# Those of you who think that branding the teabaggers as racist is premature... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167 "2010-04-15T04:12:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/61 "2010-04-18T21:11:35Z")
> [@The\_Facts](#): > > Every time I see these scumbags and their dipshit rallies on TV, I think where’s Osama Bin Laden when you really need him? “Hey O – here’s the people you were aiming for, all congregated in one place!” Hey, **The Facts** , do you suppose you could go be on someone else’s side for a change? Failing that, why don’t you just STFU? You sound like **Der Trihs** ’s less-intelligent little brother. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/62 "2010-04-18T21:24:52Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’m not sure what the OP is getting at. Are we supposed to draw conclusions about thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of people based on what this one guy did? > > If I find a racist comment by a prominent Democrat, can we conclude that Democrats are racists? Fairly liberal, mostly Democrat Party voter checking in here. I agree with **John Mace**. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/63 "2010-04-18T21:34:55Z")
Same here. I prefer my smoking guns to be a bit more gun-shaped, and with substantially more smoke. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/64 "2010-04-18T21:53:14Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Hey, **The Facts** , do you suppose you could go be on someone else’s side for a change? > > Failing that, why don’t you just STFU? You sound like **Der Trihs** ’s less-intelligent little brother. Kinda hard to slap that dummy, **The Facts** , any harder than that. You took away some of my fun, but now I can go on my bike ride. 😉 I just hope he’s not behind the wheel while I’m on the road. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/65 "2010-04-18T22:05:45Z")
Never thought I’d hear an attaboy from you, **magellan01** , but I’ll take it. Cheers, and enjoy your ride! ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/66 "2010-04-19T00:28:00Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > So I dropped by Discovery Green, the new little park in Downtown Houston, to see what the Teaparty folks were up to. They had a fair turnout but their area was surrounded by a temporary fence–something I hadn’t seen previously at park events. There was a checkpoint that I didn’t feel like braving, so I didn’t make a real survey for idiotic signs. Basically, it was just a blindingly white, well fed crowd–sitting & listening to speeches. The one speaker I heard was going on about people not being welcome here. > > Not wishing to raise my blood pressure, I went to the park’s nice little restaurant for a drink & snack. A guy who had obviously attended the rally was trying to impress the pretty young lady bartender. He boasted that a darker crowd would have required much more security. There were a private security guards (the only non-whites within the fence) & two of HPD’s mounted patrol outside. The bartender smiled very thinly; she behaved professionally but one could tell she was not impressed. (Her co-workers in the restaurant reflect Houston’s demographics–quite diverse.) I was reading about that in the Houston Press online last night (I’m a Houstonian but I work out of town) and what struck me was that there was 1,000 PEOPLE at the rally, the last time I checked the poulation of Houston was a slight bit larger than that so EXACTLY WHERE is this SILENT MAJORITY the the Teabaggers keep talking about? As I always say to these Idiots: “You are certainly entitled to your own OPINIONS but you are certainly NOT entitled to your own FACTS” Unclviny ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/67 "2010-04-19T09:32:57Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’m not sure what the OP is getting at. Are we supposed to draw conclusions about thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of people based on what this one guy did? > > If I find a racist comment by a prominent Democrat, can we conclude that Democrats are racists? Don’t be ridiculous **John Mace** there is not a single bad apple in any of the liberal groups! No democrats have ever said or done anything bad toward another group, nor toward anyone else in this country. So what you’re saying is patently impossible. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/68 "2010-04-19T10:48:03Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Don’t be ridiculous **John Mace** there is not a single bad apple in any of the liberal groups! No democrats have ever said or done anything bad toward another group, nor toward anyone else in this country. > > So what you’re saying is patently impossible. :eek: “And ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the windows on your right, you’ll see Alaska’s newest claim to fame: The world’s biggest fucking straw man.” ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/69 "2010-04-19T13:13:12Z")
> [@unclviny](#): > > I was reading about that in the Houston Press online last night (I’m a Houstonian but I work out of town) and what struck me was that there was 1,000 PEOPLE at the rally, the last time I checked the poulation of Houston was a slight bit larger than that so EXACTLY WHERE is this SILENT MAJORITY the the Teabaggers keep talking about? > > As I always say to these Idiots: > “You are certainly entitled to your own OPINIONS but you are certainly NOT entitled to your own FACTS” > > Unclviny I understand that only 18% of Americans agree with the Teabaggers. I guess that make the other 82% of us not Real Americans[sup]TM[/sup]. Unreal Americans, if you will. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/70 "2010-04-19T13:26:49Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > “And ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the windows on your right, you’ll see Alaska’s newest claim to fame: The world’s biggest fucking straw man.” _“And ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the windows on your right, you’ll see Alaska’s claim to fame: The world’s biggest fucking straw man.”_ Fixed that for you. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/71 "2010-04-19T13:43:15Z")
