The Wing-Nut Code: What Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Are Really Saying to Their Followers

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
Posted on September 2, 2009, Printed on September 12, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/142333/

Editor's note: As members of the Tea Party and patriot movements march and rally in Washington, D.C., on September 12, they will be out in full regalia, and you can expect the speeches to be loaded with code -- signals to various factions of their coalition, some of them armed, to mobilize politically on specific issues (health-care reform, energy reform, net neutrality) and against President Obama himself. Here's a glossary of the symbols and shorthand likely to be employed in this weekend's smoke-and-mirrors display of purported right-wing power.

When Glenn Beck offers an odd-looking icon for his 9-12 Project, or Sarah Palin says something about her native state that sounds a bit to off-kilter to the ears of those in the lower 48, it's tempting to think, well, they're just nuts.

Perhaps they are, but that's beside the point. The point is that when Beck throws up a graphic of a segmented snake as his project's mascot, or Palin speaks of her native land as the "sovereign" state of Alaska, they're blowing a kind of dog-whistle for the armed and paranoid who make up the right-wing, neo-militia "Patriot" movement and the broader "Tea Party" coalition.

The loose affiliation of right-wing groups under the Tea Party umbrella can make it difficult to discern who's truly dangerous, and who's just an angry blowhard.

For instance, in its report about the resurgence of the militia movement, the Southern Poverty Law Center notes that a Minuteman militia in Southern California uses the Tea Party anthem as its call to arms.

Scott Roeder, the militant anti-abortion activist who is charged with the killing of Dr. George Tiller, counts himself among the members of the patriot movement.

But in Pittsburgh earlier this month, I sat among a group of disgruntled senior citizens at a conference sponsored by the astroturf group, Americans for Prosperity, who probably don't spend their weekends training for a war with the government, but nonetheless consider themselves to be part of the Tea Party coalition -- and perhaps even the patriot movement. Nonetheless, when conference speakers made reference to gun rights, they received heartfelt applause.

The Tea Party coalition is mobilizing for what it promises will be a big march on Washington on Sept. 12. As the date approaches, expect to hear more disguised shout-outs to patriots and tea-partiers, as right-wing politicians seek to placate the hordes said to be on their way to the nation's capitol.

Members of the far-right Tea Party and patriot movements love the iconography of the American Revolution. They fancy themselves as "patriots" in the mold of Ethan Allen and Charles Gadsden -- men who led militias against the troops of England's despotic King George III.

Yet much of their ideology stems from the states' rights philosophy of the Confederacy in the Civil War, and sometimes the ideas and symbols of the two wars are drawn together in a tangle of rage.

Some self-described "patriots" take part in the resurgent militia movement, but many do not. However, gun enthusiasts are rife in their ranks, and many view their role as one of "resistance" to what they see as government encroachment in their lives.

They oppose virtually all forms of taxation and almost anything run by the government. (Hence, the title of the site run by Grassfire.org known as ResistNet.)

Here are some words and images used by right-wing political and media figures as signals to the patriot and Tea Party constituencies, signals used to organize the throngs against health care legislation, environmental reforms and all things identified with President Barack Obama.

1. Snakes! -- Even before the American Revolution, the rattlesnake -- native to North America -- was a potent symbol for the American colonies. The patriot movement has appropriated the use of a number of Revolutionary War militia flags that feature rattlesnakes, often accompanied by the words, "Don't Tread On Me."

Continued....

http://www.alternet.org/politics/142333/the_wing-nut_code%3A_what_glenn_beck_and_sarah_palin_are_really_saying_to_their_followers/

here's a taste...

Patriots? Really?
The fantasy Armageddon, if it does happen, will be the shortest and most embarrassing revolution in history. The suckers don't even know what TIME it is, let alone the year. Americans who truly believe in the words of the constitution, instead of, misinterpreting it to suit their sickness, will wipe them off like the stain on freedom they are. And we outnumber them a million to one.
So try it, shitheads. The quicker we get this out of the way, the sooner we can continue building the country the majority of us want. And all their bitching about it won't change a thing, in the long run. By the way, you're using OUR flags and slogans, so put 'em away. You ruining their historical meanings and shaming yourselves.
The un-American whining can and will reach a fever pitch. These fringe element, frightened caucasians have been in the wings even before GWB managed to steal the election from us , starting lying, thumping Bibles and waving flags to distract these idiots from what the rest us tried our best to expose. The rape and pillage of our country while throwing our sons and daughters into the meat grinder to make their friends rich. The byproduct of empowering the primarily white, "Real Americans" has been the continued delusion they are the true inheritors of this country's legacy and the rest of us are stealing from them. It's the accumulative of years of passive agressive, arm chair racists, stewing in hate and being spoonfed bile and lies from a corporate controlled Right Wing media, and you can bet, the more deranged of the bunch will most certainly try violence as it's a big part of their white, good ol' boy fantasy and it's been sanctioned by the shitty little media puppets from Fox and other slanted sources meant to feed this kind of crap.

But the fact is they will be just another short, shameful piece of American history for our descendants, including theirs, to explain to their children while warning them about the inherent dangers of living in a free country. The self entitled idea of a white person being the only one with the right to be our President is dead and gone, whether they like it or not and no manufactured excuses about "Obamacare", death camps, corporate theft enabling, (where the HELL were these idiots during the Bush years? I'll tell you. Cheering "Mission Accomplished" signs and speeches, waving little American flags made in China, thats where.)
They want to fight? Bring it. Learn how far the "REAL" Americans will go to uphold the true meaning of what this country was founded for.
Unity, cooperation and determination under threat by any enemy, foreign, OR domestic. This means you, Gomer
Be warned. Some of us are armed, too.
Have a nice day, dinosaur boy. Your agenda is slated for extinction and we are your f-ing asteroid.

and, maybe i'm not finding the really awful ones... but my initial impression is that the rhetoric i see on alternet and topix (via the Orlando Sentinel) is way more inflammatory and racist than what is being discussing between these guys in the comfort of their own forums.

just an initial impression -- give me another hour and i'll likely change my tune.

"They want to fight? Bring it. Learn how far the "REAL" Americans will go to uphold the true meaning of what this country was founded for.

Unity, cooperation and determination under threat by any enemy, foreign, OR domestic. This means you, Gomer

Be warned. Some of us are armed, too.

Have a nice day, dinosaur boy. Your agenda is slated for extinction and we are your f-ing asteroid.

:patriot: :yourock:

The article mentions the colonies numbering in eight (N.E. standing for New England and Delaware and Georgia missing) in the cartoon. In actuality, New England colonies (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, at the time) were already united with each other against the French but not with the other colonies and Delaware and Georgia had little to do with the war as of yet as Delaware is not yet involved in the conflict as it's shielded by Maryland and Georgia is too far south and too unpopulated to be a focus of the French. The article mentions that there are only eight colonies at this point, which is wrong. (They aren't even the first eight for that matter.)


...Nitpicking I know, but it's still best to have the facts straight at all times.