giza | Ah, those silly Republicans who don't get technology

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Ah, those silly Republicans who don't get technology

Well known "conservative," columnist, and hard-core bigot Maggie Gallagher runs an organization known as "NOM." Contrary to the name, "NOM" is not for kittehs eating cheezburgers but in fact stands for "National Organization for Marriage." Their campaign uses many of the traditional stupid arguments to "fight" gay marriage. With the victories for gay marriage in Iowa and Vermont in recent weeks the NOM people decided they needed to "step it up" a notch and launch a NEW branded campaign to "save" marriage. However, in a stunning show of ignorance the NOM folks decided to name their campaign "Two Million For Marriage" and in their own branding call it "2M4M." Yes, that's right, they named their anti-gay initiative with the acronym for "2 men for male," a personal ad code for a gay couple seeking a third for threesomes. This has invited a bunch of scorn in the media, alongside what's being directed at other conservatives for calling their "anti taxes" groups "teabaggers," again missing out on the sexual context. In a show of complete Internet ignorance, however, NOM failed to secure the domain for their campaign, 2m4m.org. It was, instead, registered and used for a site called "Two Men For Marriage," which was built-out over the weekend and is featuring content that combats the fear, uncertainty and doubt that NOM is spreading.

I joked elsewhere that the Republican party is quickly turning into the "Grand Old White Guys Party", and an amazing lack of technology clue and slang clue like this certainly doesn't help the perception of that. Come on guys, is it really that hard to type "teabaggers" into Google?

(Incidentally, the Urban Dictionary term for "teabaggers" has already been updated to reflect recent SNAFUs.)

I'd sure like to see a distribution of age and gender in the Republican Party, including the mean and standard deviation on the age data.

Something I still don't understand is that with all of the problems facing our country, especially right now, with the economic recession/depression we have going on, why are these people fixated over denying equal rights to a small group of people? Don't they have better things to be doing, like, giving to charity, or volunteering in soup kitchens? You know, typical Christian values.

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Something I still don't understand is that with all of the problems facing our country, especially right now, with the economic recession/depression we have going on, why are these people fixated over denying equal rights to a small group of people?

Because THEY ARE REPUBLICANS. The common clay of the new West. You know...morons.

I joked elsewhere that the Republican party is quickly turning into the "Grand Old White Guys Party"

I'm partial to "Grand Old Police Blotter", but that's just me.

Also (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i-OWDjOQfI&feature=player_embedded). Inre: teabagging and the puns that can be made.

Yes it is too hard, when you don't know what Google is or how it works.

Why? Because they are INSANE.

Comments like that, while amusing, weren't quite was I was looking for.

Really, I do want to understand what makes these people tick. There's NO way that so many people could be that batshit insane. I just can't fathom that happening. There must be some other explanation.

I think its a need to keep things simple, so simple, that it explains everything without actually having to understand why its a reason. Easy answers that are easy to spit out.
I actually do believe that people are that insane. I have a personal theory that there are very very few people who keep the world running, and if they take a rest, it falls into the chaos that is religious mobbery. Sometimes they just make use of it to get stuff done. I believe that most of the world is unable to just keep to themselves because the easiest thing to interfere in is anothers life. The fact that you cannot understand is a credit to your non delusional status. Being an atheist, I see most people as delusional. They see me as danger. And all I am doing is adding less baggage onto life, unlike them.

I'll buy that.

It's easier to weave your own delusion that explains everything, than try to grasp the horrifying truth that the world is a very complex, very chaotic place, and filled with many different people and ideas.

Owned.

No, seriously, though, this is a prime example of people acting out of ignorance, fear, and panic, and clearly demonstrating their lack of a) organization, b) tactics and strategy, and c) a legitimate foundation for what they're trying to do.

Edited 2009-04-14 18:14 (UTC)

Incidentally, Giza, how do you do the quote boxing that you do with the green background? Is that a manual HTML thing that you do, or is it an LJ tag I'm just not aware of?

It's probably a CSS thing he's done in his journal's stylesheet to highlight blockquotes.

