# Why do teabaggers think liberals are fearful? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 31, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001 "2010-10-31T20:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/41 "2010-11-06T18:54:57Z")
Maybe the pot makes them paranoid? ---
**Author:** ![Suse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Suse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suse)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/42 "2010-11-07T10:41:12Z")
Because Rush said so, the day after the election. He kept telling his listeners that the Democrats were ‘shaking in their boots’. He didn’t offer any proof but apparently he doesn’t need any. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/43 "2010-11-07T11:02:52Z")
If Bush era Republicans ran on “ZOMG GAY MEXICAN TERRORISTS!” then Obama Dems have run on “ZOMG TEA PARTY NUTS SARAH PALIN FOX NEWS!” ---
**Author:** ![FE3O4ENAIL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba9def/32.png) [@FE3O4ENAIL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FE3O4ENAIL)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/44 "2010-11-07T13:59:20Z")
Could someone rate these as true or false so I could research them? TIA 1. It’s Carrie Prejean in the Miss America pageant being punished for dissenting from the left’s position on same sex marriage. 2. It’s Juan Williams being fired for a comment no reasonable person would have found the least bit controversial or offensive. 3. It’s James Watson having his career destroyed for dissenting from the politcally correct view of race. 4.It’s the mainstream media dragging Joe the Plumber through the mud for asking Obama an awkward question. 5.It’s harassing Sara Palin with hundreds of frivolous ethics complaints. 4. It’s the applause from a night club audience when Sandra Bernhard ranted about Sara Palin being gang raped by her “black brothers.” 5. It’s the arson at Sara Palin’s church. 8.It’s a President who pals around with the likes of William Ayers and Reverend Wright. 9.It’s a President who removes references to God when quoting the Declaration of Independence. 6. It’s the Democratic party embracing race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. 7. It’s the Duke University rape hoax and the Jena Six circus, 8. it’s American students in an American high school being forbidden to display the American flag on Cinco de Mayo 13.it’s a California school requiring students to dress like Muslims and pray to Allah in a class project on Islam. 14 It’s forbidding a high school valedictorian to talk about her religion in her graduation speech. 15 It’s progressive students shouting down conservative speakers on college campuses. 9. It’s the way so many of you act like Soviet commissars intent on sniffing out “counter-revolutionaries” and sending them to the gulags. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/45 "2010-11-07T14:37:27Z")
> [@FE3O4ENAIL](#): > > Could someone rate these as true or false so I could research them? TIA Why certainly! Just as soon as you explain why you’re unable to read the OP’s question: “Why do \*teabaggers \*think \*liberals \*are _fearful_?” 'Cause 'near as I can tell, not a single one of your questions has anything to do with fear on the behalf of liberals. Is there some sort of teabagger reading disorder, or something? ---
**Author:** ![FE3O4ENAIL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba9def/32.png) [@FE3O4ENAIL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FE3O4ENAIL)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/46 "2010-11-07T15:25:50Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > Why certainly! Just as soon as you explain why you’re unable to read the OP’s question: “Why do \*teabaggers \*think \*liberals \*are _fearful_?” > > 'Cause 'near as I can tell, not a single one of your questions has anything to do with fear on the behalf of liberals. Is there some sort of teabagger reading disorder, or something? Ok, nevermind, I will start a new thread. Sorry for the error. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/47 "2010-11-07T15:47:26Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > And I especially like the part where you completely missed the point that I don’t fuckin’ care. Selah. Some people love watching and identifying birds. I love watching and identifying logical fallacies: _[Ignoratio Elenchi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoratio_elenchi)_ > [@](#): > > Ignoratio elenchi (also known as irrelevant conclusion[1] or irrelevant thesis) is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question. “Ignoratio elenchi” can be roughly translated by ignorance of refutation, that is, ignorance of what a refutation could logically be; “elenchi” (genitive singular of the Latin elenchus) is from the Greek ἔλεγχος, meaning an argument of disproof or refutation. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/48 "2010-11-07T17:05:40Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Okay, I’m gonna make an exception here–anyone who makes me laugh can go on using the T word. 