Wednesday, June 20, 2007

They're in ur dictionary, stealin ur wordz!

There are certain terms that by tacit agreement seem to belong to one side of the political compass or other. For example: "wingnuts" usually refers to right-wingers; "moonbats" (or "barking moonbats", hahahahaha!) refers to lefties.

We use terms like "fundamentalist" and "fundie" to reference the religious right. Since they are by their own admission religious fundamentalists, calling them "fundies" isn't an insult as much as a cheeky statement of the obvious. Unlike the wingnut/moonbat dichotomy, there's no corresponding term they can use for us. For awhile, O'Reilly was flogging "Secular Progressives" as a term of endearment for the left, but it never really caught on, even as "SPs". Clearly, the fundies needed some good vitriol; what to do? No problem, just co-opt some expressions from... the moonbats!

It started with the anti-abortion crew: borrowing from the women's movement, they came up with "fetal rights". Next, from anti-racism came "fetal oppression". Then they hit up the gay rights movement for (my favourite) "fetophobia". Their latest terminology for liberals: "secular fascists", and "secular humanist fundamentalists". We're SF's, and what do we like to do? "Secular fundamentalists ram their religion down our throats". Dr. Freud would be proud: it's the very definition of "projection".

What the fundies are missing is that nobody gives a happy monkey fuck about their religion, and certainly nobody's trying to make them stop practicing it. We'd just rather they didn't practice it on us. That they see this as a form of oppression against them says a lot more about them than it does about us.

And by the way, guys: don't expect the moonbats to do all the creative heavy lifting. Use a little imagination and get your own friggin slogans!