Eve Peyser does a good job of explaining how the phrase “owning the libs” gained currency and what it means. The occasion is U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley’s recent decision to admonish a bunch of high schoolers that real leadership doesn’t derive from insulting and “triggering” your political opponents but in persuading people to follow your reasoning and vision. Yet, I think the phenomenon runs deeper than an internet meme and fad. It’s a central aspect of conservatism to reject higher reasoning, whether that be the simple application of logic or a more rigorous application of the scientific method.
The original “owning the libs” was to respond to the theories of Charles Darwin by saying “I’m not some monkey’s uncle,” as if that settled the matter and no further discussion of the theory of evolution was necessary. Today’s Scopes Trial is probably the debate over climate change, and any time it snows or the mercury falls is a good to time to “own the libs” by saying “where’s your global warming now?”
It’s worth noting that the lawyer representing the anti-evolution side in the Scopes Trial was three-time Democratic Party presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan. The Democrats were not always so staunchly on the side of science anymore than they were always on the side of desegregation. One way that conservatives like to “own the libs” is to point out that a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Obviously, the Solid Jim Crow South was run by the Democratic Party. To point this out to deflect accusations of present-day Republican racism is no different from carrying a snowball into the well of the Senate to rebut theories of climate change.
There’s a fuzzy line in this kind of behavior. For some, quips about a snowball or not being a monkey’s uncle are convincing arguments. These people actually lack higher reasoning abilities. But, more often, the conservatives say and do these things because they know they’re bad arguments that will drive liberals crazy. If you’re trying to do the bidding of the energy behemoths in Oklahoma, both elements work for you. A lot of stupid people will be convinced that the ice caps aren’t really melting and the seas aren’t turning into vats of acid. That’s fake news. But, the smarter people just enjoy the show and give you points for triggering an apoplectic response from people who actually know how the brain is supposed to work.
If someone told you that the Houston Astros are not really the champions of baseball because the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series in 1964, you’d think they were talking nonsense. But if someone tells you that the Republican Party is the less racist of the two major American political parties because of a vote that took place in 1964, that is supposed to be a legitimate argument. Conservatives get real joy out of these kinds of retorts both because they’re infuriating and because they actually work on a significant portion of their base.
The conservative intelligentsia knows how to use evidence properly when the evidence backs their point of view, but they’re perfectly willing and even accustomed to cherry-picking, misrepresenting, distorting, denying, or manufacturing evidence to suit their purpose. This isn’t done primarily to own the libs. It’s done to justify economic policies that won’t deliver the promised economic growth or changes in regulations that will allow more deforestation, mining, pollution and extinction. It’s done to rationalize foreign policies that are set for ideological rather than factual purposes.
This practice has been a core element of the conservative movement from the beginning but it has mutated now because the Republican Party has been been completely captured the conservative movement. The scientists, environmentalists, economists and foreign policy realists have been chased out, and the GOP is now fully committed to a cultural war in which they stand opposed to academia, the scientific method, and all the values of higher learning and inquiry.
Thus, doing something just because it will piss off liberals often takes the form of “liking” or sharing a really bad faith argument. The point is no longer to advance anything concrete but just to get the satisfaction of seeing the response. The Birther Movement definitely took this form. Yes, a lot of stupid people were actually convinced that President Obama faked his birth certificate, was a secret Muslim, and an illegitimate president. Most people, however, knew that was all horseshit and just liked to see the president insulted and his supporters upset.
As a fad, “owning the libs” will pass. But as an aspect of the conservative movement, it’s as permanent as their love for Ronald Reagan.
In Dunning-Kruger We Trust.
This is the entire ball game — the misunderstood distinction between these two ideas — and, actually, this is the reason Trump is in the White House.
It’s all right there in the Jeff Sessions “Lock Her Up” controversy from yesterday. Sessions is speaking to a right-wing student group, who starts chanting “Lock her up, lock her up!” Sessions, a good sport, joins in for a moment. (He thinks it’s just a chant — like football cheers.) What he doesn’t realize is that he’s being reprimanded (as was revealed in all the Reddit threads): they’re deeply angry at him, and feel betrayed, because they can’t understand why the Attorney General hasn’t actually arrested Hillary and incarcerated her.
