"LOL," "Nuff said," Corrupt Scientists and Absolute Truth

I love picking conversations apart, figuring out what makes people tick and the latest corporate propaganda routines at the same time. Right now, I'm analyzing the terms "LOL" and "nuff said" and a couple phenomena - corrupt scientists and absolute truth.

The term LOL - "laughing out loud" in Internetspeak - is very familiar to anyone who frequents chatboards. But I have the perception that, in political debates, it's used most frequently by conservatives.

Occasionally, I'll get a blast of hate mail from someone reacting to one of my websites that reads something like this:

"You socialists don't know much about economics do you? LOL!"

On another forum, a right-winger recently posted a message claiming George Bush is fixing the bad economy he inherited from Clinton.

I replied, "Economic surge? Between continuing a continuing corporate crime wave, outsourcing,..."

She replied, "LOL! Eron and all those dot bombs didn't happen on GWB's
watch. They were taking place during the Clinton Administration
and just came to light after GWB took office. Give me a break,
Eron, etc. didn't happen over night!"

When the conversation turned to corrupt politicians, I posted a message noting my reverence for scientists, most of whom seek the truth and aren't outrageously corrupt. She replied,

ME: ">1. Science is bsed on truth.

RIGHT-WINGER: "LOL - let's start on the THEORY of evolution which
has in the scientists minds become a fact that they can't
prove!"

ME: 2. I think scientists generally have a certain reverence for life, a thirst for understanding, while politicians typically have a lust for obscuring or disinforming."

RIGHT-WINGER: "Disagree. Scientists have hoodwinked us for years with things they can't explain. And, look at the corruption in the scientfic world. Looks just like the corporation scandels."

I had never heard scientists in general referred to as corrupt before. And I've never heard anything suggesting they were within light years of being compared to Enron. Am I missing something? Was some nation's economy recently sabotaged by scientists?

Our conversation about truth took a surprising twist when several right-wingers began sounding amazingly like liberals:

ME: "What if the universe is also shrinking?"

RIGHT-WINGER: "It probably is. Our capacity to see what is going on at a sub atomic level is pretty much keeping pace with our capacity to see what is going on out in space, isn't it?"

ME: "I find it fascinating that the universe is both expanding AND shrinking at the same time...."

RIGHT-WINGE: "There are some that say that the universe is a wave front driven by our ability to imagine what it is."

The gist of this conversation is that we can't know that George Bush is a liar with certainty, because the universe is expanding (or contracting). Doesn't that sound like a classic "Slick Willy" argument?

This post, which defends Bush's intelligence, is a classic:

"As others have pointed out, look at all the self made people who
didn't apply (or even go) themselves in college but have come through
as geniuses over time. George Bush IS a smart man. He is not an articulate man, he does stumble over his own tongue at times, but hey, the news media (liberal again) really plays on it. Check out Al Gore and some of his stumbles. Articulation does not = smart.

"I myself am dyslexic, you will note my spelling is also atrocious.
Does this make me dumb? My IQ tests indicate I border genius.
It means 1) I have a different way of learning than the "main stream"
and 2) I was taught religion in school rather than spelling and phonetics (not by my choice)."

Hey, who can argue with a dyslexic genius who was forced to study religion instead of facts and is sharp enough to note that we can't call George W. Bush a liar because we live in an expanding universe?

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Finally, how about this "Nuff said" stuff? Nuff said is not unfamiliar, but it isn't used all that frequently, either.

It first popped into my consciousness in a big way during the Paul Wellstone tragedy. I began getting e-mails from right-wingers, most of which were obviously forwarded between right-wing relatives and friends across the country, that mentioned the scandalous Wellstone memorial turned pep rally, ending with "Nuff said."

I know individuals who I've never heard use that term before suddenly start using it fairly regularly. It's kind of like a verdict: The liberals said or did something disgusting. This proves that they hate America. Nuff said.

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Have you made similar observations about LOL and nuff said? If so, do you think we're in danger of losing these terms to conservatives? Should we take them back?

If we allow right-wingers to co-opt these terms, they could eventually take over the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. Then we'll never know how to spell anything.

Nuff said.

seems that these are terms that are often aimed at those within a community in response to an outsider...

it is fascinating though the right wingers suddenly becoming postmodernists. Proves that they are really nothing more than opportunists rather than the principled folk they claim to be... LOL

Thanks JB for an interesting post.

nuff said...

:shrug: Okay "nuff said"