Welcome to DU, GOPee!

Glad to have you with us! Don't worry, you do not agonize alone! I can't tell you how many night's I've lost sleep, or sought comfort in a nice toasted bagel and cream cheese (or sneak a little chocolate!). It's stunning, isn't it? But on the other hand - WE are proud members of the empathy party. The other guys sneer and snicker and haughtily turn their collective noses up at the whole idea. You don't stand to get ANY comfort or support or understanding from them. But I guarantee you - pretty much everyone here has lots of that for you and room in their hearts.

It helps when one does not have a heart like a BB (very small and very hard, that is). And judging from your screen name, you get it thoroughly about the cold, heartless, mean-spirited nature of the other "team".

Smile, 'eh?

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I call this one "well, haven't you wondered?"

Or maybe the transparency of the rest of us knowing if you're a gun owner and how many you've got?

Sign on the dotted line of the gun registration form? That it, NRA? 'Eh? Hello?

As I expected. Only crickets need answer.

It reminds me of what happened when the whole Monica Lewinski mess blew up around Bill Clinton.

You couldn't find a Clinton defender ANYWHERE. They all ran out on him. And the only reliable and consistent voice or talking head anybody could ever get, to take on any on-camera or other media defense of him was Lanny Davis. Lanny Davis? WHO? Never heard of him. He was way far down the food chain but by Jove he was out there as THE PUBLIC FACE of the Clinton/Monica scandal when nobody else wanted to step up. DeeDee Myers? Vanished. George Stephanopulous? Bye-bye. Of course THEY went on to big-ass media jobs. Nicely rewarded for turning on their boss and utterly deserting him. Sweet people. So suddenly you have this unknown outta where-the-hell in the lower layers of the Clinton White House who was suddenly all over the airwaves and TV/cable news as THE Clinton Spokesman Of Record. Whenever the subject came up and they needed SOME pro-Clinton person on there to take the "other side" during the non-stop pounding of him, cue Lanny Davis. Everybody else was AWOL. They didn't want to be associated with him. Didn't want to get his cooties all over themselves.

So I think that's what's happening now, on the other side. May be indicative of just how icky this is. NOBODY's stepping up who's of any import. Anybody heard from rinsed penis, for example? kkkarl rove? bill kristol? Hello? Anybody? Nope. Just crickets and some guy pushed out to the front by the chickens behind him, to take the heat and be the face that's now added on here for all to see.

Welcome to DU, mwyn8!

VERY glad you're here! Very nice connecting the dots. The more we know, the less the bad guys will be able to pull any wool over our eyes.

This is MOST interesting, and MOST relevant.

Well, I was just talking about this in another thread - being called a "tree hugger"

and it's meant as an insult, but one I myself wear with a fair amount of pride and joy!

In one of many threads about clivan bunny, DUer kairos12 came up with "Moooooooooocher!!!" which I thought was fucking BRILLIANT!!!!!!!

But I figured it might not be over-boring to remember why these labels are significance - hell, why ALL word manipulations are not to be taken lightly ('cause they're pretty effective)!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4874761

Moooooooooocher!!! OMG!!!

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

I'm telling!

Gotta repost this on another thread where the object is to figure out what, properly, to call them now. In the same vein as those of us who've been called "tree-huggers" and it's meant as an insult. Actually I myself have also been "dissed" as a "tree-hugger" and at the time I read it as an acknowledgement that I was the one doing the good work, and on the good side. So hard to say the word "right" anymore, so I'll say "the good side".

