Photo by W. E. Messamore © 2009 All Rights ReservedAs Americans protest to End the Fed today, here's another note on last week's Tea Party protests... to all of the hypocrites among the social democrats and mainstream media who laughed about the conservative "tea bagging" party and thought that its supporters were clueless- the joke is on you.
I've been getting some traffic from this comment on Slate.com, which says:
You do know that the people organizing the teabagger parties were the first ones to use it? Olberman and Maddow (nice respect, BTW. Do you also call Juan Williams a [edit]) were just making fun of their ignorance.
http://teabagcongress.com/
[Matthew Yglesias]
A Reminder to Tea Bag The Fools in Washington on April 1st. I mean, if you're that stupid to use a vulgar term as your rallying cry, you deserve to be mocked.
As I said, the joke is on you. The Tea Partyers (or Baggers, whatever), knew exactly what we were saying when we used slogans and blog titles like "Tea Bag The Fools in Washington." That was why we did it. It was a joke. It was funny. Do you really think we're all that ignorant? Get a clue.
In fact the middle link that this commentator provided as evidence of the Tea Party protesters' ignorance is such strong evidence against his argument that it only serves to highlight his own remarkable ignorance about us. Does this person honestly think that someone doesn't know what "tea bagging" means when they made a sign that says "Tea Bag the LIBERAL DEMS before they Tea Bag you?" We deserve to be mocked?
There was also a certain subtlety to the way Tea Party protesters used the term. We simply said it without drawing attention to it. It was funny enough to call attention to itself (which it apparently did all too well). By contrast, when social democrats in the media and blogosphere talked or wrote about the tea parties, their humor insisted upon itself a little too strongly. The effect was the embarrassment you feel when you see a comedian laughing too hard at his own joke, a little too pleased with himself. They were also just nasty, ugly, and mean about it.
If they want to start making fun of us (by stealing our own joke and then being less funny about it), then I call that a good sign. It means they're wearing down, it means they're getting scared, and it means they know our cause is gaining momentum. As the Mahatma Gandhi said "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." They certainly ignored the first nationwide tea party on February 27th. and now they're laughing at the second one. It all seems to be following the progression Gandhi observed, which should give us hope.
And now your moment of Zen:
