What is a moonbat?

[KyuzoGator]

Since Michelle Malkin sees fit to call me one 75 times a day, I figure I should at least know what it is.

Funny how nobody is confused when we refer to neoconservatives as "assholes." Crystal-clear nickname there.

[mmonk]

1. I'm one. Moonbats are people intelligent enough

not to buy into rightwing propaganda.

[Avalux]

2. Here you go:

"political epithet coined in 2002 by Perry de Havilland of "Samizdata," a libertarian weblog. It was originally a play on the last name of George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian and was originally rendered as 'Barking Moonbat'. The term also evokes the traditional association between the moon and insanity. It now enjoys great currency in the conservative and libertarian blogosphere as an all-purpose insult for modern liberals (in the American sense of the word), war protestors, and other ideological opponents. It is similar to the epithet Idiotarian and like that term can also be applied to people anywhere on the political spectrum (for example both terms have also been used to describe US conservative Pat Buchanan)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbat

[KyuzoGator]

4. So protesting war is "insane"?

Wow, that's good to know.

[Avalux]

9. Well, according to rabid RWers like Michelle Malkin

I don't mind being called a moonbat one bit. ;-)

[xchrom]

8. i'm a proud moonbat!

out, loud and proud, baby!

[cyclezealot]

19. We need form a moonbat club.

Proud to be a founding member.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. Go here...

Moonbat is a political epithet coined in 2002 by Perry de Havilland of "Samizdata," a libertarian weblog. It was originally a play on the last name of George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian and was originally rendered as 'Barking Moonbat'. The term also evokes the traditional association between the moon and insanity. It now enjoys great currency in the conservative and libertarian blogosphere as an all-purpose insult for modern liberals (in the American sense of the word), war protestors, and other ideological opponents. It is similar to the epithet Idiotarian and like that term can also be applied to people anywhere on the political spectrum (for example both terms have also been used to describe US conservative Pat Buchanan).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbat

[rpgamerd00d]

6. Damn you! :)

[rpgamerd00d]

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Moonbat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbat

[KyuzoGator]

7. I know what Wikipedia is, guys...

...I was looking for a little more in-depth discussion. Thanks, though.

[JackRiddler]

10. Geez...

They answer the question you posted here exhaustively, and you complain?

[oioioi]

12. freakin' moonbats... all the same...

[KyuzoGator]

16. It's my fault, I was unclear.

I wasn't really looking for a definition, I was hoping DU could elaborate it.

I should have phrased it better, sorry.

[yurbud]

11. LINK to Monbiot columns

Like Michael Moore, they talk about Monbiot so much because he hit a nerve.

Any time they insult you by name, you are probably doing something right.



http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=10&ItemID=9691

[Gormy Cuss]

13. Moonbat defined: someone with a higher political I.Q. than Malkin.

At least that's how I interpret it based on the available evidence.

[hobbit709]

14. "Barking moonbat"

That pretty much describes Malkin. And a box of rocks would have a higher IQ than her.

[KyuzoGator]

20. The collective liberal Asian whore fetish.

I read once that Malkin thinks we criticize her because we all have a fetish for Asian prostitutes.

If that's not moonbatish, I don't know what is.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. Yes, that would be it. She caught us.

We're all named Neil Bush too.

[Hardrada]

32. The venerable term "dingbat" applies to her!

[sendero]

31. That would be....

.... about 95% of liberal "moonbats" and 10% of conservative "douchebags".

[CJCRANE]

15. A creature that eats wingnuts for breakfast..nt

[cascadiance]

25. Us moonbats have to rescue the other rodents...

... from the "V" invasion of wingnut lizard critters that's happening now!

[0007]

17. Here are some moonbat folks in full field gear

[Igel]

18. The quotes aren't quite to the point.

"According to de Havilland, a moonbat is "someone on the extreme edge of whatever their -ism happens to be." Adriana Cronin defines the term as "someone who sacrifices sanity for the sake of consistency." This term has long been used to describe protesters on the political Left, but was originally coined to also describe commentators on the political Right as well as certain libertarians.

Moonbat was frequently used to describe those of any political persuasion who believe in conspiracy theories. ..."

RWers (and LWers) use the expression to refer to somebody that's so into his/her -ism that they have a set of beliefs and opinions based on a set of facts rooted more in their -ism and what their -ism requires than in what is generally accepted as fact, or in what is generally accepted as most likely. For this to happen, they have to be exteme in their -ism; and denying reality tends to be a hallmark of insanity.

View it as somebody possessed of a profound sense of truthiness determined primarily by their politics. I like Cronin's definition, and it's one that I frequently use.

[brainshrub]

22. Moonbat = Liberal, Wingnut = Conservative.

It's just cheap name-calling.

[Ron Mexico]

23. If "bat" refers to a piece of sports equipment, then

(and I know it doesn't, so don't bother telling me) you could say that the opposite of "moonbat" is "sunball." Not entirely inappropriate, given the Repugs' record on the environment.

[KyuzoGator]

24. With all the nuke plants they want to build, "sunball" is actually good.

nt

[Bouncy Ball]

26. Well, they also like to call people

"dummies" and "poo poo heads."

Consider the source. They are not intelligent beings. I mean, "moonbat" oooo what a horrible name, huh?

:rofl:

I much prefer to call them motherfucking assholes. Like you said, very very clear!

[submerged99]

27. Moonbat sounds like an exotic animal.

I think the word is dumber than anything else.

I think the first time I saw it was less than a year ago and I thought"What the hell does that mean?"

Of course I understood it was supposed to be an insult but it sounds like something a cryptozoologist would be obsesseed with discovering.

It's like being called a Marscrocodile or a PlutoAnaconda.

[npincus]

28. I'ver got a name for THEM: "Neander-cons"

[CornField]

29. Moonbat is much like Freeper

It is a word used by people who are either too immature or too uneducated to state what they really believe of someone who holds a differing opinion from themselves.

[malta blue]

30. An Image of a Moonbat taken from one of those OTHER sites

[Liberal In Texas]

33. As soon as that damn full moon comes out on Monday, I'm battin' it

Makes me a MOONBAT I guess.

I think the Freepers just think it sounds like the old hippie stereotype of zany drug addled people that would accidentaly drown the baby in a tub, because we're so high on LSD.

<OK that was a DRAGNET plot>

(By the way, this Moonbat is on his way for the first time of making 6 figures this year. Not bad for a liberal from the 60's, or you know a MOONBAT.)