Imagine if these people ran the country. Or should I write that, Emagin if these peeple ran the cun… Well, you get the idea.
Along with the Tea Party has risen not only an incoherent political movement but exciting and refreshing variations on the English language. Now Flickr user Pargon has collected together many fine examples of “Teabonics”, the curious pidgin that has emerged on the simple signs and crude posters handcrafted by the modern-day Poujadists:
These are signs seen primarily at Tea Party Protests. They all feature “creative” spelling or grammar. This new dialect of the English language shall be known as “Teabonics.”
This being the Guardian, we take a liberal view of the uses and abuses of English, and we’d be fools to pretend otherwise. There but for the grace of god, and so on. Obviously, signs like the one above – “Don’t mortage my childs future” – are amusing enough for the mis-spelling. But signs such as these below, with one saying “Honk for English” and another next to it saying “No Amnety” – something to do with immigration – are even more delightful.
I get the feeling that if you pointed out the misspellings to them that they would blame the left for corrupting the country’s school systems so that no one learns nothin’ no mo’. Given these people, it’s hard to argue that point.
What do you expect from paranoid trailer trash? Oratory on the order of William F. Buckley?
Just cause they can’t spell doesn’t mean they don’t have a valid point. Of course they wouldn’t have a valid point unless Palin or Limbaugh told them about it.
It’s not their politics that bothers me, it’s their almost universal lack of understanding of what that politics is. It’s all sound bites and catch phrases with them and they should start restricting those to easily spelled words.
Of course it’s the drive-by media’s fault for reporting on them like they are a serious party.
I expect you to also start ignoring the concerns of the uneducated black inner city dweller.
I mean, they can’t even spell!
These aren’t inner city kids, These are the people who want to get rid of the dept. of educachen and all the programs that help those inner city kids learn how to spell
The internet has shown us that you know you are on the losing end of an argument when you must attack spelling and grammar to feel superior. You have officially become a political troll.
Nice job.
Teabaggers lost in part because they thought the best guy to run in 2008 was that incompetent oaf John McCain.
That stupid “Don’t mortgage my children’s future” sign is ignorant.
Where were those people when Bush was mortgaging their children’s future with $500 billion deficits?
So…if you can’t spell mortgage then you can’t be concerned about the national debt. I guess if the head of the military cannot pronounce corpsman then he would make a terrible leader. Guess we better fire him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKIfzoC8D0
Individuals on the internet critiquing the spelling of people protesting? Pot please meet kettle. By the way I have seen other people who are not the loony right also not be able to spell on their protest signs.
I think the misspelling is intended to communicate with the Obama supporters in their own Language.
I live near a park that, every so often, you’ll find groups protesting something or another.
You will find signs with misspelled words denouncing the republicans are very common.
Seems to me that this is going to bite them in the butt later on.
I envision John’s example of them blaming the school system for “misspellings” turning into a pro-ignorance movement, somehow saying how you’ll become elitist for even having an education, and that you don’t need one. After that, their lack of spelling and grammar will devolve into a mixture of Internet shorthand and a co-opting of ebonics, initially denying that it has anything related to the country’s black culture. Before you know it, they’ll realize the truth and they’ll be a self-hating group, and then they’ll self-destruct.
[Wasn’t John –ed.]
I’d be more inclined to trust them if conservatives hadn’t wasted even more money on pointless bullshit.
Thanks for everything, baby boomers. Hurry up and die already.
Baby Boomers (I’m one) got a decent education when they were kids, mostly because they were educated during the Space Race in the 60s and early 70s when education was still considered important.
After we “won” the race to the Moon, education wasn’t considered so important, education budgets were cut, and we have the Tea Baggers as a result.
Must be a slow news day – Uncle Dave has to run a wrong spelling post?
Watch this space for his next rant on texting abbreviations.
No wonder they love Bush so much.
#14: Or could it be that this is one more symptom of what is wrong with the Tea Party? Lack of education and critical thinking leads to spouting simplistic crap about complex topics. It’s like trying to present irony and sarcasm to someone who can’t recognize it when they see it. They only see the surface and are baffled when everyone else gets the joke.
