but my favorite is The John Derp Society.

after the dude at the White House with their flag finally proved.

...and you are right, we can always use the picture of that fool with the US Marines flag on one side and the Confederate flag on the other. That one picture sums them up nicely: ignorant, and proud of it.

Though they'd probably think of it as only an insult, the Tea Party is the ideological descendant of the of the confederacy. They have the same world view and the same nihilistic tactics. It's not fair to them, or to Communists, or Trotsky-ites, to smear them as all the same thing. We should fight ignorance with knowledge, and falseness with truth. We are seeing the rise of the neo-Confederacy, and we need to recognize the danger that puts us in.

They would take that moniker and wear it with pride....not realizing that in doing so...they have just called themselves a proven enemy of the U.S. Government!

They proudly call themselves all sorts of names "Red Neck" as an example...The truly rabid members of the Tea Party would gladly identify as Confederates. Consider the backdrop of the fact they didn't stop even when it became common knowledge that the very term they chose to define themselves was the name of a sex act they would all find objectionable... (Teabagger). They are so blatant with their racism now....I think they wouldn't bat an eye to be called a Confederate.

and I also think this is an excellent way to finally break them from the Republican Party. Moderate Republicans would shy away from that name...the Teabaggers would not....but while the Teaparty consider themselves part of the Republican Establishment....the Republican Establishment would not be so welcoming of a group of people gladly calling themselves that.

And Neo-Confederates works too....either would be fine.

its way more accurate definition anyway.

The Frankenstein creation of Koch fueled Bircherism.

It would be funny if one of those deli's/restaurants named a burger or sandwhich:

The Stalinbagger - The Frankenstein creation of Koch fueled Bircherism. Served with a side of used tea bags and a pickle.

I'm not even going to get into the blatant red-baiting contained in this post (which frankly is all too common on this site but particularly repugnant from a progressive I respect).

You are proposing that we take words that have developed a certain connotation in this country and apply them in order to demonize a portion of the republican party. Is that really smart? That makes it even easier for the old guard of the party to say "we just have a few extremists" and move on from there. You're helping them.

ReTHUGs

flows together

Whatever we call them we just need to get them the hell out of offfice ...

but I'll need more in the way of explanation for comparison of the 'baggers to Stalinism. From my perspective, there are more similarities between them - along with their corporate masters - and fascism.

I agree I think baggers tend to be more like fascist then Stalinist. But the fascist comparison would be lost on them Hitlerism might work but every one (including me) uses the Nazi Hitler comparison. Sometimes its nice to be different for a bit.

But Stalinism, implies communist Russia, the USSR, baggers hate commies and much as they hate everything not white. In a sick school yard way its fun sometimes to toss right back them what they have been calling us for the last 40 years. Liberals are commie socialist wimps.

That is why I find Stalinist a better term for baggers, even though they are more like the Nazi's then Stalin.

...because man, does that shoe fit this group. From the racism, to the militarism, to the blind nationalism....

and also that the comparison is no more apt when referring to their corporate benefactors and the brownshirts teabaggers, who would be wise to consider the fate of the 'useful idiots' who were instrumental in the Nazis' rise to power.

A huge chunk of them would love it if we just went back to the day of the Old South, where a few wealthy, white landowners ruled everything, and where one was able to own people. Only these current assholes would be just as happy to own people of any skin shade.

Besides, the teabaggers are obviously fascists.

Yes, let's use the F word.

Having said that, Lakoff is absolutely right that we should not validate these people's attempt to hijack a great moment in American history. If they had been around in 1776, they would have been Tories.

Yep, if we're going to rename, let's rename with and for accuracy. These guys are MUCH closer to the fascists than they are to any Red. Even Stalin. And that tough for this Trotskyist to say.

As if socialism and socialist figures aren't demonized enough in this country.

I'm not sure about Stalinist - the teabaggers are more fascist than communist...

...starting with their name (they called themselves "teabaggers" originally, until they discovered that other meaning).

If you want to get a dig in, call them "The Yippies of the Right". Avoid generally associating them with mass murderers (but pointed comparisons have their use, such as their Soviet-grade historical rewrites).

It also better emphasizes a point: the 60s radicals on the Left never had anywhere near as much political power as those today on the Right. And at least their hallucinations stopped once they came down off of acid trips. What's the Right's excuse?

Use terms that will isolate the wingnuts and goad everyone else to move away from them.

Or neo-Birchers.

And hammer home the fact that the Tea Party was founded by a offspring of a founding Bircher.


The country was able to marginalize the Birchers. People understand the negative connotation.

No? Then they're not Trotskyist or Stalinist.

Let's call anti-intellectualism, hatred of socialism, police state advocates, and social control what it is: fascism.

But honestly, the answer to ignorance about fascism and popular misconceptions is educating people about it. Find Eco's essay on Ur-Fascism or any other analysis and draw point-by-point comparisons.

Reductio ad Hitlerum is only a logical fallacy when the comparisons aren't valid or fascism is used as an epithet rather than in its actual historical use.

What bugs me about appropriating Trotskyism or Stalinism for this purpose is that it's essentially surrendering to American ignorance and, worse, exploiting the decades-long socialist-demonizing red scares of the Cold War. It ends up further turning people off when they learn some of what we as socialists advocate tends to fall under the -isms we (incorrectly) used to disparage a group.

Or maybe the "Khomeini-ites."

Maybe the "Mussolini wing?"

From your link, "How Stalin Funded the Tea Party Movement"

"I would rather live under a bridge than live under socialism”

—tea bagger slogan

Poor tea trolls What ignorant tools these teabaggers are.

snip//

"But the Tea Party movement—and Koch family’s obscene wealth—go back more than half a century, all the way to grandpa Fredrick C. Koch, one of the founding members of the far-rightwing John Birch Society which was convinced that evil socialism was taking over America through unions, colored people, Jews, homosexuals, the Kennedys and even Dwight D. Eisenhower."

snip//

“We are the world’s greatest market, and we are prepared to order a large amount of goods and pay for them,” Joseph Stalin told an American journalist in 1932. Stalin wasn’t kidding. From 1926 to 1929, the Soviet oil industry bought $20 million worth of equipment from America. And Koch was about to get in on the action."

Thanks for this, Faryn.. the more we know about our enemies the better it is to fight them. Freaking Libertarian Hypocritical Greedy Bullshit.

I've been calling them teakochs as of late.