<div style="background-color: #ddffdd; color: black; padding: 10px; margin: 10px; "><tt>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut blandit justo sed arcu euismod euismod.
</tt><div>

5 years of latin and I'm still completely useless to translate this T_T

That's because Lorem ipsum isn't Latin: http://www.lipsum.com/

yyyyes it is >_> the link you posted seems to say it is. taken from a passage written by Cicero in 45bc, or taken from random latin words in order to test type face.

Being way too lazy and sucky at latin to translate it, I shoved it through a translator to check, and a little more than half the words you typed came back translated. The sentence itself still makes no sense, which I'm thinking is what you meant ... that it's just random words in Latin, and not a sentence of Latin.

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Most countries that have elected officials have a conservative and liberal party. Very likely, I think, we will do what America has done many times in the past: The current conservative party disintegrates and the liberal party splits forming a new one.

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well America used to have different parties than it does now. The republican party used to be the progressive one. But eventually campaigning for "3/5 votes for blacks!" became the conservative thing to do, not the liberal thing.

Once a party goes conservative, it is dying. The new liberal party will overtake it and eventually itself become conservative, only to be replaced by another new liberal party.

At least ... that's what I recall from US history back in high school.

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yea, that is true. and it's true that most of the people in conservative parties are old and most of the people in progressive ones are young.

so yea, it's a good analogy.

What do you call a Conservative who hasn't been robbed at gunpoint yet? A Liberal.

hassa reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States#Historical_political_parties

"The remainder of the conservative movement believes that in order to secure their own place in the world they must deny someone else theirs."

That has to be the BEST description of a stereotypical conservative I have ever heard (whether it's true or not is up for debate, but that is the impression I share). You sir, win.

I really have no idea what makes them tick. My dad is a devout republican, and even managed to get me to vote for Bush before I had my -own- set of values. We have debates all the time. I graduated with a degree in physics and minor in economics, so I can hold my own in any debate that is grounded in reason. He is a science oriented person, too, and assures me that the creationists will eventually die out in favor of evolution.

I think that, from our discussions, he is looking for lower taxes and more money and is willing to compromise any set of values to get it. This makes no sense to me. With my background in economics I have explained to him several reasons why higher taxes, or rather more regulations, might actually get him more money by improving the economy, or just won't effect him at all (for instance: higher taxes on consumer goods force the sellers to lower their prices). By the end of my explanation he just got mad and started yelling.

I think his driving force in all this is that he wants more freedom. Freedom of business, freedom to bare arms, freedom from taxation. Again, this makes little sense to me, because even though the republicans favor those freedoms, they limit freedom by limiting civil rights: gay marriage, abortion, etc.

I don't know if this helps you in your quest to understand republicans. I think that the primary problem is that they do not understand why certain things that the government does are beneficial.

PS. we don't make enough money for our taxes to have gone up under Obama. So that argument makes even less sense than I thought it did.

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haha, still made me smile :)

I think there IS a fair bit of brain washing involved. If you vote this way, you don't love America. If you don't strip all market regulations, you're a communist. etc.

For me, it was my parents endlessly complaining about certain government institutions being over-funded and getting nothing done. Which is still an issue, but not the only issue.

How do we ever know if our values are our own until we look back on them with hindsight?

Exactly this. People who do not reflect, who are not very self-aware, simply mirror the things that excite them or otherwise pull on their more exciting emotions (fear, anger, lust, et cetera). People on TV speaking loudly in angry tones of voice about fearful things excite them and draw their attention in ways they don't realize; and once they've decided something is fact (because the loud, angry talking head said it was) they don't want to re-examine it so much as they want to reinforce it.

They see themselves as Defenders of Marriage. (Video behind that link. lots of laffs.)

Seriously, though... There's a lot of rage there in the GOP. Anger at a lot of things, and it's important to remember that all anger is just fear with a mask on, and the GOP is *scared*.

Part of the problem is that they're conservatives, and most of their platform has gone straight down the toilet because things NEED to change.

