Emasculation in Republican Psychological Warfare, and Why It Works

By Good German on October 30, 2010 in News 41

The recent slew of “man up” and similar comments coming mostly from Republican candidates makes this 2008 Stephen Ducat piece from the Huffington Post perhaps even more relevant than when it was written:

The racist lynchings of the 19th and 20th centuries featured castration as a central component of those ritualized assaults. The same appears to be true of contemporary rhetorical lynchings visible in the right wing media-scape. First aired on April 23 of this year as a news item, the latest ad by the Grand Dragon of GOP character assassins, Floyd Brown, is only the most recent example.

Brown, who succeeded in turning Black rapist murderer Willie Horton into Michael Dukakis’s running mate, is now going after the testicular credibility of Barack Obama. The ad cited a vote Obama cast as an Illinois state senator against a bill mandating the death penalty for gang-related murders — a bill the state’s Republican governor later vetoed for being overly broad, vague, discriminatory, and for lacking any deterrent effect. The spot’s narrator concludes, “When the time came to get tough, Obama chose to be weak. So, the question is: can a man so weak in the war on gangs be trusted in the war on terror?” The closing shot is that of the rubble at New York’s post-9/11 ground zero.

Not surprisingly, Factcheck.org found it to be a mendacious hodgepodge of distortions and misrepresentations. Of course, what Brown is after is not veracity but the generation of emotion in his audience, principally anxiety. As he had successfully done with Dukakis, the aim is to emasculate Obama and thus to induce in the electorate a fear that the Democratic nominee will be unable to function as a manly protector.

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http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Well…such tactics are doubly necessary in a tribe of cockless man bitches that shit their panties like shrieking fairies at the first sign of potential danger and sell their rights away on the promise of theoretical safety.

I mean seriously…I’ve known drag queens who were less afraid of danger and kicked more ass…while their junk was tucked and shoved into their butt crack and strapped in place with everything but duct tape.

When a party has a track record that bad, that tragic, that spectacularly unmanly…it greatly magnifies the need for additional tough talk and insults at the opposition. Kind of like Jersey Shore…where the brain dead steroid blobs spout off and talk a mean game…because they know perfectly well that its empty bluster…and their shame and self hatred drives them to ever more tragic displays to keep the illusion of manhood alive.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Well…such tactics are doubly necessary in a tribe of cockless man bitches that shit their panties like shrieking fairies at the first sign of potential danger and sell their rights away on the promise of theoretical safety.

I mean seriously…I’ve known drag queens who were less afraid of danger and kicked more ass…while their junk was tucked and shoved into their butt crack and strapped in place with everything but duct tape.

When a party has a track record that bad, that tragic, that spectacularly unmanly…it greatly magnifies the need for additional tough talk and insults at the opposition. Kind of like Jersey Shore…where the brain dead steroid blobs spout off and talk a mean game…because they know perfectly well that its empty bluster…and their shame and self hatred drives them to ever more tragic displays to keep the illusion of manhood alive.
- Liam_McGonagle
  
  That there’s some funny shit you done wrote, Hoss.
  
  I’ve thought about this topic from time to time, too. I’m of a couple of minds about the specific dynamical workings, but bottom line: This hyper-agressive GOP attitude is a bullshit distraction from the issues.
  
  On one hand it’s clear that the GOP want to undermine the fundamental democratic principle of comprimise by branding it as “effeminate” or “weak”.
  
  On the other hand, sending women like Sarah Palin or Rebecca Mansour to send the message seems particularly devious–an underhanded way to put critics of the GOP in a sort of double bind. If victims of GOP smears fight back, they’ll be accused of being sexist and hypocritical; if they don’t fight back they’ll be seen as justifying the “weak” or “effeminate” labels inherent in the GOP’s charge.
  
  Which is too bad, because the fundamentally unfair, undemocratic and underhanded nature of the attack does seem to call for some strong response.
  
  I have a friend who did some kind of photoshop of a pic of Palin delivering some hateful, frothing vitrol from a podium. He put huge fuckin’ man-hands on her–complete with tattoos, scabs and hairy nuckles. Made her look like a 60-year old stevedore.
  
