The Trouble With Wingers (With Apologies To Alfred Hitchcock)

Last edited Fri Jun 13, 2014, 04:37 AM - Edit history (1)

If you love movies like me, then you'd probably love the work of the great director, Alfred Hitchcock. One of his lesser known films, besides his other iconic classics such as PSYCHO, THE BIRDS and REAR WINDOW, is a little black comedy he did called THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048750/

Basically, it's about a dead body lying prone out in the Vermont woods and everyone and anyone who stumbles upon it can't seem to figure out what killed the guy and what to do with his corpse. Check it out, if your can; Hitch NEVER disappoints. And of course, Hitch's theme in that fine movie was that it's highly problematic to have one corpse lying about, as one can only imagine the horror of several of them out in the open, even if that one is juxtaposed against an idyllic Vermont woodland backdrop. It's not all too difficult to consider that the basic axiom about corpses is that they tend to stink up the joint unless you do something about them. Corpses, even the fresh ones, are not pleasant things to have around for long and usually they require some kind of immediate intervention.

You know, when I first decided to write this joint, that movie was the very first thing that popped into my head to use as a metaphor. And when I thought about it more closely, the more I decided that it was most likely to be as spot as just about anything else. Now bear in mind that I'm about to take a corpse metaphor for a ride, so believe you me, it's going to be a rock and roller, and I'm not planning on playing nice.

One other thing before I really get started: Now as I'm writing this piece exactly one month after signing up on The Discussionist and during that time having interacted with its various other members of all political stripes; Left, Right, Indies, Libertarians and some that seem to move from one position in the vast political spectrum to another at a drop of a hat, I've had the opportunity to see with shining clarity, that there is an actual difference between posters who are truly Conservative and those others who are of the Far Right Wing persuasion of Conservative politics. Real Conservatives appear to be basically reasonable individuals at times, whereas Wingers seem to not be attuned that particular category at all. Unfortunately, they're both joined at the hip and it's a rare to see an actual Conservative tell a Winger to go take a hike. A misbehaving Winger has to really go out of his or her way to say or do some really horrible and reprehensible shit before being admonished by their plain old, everyday, run-of-the-mill Conservative cohorts. But, that's THEIR problem. That's who they choose to consort with. It's a sort of Faustian Pact that they have with each other, to be discussed at some other time, of course. So just to clarify, this essay is not about plain old Conservatives; it's strictly about that particular sub-segment of rocket scientists called Wingers. I'm not conflating the two.

Anyway, back to corpses: I must say that, after spending a month on the new forum, I can't think of a better metaphor for the ideology of those who belong to the Far Right Wing as anything other than your basic rotting, stinking corpse. Basically, Winger ideology, like rotting corpses, messes up any environment that it happens to be in and it's not a good idea to let it stay for long amongst mixed company and not do anything about it. Perhaps I'm making a mistake by assuming that the Wingers on the Discussionist are typical of all other Wingers out there, but I haven't seen anything to suggest otherwise. And it's not enough to just suggest that Wingers are bad… No, no, no, it looks like they're far beyond plain old bad. What has to be said is that it's quite clear, from having someplace on the net to freely talk to them, observe their habits and ways of thinking, I know without any shadow of a doubt, that those ostensibly hateful motherfuckers could be BY FAR THE WORST GOD DAMNED PEOPLE ON THE PLANET and it wouldn't be that far off the mark to say that the lot of them might even be stone cold CRAZY.

And several of the most vocal of them actually possess the unmitigated gall to complain about DU, a place where they are neither wanted, nor want to be, or are able to spend any time here without quickly flaming out like a misfired Roman candle of spiteful trollishness.

Now say what you will about your fellow DUers. DUers love to argue and quibble about the finer details of obscure minutiae. Many of you are even highly defensive about your own pet causes; several of you resent one thing or another said by another DUer for what ever reason and won't hesitate to have a heated discussion about it. Some of you may not even like the tone of this very essay that you've taken the time out of your busy schedule to read… Thank you, anyway. BUT, one thing that I can say about most DUers is that you guys are not in any danger at all of turning into complete fucking assholes in order to adhere to some grossly inanimate and rotting corpse of an ideology, as what seems to be going on with our Winger friends. DUers - most - as we all know and some of us have painfully learned, basically know what the fuck we're talking about. If you're going to last on this site for any amount of time, knowing what you're talking about is highly imperative, because if you don't, then many other DUers won't hesitate to point out to you in detail where they think you've fucked up.