The grand experiment with free markets stripped of oversight will probably be a millstone around their necks far longer than the name of Bush Jr.

The abortion that is the War On Terror has probably recruited far more extremists than it has wiped out, and the balance of power in the middle east resembles a top on its last wobble thanks to our removal of two regimes. They've also done a really shitty job in planning ahead, knowing the culture and how it'll react and knowing when and how to get ourselves out.

Anybody capable of lining up facts (We'll set aside the Roves and the Limbaughs who put on blinders intentionally) might still be loyal to the party ideology, but they can't help but recognize that the party as a whole (or possibly as a hole) been doing a really shitty job in applying it effectively. Maybe the GOP bigwigs are seeing the national shift away from the old "Family Values" hypocrisy, and realizing that it's their only link to much of their remaining demographic, and panicking. When you can't argue from rational points, you argue from emotion. There's still a lot of latent homophobia out there, and rather than see a Useful Tool fade into obscurity, they're clinging like grim death to the notion that fags are horrible, dirty, child-molesting monsters who deserve no rights.

There's the cynical answer also, which is: the conservative/GOP/evangelical gangbang has made Gay Bashing INTO an acceptable christian activity, in order to ease the sense of cognitive dissonance of both discriminating against a certain group, and in not participating in things like soup kitchens where they might need to actually interact with icky poor people. (I know this doesn't speak for everybody, and that there are hordes of Good Christians out there, (i know plenty) but much like the Furry Fandom, it's the assholes, the loudmouths, and the nutjobs who get the majority of the press coverage and make the rest of the group look bad.)

I think the leaders of terrorist organizations KNOW that picking on a conservative got them the new sign ups it did. I think it was a well thought out and effective plan that they unfurled just at the right time to the right guy who'd fall for it.

2M4M and teabaggers ... oh dear -_-;;;

I mean , it's not even like these are SUPER recent expressions either o.O;;

I think that most republicans are SO scared of social changes and stuff like that that they're ready to risk economy if they can prevent the world from changing from what they know and used to.

Pretty much the same reason a lot of baby booomers freak out at the prospect of being eventually replaced by someone else who is much younger than them and will even in some case give them a hard time in hopes of them giving up the job. Even if they're about to go for their pension.

In short , an extreme case of comfort zone.

Comfort zones being something that gays (especially furries) are EXPERTS at violating ^_^

I'm personally all for individuals, regardless of their sex, being together in marriage. It can mean a lot more than just being a "couple," and being able to show that to the world and in a court of law.

With marriage also comes a lot of legal paperwork and good and bad tax-related things that go along with it. I've experienced going through prep work of wedding, and it's never something I want to do. Ever watch someone go through and deal with a divorce? I've not dealt with it personally, but I've watched several people go through it, and I'm honestly happier being with someone and living together than to ever have to go through the potential of that.

Personally, I don't want to get married. I have no problem with others being married. I sometimes have trouble getting through to someone inquiring why I don't want to be married. The same with why I don't want to have children. I'm not child-less, but child-free.

Personally, I don't want to get married. I have no problem with others being married. I sometimes have trouble getting through to someone inquiring why I don't want to be married. The same with why I don't want to have children. I'm not child-less, but child-free.

I didn't always know it, but once I thought about the personal, financial and legal obligations of marriage (and possibly having kids), I made a decision that neither was what I wanted to put myself and a prospective mate through.

I've attempted to explain to my mother why I will be forever single and free from children of my own. I doubt I'll ever succeed. That's just as well; she knows changing my mind to suit her preferences is similar to drawing blood from a stone. :o)

You don't have to be married, but it's not bad to be with someone. If you want to be more flexible and be single that works too.

My mom a year and some ago asked me if I wanted help paying for a wedding. I told her that it was appreciated, but if she wanted to help pay for a house it'd be more than welcomed.