I don't like using their lexicon. I don't like repeating, and thus reinforcing THEIR word for things. It's hard to use the word "right" to denote "accurate" or "correct" because it means too many other things now, and most of them negative. It becomes a possessive adjective, or a one-word definition, for what they want people to think they are. They think they're "right" so they assume everyone else should, too. Another reason I like to think of it as the "World's Biggest Entitlement Program." These folks feel entitled to run things, own things, boss things around, tell everybody what to do "in the name of freedom" (THEIRS, mainly). for That's why it'll always be a big red flag for me when someone says "the Democrat party," or the "Democrat Senator" - when they KNOW it's wrong and they KNOW it's just a tweak and they KNOW it's just asshole-ishness for the sake of asshole-ishness. They've TOTALLY perverted the word "right," hijacked it so it's almost as nonsensical and near-irrelevant as they are, themselves.

Granted this is awfully nitpicky and in some cases silly. But just think about it: this is a device. A deliberate device. This is a way to influence your point of view on this, your takeaway about this, which then becomes part of your own belief system and the "reality" YOU see (or want to see). Remember, years ago - rush limbaugh's first book, I think, was titled "The Way Things Ought to Be." Now there was no "Oh yeah? Sez YOU?!?!" or "BULLSHIT!" or any other such additional phrase. They think things are supposed to be the way THEY want and how THEY see fit, and by Jove they'll make damn sure YOU'RE gonna think that way too, and share their views and stand with them and have their back - or damn near die trying! They can't accept and won't acknowledge that, ironically, THEY are increasingly the minority in this country (the aging, white, CONservative, predominantly male demographic) here. The demographic shrinks down farther when you determine it to be the RICH, aging, white, CONservative, predominantly male demographic. Definitely a minority just by the numbers. And I tell you, they hate that and fight against the very idea about it, which is why they will always assert that their ideology rules and government should only help those who don't need the help and kick those in true need to the curb - 'cause THOSE are lazy moochers who should shut up and go get a job.

What we always need to keep in mind is NOT to repeat or inadvertently reinforce the other side's labeling of things. Like, for example, calling it the loaded slang "Obamacare," hoping to add bad smell to the name Obama and then allow that to bring down the idea of affordable health insurance. Besides, saying "The Affordable Care Act" formally helps to reinforce the true and accurate (indeed, right) name for it. And it doesn't buy into what they're trying to communicate subliminally, which is a negative. RIDICULOUSLY nitpicky, I know, but it's also a very devious device for burrowing down into the psyche, especially when repeated - repeatedly! - and I find it helpful to remind myself of this. They're picking and choosing and using their words and phrases VERY carefully and cleverly. To make points, to distract, to manipulate. It's VERY subtle and if you're not listening for it, it'll wash over you and start soaking in before you realize you've already partially internalized their message. Or maybe you see some way to kinda sorta agree with a little of it or something. We can't. We can't let ourselves be manipulated. frank luntz has done a masterful job - using words to manipulate and influence and woo and win minds, and gain extra ground. We have to be aware of this sneaky-ass manipulation games they play by toying with the language. Antics with semantics, you could say. But it's an effective weapon to have, and use. And it sure helps to be able to recognize when they're trying to play you thusly.

Those all work rather nicely!

Them-have-mores-whut-want-free-stuff do need a good bumper-sticker-style label. Easier to stick on 'em.

Well done!

Or like Green Eggs and Ham!

They can't. They don't dare.

After all, that would be admitting guilt. And NOBODY likes to admit they were wrong. Especially these folks. They cling desperately to the notion that they are the only ones who are "right," and they even attach their concept of God to it, in a kind of desperate double-down strategy, to make damn sure everybody else understands and acknowledges how "right" THEY simply must be. If you convince enough people (and yourself) that God is on YOUR side, then you simply can't be wrong. That's why it's a real witches brew they've cooked up - blending the Bronze-Agers with the religious fundamentalists and extremists. It brings the "God's on OUR side" thing in like gangbusters. And then the rest of us have to put hip waders on and try to wade through the extra shit that piles onto whatever issue it is. When you bring religion in it, you're as good as swaggering around, drunk as a skunk, waving around guns you have loaded with miniature neutron bombs.

AND, they're still frickin' WRONG!!!!! God or no!