And that, my friends, is the best thing about this place… The constant bickering. Shit, I wouldn't have it any other way. Not for the fact that you ARE bickering, but in that WAY that you do bicker. You bicker about ideas and concepts. You do what you can to bicker from a knowledgeable perspective. You try your best to respect the person with whom you're bickering; if not, then you undergo the appropriate consequences. Most of you don't rely on crib notes and talking points and really shitty prejudices. There are exceptions, of course, but none of that is the rule here. The key thing about bickering from a left-liberal perspective, as it happens on DU, is that it serves as a vetting process to weed out the rotting corpses of Wingerism from our ranks.

But take away all of that, all of the rules about properly applied oppositional discourse, civility, intelligence, knowledge, consideration, self-awareness, compassion… All of the things that make the DU experience what it is, and then add some people who are quite possibly the worst motherfuckers on the planet, and you could end up with the ideological Winger faction on The Discussionist. God damn it, if they are in real life as they appear to be in that forum, then they are some truly horrible people, of whom you would never want to be around in any capacity.

Several DUers and even some ex-DUers are there holding the fort. Even some who were weeded out of DU for violating the TOS here too many times in heated confrontations. However, joining up there has given me the opportunity to catch up with some old friendly faces. I appreciate that. Now, I'm not saying that we should bring the exes back, perhaps DU is the better for their departure, maybe not. But, that's not the point, folks. The point, however, is that any ONE ex-DU liberal usually turns out to be a thousand times better than any ten Wingers on that site. Our "naughty" Liberals freely reveal themselves to be better human fucking beings than any Winger who has survived on the Discussionist for this first month. That's saying a whole hell of a lot, ain't it?

It was not easy at all coming up with this essay; because I had to depend on the ones who were in constant attendance, despite the transient nature of Wingers on the site. That attendance hasn't been all that stable during this first month for various reasons and there have been some serious Winger flame outs, starting with the very first day. The rest of them appear to be only slightly better than the flame-outs and many of them are on a shaky lifeline as it is. Yet, through my observations, I've had the opportunity to learn more about wingers in the last month than I have about them in my last fifteen years on the internet. Now granted, The Discussionist is not necessarily a native Winger habitat, but it's the next best thing to one, in which several types of stimuli are implemented and their reactions to that stimuli are observed. So, I've decided to spell it all out, right here and right now, my own observations. Take it, I'm being as brutally honest as I can be, but if you think that I'm full of shit, have at me. I can handle criticism. Oh, and by the way, I'm not going give two fucks of a billy goat, caring about whether or not they're reading this essay, it is what it is.

Now let's go down this shitty laundry list of fifteen observations that detail how and why their ideology may be no better than that of a stinking, rotting corpse, shall we?

1. Most of them appear to be fucking morons. Most, I said, not all. There are a few of them who seem slightly more intellectually capable of being better than morons. For those happy few, dumbassery is just a hobby, I suppose, one that they simply practice on the Internet for conversational masturbation. However, the rest of them read as if most of their neurons have gone on a wildcat strike and the barely functioning remainders serve as nothing more than as incompetent scabs, impairing their cognitive abilities so severely that they can barely operate their own autonomic nervous systems, much less make a cogent point.

2. They seem to freely behave as if they are a bunch of seriously proud-assed racist bastards. They appear to waddle like racist bastards, they make sounds that quack like racist bastards, they even appear to flock together with other racist bastards. But, oh no, don't point out to them that they are giving off the impression that they are in fact racist. Because, then right there, they will have a bonafide conniption fit over having any apparent racist bullshit called out. It's quite clear that they think that the worst thing in the world that can be done to them is to call them racist, rather than the fact that they look as if they're freely wallowing in all of the actual racist things that they believe in and write about. Their actions and words come off to make their racism seem perfectly justifiable and appropriate, as they freely whitesplain every negative stereotype that they claim to hold about minorities. They appear to homestead on fucked up conclusions, I'm sure, quite possibly from years of practice at being complete fucking morons and unapologetic assholes.