Because these people are in a "war" mode. They're patriotic, and altruistic, and they're concerned about being seen as a "Good Person" in the eyes of God and their neighbors. And their pastor, who they're told is the voice of the church, says what is a sin and what is not. And the pastor says abortion is a sin. Perhaps a necessary evil, but a sin nonetheless. And they are in a war with the other party, so their pastor says. The people on the TV (and not any Ted Turner Communist News Network, no sirree) tell them that this is a war on Christians and Christianity and the good moral values this country was founded upon. And even though they're not going to actually die, the "good people" believe that they must be seen fighting the good fight. So the townspeople vote as if they were predestined, and as if they were rich people, which by rights they should be anyway.

That's why people vote Republican and shoot themselves in the collective foot. :|

I actually heard that the NOM ad was running on purchased spaced on CNN and MSNBC. I have not confirmed this for myself.

I find that most of the people I've actually met who share some proportion of opinion with 'NOM' do so for one dangerous and overriding reason: they are willing to believe what another person says without addressing the facts themselves.

My parents fall into this category. The one discussion I've had with them on a related topic was littered with other people's opinions and sounded nothing like how my parents actually talk. Thinking something through for one's self seems to be more-and-more an endangered pasttime.

There is a certain class of people who are so empowered already, and who have been so empowered for the past hundred years, that they honestly never saw the need for empowerment through the Internet.

And then there is the staggering percent of Republicans who actually believe that they're in that class.

you made my day, giza

this organization is just the most downright evil thing ever :I

Because it's all about expressing dominance and unfounded hatred and using a nationally recognized community to justify it.

I work with conservative sorts, and frankly, coming home and reading this helped to heal 8 hours worth of annoyance from dealing with these types.

FWIW, the teabaggers put tea bags in plain envelopes with letter postage, and our machines have been shredding them right and left...

FWIW, the teabaggers put tea bags in plain envelopes with letter postage, and our machines have been shredding them right and left...

May I quote this in my own journal?

Edited 2009-04-15 05:02 (UTC)

I would be honored!

Those, and the red envelope mailers are the bane of my shift...both things are impossible for machines to read, and constantly clog up the cancelers.

Make sure you put this into the proper context, though.

I suspect the machines themselves are getting jammed by envelopes stuffed with teabags, then shredding them as they get shoved through by the backup behind them.

The way this reads, it looks as if the shredding is being done deliberately.

Be very, VERY careful with something like this, it only takes a half-spoken rumor to send the USPS into an investigation. And far less than that to send conservatives into a panic-attack, with Glen Beck shrieking about how the post office has been infiltrated by Liberal Commie Democrats who are destroying YOUR TEABAGS!!1101011

Context as given focuses on durability of packaging.

My somewhat too innocent husband, had to have most of this explained to him. His response was a "Why don't they send something that truly gets taxed, like Hummers?" Hummers, coupled with a teabagging reference sent me into a peal of laughter he did not fully understand.

Actually, the progressive linguistics expert George Lakoff has had some interesting things to say to this effect: http://tinyurl.com/dkb324

You and i recognize that love is love no matter what equipment someone has had the (mis)fortune to be born with, and see same gender marriage relationships as being about nurturing and honoring a committed long term relationship, not unlike interracial marriages. Conservatives, i believe, still feel that love isn't really love if it doesn't come in the hetero strain, so they see same gender marriage as honoring a relationship between two people who lack the discipline to find members of the appropriate gender, which to them makes it not a proper long term relationship at all--rather like wedding a junkie to his/her pusher, i suppose.

As for why now...I dunno; for those very rich who are still somewhat insulated from the effects of this economic crisis, maybe it's not that big a thing. And of course everyone has their pet issues that are automatic high priorities for them. And in the midst of a loss of economic control and threats of a shift of power away from the multinational corporations conservatives so love, maybe it's refreshing to think about a part of your life you still feel like you're on top of.

It does seem bizarre to me that an organization's PR person, even a conservative one, wouldn't check for alternate meanings to their jargon before creating it, of course. But then i guess some jargon gets created so quickly and organically that no one stops to think the phrase might mean something different to someone else. Ages ago, i think i ran across an alternate definition for keapano's "frabbit" in the urban dictionary that i'm sure he never intended.

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Ah, those silly Republicans who don't get technology

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