  I laughed my ass off, but decided to pass on publishing or circulating it because I wondered if it would just perpetuate an already overdone, underhanded rhetorical tactic that should have left our radar screens long, long ago.
  - 5by5
    
    It also sends a message to women that the only type of chicks GOP dudes respect are those who dress like a naughty librarian, and will betray their own gender, by either sending them back to the kitchen or forcing them to bear their rapist’s baby.
    - 5by5
      
      Sorry, let me amend that — a naughty librarian that doesn’t read. Except words written on her own hand to remind the dingbat what talking points to parrot.
- Butter Knife
  
  One minor factual error: many drag queens make liberal use of duct tape.
  - http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi
    
    LOL!! Actually…very true. When 3 pairs of dance skins that are a couple sizes too small won’t do the job…duct tape to the rescue!
- HowFuckinSurprising
  
  I still don’t understand how anyone could bash republicans without bashing democrats too. They are ALL establishment liars. Gah, it keeps people in their left/right state of mind so that nobody can come to an agreement on whats really important. My head is going to blow up, and I hope it does… This shit is ridiculous….. Fucking sheeeeeep.
  And disinfo is a pro-democrat website, no matter what they claim, I always see them trying to jump on the Obama dickwagon, even though if you have one ounce of sense and pay even the slightest bit of attention, you would easily come to the conclusion that Obama is just the next establishment scapegoat to take the blame for what his corporate/military masters dish out. Come on….
  - http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi
    
    Now you did it…you got me started on the Dems…The Dems aren’t cockless…they’re spineless jellyfish. They aren’t insecure about it either…their very secure and comfortable in their spinelessness.
    
    I enjoy irony…the crueler the irony cuts, the more I lavish attention. The Dems are pathetic sellouts…but barely ironic. Now the GOP on the other hand…they still have fake zeal, claim to have ‘principles’…which bend and sway like the willow limbs in the breeze…and have the strength to commit to an act of hypocrisy. Those are people I can thoroughly enjoy mocking. Making fun of Democrats is like punching babies with cerebral palsy. Sure you can do it…but theres no real challenge to it…no satisfaction.
    
    And Disinfo, being a user based site aimed at information that may not have gotten enough attention elsewhere, IS a broadly liberal site…(note that liberality is not necessarily DNC turf)…you’ll see plenty damning the Obama administration…where genuine liberals will take time out to lambaste the poor performance by the DNC and Obama…with good reason…because if you just happily accept whatever they do…like the GOP did for 8 years of Bush…you will only see them perform worse and worse instead of floundering to improve.
Liam_McGonagle

That there’s some funny shit you done wrote, Hoss.

I’ve thought about this topic from time to time, too. I’m of a couple of minds about the specific dynamical workings, but bottom line: This hyper-agressive GOP attitude is a bullshit distraction from the issues.

On one hand it’s clear that the GOP want to undermine the fundamental democratic principle of comprimise by branding it as “effeminate” or “weak”.

On the other hand, sending women like Sarah Palin or Rebecca Mansour to send the message seems particularly devious–an underhanded way to put critics of the GOP in a sort of double bind. If victims of GOP smears fight back, they’ll be accused of being sexist and hypocritical; if they don’t fight back they’ll be seen as justifying the “weak” or “effeminate” labels inherent in the GOP’s charge.

Which is too bad, because the fundamentally unfair, undemocratic and underhanded nature of the attack does seem to call for some strong response.

I have a friend who did some kind of photoshop of a pic of Palin delivering some hateful, frothing vitrol from a podium. He put huge fuckin’ man-hands on her–complete with tattoos, scabs and hairy nuckles. Made her look like a 60-year old stevedore.

I laughed my ass off, but decided to pass on publishing or circulating it because I wondered if it would just perpetuate an already overdone, underhanded rhetorical tactic that should have left our radar screens long, long ago.
Liam_McGonagle

That there’s some funny shit you done wrote, Hoss.

I’ve thought about this topic from time to time, too. I’m of a couple of minds about the specific dynamical workings, but bottom line: This hyper-agressive GOP attitude is a bullshit distraction from the issues.

On one hand it’s clear that the GOP want to undermine the fundamental democratic principle of comprimise by branding it as “effeminate” or “weak”.

On the other hand, sending women like Sarah Palin or Rebecca Mansour to send the message seems particularly devious–an underhanded way to put critics of the GOP in a sort of double bind. If victims of GOP smears fight back, they’ll be accused of being sexist and hypocritical; if they don’t fight back they’ll be seen as justifying the “weak” or “effeminate” labels inherent in the GOP’s charge.

