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Debt Douchebags from Peterson Institute stoke the hysteria

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on Mon, 11/12/2012 - 9:11pm

16 Days for Lame Ducks to Avoid a “Cliff Fall”

ZOMG!!!! We owe ourselves money!

NOTE Any triggers with "Debt Douchebags"? I like the D... D... euphony.

Comments

Submitted by hipparchia on

i don't hear it as especially euphonious. and since douche is primarily associated with female reproductive anatomy, in our culture at least, no you really should not use it as a pejorative.

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

(1) Euphonious is about sound, not sense. However, I take your point but'

(2) in the same way that your argument is not you, a douchebag is not your vagina, and

(3) the term was originally suggested to me by a woman...

okanogen's picture
Submitted by okanogen on

Debt hysterics are pushing a fake crisis namely the phony "fiscal cliff", to wring more money out of the 99% by simultaneously cutting spending and saving their fat cat tax cuts.

Pretty much one sentence says it all.

Submitted by hipparchia on

"Euphonious is about sound, not sense"

i know. that's why i wrote i don't HEAR it as euphonious. pretend that what i really wrote was: when i say it out loud, i don't HEAR it as especially euphonious.

"in the same way that your argument is not you, a douchebag is not your vagina,"

it's true that the current meaning of "douchebag" is in the process of becoming decoupled from its original meaning, but...

"the term was originally suggested to me by a woman"

this excuse gets used a lot, and not just about "women's issues." some women are not offended by having oblique references to their body parts used as pejoratives, other women are. you can always opt to err on either the side of lesser offensiveness or greater offensiveness. also, compare to: some black people say it's ok to use the word "nigger." i don't know what the gender profile is for corrente's audience, but you might keep in mind, when deciding how offensive to be or not be, that half the population is female.

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

... and how's that for oblique?

I understand the point that you're making; if it's purely pragamatic and majoritarian, you're being outvoted. If it isn't (the question-begging "excuse"), the countervailing argument would be that it's going to offend the targets of the ridicule pretty massively: It's frat boy invective directed at frat boys (finance is full of that sort of person, dominated by them). "It hurts them all more than it hurts you all."

UPDATE Adding, on "nigger" I think it's more like "spear chucker.' We're really arguing about notions of metonymy aren't we?

Submitted by hipparchia on

outvoted? arguing about metonymy? dude, if you want my permission to be a dickhead, you have it.

Submitted by hipparchia on

if you want me to stop being pointing out those times when you're being a dickhead, you'll just have to stop being a dickhead.

Submitted by jawbone on

Squid should be tied to the attempt to use Shock Doctrine to allow Wall Street to attach their suckers to Social Security. They're after getting it privatized, but until then they love scaring people into putting money back into the stock market where they can be the marks yet again. Weakening SocSec is important to their end goal.

Plus, the Vampire Squid metaphor needs to be maintained. It's not as if the banksters are going away or getting weaker. Indeed, under Obama they're probably stronger than ever.

Yup, "Social Security vampire squid" does it for me. Just capitalize the last two words.

lambert's picture
Submitted by lambert on

Deficit Dickheads?

* * *

Yes, I've got a dick, but I'm happy to surrender it to mockery for the cause. And it won't piss off the frat boys as much as douchebag -- which doesn't have to be sexist, now that I am given to understand that there's such a thing as an anal douchebag (!!) -- but it will piss 'em off pretty bad, and really, are we to be left with the pathetic Digby-axis develioped "Deficit Scold"? Surely not.

athena1's picture
Submitted by athena1 on

Sine the plan is to voucherize/privatize and/or eliminate the whole damn thing, I like this even if it's a bit wordy.

BTW, douchebag isn't sexist, since douching is sexism-based woo/pseudoscience. OBGYNs never even recommend it any more. In fact, they discourage it. It causes bacterial infections and fungal infections. So, I'd say it's a pro-feminism slur.

:)

Turlock