3. At the slightest nudge they all appear to possess a skin so thin that every one of them can slice atoms into nanometrically sized slivers with it. They easily give off the impression that they are, by far, the most butt hurt, suspiciously self-persecuted, whiny-assed cry-baby victims ever. To that extent you can postulate that for them victimization is a blood rite, a righteous honor passed down from their forefathers and a hallowed sacrament. Despite the ostensively sheer gauntness of their exocutaneous membranes, they won't hesitate to don them as if they're some kind of reinforced armor, and then enthusiastically sally forth in rhetorical combat against their heathenistic Liberal adversaries.

4. Most of them behave as if they are chronically self-unaware. Those are the ones who seem to have absolutely no idea how they come across to other people. Others, of course, are just plain trolls and they know that they're trolls. Trolls will be trolls, OK? But whether the apparent self-unaware ones are cruel, sadistic, obtuse, racist, lacking in any sympathy, uninformed or misinformed by Right Wing agit-prop, angry, or just plain mean spirited, they go around acting as if their demonstrated fucked up attitudes are as delightfully innocent and inoffensive as a light spring rain shower. They either act as if they're taken aback by the rejections of their assholery and fuckery, or they're faking it in order to rely on their penchant of playing the ever loving victim. Either way, it's utterly disgusting to behold in action. Which brings us to the next issue...

5. Most of them seem to have this odd habit of appearing obtuse at any given moment. You can spell out something in fine detail, linked to an unimpeachable and impartial source, written in perfectly cogent and concise English and they will act as if they don't know that you're talking about. That goes hand in hand with the fact that they will act as if THEY don't even know what they've just said at any given point. They will go from post-to-post, contradicting themselves, as if that's supposed to be some kind of sure fire technique to win an argument. I've seen this moving of the goalposts happen repeatedly. And I'm not talking about opinions that are interpreted from one way to the next, I'm talking about things that they, themselves, have cited, like basic fucking arithmetic. I'll give you an example. Just recently, I had a tête-à-tête with some possible racist fuck face who kept posting news crime stories with mostly minority perps. This guy had no idea what message he was sending by doing that, so he said. So he used in his defense his stories with white perps and posted links to each OP, yet they only amounted to seven. I looked through his journal and posted links to SEVENTEEN of his crime story posts about minority perps as a reply to his seven. He mentioned that he couldn't possibly be racist because around thirty percent of his stories were about white perps. When I noted that, by his own estimate, the remaining stories with minority perps actually amounted to SEVENTY PERCENT of his crime story posts, he said that he had NO IDEA where I got that number. He had NO IDEA. What the fuck?!?

6. Cavers ARE the worst of the worst. There's nothing about them that is remotely "Conservative," instead it's an indisputable fact that they ARE ALL Winger trolls. From the site's very first day they proceeded to act like consummate asshole trolls. They then solidified their undying pledge to trollery by flaming out on a site where ones own political ideology has no bearing on ones membership, only ones own BEHAVIOR could jeopardize ones membership. Yet, in spite of all of the leeway that was given to their politics, it was their behavior which proved to everyone that they ARE nothing more than assholes, no matter what they call themselves in their little cave. But then, we all knew that. (Hi, Frank, missed me?)

7. They appear to be demonstrably unswayed by any argument or fact that doesn't come with the freshly decaying aroma of rotting ideological corpses that you'd find in any Right Wing source. Too many of them rely on conspiracy stories from half-assed, racist, lying blogs, Right Wing Radio assholes, The World Nut Daily, The Daily Cesspool and Fox fucking News as if they were the Word of God. They outwardly revel in the fantasies that are peddled to them in the form of the worst garbage imaginable, they seem to absorb it all so that it becomes more real to them than their own actual lives. And when you call them on what looks and smells like complete bullshit and try to pop their bubble by telling them that they could be living in a fantasy world and say that you don't believe one word of anything they're peddling and show them what's proven to be true instead, that really pisses them off for some reason. I can't explain why.

