Proud.

I prefer outrage without education to taxation without representation.

FlashHarry

Obviously that guy is a liebrul plant. "Teabagger" is a term created by liebruls to discredit the better-educated, more compassionate, long-suffering majority of taxpayers who compose Tea Party Nation.

/amirite, right-whinge asshats?
//point, point
///laugh, laugh

If the Teabaggers wanted to actually capture the spirit of the original Tea Party, they would have hijacked a truck full of smokes or booze and dumped it into the Potomac.

Not that "Let's buy a bunch of Liptons, pay taxes on it, and dump it into a river" thing they pulled last year.

One of my college friends that I was somewhat close too about a year ago just wrote this on his Facebook status:

today is the 234th birthday of this great country and well we look like shiat. this country will not hold up for another 234 years because of the dick heads leadindg us, we need to get rid of the president and give the states more rights and stop having the national government hold all of the power. i am right, the facts are there. we the people need to stand up for what is ours. long live the tea party!

WTF. He used to be a decent, sane human being with a big mouth. Then he joined the Student Government and the school newspaper Now he's an illiterate, uninformed asshole with a big mouth. It's like seeing someone fall into drug/alcohol abuse...only worse.

Way to go ABC "News", you're only about 237 years late.

It's good to see that this place is just the way I left it, if not a little worse.

Aarontology: If the Teabaggers wanted to actually capture the spirit of the original Tea Party, they would have hijacked a truck full of smokes or booze and dumped it into the Potomac.

At this point that might actually serve to dilute the toxic sludge already in the Potomac.

Man On A Mission: So, if you support the original tea party, you want higher taxes?

Yep, our nation was founded on the idea that we should be in charge of taxing ourselves. That's what "no taxation without representation" means. It's not "no taxation, period". American governments have always had a love affair with taxes, from the very start. The 'anti-government, anti-tax conservative' is a relatively new phenomenon borne out of the cynical smoky rooms of party bosses in the mid-20th century.

But what really motivates the protesters now doesn't really have that much to do with growth or deficits. It's about rage at the gap the Tea Partiers see between the Responsibles and the Deadbeats.

And why should there not be rage at this?

I see nobody read the friggin article....

We have such a glorified view of our beginning of our country, it's nothing short of propaganda.

Back then, just as it is now, it was always about MONEY. That's it. People think it was about 'taxation with representation!'.

England was *DROPPING* the taxes on tea. From a very significant amount to a much, much, much smaller amount. Do you really think the average colonist would be UPSET? Of course not. But then, as now, the average folk are just pawns. Uneducated, uninformed pawns.

John Hancock was a RICH *smuggler*. Think of it like 'early mobster'. Lots of money, lots of power, not a lot of respect for the law. He made lots and lots and lots of money by selling his tea *FOR LESS* than the tea from England. Criminal - yes. Profitable - also yes.

When the England decided to drop the large taxes on tea - John Hancock could no longer be profitable. He only made money because his prices were lower than the non-smuggled stuff. Without a tax, he can't compete.

Himself and others like him, used the opportunity to get people really, really pissed off (about the huge tax CUT). Because people are stupid and easily pissed off, it worked (even more so back then, now we can hop on the internet or watch the news. Back then, there wasn't a Snopes.com)

That war, like virtually ever war - wasn't about freedom or any of that other crap. It was about a small group of very rich people trying to get even more rich by taking $$$ from some other very rich people.

Say what you want about the teabaggers but they've made going to the retirement home fun again. I wear my Hope shirt and collect the denture plates that the elderly lose while they're screaming at me.

AnnoyingKidNextDoor: today is the 234th birthday of this great country and well we look like shiat. this country will not hold up for another 234 years because of the dick heads leadindg us, we need to get rid of the president and give the states more rights and stop having the national government hold all of the power. i am right, the facts are there. we the people need to stand up for what is ours. long live the tea party!

You don't like this.

AnnoyingKidNextDoor: One of my college friends that I was somewhat close too about a year ago just wrote this on his Facebook status:

today is the 234th birthday of this great country and well we look like shiat. this country will not hold up for another 234 years because of the dick heads leadindg us, we need to get rid of the president and give the states more rights and stop having the national government hold all of the power. i am right, the facts are there. we the people need to stand up for what is ours. long live the tea party!

WTF. He used to be a decent, sane human being with a big mouth. Then he joined the Student Government and the school newspaper Now he's an illiterate, uninformed asshole with a big mouth. It's like seeing someone fall into drug/alcohol abuse...only worse.

I fail to see what's so terrible here. He thinks states rights should trump the interests of the federal government and he'd like to vote the president out of office next election. Is it surprising that your friends may have different political views than you do?

justoneznot: Is it surprising that your friends may have different political views than you do?

This is Fark. Around here, anyone to the right of Mao is a "illiterate, uninformed asshole with a big mouth".

Realpolitik420: And why should there not be rage at this?

Because by "responsibles" they mean "Republicans" and by "deadbeats" they mean "Democrats and RINOS"

Realpolitik420: But what really motivates the protesters now doesn't really have that much to do with growth or deficits. It's about rage at the gap the Tea Partiers see between the Responsibles and the Deadbeats.

And why should there not be rage at this?



OUR CAPITALIST SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!!