Which is too bad, because the fundamentally unfair, undemocratic and underhanded nature of the attack does seem to call for some strong response.

I have a friend who did some kind of photoshop of a pic of Palin delivering some hateful, frothing vitrol from a podium. He put huge fuckin’ man-hands on her–complete with tattoos, scabs and hairy nuckles. Made her look like a 60-year old stevedore.

I laughed my ass off, but decided to pass on publishing or circulating it because I wondered if it would just perpetuate an already overdone, underhanded rhetorical tactic that should have left our radar screens long, long ago.
Bigmouth

LOL so fuckin true that the dems are a bunch of PC and socialistic (COMMI) who bitch and moan and scream and do not believe in the right to be armed what a bunch of pussies time to depusification enough of PC and enough of obama and palin too many folks do not understand both parties are the same look into who is in the cabinets of both parties the same folks since Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan they keep getting vomited up through each new pres.
All CFR members how stupid folks are getting our pres is nothing more than a puppet who has no real power and just does as he is told. Yep our government is the best money can buy would be nice to have a Kennedy but see what happened to him mmm seems like he was going to dismantle the CIA and had a wonderful speech of secret societies and boom ended the fairy tail and Americans went back to sleep.
Here is one why so many folks are pussies try fluoride in our water if you think it is safe I think you need to study and stop believing in dentist and everything the gov tells you LOL the Nazis used it concentration camps and found out it made folks PASSIVE mmm pussies.
- Amerikan2012
  
  ^We are fucking doomed…^
  - Andrew
    
    I doubt he read the article. If he had, his probably wouldn’t have posted a comment proving its point. Unless he’s not very smart. Which, considering his grammar and syntax, is a very real possibility. Maybe it hit too close to home.
    - Liam_McGonagle
      
      Say, that’s a good point. This whoe pretense of “hypermasculinity” on the Right is just dripping with ironies.
      
      I think VoxMagi put it pretty well, but it didn’t fully click with me until I say your comment here; it’s almost like the Right Wing’s hyper “masculinity” is a personal psychological strategy on their part to deal with the secret fear within themselves that they’re actually closeted homsexuals.
      
      You know the kind–Tarantino portrayed them a bit in “Pulp Fiction”, Tea Baggers Jed and Zeke. Dudes who are like 45, still living in Mommy’s basement, and are so “butch” that they scoff at doing anything as “faggy” as going out with girls. They’d rather spend their evenings at home, polishing their ‘guns’ and reading ‘body building’ magazines. Maybe they have a ‘macho’ buddy come over for a little ‘wrasslin’. Something like that. You know the type–Larry Craig, Mark Foley, George Reker.
      
      Jesus, you’d just wish that type of guy would get his shit together and just openly admit they were gay rather than spending hours on online forums projecting their own latent homsexuality on Olbermann, et alia.
      - http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi
        
        WE DON’T WANT THEM!!! DO NOT WANT!
        
        All kidding aside, I’ve said many time before…homosexuality is sick, gross and wrong…when conservatives do it. They just don’t have the knack to make it look good. With them its always excess hair, cellulite and desperation…they’re better off in the closet…and the rest of us are better off without them.
      - Liam_McGonagle
        
        Well, not being gay myself, I will not presume to enter the fray of that socio-political shitstorm; I wouldn’t have much idea of the gay-specific issues.
        
        I guess my point was that, to me, even more offensive than their conservatism is their self-loathing, hypocritical homophobia. I’m not saying these guys have to be embraced by mainstream gay culture–if there even is such a thing. Just wish they would be a little more honest about who they were and knock it off with the hatred thing.
      - http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi
        
        I kid…again. You’re quite right…even though they fight it tooth and nail, the great truth is that coming out would dramatically have altered their lives. They’d be saner happier and healthier…instead of living a life of self hatred, homophobia and tortured shame. I finished with that silence and shame crap in high school…hit college. emerged, and never turned back. The price of honesty at the tail end of the 80s was sudden and instantaneous homelessness…loss of family ties (for a few years)…and a wild ride through the fledging Michigan punk/glam/techno/rave scene. Loved every minute of it…as a whole and honest person…not some shattered half man playing make believe.
- Tuna Ghost
  
