# Teabaggers mock man with Parkinson's **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 19, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009 "2010-03-19T14:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/101 "2010-03-19T22:13:43Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I disagree with Bricker on pretty much every political issue, but FWIW he knows too many showtunes for me to ever hate him or think of him as evil. (You’ll rarely meet a serial killer or dictator who can sing anything from the Golden Age of Broadway [unless perhaps it was a crossover hit on the pop charts].) > > Is Tea Klux Klan original to you? The reason I ask is that I haven’t heard it before but totally intend to use it and wanted to attribute it to you if it is. I wish I was that clever, alas I am not. I think it might be Olbermann but I’m not positive. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/102 "2010-03-19T22:29:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Is Tea Klux Klan original to you? The reason I ask is that I haven’t heard it before but totally intend to use it and wanted to attribute it to you if it is. Googling, I see it attributed to Keith Olbermann. > [@fluiddruid](#): > > Look, I’m a bleeding heart liberal, but this is just unfair. Fiscal conservativism is not social conservativism. True, because social conservatism actually exists. Fiscal conservatives exist in name only; give them power, and the so-called fiscal conservatives spend like crazy - on themselves, and their friends. > [@fluiddruid](#): > > For what it’s worth, I disagree with Bricker on purt-near-everything, but he’s not evil. He’s arguing what he thinks is best for society. I can disagree with that, I can find his ideas wanting or even destructive, but that doesn’t make him evil and it certainly doesn’t follow that he’s somehow responsible for slavery. Well, he’s a little young to be responsible for slavery. As for the rest; why should anyone care? Willfully blind people who starve you to death for your own good are indistinguishable from the ones who do it for fun. > [@fluiddruid](#): > > Frankly, converting every debate to “You’re eeeeevil!” “No, you’re eeeeevil!” is just retarded. The problem with that argument is that the conservative side really is that bad. The history of conservatism really is a history of them fighting against everything good. IMHO, a major problem of the modern American left is an unwillingness to condemn even the most egregiously awful behavior of their opposite numbers; instead they bend over backwards trying to pretend that sociopaths, fanatics and sadists are reasonable people who can be compromised with. With the inevitable consequence that the sociopaths, fanatics and sadists trample all over them. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/103 "2010-03-19T22:53:06Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > And why exactly is **Bricker** beholden to those ideals which _you_ feel best respect the teachings of Christ? Well, as a non-Christian, I would have assumed the answer to the question ‘which teachings of Christ do _Christ_ians respect’, is ‘all of them’. But, now that you’ve compelled me to examine it, I kinda like the idea of a religion where you can pick and choose which tenets you’ll adhere to. Very forward thinking. Do you know if there are any openings? ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/104 "2010-03-19T23:04:19Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Well, as a non-Christian, I would have assumed the answer to the question ‘which teachings of Christ do _Christ_ians respect’, is ‘all of them’. I would imagine that’s a fair assumption. The problem is that those teachings are not necessarily agreed upon by all Christians or indeed all persons. The very same line in the Bible can and is taken by some to mean one idea, and others another. I am sure that **Bricker** , the Pope, and the Phelpses would all happily say “I respect the teachings of Christ (or, at least, try to)”, but their interpretations of what those teachings actually _are_ are likely to be quite different. And, likewise, they’re going to be different to what you or I would consider to be “Christian” behaviours. To be clear, the point isn’t that **Bricker** et al all take exactly the same ideas from the Bible or whatever source, and simply choose which ones they like; **Bricker** elects to follows tenets 1 and 2, the Pope chooses 3 and 4, whereas you see 1-4 and castigate their picking and choosing. Everyone disagrees on what those tenets are. So it’s unreasonable to hold **Bricker** to _your_ standards as a Christian. > [@](#): > > But, now that you’ve compelled me to examine it, I kinda like the idea of a religion where you can pick and choose which tenets you’ll adhere to. Very forward thinking. Do you know if there are any openings? Yes, as it happens. I declare that the tenets of “being human” are agreeing with **Revenant**. Since you don’t agree with me, yet declare yourself a human (I assume), you’re caught in a contradiction. Or perhaps my interpretation of that tenet is different from yours - and you should not be judged by my standard, but by your own. