Monday 5 December 2016

I would rather be a rebel than a Slave...Proud to be a Libtard



We watched Question Time on Sunday afternoon. it was full of bald headed kippers using words like Remoaners. They claimed they did not vote to leave because they were racist but they never gave their reasons. Each one mocked the idea that the issue was complex. They claimed the remainers saw them as stupid and read the Sun yet not one provided a complex, wide ranging arguement for their position. I am fed up with one dimensional muppets...I am proud  that they insult us, sneer at us because our views are complex, tentative and developing. SO I am setting up a RROUD TO BE A LIBTARD GROUP on Facebook. IWOULD RATHER BE A REBEL THAN A SLAVE. Please support us..https://www.facebook.com/groups/1616845238617607/

Supported remaining in the EU? Think we should show compassion to Syrian refugees? Think benefit claimants shouldn't be demonised? If you've expressed support for any of these views or any similar such things on social media then like as not some bigot will have labelled you a 'libtard at some time or other.It's a decidedly unpleasant term created by right wing conservatives to imply that liberally minded people are of diminished intelligence. Well if being compassionate and caring makes you a 'libtard' it's certainly not something to be ashamed of - in fact we think we should wear it as a badge of honour, We are libtards and we are proud.
(Lib-Tard) 1) Combination of the words Liberal and retard (see also: Libterd, libturd, libnerd, libsurd, libdiot, libored) 2) The result when a tree hugger successfully mates with a tree and the offspring is born with an extra chromosome. 3) Any helpless society that must always be liberated by the blood and sweat of others yet are too arrogant and stupid to realize that they owe their entire existance to others.(see also: French-tard, French-Tarded, Retarded-Frenchmen).
libtard

1) Hillary clinton and her husband, you know what's his face. You know that libtard that got impeached for going down on that fat chick in the beret that looked like Rosie Odonnel.
2) Look at that tall mongoloid with the vote Kerry T-shirt. Must be one of them libtards.
3) Screw you Frenchie! You freakin' Libtard.

"Libtard" is a portmanteau word, but of what? Liberal + ???

This topic arose in the comments to my post last night that took The New Yorker to task for publishing the sentence: "In India, Hindu supremacists have adopted Rush Limbaugh’s favorite epithet 'libtard' to channel righteous fury against liberal and secular élites." In fact, Rush Limbaugh never says "libtard."

I added: "'Libtard' is an offensive word, unnecessarily dragging in disrespect for the mentally challenged." I have always heard the word as a combination of "liberal" and "retard." But in the comments, MadisonMan asked: "Does the 'tard' come from retard, or bastard?" I think it's obvious: 1. "Retard" is often shortened to just "'tard" and no one ever says "'tard" to mean "bastard," and 2. The contempt expressed in the use of the word seems to be about stupidity and not orneriness.

Urban Dictionary confirms my understanding, in the top-voted definition and in all the competing definitions.

But here's an op-ed in the NYT (from 2014), "Testing the Ideas of India." See? It'sIndia again.
The [the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party's] dominance during this election campaign has had unexpected benefits, including reviving the belief that secularism is a value — even if it’s a value that needs reviving, and redefining. In rambunctious Twitter arguments, “sickular” is often used as a pejorative term, along with “libtard,” a composite for “liberal bastard.” This language, however extreme, is a sign that between the small but noisy groups of Hindu supremacists and the small but equally vociferous groups of committed left-liberals lies a vast middle ground.

I don't know if that columnist got it right, and who knows how the word "libtard" came into being in India? It didn't come from Rush Limbaugh, but did it come from other Americans? If so, was the "tard" misunderstood as connected to "bastard" or was the NYT op-ed writer — Nilanjana S. Roy — just innocent of the American word "tard" and making her own assumption? Roy is a novelist born, educated, and living in India. She's not a good source of the origin of the American epithet "libtard," which seems to have a life of its own in India.
I searched the Hindustan Times for the word "libtard" and came up with 3 examples, including one from last month titled "Have you been trolled? Challenging the defence of India’s 'bhakts'" — which challenges me to understand another word, bhakts:

Social media trolls with right wing Hindu leanings – characterised by their vehement attacks on anyone opposing the Narendra Modi-led government – have undoubtedly hogged the limelight this week. While their attacks on people, who do not agree with them, have grown unprecedentedly brazen, 'bhakts' also enjoy a new-found attention of newspaper columnists, online commentators and prominent intellectuals....
[Film director Vivek] Agnihotri wrote, "You call them Internet Hindus, they call you Adarsh Liberals. You call them Bhakts, they call youLibtards. You call them Sanghis, they call you AAPtards. This new, emerging, virtual India is not taking it lying down like their ancestors did."

What the director misses is that while calling opponents Adarsh Liberals or AAPtards (quite derogatory in itself, taking off from 'retard'), the trolls also heap slanderous abuses on them....








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