That’s Palin and her newest paramour. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/72 "2010-04-19T13:53:25Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I understand that only 18% of Americans agree with the Teabaggers. I guess that make the other 82% of us not Real Americans[sup]TM[/sup]. Unreal Americans, if you will. Only if you can find someone with some clout actually saying “If you don’t agree with the Tea Party, you’re not a real American.” People in hissy fits that are just trying to piss people off don’t count. Nor do asshats like Beck and co., as they fall squarely into that camp. Because as far as I can tell, liberals keep making up that line. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/73 "2010-04-19T14:23:07Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Only if you can find someone with some clout actually saying “If you don’t agree with the Tea Party, you’re not a real American.” People in hissy fits that are just trying to piss people off don’t count. Nor do asshats like Beck and co., as they fall squarely into that camp. Because as far as I can tell, liberals keep making up that line. I should think that [“Liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102449.html) counts, wouldn’t you? That took about thirty seconds of googling, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Camus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba8739/32.png) [@Camus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/74 "2010-04-19T14:29:24Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Only if you can find someone with some clout actually saying “If you don’t agree with the Tea Party, you’re not a real American.” People in hissy fits that are just trying to piss people off don’t count. Nor do asshats like Beck and co., as they fall squarely into that camp. Because as far as I can tell, liberals keep making up that line. “Real Americans” and “Real America” is long-used trope of the more conservative pundits and general morons. They rarely, if ever, directly say what isn’t a real American or what isn’t the real America, they only do so through implication by pointing to what they label is a [real American](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPJx367a7I&feature=related) or [the real America](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3KBu0PG3VE) or in the alternative the [“real”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAhUSpklH7I) version of a state. And from what they’re saying, it’s perfectly clear - a real American who lives in real America, is a conservative who thinks exactly like they do. Anyone who disagrees - or lives in someplace other than the South, Mid-West, or I suppose Alaska now, is not a real American who does not share or have “real” American values. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/75 "2010-04-19T15:08:57Z")
> [@Camus](#): > > “Real Americans” and “Real America” is long-used trope of the more conservative pundits and general morons. They rarely, if ever, directly say what isn’t a real American or what isn’t the real America, they only do so through implication by pointing to what they label is a [real American](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPJx367a7I&feature=related) or [the real America](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3KBu0PG3VE) or in the alternative the [“real”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAhUSpklH7I) version of a state. And from what they’re saying, it’s perfectly clear - a real American who lives in real America, is a conservative who thinks exactly like they do. Anyone who disagrees - or lives in someplace other than the South, Mid-West, or I suppose Alaska now, is not a real American who does not share or have “real” American values. On my flying visit to the Houston Tea Party, I asked a woman why everybody there was white. She said–well, I’m white & you are, too! Next, she said she was a Texan & asked me if I was, too. I didn’t feel like explaining that I was born in New England 6 weeks before my father was called back on active duty. Then brought to Texas (by my Native Houstonian mother) at age 4 after my father had been killed in a plane crash. That might not have been Texan enough for her. Finally, she said she was Conservative & wasn’t I, too? Nope, I said. After all, I’d stayed outside The Fence. (Some tacky plastic thing–not a Pale.) She was trembling with nerves or anger or something & I didn’t feel like arguing. So I went to [The Grove](http://www.thegrovehouston.com/). (Three delicious sliders for $3.00!) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/76 "2010-04-19T15:33:45Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Three delicious sliders for $3.00! I think we can all agree that _this_ is the Real America. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/77 "2010-04-19T16:16:27Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > [Quote=Bridget Burke] > Three delicious sliders for $3.00! I think we can all agree that this is the Real America. I think we can all agree that _this_ is the Real America. [/QUOTE] Agreed. Mmmm… Sliders with pickles and mayo. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/78 "2010-04-19T18:14:42Z")
So delicious, you quoted me twice! ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/79 "2010-04-20T07:43:36Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > “And ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the windows on your right, you’ll see Alaska’s newest claim to fame: The world’s biggest fucking straw man.” Horse puckey. Not a single liberal group has been accused of the same sorts of nonsense and painted with the same brush as those disagreeing with this administration’s policies. There have been liberal groups who’ve been accused of bad policies, but talk about strawmen? One group, consisting of those who believe in one way of doing things, doesn’t like what another group is disagreeing with, so they slander the entire group with accusations of racism. There is a big difference between saying “what you are doing is bad policy, wrong, or even foolish” and saying “This is a group of racists (or insert accusation of choice here)”. Which is exactly what the OP did. One (you’re NOT helping dude, go away), or more idiots don’t speak for everyone else. In any group. But the OP is acting as if he does. It’s hardly a strawman to object to that mentality. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167/80 "2010-04-20T07:46:03Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > That’s Palin and her newest paramour. And no, I"m not Palin. I’m a mere worker bee. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-of-you-who-think-that-branding-the-teabaggers-as-racist-is-premature/536167.md?page=5)