The Wingnut Debate Dictionary

November 7, 2003 8:56 PM

The Wingnut Debate Dictionary - spice up your political screeds with some colorful new terms like Colmestrato (n.) - an emasculated, harmless "liberal" stand-in included for purposes of fairness and balance and Condiment - a statement that needs to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt. I am so adding Deus ex rectum and Stepford Democrat to my vocabulary. And how is it that fucksimilie hasn't found it's way here long before now?
This is a game that MeFi wags of all political persuasions can play...anyone have any terms to add to the lexicon? (compiled by Ethel the Blog)
posted by madamjujujive (24 comments total)

How about europlexy, i.e., the condition of a conservative being worked up into a froth about what Europeans think of the U.S. while simultaneously insisting that he/she "doesn't care at all" what the Europeans think of the U.S.
posted by jamsterdam at 9:16 PM on November 7, 2003

neoconsternation - the flapping of wingnuts at lucianne.com every time someone mentions Hillary.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:46 PM on November 7, 2003

I was thinking of posting this, but I didn't. So it's good that you did, I think.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:49 PM on November 7, 2003

I'm partial to "Republican Jackal."

The second meaning of jackal being (according to dictionary.com, in the interest of being accurate) "an accomplice or a lackey who aids in the commission of base or disreputable acts," or "One who performs menial tasks for another."

I use it to refer to republicans acting in the interest of big business. So, you know, most of them.
posted by The God Complex at 10:39 PM on November 7, 2003

False DickChenomy: The arguer offers only two options in a situation, one of which is objectively pro-saddam.

Hah!
posted by The God Complex at 10:55 PM on November 7, 2003

Shooting for the moon: An attempt to tire an opponent into even partially accepting a patently ridiculous argument and then declaring yourself the winner in perpetuity.

e.g., America is a Christian nation because the word 'Lord' appears in the declaration of independence.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:01 PM on November 7, 2003

ok, not to go all brad on y'all, but I thought of two more potential additions:

Odd Lott Theory - concept that a fall guy can be culled from a political peer group and turned into a pillar of salt thereby deflecting criticism for a widely shared belief.

Harrisment - purging the black vote from election results to achieve a desired effect.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:10 PM on November 7, 2003

The Time Warp: failing to realize that communists are not the biggest threat to your freedom or existance.

I don't read enough blogs to attribute these to any particular internet writer, but they are things that I notice fairly often.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:30 PM on November 7, 2003

luskin (v.): 1. to secretly desire the status and intelligence of one's opponent while engaging in a systematic misrepresentation of him/her. 2. to stalk

Bwahhaha ... I'm dyin' here ...
posted by RavinDave at 11:47 PM on November 7, 2003

I love Harrisment! The term, not the action.
posted by neuroshred at 9:11 AM on November 8, 2003

Involuntary Rallaction - the immediate disapproval of anything said or done by Ted Rall on the grounds that he is, in fact, Ted Rall.

Shouldn't this also be known as Getting Your Lileks In?

And on that note, what would be the term for simultaneously loving Lileks' kooky pop culture writing (I genuinely believe his Institute for Official Cheer is altogether one of the great delights of the internet) and loathing his special shouldn't-his-head-be-spinning-around-now? brand of neo-con blather?
posted by scody at 11:10 AM on November 8, 2003

For years now I've described various mentally and emotionally draining group procedures, like committee meetings, contract negotiations, closing a house mortgage, etc., the Death of a Thousand Buts.

I'm partial to "Republican Jackal."

In college, my dormmate used "Republiclones" as an answering epithet to the Reagan Zeitgeist. In retrospect, I've thought of myself as a onetime REMocrat who listened to a lot of Michael Stipe and voted Democrat basically because all my friends did.

I've used Stepford as an adjective to describe just about any kind of mindless conformist I've come across. Damned few people get the reference, though.
posted by alumshubby at 11:57 AM on November 8, 2003

This one is amazingly spot-on : Clenis Syndrome: An uncontrollable urge to blurt out "Clinton did it!" or "Oh yeah? What about Clinton?" rather than using logic and reason to make one's point.

I can't tell you HOW many times when discussing a policy of President Bush, and the response is "Well Clinton...." Uhh I thought we were discussing Bush????
posted by Eekacat at 12:26 PM on November 8, 2003

"And on that note, what would be the term for simultaneously loving Lileks' kooky pop culture writing (I genuinely believe his Institute for Official Cheer is altogether one of the great delights of the internet) and loathing his special shouldn't-his-head-be-spinning-around-now? brand of neo-con blather?"

This is why I hate this sort of shit. No one on either side is ever willing to have a principled disagreement. It's the bed-wetting liberals vs. the monstrous neocons, 24-7 and 365. Not only is everyone right, they know they're right, and everyone that disagrees is both evil and an idiot, and of course we then need special pejoratives to describe them. In fact, we need a whole pejorative lexicon so we can distinguish those in our clubhouse from those outside. God it's frustrating.
posted by kavasa at 1:28 PM on November 8, 2003

'den Beste ex machina - The creation of a fake political movement, such as Transnational Progressivism, that has virtually no basis in reality in order to disparage ideological opponents.'

Steve needs the Chim Cam
HA. great link Madam.
posted by clavdivs at 2:38 PM on November 8, 2003

It's not so much a prejoritive lexicon as it is a more area-specific list of logical fallacies.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:14 PM on November 8, 2003

Ahh.. My vocabulary has several excellent new additions now. My verbose rambles will make even less sense now. Fantastic ^_^
posted by Mossy at 6:00 PM on November 8, 2003

It made me chuckle - thanks mjjj. Jamsterdam - 'europlexy' is brilliant. ;)
posted by plep at 8:13 PM on November 8, 2003

Very novel... somebody should put together the search and replaces neccessary for this to work for the right wing.

I guess we'd start by replacing Anne Coulter with Michael Moore, and Reagan with Clinton?
posted by mosch at 8:24 PM on November 8, 2003

Now, mosch, getting your own entry will take more effort than that. The "x is bad, but the left has y, and they're exactly the same because... well because I repeat the two names together enough times that it becomes true" move is so common it doesn't even deserve a name.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:34 PM on November 8, 2003

mjjj. thanks. And especially for Harrisment. That's gold.
posted by soyjoy at 9:53 PM on November 8, 2003

Pure genius. Great linking as always, MJ³.
posted by dejah420 at 10:41 PM on November 8, 2003

Applepiety: A "holier (and more patriotic) than thou" attitude

Behemotheism: The belief that my God is bigger than your God.
posted by taz at 11:15 PM on November 8, 2003 [1 favorite]

Republicrat: A member of the USA's current one-party system.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:05 AM on November 9, 2003