Sound familiar???

[rbond]

TZ, I would watch your show!!

[Joiseygirl]

Calling the Tea Party, teabaggers is name calling, Google teabagging to see what it really is.

Oh my!

I'm sure that's not what TZ meant, or did he?

[tz375]

I did reply to that, but the reply has vanished, so maybe I hit the wrong button or someone deleted it.

In answer to that question, I was somewhat aware that some people seem to use the term in a derisive way but I had no idea that it had a particular meaning with sexual connotations. To be honest, I have no idea how anyone could use that term in that context because there is no way it makes any sense. From what I could see, teh "rude" version of the term is not regarded as a derogatory term in that context and how they could read it across to a political group and make it into a derisive term is all very strange.

As far as I can tell the tern Tea Bagger is derived from conflation of two terms "Tea party" and "Sand Bagger". In the corporate world we use the term Sand Bagging to mean that we have overstated costs in the short term to protect the longer term. ie we have shored up the numbers to protect from future bad news. The less polite interpretation is that we basically lied to influence the outcome.

The other use of Sand Bagging is to use excessive force to coerce someone to do something they would not otherwise do.

Combine those two and Tea Party and and you get Tea Baggers. It means the Tea Party fudge the explanation to coerce people to act in a way that they wouldfd not otherwise act. They say one thing and don't necessarily act the way they claim they will.

As a general term it is mildly insulting but not particularly so and we don't have another term to use. Tea Party members isn't accurate because there is no political party called the tea party, so that doesn't apply. Conservatives? Well that's not accurate either. Christian fundamentalists - well in some cases probably but that's not a good description. People with a strongly libertarian leaning, that wish to dismantle unions and government and allow corporations to run the country? That applies to many but probably not a good term either.

In terms of supporter, it's no easier to come up with a general description except that they generally believe that "government" is too big and that "government spending is out of control". Why do they believe that? IS it because they have studied teh data from teh CBO and understand the underlying issues - not so much. It's because they are people of faith than they believe that what they have been told is true because so many politicians and large corporations must be telling the truth. That is what faith is.

But they are not alone in that. Most Democrats I speak to and Republicans have their own beliefs that are equally unsound.

The answer to that, as I have said many times, is go and check the facts from multiple sources. Challenge both sides of the argument. Try to make the argument from the other side and see both sides of the equation. Life isn't black and white or binary, it's shades of gray and very complex and we owe to ourselves to understand more about what is happening and how politicians are playing us with half truths, exaggerations and over simplification.

But to loop back to the question, I don't use that term to refer to that deviant behavior. That's just not appropriate and not what I mean.

[Suzukidave]

Q: What's the difference between
Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers,
and threats to society.
The other is for housing prisoners.
--David Letterman

[tz375]

I think that's political...

It's obviously designed to ridicule the current administration, but it also shows how little respect is left for politicians in general. That might explain the 14% approval rating for congress