🆒 If you like that: A Republican man-about-town Could make a smile vertical frown For, at finish, the heel Always made the girl kneel And let all the wealth trickle down! A Democrat is well suited to diddle In the sense that he’s straight-up-the-middle But, 'tween left and right hand He can ne’er . . . make a stand At the end, can just sit there and twiddle! Socialists like to share their virility But it brings social costs in fertility, For, “To each by her need!” Is their true solemn creed, But the sharing wears out the ability! A lascivious thing is a Green Every tree, every shrub, every bean Every beast classed “Endangered” And life-forms far stranger Must endure his attentions obscene! A theocon’s holy and pious But political judgment is biased By his mind filled with floods Of the cries of hung studs: “Come into the closet and try us!” Libertarians swing and they play You can use them most any which way Straight, gay, trans, or bi Or whatever you’ll try All while shouting, “For freedom! Hooray!” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/49 "2010-11-11T20:12:11Z")
I’m not a tea party member, but if we are willing to generalize to conservatives in general - We think you are fearful because of the things you tell us you are afraid of. You are afraid of people owning guns, you are afraid of second-hand smoke (even out doors), you are afraid of paying for your own health care, you are afraid that Bush was going to cancel the elections, you are afraid of AIDS, you are afraid of all kinds of things, reasonable and not. Much of it is just that liberals think they are better than anyone else. But there are more of us than there are of you, and we don’t do as we are told. And that’s frightening. Some of it is justified, some of it is just fear of the unknown - you succeed so well in insulating yourselves from anyone who might disagree about anything important that you conjure up all sorts of bogeymen and tell each other that this is what non-liberals are like. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/50 "2010-11-11T20:38:51Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > You are afraid of people owning guns\ Interesting. You think that liberals feel that widespread gun ownership leads to them personally being the victim of gun violence? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/51 "2010-11-11T22:23:30Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > We think you are fearful because of the things you tell us you are afraid of. You are afraid of people owning guns, you are afraid of second-hand smoke (even out doors), you are afraid of paying for your own health care, you are afraid that Bush was going to cancel the elections, you are afraid of AIDS, you are afraid of all kinds of things, reasonable and not. I am not afraid of guns. I’ve lost count of how many I have. I’m not afraid of second-hand smoke. Universal healthcare would make American companies more competitive, and there’s the ethical issue of not letting people in The Richest Country In The World ™ face bankruptcy or death so that corporations and stockholders can increase their profits. I was not afraid Bush would cancel the elections. I don’t know where you got the idea that we’re ‘afraid of AIDS’, but it’s not something I think of, let alone be afraid of. I’ll tell you what I am afraid of. Conservatives imposing ever more stringent restrictions in the name of freedom. Moving backward while the rest of the world is moving forward. Destroying America in the name of profits for the few. Denying the rights (Freedoms!) of Americans by people totally unaffected by those rights. Wars instead of diplomacy. The insistence of total, unconditional victory instead of the compromise our system of government is based upon. The Taliban-like theocracy many conservatives are trying to achieve. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/52 "2010-11-11T22:58:14Z")
Well, gosh, I can’t imagine where I got the notion that liberals are fearful. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/53 "2010-11-12T15:26:55Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Well, gosh, I can’t imagine where I got the notion that liberals are fearful. > > Regards, > Shodan Considering many of the fears you listed can be easily–conveniently even–turned around, don’t you think the whole conversation is kinda counter-productive? Fear is motivating everyone in the current political climate. The challenge SHOULD be for us ALL to be less fearful and more interested in getting shit done. [QUOTE=BIZARRO SHODAN, LIBERAL AVENGER - him vote for Obama in 2004] You are afraid of not being able to defend yourself without heavy firepower, you are afraid of people not of your gender getting married (even though it doesn’t affect your marriage), you are afraid of the government not being able to handle healthcare, you are afraid that Obama was going to impose Soviet-style Communism, you are afraid of terror attacks, you are afraid of all kinds of things, reasonable and not. Much of it is just that conservatives think they are more patriotic and more salt-of-the-earth than anyone else. But we’re better educated and have more influence in popular entertainment, and we don’t do as we are told. And that’s frightening. Some of it is justified, some of it is just fear of the unknown - you succeed so well in insulating yourselves from anyone who might disagree about anything important that you conjure up all sorts of bogeymen and tell each other that this is what non-conservatives are like. [/QUOTE] –Z, liberal by his family’s standards, conservative by his friends’ standards. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/54 "2010-11-13T13:24:05Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Here’s a good example of liberal fearful whining…[the evil Rand Paul.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584096) Rand Paul campaigned against earmarks. After being elected he has said that he is in favor of earmarks for his state of Kentucky. This is the kind of hypocrisy that has typified Republicans since 1980. They want more government than they are willing to pay for. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/55 "2010-11-15T17:22:22Z")
