The term 'teabagger' - acceptable or not?

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Well, I think it started out among gay men...Teabagging being their term...

But I know gamers who play multi-player shooters do this when they kill their opponents in game-sounds really juvenile:

http://www.giantbomb.com/tea-bagging/92-142/

Upshot: Blame it all on 4chan?

 

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Arbuckle Looks, and Other Notes

Teabagging as a sexual practice was in the colloquial lexicon for at least a decade; there was a great teabagging scene in John Waters' outstanding film Pecker, released in 1998.

For me, the term was nearly ubiquitous, to the point that:

I'm the only newshound in my family. Well, my brother's girlfriend, but I am her excuse to occasionally watch cable news, which drives most people in my circles nuts. At least, they say it does. Maybe they're all closet O'Reilly fans, or something.

Anyway, there was this day in 2009, as the whole tea party phenomenon was roaring into action, that my brother walked in from the barbecue to find me transfixed to the television. I was watching MSNBC, the aforementioned episode with the ghastly, queerish tea partier inviting people to "teabag" with him. When my brother asked what the hell I was watching, I could only point, silently, a certain "Arbuckle" look° on my face. He watched for a few seconds, heard the guy say, "Come teabag with us," and dropped his two-foot grilling spatula in a fit of laughter.

And everybody we saw that evening we told the joke. And everybody got it. Maybe it's a generational thing. My dad didn't know the word; my stepmother, who is in her late fifties, did. My mother didn't know the word, but the sixty-some year old divorcee who desperately wanted to marry her did. Of course, one of his sons is openly gay, so maybe that has something to do with it.​

But, yes, from the outset, liberals and queers and their friends were all hooting with laughter. Really? we asked. Really?

And it was only that much funnier when someone finally stood up in Congress and made the point ... something like a year later. The whole thing has been a running joke from the beginning, and it keeps getting funnier every time it comes ... ahem ... to a head.

Because it's pejorative, I understand why some people want the word stricken from political discussions. To the other, regardless of how the controversy works out, we must remember the simple, unvarnished truth: Teabaggers did this to themselves.

Other than that, we've had a virtual prohibition against the term in place for a while. We can't censor it out of the press; we can't outlaw that many news and analysis sources for simply using the term. Maybe we can tell members not to use it in their own content. But in the end, whatever the outcome, I think it is important to keep, front and center, the fact that this is the name they gave themselves.

And apparently this libertarian crowd had not among themselves a single respectable homosexual male who could point out the problem and expect to be taken seriously.

It never should have gotten to the point of teabaggers inviting people to come teabag with them.
____________________

Notes:

° "Arbuckle" look — As in Jon Arbuckle, of the Garfield comic strip; it's an inside joke, as perhaps only my brother and I know which specific frame of which specific thirty-some year old strip it refers to.

 

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I'm quite certain your right. The tea bagger tea-bags the person getting tea bagged.

 

O.K. lets end the myth right now . Carpenters were the first to tea bag . It is in the water . So if someone asked for a drink of a carpenters water ( And this goes way back , I mean Way Way back ) the carpenter says go ahead I flavored it by dipping my balls in it , I think you will like it . I did not make that shit up either . An old carpenter told <e that when I was in Me 20s , Ah that be about 29 years ago . Now that is a tea Bag for the tea drinker

 

Using intentionally insulting terms for the opposition does not engender a serious or balanced discussion and could even be considered trolling. For instance, if I started a thread titled, "Goddless, Pinko, Commie Demo-rats Vote to Raise Taxes", I wouldn't expect much of a discussion to result from that framing of the issue.

It's childish and provocative and does little to promote the ideal of an "Intelligent Community". The same goes for "tea-bagger".

 

No. The Tea Party movement named themselves; early protesters, pundits etc were often seen exclaiming "teabag the whitehouse!" "teabag the president!" etc. While they likely did not know the meaning, they chose the word themselves. Being insulted by it would be akin to a user here choosing the username "BigDonkey" then becoming outraged when someone referred to them as Big Donkey because they found it offensive.

 

I would be all over that one . It sounds like a butt load of fun ,

Humans are not intelligent bro . They are a dumb animal . They just think there smart cause they can make shiny things that fly . You want an example of human stupidity ? They kill each other. Deer are way smarter than that , I know they crazy in the rut , but it is the buck deer that does that

 

My Dad is a Tea Party "Person "
Before Me step Mother Dies he would probably stab you if you called him a tea bagger and you spun the ball dipping with it . Now not so much .