These people are not kidding. Obama is a Muslim; Vince Foster was murdered…they literally believe these things, and there are millions of them out there. It’s not a game. The cynicism and condescension with which the Right has created this monster and now disavows it, is absolutely despicable.
I agree. Far too many conservatives believe this crap to the bottom of their black shriveled hearts. They truly believe that Obama was born in Kenya and that his birth certificate was fake and that he is secretly a Muslim. Yeah maybe some Republicans don’t believe these things, but many do. And many are well educated, well traveled people (like my family members). They are not stupid, but they are only too willing to drink the Kool Aid and fervently buy this crap.
Don’t kid yourself. Maybe the PTB realize that they’re yanking everyone’s chains – and don’t believe all of these outright lies – but the vast majority of the rank and file believe every last lie that they hear… and more.
They have been brainwashed for far too long by the propaganda wurlitzer. They literally don’t know what reality is anymore.
Yes, thank you.
I realize you got this next part, but I want to emphasize it: I’m saying that they (the people disseminating these ideas for their own electoral gain) deliberately use the “Oh, come on; nobody could take this seriously” idea as a defense; as a way of convincing themselves that it’s “just harmless politics” and they’re not actually doing Joseph Goebbels’ work.
. . . behind Sen. James Dumbest/Most-Corrupt-Waste-of-Senate-Space-and-Oxygen-Ever Inhofe (R-Duh!) was worth the price of admission . . . and then some.
(That photo would make good raw material for a captioning/meme contest re: what she’s saying inside her head.)
She’s thinking “At least he’s not doing his usual holding up a piece of crap saying ‘Look what I almost stepped in'”
“Most people, however, knew that was all horseshit and just liked to see the president insulted and his supporters upset.”
If this was the 1990’s and we were referring to the crap thrown at Bill Clinton, I’d believe that. But I think those people are now in the minority of the conservative movement.
After 20 years of AM Radio/FoxNews; the embarrassing failure that was the Bush Administration; the rise and fall of Sarah Palin; the popular election of a Democratic black guy with a funny name (TWICE!)have forced a lot of self lobotomies across the conservative electorate just to get themselves out of bed each morning.
The House Freedom Caucus alone is proof the inmates are running the asylum.
Another case in point (h/t Driftglass): After recent studies, Politifact is starting a new initiative because it’s Truth-O-Meter has alienated conservatives too much by merely pointing out their lies too much and not painting liberals as liars frequently enough.
https://www.cjr.org/first_person/beyond-the-truth-o-meter.php
No discussion about IF what was rated was true or not. But money and time are now going to be spent so conservatives feel better about Politifact.
A wingnut online once said, with apparent great satisfaction, that he had “triggered” me. This because I told him, matter of factually, in response to his claim that the democratic party is racist because the Confederates of the 1860s were democrats and the GOP was the party of Lincoln, that not only did the racist democrats of 1864 up to the 1970s ultimately switch to the GOP, but to drive the point home so even he could understand, that if this were 1864 he would be a proud democrat.
So these sick SOBs really believe saying something outlandishly stupid or obviously false will make liberals “mad” when the reality is, at least for me, the response is more like amazement at the level of gullibility or ignorance to believe the things they do.
These people are the very definition of fool. The best way to deal with their craziness is to ridicule them for being so damned dumb.
I do hope your response was to do a goggle-take followed by pointing and laughing.
Late to the party, but a month or so ago a guy in my local bar tried to pay “trigger the libtard” with me. I wound up taking a swing at him. I regret losing my cool, but only to the extent that I didn’t connect with his nose or teeth. I’d do it again in a heartbeat,
Well, he certainly succeeded, didn’t he? And probably strutted off in triumph. Next time, why not go the ridicule route? Don’t argue, don’t get mad — just point and laugh at the contard, and the more he spouts off, the harder you laugh, with lots of disbelief and incredulous contempt larded into it. I bet that will bother the jerk way more than getting enraged at him ever would.
Also, turning to listeners in between guffaws with “Can you believe this dummy?” sort of comments. Rolleyes is good, too, just don’t sprain your eyeball muscles. Turning away as not worth your time, with snickers, snorts, and poorly suppressed hilarity thrown in, is a good one, too.
If you get upset, he wins. If he can’t make a dent in you, he loses.