Ethan Safron · Sep 13, 2011 at 11:46am

Warning: The video uses some naughty language, drug references, and scantily clad... men.  But it's on YouTube, so it's nothing that can't be seen on YouTube. I found this on MoveOn.Org- Democracy in Action. Go Progressives!

Which strawman are you?

I'd say I'm a "Mr. Contrarian" because I like the way he has his arms folded. It reminds me of myself. Plus he's blue. 

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Beasley
Joined
Dec '10
Beasley

I'm definitely a combination of Mr. Bibleton and Mr. NRA. Both because I like guns more than I like (most) people, and I don't believe the Bible has a mandate for state run social welfare.

You can see why I took it so personally when Obama off-handedly derided those huddled masses in the middle of the country, clinging to their Guns and Religion. I'm personally clinging to a variety of weapons and theology, but, no need to split hairs.

Edited on Sep 13, 2011 at 12:55pm
Crow's Nest
Joined
Mar '11
Crow's Nest

Irregardless is not a word--but, can you really quibble with such genius?

They forgot "Mr. Classicist Snob" and "Mr. Loves the Smell of Napalm in the Morning"--I'm some combination of them and Mr. Moderate.

Ottoman Umpire
Joined
May '10
Ottoman Umpire

I can see why the Left likes to reduce their ideological opponents to caricatures.  It's so time consuming and cognitive-dissonant-y to have to deal with issues on their merits.  

Still, it's hard to accept that people really believe this stuff.  

Please forgive my tangent, but I was at a party a couple of weeks ago and the guy I was talking with (a former boss) was going on about how Wall Street was oh-so Republican.  I disagreed with him on that fact alone, having recalled reading something about how Goldman Sachs et al were heavily skewed toward Democratic political contributions.  On returning home, I didn't immediately find any good summary support of my argument, although some isolated FEC searches of the 2008 campaign seems to bear out the point. 

Does anybody have a good source on this?  

Diane Ellis, Ed.

Ottoman Umpire: I can see why the Left likes to reduce their ideological opponents to caricatures.  It's so time consuming and cognitive-dissonant-y to have to deal with issues on their merits.  

Still, it's hard to accept that people really believe this stuff.  

Please forgive my tangent, but I was at a party a couple of weeks ago and the guy I was talking with (a former boss) was going on about how Wall Street was oh-so Republican.  I disagreed with him on that fact alone, having recalled reading something about how Goldman Sachs et al were heavily skewed toward Democratic political contributions.  On returning home, I didn't immediately find any good summary support of my argument, although some isolated FEC searches of the 2008 campaign seems to bear out the point. 

Does anybody have a good source on this?   · Sep 13 at 11:28am

Here you go, Ottoman.

Roberto
Joined
Mar '11
Roberto
Ottoman Umpire: Does anybody have a good source on this?   · Sep 13 at 11:28am

The listing at OpenSecrets.org is rather good, although it does not really support your thesus. It seems more accurate to view Wall Street as politically agnostic, those institutions will simply donate to whoever they feel is most likely to do them a favor. It makes me recall an old quote, "The wealthy are wealthy first and whatever else they are second."

 Here is a particularly amusing table, if you total out the numbers from 1990 until today they run almost exactly to 50-50 per party.

Edited on Sep 13, 2011 at 12:04pm
Ethan Safron

I forgot to put something in the main post- I've actually heard another progressive use the "crack-addict daughter" strawman for opposition to the estate tax. It was a debate between Lee Doren (How the World Works YouTube channel dude) and progressive Mark Levine (a talk show host, and is not Mark Levin).

Mark Levine said something along the lines of... "does Paris Hilton really need a third yacht?"

Is it the fault of conservatives that people can get away with saying things like this in front of an audience?

Layla
Joined
Nov '10
Layla

Wow. I'm suddenly reminded that Andrew Klavan's "Klavan on the Culture" is brilliant. And this just...isn't.

Ethan Safron
Layla: Wow. I'm suddenly reminded that Andrew Klavan's "Klavan on the Culture" is brilliant. And this just...isn't. · Sep 13 at 12:03pm

Yes but to their credit, the people who comment on MoveOn.org are giving this video extremely negative reviews. But after all, the people who run the site thought it was a great idea to post it.

Joseph Stanko
Joined
Jun '10
Joseph Stanko

Mocking Mr. Bibleton, the narrator said "they care not about AIDS in Africa."  Right.  The Bush administration spent $15 billion on the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar).  From The Guardian:
"This is the best thing that ever happened to the poor people I work with," said Edward Phillips, a Catholic priest overseeing the distribution of life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in Nairobi, Kenya. "It's one of the few times I've seen US government money really reach down to the poorest of the poor. It's kept a hell of a lot of people alive."