I don’t know whether to laugh or be very concern :/ when I see these people in tea party rallies. There are some here in San Diego/Oceanside as well.
It’s Friday, thankfully.
#5
It’s not the internet >.> it’s the people themselves. You don’t have to believe or even read this thread. All you have to do is go down to one of those events/rallies/meetings and see for yourself.
I’m disgusted by what I’ve seen and heard here in San Diego. Sure there are those with good intentions and good reasons but there are many that are just plain whacko and/or ignorant.
Honestly, would you follow these type of people?
At least they weren’t throwing eggs at people nor calling them nasty names.
Yes I do know they are accused of doing that all the time just like the Congressional progressives and media talking heads do to them but so far there is very little evidence to back up the claims.
Anybody collect that $100,000 yet? If was offered if anybody could prove it happened at one event.
I was going to be snarky regarding the Teabaggers but I was beat to it above. That gave me more time to reflect as in “some” teabaggers in Oceanside??? Hah, hah.
But seriously folks, maybe the larger context is that quite a few people get so excited by the notion of getting out of the house that they forget to proof read their signs? Not really a left/right issue.
The signs don’t bother me (misspellings that is) but what is “disappointing” is how empty these people are (left and right) when questioned about their position.
Other signs are telling in that way: “Keep the Government off my MediCare” is a favorite.
I will follow along with Bobbo in the misspellings don’t bother me. But it might be a sympton that these people are not skeptical enough. If these tea partiers just blindly accept what beck, palin, rush and fox channel say without spending some time to research the issues, then the tea party will get ran over by other people taking advantage of their ignorance.
This applyies to other parties as well.
#6: Teabaggers lost in part because they thought the best guy to run in 2008 was that incompetent oaf John McCain.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. Part of the problem is how some states conduct their primary elections. Some states have open primaries in which a voter could vote for any candidate regardless of their party affiliation.
I have never been a fan of open primaries because Democrats and independents can influence internal Republican matters (and vice versa).
Uncle Moron,
These aren’t Tea Party people, they’re Beckbots.
Well eaglescout==you get different result when using open vs closed primaries. In open primaries (absent overwhelming political tricks which in fact don’t happen all that often) you more likely get a candidate that appeal to the middle and is therefore more likely to win a general election ((don’t go off on a tangent regarding what is more likely or not)) whereas closed primaries are very much what is causing the bipartisan dysfunction we see in Washington these days.
It really does come down to whether you place your country above party, or not.
There is enough stupid to go around. This is nothing unique to this group. Stop being so pompous.
The stupid provide so much entertainment.
Is our children learning? Yes they be!
Though Bobbo will probably not be appreciative that I am agreeing with him, he’s right. Misspellings are no reason to attack someone’s political beliefs. Signs like this one are often made up on the spot, under pressure and offer no reflection of the writer’s education/intelligence.
Dave, you can do better than this.
The Tea Party groups are just the latest example of rabble-rousing politics masquerading as populism. The Guardian called them “Poujadists,” which I had to look up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poujadist
Once I did, I recognized a common theme. They were a political party (the UDCA) in France started by Pierre Poujade, a shopkeeper, in opposition to the collection of taxes on shopkeepers. They soon added anti-immigration, anti-intellectual, anti-modernization, anti-Semitic, pro-imperialist and other similar planks to their platform. This is nothing new — 170 years ago we had our Know-Nothings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know-Nothings
This kind of politics is designed to appeal to “the common man” type, just like Joe the Plumber. It’s like the Reader’s Digest version of politics, condensed to easy-to-understand summaries. It’s all slogans and little if any substance, other than the resentment and fear of change that’s the basis for it all.
Left to itself, it usually moderates, as Poujade himself did over the years. But when it is being pushed by serious money and media encouragement (Fox News, etc.) and political encouragement from Republicans like Boehner, Palin and Bachmann and their cheerleaders Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, etc. you can get people who think it’s a fine idea to bomb Federal buildings and such. So far, it’s just tossing bricks through Congressmen’s and Congresswomen’s windows.
So far.
I wonder if they know how to spell “straw man argument”?
RBG