8. They will appear to be as hypocritical as it suits them, without any qualms whatsoever. That goes hand in hand with the fact that they will refuse to decry any horrible thing that one of their Winger heroes has said or has done. They will go out of their way to defend misogyny, racism, sexism, gun violence, rape, illegal wars, racist murdering Teabaggers, predatory banks, bigotry against LGBTs, bigotry against immigrants, defend One Percenters, corporations, defend their utter hatred of American soldiers and their families, defend the entire Bush Crime Family… One of them has even soft-peddled dead fucking NAZI Schutzstaffel (SS) WW ll era concentration camp guards, in order to suit his needs, such as giving Ronald Reagan's rotting corpse a rhetorical hand-job. I posted in some Winger's thread where he was happy talking the Ol' Gipper and I decided to point out the most fucked up thing ever he did, besides every other-fucking-thing he did, and that was the time he laid a wreath on that fucking Nazi SS guard tomb in my old hangout of Bitburg, Germany. Wouldn't you know it, some fucking Winger took that as an opportunity to defend Reagan by soft-peddling the fucking Nazi regime. When I mentioned to him that it wasn't cool to do that, the fucking fuck, and that if he found it necessary to soft-peddle dead fucking Nazis in order to defend dead fucking Reagan, then he should take this as a sign that he needs to reexamine his own priorities. Guess what… WOOSH, right over his pointy, Nazi-defending head. Even after, now get this, I pointed out that REAGAN HIMSELF admitted that he screwed the pooch on that brain dead stunt. In spite of that, I couldn't get through to this Nazi defending bastard that it was wrong. I swear, I could hear the fucking Horst Wessel Lied chiming out of the background in each one of this guy's posts. It was eerie. But can you tell that it pissed me the fuck off?

9. The vast majority of them seem to have absolutely no idea of how the real world functions, or any knowledge of basic civics, or science, or history or anything that refutes their Winger outlook. None of that appears to exist for them. Then again, we all knew that.

10. They sound as if they detest anyone and anything they see as "Liberal," even if it's either good for them or it's good for the country or may not even be Liberal at all (appearances are key here). Rather than as a definition, they use the word like an epithet, spewing from their lips like a pit viper spits venom. Of course, every Liberal looks "evil" to them. But they are the masters of the Straw Man Argument and the Loaded Question, where they concoct some "evil" plan that Liberals are supposedly responsible for implementing, or are guaranteed to implement, only to ask all of the Liberals on site to defend this Liberal "evil" that they've just made up. Of course, when everyone with any sense at all asks them to SOURCE this supposed Liberal "evil," none of them can do it, or they'll use one of those tried and true Winger conspiracy sources. Forget about context; I take that most of them have never even heard of the word. Basically, a lot of them try to make a valid point by looking like lying pieces of shit. They are lies which could be believed wholeheartedly by our Winger friends, I'm sure. But they seem incapable of seeing them as lies. And since we're so fucking EVIL, they make it abundantly clear that if their grannies were Obama voting Liberals, they wouldn't piss on them even if they were on fire. Bring the marshmallows, chocolate and Graham Crackers; it's S'more time, boys!

11. They seem to have this annoying habit of taking the most innocuous thing and turning it into a tirade against Obama, Liberals, minorities, women and just about anyone or anything else that they're permanently pissed off at in any given moment. And they ALWAYS sound pissed off. It never lets up. I can't understand it. How can someone be pissed off at everything all of the fucking time? Why does every fucking thing need to be negatively politicized? Cars? - Obama bailouts. Low wage workers? - They don't deserve a living wage. Taxes? - Money grabbing Liberals. Computers that sound intelligent? - Well, at least they're more intelligent than your average DUer. GUNS, GUNS, GUNS GUNS!!! BENGHAZI!!!! Psychological projection and transference could be terms that were defined for them. They appear to be blinded by the narrow minded and self-reflected prism of utter Wingerism.

