re: #708 reine.de.tout

I’m suggesting we should all avoid insulting with broad brush insults as much as possible, and that objections could perhaps be raised with those who do it the other way.

You see it differently, apparently. OK.

Of course i don’t see it differently, Reine. Everyone should avoid insulting with broad brush insults as much as possible. But I don’t see this as just a /right wing insult’ ‘left wing insult’ thing.

Because, unlike ‘wingnut’ or ‘moonbat’, which do not actually exist as coherent political positions in their own right, progressivism does— so using it as an insult is different, since you also insult any good, decent, self-identifying progressive, in the same way that using neo-con was different.

No one self-identifies as a moonbat or a wingnut, because they don’t actually mean much of anything coherent.