Defiance_: Say what you want about the teabaggers but they've made going to the retirement home fun again. I wear my Hope shirt and collect the denture plates that the elderly lose while they're screaming at me.

You should tell those old people to stop relying on Social Security and get a job.

Aarontology: Defiance_: Say what you want about the teabaggers but they've made going to the retirement home fun again. I wear my Hope shirt and collect the denture plates that the elderly lose while they're screaming at me.

You should tell those old people to stop relying on Social Security and get a job.

That really doesn't seem fair. First, you require them to contribute to some retirement program. Then, you mock them for receiving the benefits of said retirement program?

I'd *gladly* opt out of social security if I could. But, I never saw that box on any of my employment papers. I'll greedily try to milk every penny from SS, now that I've been forced into participating.

Hurr! Durr! Teabagger ignorant hillbilly redneck racists derp derp!

Talk your shiat and laugh it up now. In a few months the party's over...



/That will keep the damage to a minimum until jimmy carter II leaves office on 1-20-12
//The smart democrats aren't running again and lining up their cushy lobbyist or diplomat jobs now

mark12A: unwashed masses.

Yyyyyyeahhh..... ever looked at the demographics of the Tea Party?

Annnnd.... I'm pretty sure the point of the article was that the Tea Party movement (while you can argue about whether it's astroturf, and I'm pretty sure I know what side you come down on) is not about a revolutionary casting-off of government.

It's about a bunch of people being pissed.

Everyone's afraid, it's a ridiculously down economy. The mobilization of that fear into anti-government protests started FOUR DAYS after Obama got inaugurated.

Give me a farking break. Seriously.

texastag: Hurr! Durr! Teabagger ignorant hillbilly redneck racists derp derp!

Talk your shiat and laugh it up now. In a few months the party's over...

You forgot elderly. My favorite part is how old they are.

mark12A: Of course, the liberal trained poodles of Farkistan are yapping on command, because after all, being liberal iz teh coolness, and nobody wants to be uncool.

texastag: Hurr! Durr! Teabagger ignorant hillbilly redneck racists derp derp!

Talk your shiat and laugh it up now. In a few months the party's over...

/That will keep the damage to a minimum until jimmy carter II leaves office on 1-20-12
//The smart democrats aren't running again and lining up their cushy lobbyist or diplomat jobs now


This is why when we actually get off our asses, we win. Because you basically suck and your entire line of reasoning is about yelling about shiat with no backup.

/ You
// Suck

Favored a different kind of "T" party:



/Lots of capital T

My favorite Tea Party personality.

AFAIK she's mocking them, yet nobody in the Tea Party has realized it yet. Poe's Law, for some people- great people- it is an entire CAREER.

mark12A: They want fiscal sanity, that's al

Because they evidently only care about "fiscal sanity" when Democrats are in power.

They didn't do shiat with the 700 Billion dollar Medicare D.
They didn't do shiat when we engaged in two wars while cutting taxes to the measure of trillions of dollars, and having to pass supplemental spending bill costing tens of billions a year to pay for the damn thing, all without a proper funding mechanism.
They didn't do shiat when the DHS was created (the biggest increase in the size of the government since WW2)
They didn't do anything with the Federalization of education through No Child Left Behind.

None of those things were fiscally sane, yet they didn't do anything. All we hear is how they were always upset about those things, but for some reason, they only got off their asses when Obama was elected.

The teabaggers are just hyperpartisan Republicans biatching and moaning they're not in control.


Fark_Guy_Rob: That really doesn't seem fair. First, you require them to contribute to some retirement program. Then, you mock them for receiving the benefits of said retirement program?

It was a joke. I'm not going to begrudge old people for taking advantage of their social security.

RandomAxe: //REPEAT FOR THE SLOW ONES: NOT TROLLING

I don't know you. I have, however, talked to probably literally over a hundred self-identified Teabaggers, and certainly heard from many more through the TV, radio, and internet. I have not yet heard from one who was not either a loony, or hopelessly ill-informed, or highly ill-intentioned. I certainly haven't heard from one who seemed to have a good grasp of what "fiscal sanity" would actually entail, or why.

There may be smart, sane Tea Party people out there who have good ideas and know what they're talking about, etc. But the vast majority of Teabaggers do not fit into that category, and, as a result, I can't be too impressed with the intelligence of anyone who align themselves with that group. The Tea Party is roughly equivalent to the Juggalos. Yes, there are a lot of them, but it doesn't make them a valid political movement.

I'm not fond of crazy left-wing protest groups, either. Most people who have megaphones like shouting. It rarely means they have anything brilliant to say.

That's true of pretty much any group people can 'self-identify' with. Which is part of why it's so easy for people to be convinced that 'their group' is the correct one.

Sane, rational people, tend to be the ones least likely to bring up things not intended for 'polite conversation' - like politics. They also know that, if they do bring it up - they aren't going to encounter other sane, rational people who want to exchange ideas. They'll encounter the uninformed masses who are just poorly parroting what might have been an actual point at some point - and all they get is a big argument.

The same is true of religion. Everyone sees the crazy guy on the corner telling you to love God or whomever or the extremists on TV. If you actually go to a local 'house of worship' you'd run into a bunch of reasonably sane people.