12. Most, probably all, of these Wingers could be suspiciously obsessed with DU. I'm not just talking about the Cavers either. (Hi again, Frank, like it so far?) That's all many of them will talk about. It's as if the entire Left, the entire Democratic Party and every Liberal that has ever walked the face of this Earth is somehow a DUer. Which is pretty fucking ridiculous, because I've talked to Democrats and Liberals all of the time who have never heard of the Democratic Underground, much less have ever been a member on this site. But still, they could possibly think that DU is the end all and be all of all things waxed Democratic. I had no idea that this website was that freaking important. But apparently it's more important to them than it is to the gawd-damned Democratic Party itself. As much as they look obsessed about this place, they actually know very little about it. They seem to think that the bickering that goes on here is ultimately a bad thing (well, maybe for them). But it's quite clear that they have no idea how Democrats, Liberals, progressives or whatever we DUers call ourselves communicate with each other, even tersely. And that our way of communication, of which they could be completely incapable of understanding, somehow provides them with hours upon hours of riveting entertainment. To them, it's like a piece Swedish abstract cinema… "I can't understand a word that they're saying, but oh look! Boobies!" Basically, it seems as if they judge the entire left by everything they see on DU. Which makes absolute sense, because if they refuse to read other Liberal news sites and forums, they eschew all Liberal television and media and know very few of Liberals outside of the ones they read about on DU, that would explain everything. If they'll go out of their way to equate all Liberals with DUers, it'll be because they're too fucking dense to know any better.

13. They act as if can't think for themselves. They appear to be frustrated by actual unrehearsed thought. The only thing that they will do is react and they could react to anything if it suits them. And when they do react to whatever, they appear to exhibit enough anger, hostility and persecution complexes to give any private psychological therapist a raging fee-anticipated boner. They are possibly driven and guided by all of their apparent fucked up prejudices and talking points from approved Right Wing sources, more likely than not. There's no demonstrated nuance, compassion, consideration or context with these motherfuckers. They ain't having any of it, it seems, because they already have all of the answers wrapped up in a neat little bow. Even when every single one of their answers are proven as wrong and as fucked up as all get out, they refuse to consider anything else. They could be possibly driven by an underlying fear that the world of intelligent, caring, non-partisan and non-hostile people are all out to get them. Everything and anything can be summed up as either a conspiracy against them, or proof positive that Liberals, with Obama in particular, are poised to destroy God-fearing, gun-loving, white heterosexual male-deferring, Christian America as we know it. It's like swirling shit, going down the same toilet drain. Everything to them is something to be flushed down into their own stinking pit of insecurity and anger.

14. Most of them look like fucking cowards, especially the apoplectic blowhards, once you get to know them. And then yet again, we all knew that.

15 …And last, but not least, Wingers seem to be about as useful as Captain Hook at a gynecologists convention (I looked that one up.) It's a probable conclusion that these people are never ever going to make any fucking sense. If true, they won't have to. They live in a country that already does everything that it can to coddle all of their fucked up prejudices and stupidity, and swaddle them in a comfy bankie of insecurity. By reading them, one could say that they refuse to understand how morally and intellectually incompetent they are and they completely resent anyone who points that prospect out to them. If you're familiar with the Dunning-Kruger Effect, then you'll realize after spending any time dealing with them, that they are like a living petri dish of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action. They appear to be people who cannot recognize how completely uninformed and moronic they are, and they also refuse to recognize competence and intelligence when they see it. They confidently look as if they're proud to be intentional ignoramuses. If that assertion is true, then that is why they object to anything and everything smart, good, compassionate, tolerant, educated and based on real life facts. ALL of that shit would stand directly against EVERYTHING they believe, and they could feel as if they are morally obligated to be hateful, moronic assholes. They give this ongoing impression as if they think that the Constitution and God Almighty has placed them up high on the pedestal of ignorant assholery as both a right and a privilege and neither should ever be questioned. They could believe in their hearts that they are the ONLY chosen ones and the protectors of the American Way of life, even as partisan Republican intransigence is doing everything it can to make the country crumble in ruins on top our heads. And they let on that are perfectly fine with letting that happen, because they seem to be utterly disconnected from the real world and from anyone and everyone that they would traditionally refuse to recognize as worthy souls. If so, then they are their own worst enemies and will refuse to see how they're fucking themselves and everyone else up in the process.