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/105 "2010-03-19T23:12:55Z")
> [@The\_Facts](#): > > Why don’t you get off this board and go somewhere where your kind is tolerated, like say Freepers or some white-supremacist hate site. There you can jerk off to Sarah Palin porn and dollar bills all day long, and leave this board to the intelligent people. Everyone here hates you. Oh, settle down, Francis. There’s a difference between “wrong” and “evil”. \*\*Bricker \*\*is wrong, but he’s demonstrated none of the attributes you’ve described, and he’s actually quite liked 'round these parts. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/106 "2010-03-19T23:15:48Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > And why exactly is **Bricker** beholden to those ideals which _you_ feel best respect the teachings of Christ? Surely, if we’re going to call him on apparent contradictions, we should be comparing him to his own opinions of those teachings? After all, there are plenty of Christians around the globe, and they tend not to all march in lockstep. He himself has derided the concept of picking and choosing which of Christ’s teachings to follow without any actual discomfort, while still professing to be Christian (there’s a recent post somewhere in GD, not looking right now). Surely that makes him fair game when he does exactly that. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/107 "2010-03-19T23:19:23Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Fiscal conservatives exist in name only; give them power, and the so-called fiscal conservatives spend like crazy - on themselves, and their friends. Well, that’s not true. I have the power to spend the treasuries of two clubs and I am still extremely conservative about that money - even more than I am about my own. What you say may be true about fiscal conservatives who are in politics, but it isn’t true about all the others. > [@](#): > > The problem with that argument is that the conservative side really is that bad. The history of conservatism really is a history of them fighting against everything good. Do you really believe that? The idea that an approximate one half of this country fights against _everything_ good? That there is _nothing_ good about having a conservative outlook? ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/108 "2010-03-19T23:24:49Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > He himself has derided the concept of picking and choosing which of Christ’s teachings to follow without any actual discomfort, while still professing to be Christian (there’s a recent post somewhere in GD, not looking right now). Surely that makes him fair game when he does exactly that. It most certainly would, if he was. But how do we know that what is doing\* is\* picking and choosing, and not simply following those tenets he believes do exist to the extent that he believes they should be put into practice? It’s basically the difference between “I see this tenet, but I choose not to follow it” and “I disagree that this tenet says what you say it does”. The key is consistency between **Bricker’s** ideals, not between **Bricker’s** ideals and our interpretations of Christian ideals. Just because you or I might say, “That behaviour is unChristian in nature” doesn’t mean that \*\*Bricker \*\*sees things exactly the same way we do and just chooses to ignore it, no more than **Bricker** believing his ideals to be in accordance with Christian ideals means that we are picking and choosing what we think Christians follow in order to attack him. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/109 "2010-03-19T23:37:00Z")
(Diogenes had said that liberals are in favor of self reliance). > [@Bricker](#): > > What liberal policy suggests that this statement is true? First of all, in agreement with many others, I do not think that **Bricker** is evil, or a white supremacist, or any of various idiotic and hyperbolic claims a SMALL number of very vocal posters have made. But I do need to take issue with this disingenuous question. Let’s imagine the great scale of possible societies, as measured by their love of self reliance. On one extreme, you have a society in which every single person is provided with every possible need or want no matter what they do, and none of their decisions have any impact whatsoever. On the other extreme is some kind of super-extreme capitalism where if you can’t pay your rent some month you’re immediately evicted and all of your clothes are seized to pay the back rent, and then you can’t get a job because you don’t have any clothes, and you starve to death on the street, and no governmental organization cares at all. I would not want to live in either society. Now, you could probably make a convincing argument that the society that well-meaning thoughtful non-extreme liberals would most prefer is closer to the first extreme than the society that well-meaning thoughtful non-extreme conservatives envision. But saying that liberals don’t care about self reliance because they’re slightly further down a scale towards an extreme is like saying that conservatives hate the poor, or are racists, or want total control over women’s bodies, or any number of other positions you can get by taking things to extremes. I think part of the reason you’re getting so much vitriol lately, **Bricker** , is that you keep being perceived as defending people who are on your side of the issue, but who, as far as we can tell from outside observation, really have no idea what the fuck they’re talking about or why they hold the position they have. The narrative on the left right now is that the masses on the right say what they say, and stake out the position they stake out, because Fox tells them to. I’m 100% sure that you do not get your opinions this way, and I’m also absolutely certain that this narrative is far from completely accurate; but I can’t shake the belief that there is a disturbing amount of truth to it, and that it’s something new in American society and politics. This is scary as hell, and generates a lot of rage and worry and frustration, and you get caught in the cone of anger. