Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Iduno]

As much as I'm not a fan of Biden, there is no political angle you can approach this from where he's anywhere near as bad as Trump.

If you think Biden's support of segregation, abolishing social security, removing choice in abortion, and using expenses like college and medical care to divide the country economically aren't bad, you're going to have to list where you think Trump is worse. It's not like he was opposing the concentration camps when they were being built, or saying that killing civilians was bad, or even disagreeing with Obama's position that the CIA killing off US citizens was fine.

[Naturegirl1999]

As much as I'm not a fan of Biden, there is no political angle you can approach this from where he's anywhere near as bad as Trump.

If you think Biden's support of segregation, abolishing social security, removing choice in abortion, and using expenses like college and medical care to divide the country economically aren't bad, you're going to have to list where you think Trump is worse. It's not like he was opposing the concentration camps when they were being built, or saying that killing civilians was bad, or even disagreeing with Obama's position that the CIA killing off US citizens was fine.

What? How many times has this happened?

[TamerVirus]

What? How many times has this happened?

Most prominent example would probably be Anwar al-Awlaki

[dragdeler]

-

[Iduno]

As much as I'm not a fan of Biden, there is no political angle you can approach this from where he's anywhere near as bad as Trump.

If you think Biden's support of segregation, abolishing social security, removing choice in abortion, and using expenses like college and medical care to divide the country economically aren't bad, you're going to have to list where you think Trump is worse. It's not like he was opposing the concentration camps when they were being built, or saying that killing civilians was bad, or even disagreeing with Obama's position that the CIA killing off US citizens was fine.

What? How many times has this happened?

The numbers would probably be filed under "national security" and not given out.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo

[Doomblade187]

I will say there is one significant advantage to Biden over Trump. (Even though Biden may well be a rapist as well) Trump's party has been actively deconstructing the American administrative state. Biden and co would preserve it, and many of his worse impulses would be reigned in by the party, as he is on the far right of the party imo.

However, until they make it clear that he isn't a rapist, I don't think I'll vote for him. We'll see.

[Rolan7]

I think scum is like, small organisms that live on the water? Collections of zooplankton and phytoplankton?

They meant the specific phrase "scumbag" not the word "scum".

yes, my thinking was someone could, with dedication, bag various planktons, thus a bag of scum, scumbag

BTW I did some digging and it looks like the reason "scumbag" entered the lexicon wasn't because it was comparing people to a used condom. That slang did exist since at least 1960, but was uncommon. What happened was that there was a live track recorded by Frank Zappa plus John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1971, which they titled "scumbag" (clearly Frank Zappa's sense of humor), and by 1972 "scumbag" first became used as an insult. Pretty much because of the song title and not because people knew what it meant.

Huh, thanks for digging that up.  I always assumed it just meant pondscum, but given Frank Zappa, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a case of getting past the censors a bit.  Death of the author though, I think the term just means "bag of grossness" for most people.

[Ziusudra]

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/05/word-scumbag-come/

A “scumbag” controversy erupted on the pages of the New York Times in 2006. In its weekly crossword puzzle, the Times made the answer to 43 down “scumbag.” This didn’t sit well for a number of older readers. Allen Siegel, an assistant managing editor, revealed to Slate that, “We got dozens of angry messages from readers, as well as complaints from colleagues on the staff.” Apparently there was a generation gap here with no one realizing the word “scumbag” had a much more obscene definition than “despicable person” and, considering the Times’ strict rules on content, it should have never made it into the crossword puzzle. Even Will Shortz, the Times’ crossword guru, wrote that, “The thought never crossed my mind this word could be controversial.”

So, like everything, it's not that simple.

[Bumber]

I was rather unamused by the Biden supported using the word Joe-mentum, and was glad I didn’t immediately mute the nonsense because one of the callers asked if he would talk about Joe Biden’s dementia, much to the chagrin of the host who chastised him for not asking the question he said he’d ask.

Joe-mentia.

[Reelya]

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/05/word-scumbag-come/

A “scumbag” controversy erupted on the pages of the New York Times in 2006. In its weekly crossword puzzle, the Times made the answer to 43 down “scumbag.” This didn’t sit well for a number of older readers. Allen Siegel, an assistant managing editor, revealed to Slate that, “We got dozens of angry messages from readers, as well as complaints from colleagues on the staff.” Apparently there was a generation gap here with no one realizing the word “scumbag” had a much more obscene definition than “despicable person” and, considering the Times’ strict rules on content, it should have never made it into the crossword puzzle. Even Will Shortz, the Times’ crossword guru, wrote that, “The thought never crossed my mind this word could be controversial.”

So, like everything, it's not that simple.

Heh, I never disputed the earlier meaning, I just pointed out that the meaning changed as a result of the Frank Zappa album, and not an organic development. Frank Zappa / John Lennon song in 1971 and the new meaning attested no earlier than 1972. This suggests that the word got wider exposure at this time to people who didn't know its origins, so it lost the original semantic meaning. Similar to how Bugs Bunny turned 'Nimrod' into an insult. (Nimrod was a biblical great hunter, so Bugs calls Elmer Fudd Nimrod ironically. The reference was lost on a generation of viewers however).

[Ziusudra]

You did say:

BTW I did some digging and it looks like the reason "scumbag" entered the lexicon wasn't because it was comparing people to a used condom. That slang did exist since at least 1960, but was uncommon.

Yet, more than 30 years after the Zappa song, plenty still considered it to have the earlier meaning. It clearly was already in the lexicon and not uncommon. Anyway, I didn't mean to imply that you "disputed the earlier meaning", just that the history of it's meaning was more complex than that.

[Reelya]

My point was that there was a disjunction in the meaning. People who have the old meaning (those older than 70 years old, probably) have a totally separate meaning to anyone younger.

"scumbag" just meant "condom", it wasn't used as a term to refer to other people. There are no attested usages of it as an insult before 1972. That only happened after the Frank Zappa thing. Thus, the usage as meaning "condom" and the usage as an insult don't really overlap at all. So there was really no point in time at which it was used to compare people to used condoms. So what we have is two completely different, incompatible meanings, and after it took off in 1972 to mean a horrible person, that meaning then immediately supplanted the other meaning.

[Iduno]

https://twitter.com/renee_heininger/status/1246131262525509633

My point was that there was a disjunction in the meaning. People who have the old meaning (those older than 70 years old, probably) have a totally separate meaning to anyone younger.

"scumbag" just meant "condom", it wasn't used as a term to refer to other people. There are no attested usages of it as an insult before 1972. That only happened after the Frank Zappa thing. Thus, the usage as meaning "condom" and the usage as an insult don't really overlap at all. So there was really no point in time at which it was used to compare people to used condoms. So what we have is two completely different, incompatible meanings, and after it took off in 1972 to mean a horrible person, that meaning then immediately supplanted the other meaning.

It's a slang term that was less well-known than the word that it was based on (scum), and was barely known at all prior to being used as an insult. Now people are surprised it's better known as an insult than a slang term that wasn't even well-known when it was in use 40 years ago? Man, it's a good thing there aren't literally more important things to care about.

[Naturegirl1999]

So the US government is taking medicine from other countries, giving it to corporations so they can sell it to us? WTF?

[Egan_BW]

From the country which brought you war profiteering, behold, PLAGUE PROFITEERING