  I tend not to pay much attention to people who apparently can’t structure a sentence or be bothered to learn how to use a comma. It speaks of intellectual laziness and ignorance. Now, having actually read your piece, I find I am still of the same opinion.
Bigmouth

LOL so fuckin true that the dems are a bunch of PC and socialistic (COMMI) who bitch and moan and scream and do not believe in the right to be armed what a bunch of pussies time to depusification enough of PC and enough of obama and palin too many folks do not understand both parties are the same look into who is in the cabinets of both parties the same folks since Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan they keep getting vomited up through each new pres.
All CFR members how stupid folks are getting our pres is nothing more than a puppet who has no real power and just does as he is told. Yep our government is the best money can buy would be nice to have a Kennedy but see what happened to him mmm seems like he was going to dismantle the CIA and had a wonderful speech of secret societies and boom ended the fairy tail and Americans went back to sleep.
Here is one why so many folks are pussies try fluoride in our water if you think it is safe I think you need to study and stop believing in dentist and everything the gov tells you LOL the Nazis used it concentration camps and found out it made folks PASSIVE mmm pussies.
Amerikan2012

^We are fucking doomed…^
Andrew

I doubt he read the article. If he had, his probably wouldn’t have posted a comment proving its point. Unless he’s not very smart. Which, considering his grammar and syntax, is a very real possibility. Maybe it hit too close to home.
GoodDoktorBad

“Man up”? Any body who uses that phrase in serious conversation is no man, at least not in any sense beyond the fact that they have a penis. Manhood is in short supply. The GOP, and the Dems for that matter,
are the epitome of human weakness and fears unfaced. The lowest of the low -pretending to fly while wallowing in the mud.

Bullies tend to crumble when faced with real integrity and defiance. The problem here is that the stupid little bully boys who never grew up seem to outnumber the “real” men. No one seems willing to stand and suffer fools.
“If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” seems to be the default philosophy here.
Like the most honorable soldier with good intentions, you must be willing to die (if neccesary) rather than yield and become the next tool of fools.

Man-up indeed…..
Anonymous

“Man up”? Any body who uses that phrase in serious conversation is no man, at least not in any sense beyond the fact that they have a penis. Manhood is in short supply. The GOP, and the Dems for that matter,
are the epitome of human weakness and fears unfaced. The lowest of the low -pretending to fly while wallowing in the mud.

Bullies tend to crumble when faced with real integrity and defiance. The problem here is that the stupid little bully boys who never grew up seem to outnumber the “real” men. No one seems willing to stand and suffer fools.
“If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” seems to be the default philosophy here.
Like the most honorable soldier with good intentions, you must be willing to die (if neccesary) rather than yield and become the next tool of fools.

Man-up indeed…..
Jecht

I’m from Russian and here “gop” means something like thug.
- Liam_McGonagle
  
  Wow, the U.S. is more like Russia than I would have thought!
Jecht

I’m from Russian and here “gop” means something like thug.
5by5

It also sends a message to women that the only type of chicks GOP dudes respect are those who dress like a naughty librarian, and will betray their own gender, by either sending them back to the kitchen or forcing them to bear their rapist’s baby.
5by5

Sorry, let me amend that — a naughty librarian that doesn’t read. Except words written on her own hand to remind the dingbat what talking points to parrot.
Butter Knife

One minor factual error: many drag queens make liberal use of duct tape.
Liam_McGonagle

Say, that’s a good point. This whoe pretense of “hypermasculinity” on the Right is just dripping with ironies.

I think VoxMagi put it pretty well, but it didn’t fully click with me until I say your comment here; it’s almost like the Right Wing’s hyper “masculinity” is a personal psychological strategy on their part to deal with the secret fear within themselves that they’re actually closeted homsexuals.

You know the kind–Tarantino portrayed them a bit in “Pulp Fiction”, Tea Baggers Jed and Zeke. Dudes who are like 45, still living in Mommy’s basement, and are so “butch” that they scoff at doing anything as “faggy” as going out with girls. They’d rather spend their evenings at home, polishing their ‘guns’ and reading ‘body building’ magazines. Maybe they have a ‘macho’ buddy come over for a little ‘wrasslin’. Something like that. You know the type–Larry Craig, Mark Foley, George Reker.