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/110 "2010-03-19T23:54:48Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > With the inevitable consequence that the sociopaths, fanatics and sadists trample all over them. Yep. Just wait until November for another trampling. And then a couple years and change for an even bigger trampling. You idiots got your shot and nobody likes the only big piece of legislation you can’t quite seem to pass. Good job, guys. Hope you enjoy your trampling. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/111 "2010-03-19T23:56:33Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Do you really believe that? The idea that an approximate one half of this country fights against _everything_ good? That there is _nothing_ good about having a conservative outlook? Not that I’m aware of. As I said, that’s pretty much the point; people join the conservative side of thing because they are the sort of people who wish to harm, oppress or exploit others. Not that it matters much if there is “something good” about conservatives; there probably is somewhere, but you don’t need to be pure evil to be really, really bad. Maybe there’s some good thing somewhere that conservatives have supported; that doesn’t begin to make up the fact that they’ve been on the wrong side so consistently; from slavery to segregation to forbidding women the vote to trying to keep/make abortion illegal. As somebody once said, “if the Nazis had an enlightened forestry policy, does that make up for everything else?”; what matters is the whole of the groups behavior. I see this a lot these days; people trying to defend the Right or religions with an argument that boils down to, “unless you show that they are pure evil, you shouldn’t criticize them!” ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/112 "2010-03-20T00:02:39Z")
Der Trihs, if I may assume for one second that you are willing to listen to reason, I’d like to point out that you are still lumping in all kinds of people with different views and calling them all “conservatives.” I, for example, would have opposed slavery, supported women’s suffrage, and worked to end segregation, and I’m a fiscal conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/113 "2010-03-20T00:09:23Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Well, that’s not true. I have the power to spend the treasuries of two clubs and I am still extremely conservative about that money - even more than I am about my own. What you say may be true about fiscal conservatives who are in politics, but it isn’t true about all the others. how much more trite and nugatory can you get? > [@](#): > > Do you really believe that? The idea that an approximate one half of this country fights against _everything_ good? That there is _nothing_ good about having a conservative outlook? conservativism has extended far beyond the past 100 years of US politics. and it’s global historical track record ain’t so swell. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/114 "2010-03-20T00:12:14Z")
For example? ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/115 "2010-03-20T00:18:52Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > For example? Oh, I don’t know…Inquisitions, Tsars, French Revolutions. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/116 "2010-03-20T00:19:48Z")
Didn’t expect that… ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/117 "2010-03-20T00:33:28Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Didn’t expect that… _No one expects the Tsars!_ ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/118 "2010-03-20T00:33:42Z")
🙂 Me neither luci. Seems friend RW is employing the “everyone I don’t like” definition of conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/119 "2010-03-20T00:36:19Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > 🙂 Me neither luci. Seems friend RW is employing the “everyone I don’t like” definition of conservative. I think the medieval church is fair game as conservative: Religious dogma as law Prayer in school Militarily hawkish (crusades) Against science Pro torture ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009/120 "2010-03-20T00:37:00Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > 🙂 Me neither luci. Seems friend RW is employing the “everyone I don’t like” definition of conservative. Would you care to substantively respond and make the case that Alexander III and Nicholas II were not “conservative” ? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teabaggers-mock-man-with-parkinsons/533009.md?page=7)