Yeah he stopped Stew Branborg in his tracks . Stew Baby he comes up with agenda . He been around a long time . He was President of the Sierra Club for a while and Me Uncle Lou who worked for the Carter administration as the environmental Zar knows him from the old days . So now it is kind of funny for Me cause Me uncle started most the shit Me Dad fights about in the TEa Bag movement . They do fight a lot even though they love each other . About 1 day together and fire works go ballistic . So Me got extreme left and Me got extreme right. Am I lucky dude or what ?

 

An irrelevant difference

I know these sorts of differences don't mean much to you, but "Goddless, Pinko, Commie Demo-rats" would be a phrase invented by an opponent for the purpose of being excessive. "Teabagger" is a term that the tea partiers chose for themselves.

It is quite clear to pretty much anyone who has been paying attention to the teabagger phenomenon as it develops that there are two primary reasons that sort of difference doesn't mean much to tea party sympathizers:

(1) It's just an embarrassing expression of the quality of minds involved with the movement.

(2) If teabaggers can convince people to forget that teabaggers named themselves teabaggers, they can complain that they're being called niggers by the big, bad liberal hatemongers.​

What the whole teabag aspect of the Tea Party phenomenon shows us is that this movement isn't very honest, and they're not very smart. That is, this whole lament about being called exactly what they wanted to be called is a pathetic ruse, and they're stupid enough to think people are going to buy it.

 

Calling a non Tea Party person a teabagger is definately an insult. Funny thing, some of those in the Tea Party have no problem calling non Tea Party folk teabaggers.

 

You might be surprised how smart some of them are . They are making an impact in politics . You might even be surprised at some of the things they want that are a lot like what you want . Now I know a lot of them are old and stupid , A lot of them carry nasty prejudices with them that they will probably never shake , but what has got them so upset . "Corruption in Washington" Back door deals , The lack of inclusion of the people , Special interests getting there way in Washington . Does any of this sound familiar ?

You got to wonder why the divide is so far apart . O.K. who wins the biggest in a law suit ? The Lawyers right ? What does a good Lawyer do . Keep the fight going so they can get billable hours . You ever wonder why politics is littered with Lawyers ? Do Attorneys want more laws our less laws ? Which is better for there business ? Why do people become Attorneys? I don't really thinK Perry Mason syndrome holds water . I think it is for the money

 

Stating the obvious, and then some

Well, not if you're ... well, a teabagger.

I mean, some people actually enjoy teabagging.

I can't help it if so many conservatives are closet cases. Really, think about it for a moment. Because we both know the current Tea Party movement is anything but libertarian. It's a conservative snow job, if only we could be so lucky as to get snow out of them that didn't reek of gastrointestinal disease.

But, you know, the whole thing fits in with that homoerotic streak shooting through the right wing.

We have to remember that there is a legitimate, quasi-kinky sexual practice called teabagging, and that people who enjoy it are probably upset at the political teabaggers for making the word into an insult.

 

I think you ought to ban permanently everyone who dares to use that terrible word on this most respectful website.
Those fucking cunts need to get what they deserve.

 

Questions that shouldn't be asked

That whole thread just slays me. In retrospect, it's even funnier than it was at the time.

I mean ... really. Even back then it was transparent:

"I've never heard a TEA Party participant/activist refer to himself/herself as a "teabagger" (not saying it hasn't happened, but I haven't heard it). It seems that it's usually the pro-taxation/socialist crowd that calls them that." —Cowboy​

Somewhere in the link trail from the articles you linked earlier, I found a May, 2010 segment from MSNBC: "Rachel Maddow makes light of 'teabagging'" (The Week)

A great moment from the echo chamber.

"Well, who wouldn't want to teabag John McCain?" —Ana Marie Cox​

I suppose it comes down to whether or not we need to protect teabaggers from themselves. Here comes the nanny state.

Oh, right. Sciforums. Never mind.

 

I don't get it ? No not the tea baggen . Why James has proposed this question now . 2009 is a long time in S.F. terms . Why is it a big deal now ?

Tea Bagger , one day you all might hear Me song , It does not lean favorably towards Baggers , Yet it is not Liberal either

 

Hey we can call Spidey " Big Donkey " Yeah way Read his "Ode To Fuck you" thread and you will see why. He got banned for 3 days for that one