be retired from modern usage: “Rather than taking the chance of unintentionally offending someone or of being misunderstood, it is best to relinquish the old innocuous proverbial expression all together.” The origins of phrase have nothing to do with race, and it long predates any use of “spade” in a racial sense. But in the 20th century, “spade” became used as an offensive term for a Black person, and the phrase “to call a spade a spade” became somewhat “guilty by association.” ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/96 "2023-03-11T15:43:25Z")
Which is why I now keep a mental note to not use the phrase, ever. It’s not innocuous anymore, and I do not want to hurt others. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/97 "2023-03-11T17:49:43Z")
I think the problem was that it appeared to be an (accidental?) double entendre both as a pun on shovel as a racial allusion Shaft, which makes is a bit problematic even if in general “calling a spade a spade” is not racist. ---
**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:** [March 11, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/98 "2023-03-11T18:02:26Z")
[Moderating] Buck Godot has it right. The problem wasn’t the phrase by itself, but using it in conjunction with a bunch of references to a famous Black character. Absent that specific circumstance, the phrase would not have been noted. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/99 "2023-03-11T18:04:26Z")
Truth be told, I jumped back into the thread without having caught _any_ of the “Shaft” posts. Furthering the _mea culpa_ aspect of this particular _faux pas_. [On top of which, I’m using foreign phrases on an English-language MB ;-)] ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251/100 "2023-03-11T18:10:17Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > **The Bidens ordered the same dish at a restaurant. Who does that?’** - The Washingon Post OMG! They probably both order burgers at a burger joint, too! What cretins! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/our-marxist-president/980251.md?page=6)