The entire time I've spent with them on the Discussionist has only given me an appreciation of one true and unimpeachable fact about our Winger friends. They never quit, they never say die, even if that particular trait puts them in danger of looking like THE Energizer Bunnies of utter stupidity, hatred and anger. I can only appreciate that single-minded drive they have to possibly turn the entire world around them into their own personal anti-intellectual outhouse. Whatever it is that drives them like a perpetual power source, it's quite clear that it seems to allow them to bang their little drums of utter assholery without missing a beat. Even if I were stop posting there for an entire year, were I to come back, I suppose that the same gaggle of apparently repressed, prejudiced, ignorant assholes will be there, spewing their toxic words like a broken waste treatment plant spews raw, untreated sewage into a nearby river. My problem is that I am just simply too enamored with pissing them off to no end and possibly frustrating them almost to the point of anaphylactic shock. A lot of them, I'm sure, have me on permanent ignore, or they have learned that I take particular delight in giving them the what for and they give me a wide berth in return. I revel in confrontation with those apparent fuckers and I think that I do a modestly good job of handling myself. But to tell you the truth, I've found them to be a bit of a disappointment. I went into the site thinking that I'd have a much more difficult time confronting them than I actually did. But in spite of their apparent persistent assholishness, I've come to see them as nothing more than paper pooches, with more bark than they have bite

Lastly, I know that I'm not really key to anything happening either over there or even over here at DU. Most of you will do perfectly fine without me hanging around, although I'd like to think that you like seeing me around because it's nice to read my writing from time to time. But most of all, you guys and the Lefties on the Discussionist will do fine without me. Which is basically why I really don't give a royal fuck if any of those assholes are reading this. Why should I care? What the fuck are they going to do to me? And it's not as if any of them will either understand or even use what this essay is all about, still, I have posted this on DU because, at least here, I'm completely free to say how I feel about what those motherfuckers are standing for.

I don't want anyone to take this essay the wrong way. I didn't write this because I hate them or because I'm afraid of them or even because I want something bad to happen to them. It's not really about them, anyway. It's all about an ideology that I know for a fact is harming all of us. I know that calling them horrible people seems dismissive, and we really can't dismiss Wingers because, if my observations are correct, then there are just too many of them facilitating all of that harm. However, I see the problem in the most straight forward of terms: Ideological Wingerism looks as if it represents just about every harmful aspect that this country has to offer. It is itself horrible because it not only attracts horrible people to it, but it also makes people horrible in order to adhere to it. It fools those people who believe in it that they're doing something good and just, when the complete opposite is true. Some Wingers may not have started out by being horrible people, but if you get stuck in that way of thinking, and start convincing yourself that people like Beck, Jones, Hannity, Levin, Limbaugh and the rest of them are making sense, then you have no choice but to turn yourself into a hateful, paranoid, sexist, racist, homophobic, know-nothing motherfucker. That's EXACTLY the kind of person they want you to be. They are putting their thoughts into your head and there simply isn't any room for common sense and decency. They make you think that that shit is for suckers.

Wingerism can be concluded to be simply bad and wrong by its apparent aspects, and where it shows how to change people into being bad and wrong as well.

But at least I can, in my own small way, confront it in such a target rich environment. Sure, I know that I'm not really doing anything all that important to change the situation with this essay and hanging out on websites, I'm just writing about it and posting it on DU right now. Another day, I'll be doing something else as inconsequential as having a back and forth with some Winger on the DIscussionist. But when I'm ready to go toe to toe with the rotting corpse of Right Wing ideology, I've got ready access to a place where I can take it on and have fun doing it, but it's not going to stop them from being Winger assholes that they so happily appear to be. The truth is that I just want to have some fun and there really is no point unless it IS fun. Yet, if I can ever convince at least ONE Winger to leave that life of being an assholish troll and perhaps matriculate over into being a plain old Conservative, I have to say that it was all worth it. Lesser miracles have happened, you know. Jesus only walked on water. But even though I'll never be a messiah, I'm always going to have fun here on DU and I will as well if I stay there on the Discussionist too, in the ways that each place allows of course. But, I'm usually not a confrontational person, yet if they want to play, I'm always ready to oblige them. Some of them have practically begged me to deal with their bullshit beliefs and value systems, and I make myself available to them. Perhaps I should consider it an honor that they take the time to even care. They don't have to bump heads with me, but if they do, I'll do the best I can in those situations. One has to bring ones "A" Game in all cases, you know?.

Be that as it may, I now have two separate playgrounds, with two separate and easily distinguishable purposes. As I've said before, I know what the differences are between these two places and I'm perfectly fine with it: DU is my home front and the Discussionist is my battlefield. Two places to dwell are better than one.

This is it. So carry on my friends and future friends! Carry on! May ALL your own battles be happy ones.

Take care, everybody!