> [@Zeriel](#): > > Considering many of the fears you listed can be easily–conveniently even–turned around, don’t you think the whole conversation is kinda counter-productive? Fear is motivating everyone in the current political climate. The challenge SHOULD be for us ALL to be less fearful and more interested in getting shit done. > [@](#): > > My favorite part of this is where you don’t actually have an answer for the OP. > > Charming, as usual. 😃 Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/56 "2010-11-16T06:20:20Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > 😃 > > Regards, > Shodan Admit it, you thought the idea of Bizarro Shodan (all in Superman Bizarro style) was hilarious. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/57 "2010-11-16T06:26:22Z")
Substance follows: I think the telling thing about the whole discussion, from my perspective as hanging out with mostly liberal hippie types (perils of working in a college town), is how the stereotypes play vs. reality. I work with a bunch of Obama voters who smoke off the balconies (against the law AND the lease!) and go skeet shooting on weekends. I don’t see a lot of liberal fear from day-to-day liberals–not to say it isn’t there in some of the extremists (like my mother-in-law or my idiot Buddhist friend). By the same vein, I see a fair bit of conservative fear (mostly from Toomey rallies), but that could easily be the fact I only see the more vocal folks and not a lot of everyday conservatives (like my dad and brother, both of whom don’t appear to fear anything political). Selection bias is so charming. ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/58 "2010-11-21T20:47:32Z")
I think projection remains the best answer. To elaborate on that a bit, the Teabaggers/partiers operate in the mode of fear (fear of socialism, fear of illegal immigrants, fear of homosexuals, fear of the government, fear of Muslims, fear of those they imagine are trying to take their religion away, fear of “death panels”, fear of Democrats/Liberals, etc…) Every issue is couched in the language of war, attacks and defending against a dire threat. The media they predominantly expose themselves to is reactionary and inflammatory and defines issues and events in those same terms. When they consider liberal positions on issues, they automatically interpret those positions as being rooted in fear rather than being calls to action based on HOPE and/or principle. AS a liberal, I don’t tend to see things in terms of threats to fear but in terms of challenges to address. I don’t stay up nights fearing the Tea Party or any other bugaboos. I hold certain political positions and do what I can to support them, but I don’t see things in terms of “OMG, the Republicans have taken the House! It’s the end of the world!” :eek: I just think, great, this will make it harder to accomplish what I want to see accomplished…here we go again. Other than projection and their desire to IMAGINE we liberals are shaking in our boots and a bunch of pantiwaists in general, I can’t see any other reason for them to think liberals are fearful. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/59 "2010-11-21T22:27:08Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > Good points, especially the PC thing. It has been proven time and again that “Teabagger” originated with the Tea Party. That is why it is so funny. If someone else assigned it to them, it would be on the level of grade-school humor. Any child can point at someone and call them a “Teabagger”, but having someone stand up and proudly call themselves that, well, that’s a special kind of clueless. And when a large group of ppl do it, for weeks and months, in interviews and in front of cameras, well, that’s just epic. No do-overs. We’re not going to turn back time and pretend that didn’t happen. Teabaggers embarrassed themselves right out of the gate, and they must own it. If they don’t like it, they need to look in the mirror. > > Also, that kind of cluelessness should be considered when they speak on other topics. If you can’t even choose a name without embarrassing yourself and spending the next couple years running from it in denial, what could you have to say on other subjects that I would want to hear? It’s like Diddy complaining that people still call him P Diddy. Pick a name and go with it. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001/60 "2010-11-28T01:26:39Z")
Don’t the areas of the country that are most likely to be terrorist targets, like major cities, tend to vote Democrat? I mean, the people who are actually in any semblance of danger don’t seem to be the ones shitting their pants about terrorists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-teabaggers-think-liberals-are-fearful/559001.md?page=4)