Jesus, you’d just wish that type of guy would get his shit together and just openly admit they were gay rather than spending hours on online forums projecting their own latent homsexuality on Olbermann, et alia.
Liam_McGonagle

Wow, the U.S. is more like Russia than I would have thought!
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

LOL!! Actually…very true. When 3 pairs of dance skins that are a couple sizes too small won’t do the job…duct tape to the rescue!
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

WE DON’T WANT THEM!!! DO NOT WANT!

All kidding aside, I’ve said many time before…homosexuality is sick, gross and wrong…when conservatives do it. They just don’t have the knack to make it look good. With them its always excess hair, cellulite and desperation…they’re better off in the closet…and the rest of us are better off without them.
rtb61

A lot of the core constituency of the Republicans are wanna be jock straps, those that lacked the skills to win beyond high school except in mass media dreams and the intellect to pursue other options.
They hate intellectuals because they know no amount of training will ever get them there and thus in their hate and envy, they work to bring down the achievements of those more intelligent than them with childish screams of ignorance and equally childish threats of violence.
Anonymous

A lot of the core constituency of the Republicans are wanna be jock straps, those that lacked the skills to win beyond high school except in mass media dreams and the intellect to pursue other options.
They hate intellectuals because they know no amount of training will ever get them there and thus in their hate and envy, they work to bring down the achievements of those more intelligent than them with childish screams of ignorance and equally childish threats of violence.
HowFuckinSurprising

I still don’t understand how anyone could bash republicans without bashing democrats too. They are ALL establishment liars. Gah, it keeps people in their left/right state of mind so that nobody can come to an agreement on whats really important. My head is going to blow up, and I hope it does… This shit is ridiculous….. Fucking sheeeeeep.
And disinfo is a pro-democrat website, no matter what they claim, I always see them trying to jump on the Obama dickwagon, even though if you have one ounce of sense and pay even the slightest bit of attention, you would easily come to the conclusion that Obama is just the next establishment scapegoat to take the blame for what his corporate/military masters dish out. Come on….
Liam_McGonagle

Well, not being gay myself, I will not presume to enter the fray of that socio-political shitstorm; I wouldn’t have much idea of the gay-specific issues.

I guess my point was that, to me, even more offensive than their conservatism is their self-loathing, hypocritical homophobia. I’m not saying these guys have to be embraced by mainstream gay culture–if there even is such a thing. Just wish they would be a little more honest about who they were and knock it off with the hatred thing.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Now you did it…you got me started on the Dems…The Dems aren’t cockless…they’re spineless jellyfish. They aren’t insecure about it either…their very secure and comfortable in their spinelessness.

I enjoy irony…the crueler the irony cuts, the more I lavish attention. The Dems are pathetic sellouts…but barely ironic. Now the GOP on the other hand…they still have fake zeal, claim to have ‘principles’…which bend and sway like the willow limbs in the breeze…and have the strength to commit to an act of hypocrisy. Those are people I can thoroughly enjoy mocking. Making fun of Democrats is like punching babies with cerebral palsy. Sure you can do it…but theres no real challenge to it…no satisfaction.

And Disinfo, being a user based site aimed at information that may not have gotten enough attention elsewhere, IS a broadly liberal site…(note that liberality is not necessarily DNC turf)…you’ll see plenty damning the Obama administration…where genuine liberals will take time out to lambaste the poor performance by the DNC and Obama…with good reason…because if you just happily accept whatever they do…like the GOP did for 8 years of Bush…you will only see them perform worse and worse instead of floundering to improve.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

I kid…again. You’re quite right…even though they fight it tooth and nail, the great truth is that coming out would dramatically have altered their lives. They’d be saner happier and healthier…instead of living a life of self hatred, homophobia and tortured shame. I finished with that silence and shame crap in high school…hit college. emerged, and never turned back. The price of honesty at the tail end of the 80s was sudden and instantaneous homelessness…loss of family ties (for a few years)…and a wild ride through the fledging Michigan punk/glam/techno/rave scene. Loved every minute of it…as a whole and honest person…not some shattered half man playing make believe.
Tuna Ghost

I tend not to pay much attention to people who apparently can’t structure a sentence or be bothered to learn how to use a comma. It speaks of intellectual laziness and ignorance. Now, having actually read your piece, I find I am still of the same opinion.