Mel Foil
Joined
Jun '10
etoiledunord

Odd, that Mr. Moneybags got rich without ever satisfying a single customer, and Mr. Bibleton has less understanding of the Bible than Mr. Liberal Atheist, and Mr. Contrarian is just being a rightwing conformist, and Mr. Frat has no liberal professors at all, and Mr. Numbnuts is WRONG for not worshiping money (like Mr. Moneybags does.) And also, Mr. Numbnuts needs to stop watching TV with a cold beer in his hand, and do fun stuff instead, like marching in the streets for higher public-sector union dues...er, make that higher union benefits...and yelling four-letter words and insults at the greedy taxpayers.

Aaron Miller
Joined
May '10
Aaron Miller

I prefer to think of myself as The Last Straw.

Ottoman Umpire
Joined
May '10
Ottoman Umpire

Roberto

Ottoman Umpire: Does anybody have a good source on this?   · Sep 13 at 11:28am

The listing at OpenSecrets.org is rather good, although it does not really support your thesus. It seems more accurate to view Wall Street as politically agnostic, those institutions will simply donate to whoever they feel is most likely to do them a favor. It makes me recall an old quote, "The wealthy are wealthy first and whatever else they are second."

 Here is a particularly amusing table, if you total out the numbers from 1990 until today they run almost exactly to 50-50 per party. · Sep 13 at 12:01pm

Edited on Sep 13 at 12:04 pm

Thanks, Roberto.  The shifts are really interesting.  GOP from 1996-2004, Dem from 2006-2008 (63% Obama vs. McCain in '08), and now back to GOP.  

Who'd have thought that Wall Street would have fallen for that Hopey Changey thing?

Ajax Telamônios
Joined
Jan '11
Ajax Telamônios

The great thing about not being a Democrat is that if you start out as Mr. Numbnuts you have the ability to work your way up to being Mr. Money Bags, and if your stupid kids wanna snort their entire inheritance, well, that's their problem. 

Ottoman Umpire
Joined
May '10
Ottoman Umpire

Diane Ellis, Ed.

Ottoman Umpire: I can see why the Left likes to reduce their ideological opponents to caricatures.  It's so time consuming and cognitive-dissonant-y to have to deal with issues on their merits.  

Still, it's hard to accept that people really believe this stuff.  

Please forgive my tangent, but I was at a party a couple of weeks ago and the guy I was talking with (a former boss) was going on about how Wall Street was oh-so Republican.  I disagreed with him on that fact alone, having recalled reading something about how Goldman Sachs et al were heavily skewed toward Democratic political contributions.  On returning home, I didn't immediately find any good summary support of my argument, although some isolated FEC searches of the 2008 campaign seems to bear out the point. 

Does anybody have a good source on this?   · Sep 13 at 11:28am

Here you go, Ottoman. · Sep 13 at 11:50am

Thank you, too, Miss Ellis.  Makes the G-S point nicely.

Gabriel Sullice
Joined
Sep '11
Gabriel Sullice

"Irregardless" *shudders* that's when I turned it off.

What intellectual fortitude the left has that they can argue us all down to our first principles. Egad!

wilber forge
Joined
Oct '10
wilber forge

 Did take a moment or two to view some of other videos. Spare yourselves....

Aodhan
Joined
Nov '10
Aodhan

What is hyper-ironic about this infantile video is that the leftists who love it will rabidly allege that a cardinal sin of the right its sordid monopoly on prejudice and stereotyping.

But what do have here if not the deliberate cultivation of offensive caricatures?

I marvel at the impregnable ignorance required to produce this nugget of nastiness.

It's pompous, adolescent, insolence portraying itself as trendy intellectual subversiveness. It's rot-gut punch pretending it's a high-brow cocktail.

In this connection, though, permit me to constructively introduce a relevant new concept: meta-prejudice.

Meta-prejudice is the prejudiced attribution of prejudice to another who is not in fact prejudiced. 

Radical left-wingers are full of it. They are a meta-prejudiced multitude of harridanesque hatemongers.*

In addition, the meta-prejudiced are characteristically oblivious to their proclivities, because to admit to them would entail abandoning their sublime vision of themselves as Anointed Ones, miraculously free from the moral defects they joyously denounce.

I term this neuro-ideological condition motivated meta-prejudicial agnosia.

Feel free to call them on it. It might temporarily arrest their delusional declamations.

*Unless I am meta-meta-prejudiced. Which I ain't.

Pat in Obamaland
Joined
May '10
Pat in Obamaland

Irregardless? Apparently MoveOn.Org does not include Mr. Literate.

Pat in Obamaland
Joined
May '10
Pat in Obamaland

I really don't fit any of these stereotypes--perhaps Mr. Moneybags. I'm not rich but I do think using the death of a family member as a taxable event is a moral outrage. Mr. Log Cabin seems close but I'm not gay.

thelonious
Joined
May '11
thelonious

I'm a bit of a contrarian but really I'm the working poor strawman.  All I want is football and "rasslin" on my tv.  Doritos and a 12 pack of beer for under 10 bucks and my Ricochet membership under 4 bucks.  I'm just an ignoramous for not wanting the government to take care of me.     


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