May 30, 2012

"I must say this venture of mine into this Intrade market has been worthwhile."

"I have never really interacted directly with you wingnuts before, and the expression, 'shit for brains,' now has a meaning I never quite appreciated as much before now. Thank you for making it real for me."

A comment, just now, on the Intrade market "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to win the 5 June 2012 recall election," which just hit 94.5%.

Hey, remember the new civility? The weird thing is: Tom Barrett (Walker's opponent) has made his main issue the prospect of restoring civility — ending what he repeatedly calls "the civil war." But I'm only seeing incivility from the anti-Walkerites. Walker fixed the budget, and (some) people flipped out, mainly over an issue that Tom Barrett doesn't even want to talk about anymore (because the clear majority of Wisconsinites agree with Walker).

Check out what happened over at the Isthmus forum (Isthmus is our local "alternative" newspaper) when Meade — responding to a guy who'd said "What do you know personally about the rest of Wisconsin? Little, I think." — said:
Tell you what, Mr. Henry. A week from tomorrow, June 6, if your guy Tom Barrett has more votes than Governor Walker - you name the place. Anywhere on Monroe Street. I will buy you a beer. And I'll listen to anything you feel like teaching me about Wisconsin.
Incivility ensues.

ADDED: Sorry about leaving out that last link until just now.

49 comments:

Pettifogger said...

Incivility, because Meade is talking about what Wisconsin is, while the other guy means what it ought to be---according to his world view.

Bob Ellison said...

A major driver of this type of incivility is the shock that comes from seeing one's delusions shattered. "This can't be happening!" That will overwhelm leftists if Romney defeats Obama.

ignatzk said...

But I'm only seeing incivility from the anti-Walkerites.

First, this is not new. Madison (Isthmus readership) is not about civility. The Madison left is civil to those with whom it agrees, and if everyone agrees it will turn on itself. Ever watch the committee scenes in Reds?

Second, why would Meade engage with an Isthmus forum. Bear baiting?

Synova said...

Hey, it's not incivility if you're telling the truth.

Get with it people!

section9 said...

Meanwhile, Henry A.'s great uncle fell out of a guard tower at a Polish Concentration Camp.

At least according to our President.

Damn them Poles anyway! Let Civility Reign in Speign on the Pleign!

Dan from Madison said...

The funny part is if the guy really thought the other commenters at InTrade were "shit for brains", all he has to do is take the other side of the contract and suck up their money like a vacuum cleaner. But no, just name calling.

tim maguire said...

As always, no specific complaint, nothing that can be addressed and discussed. Just an empty insult.

Michael K said...

The incivility will get much more apparent and physical by the election as Romney moves into the lead. I will also predict his lead in votes will exceed his lead in polls as the Bradley Effect comes into play. I don't accept the theory of Wiki about the cause, by the way. It is an example of the pollee assuming racism in the poll taker and avoiding an answer that would be assumed to be racist.

damikesc said...

A major driver of this type of incivility is the shock that comes from seeing one's delusions shattered. "This can't be happening!" That will overwhelm leftists if Romney defeats Obama.

For the Left, civility is only possible when they are firmly in control.

Why did they whine about Newt in 1994 so much? Because unlike the prior Republican leaders in the House, he didn't just accept a permanent role of subservience.

It's always easier to get along when you're totally in control. White Southerners would tell you, ad infinitum, how much they and blacks got along until those darned Yankees came in and riled up the "colored" folks to demand equal rights and what have you.

Progressives don't like civility. They do adore surrender.

damikesc said...

I mean, protestors gripe about Walker's reforms? That's the governor's fault for being so uncivil.

Protestors gripe about Obamacare? That's just the protestors being uncivil.

Synova said...

Same thing as tolerance.

One might *think* that tolerance and civility were what a person of class showed toward those they disapprove of and with whom they disagree.

Not so!

Tolerance is having the correct opinions, and civility is agreement.

One need not tolerate wrong opinions nor be civil to those who hold them.

paul a'barge said...

Come on. Democrats are fundamentally incapable of civility. Well, ok, with the exception of Kirsten Powers and Lanny Davis.

But really, folks, shove civility. Civility is not on Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

We don't want just to win. We want to totally devastate Liberals. You bring a whine to an argument, we bring a neutron bomb.

section9 said...


Second, why would Meade engage with an Isthmus forum. Bear baiting?


Meade was just being a troll.

But a civil one. At least Meade offered beer if he lost.

Leftists all threaten to move to Canada if they lose and then do the opposite and stay. Which is actually worse. Think of six million California social welfare state dependents pulling up stakes and moving to Texas or some other Red State. Then imagine that they instantly elect candidates (Democrats, of course) who then raid the public treasury into the 22nd Century to provide the aforementioned parasites with Golden State-style public assistance. That's what happens when our lefty friends don't leave for Canada like they promised if Romney wins.

Of course, you'd have to believe that Steven Harper actually wants them. Which he doesn't.

Rich B said...

Uh-Huh, can you use the word "Isthmus" in a sentence?"
"Uh-huhhhhh. Isthmus be my lucky day!"

tim maguire said...

THis is my day for posting before I get all the information. InTrade shows newest first so if I want ot follow the conversation, I have ot start at the bottom.

So this guy, apparently, is calling wing nuts stupid for thinking Walker will win.

So often the way with liberals--the question will answer itself in a few days, just wait. But they can't, they must hurl their insults now!

Never mind that they are setting themselves up to look like idiots. After all, in a week, this guy will be off somewhere else, probably having forgotten that he posted in InTrade at all. If he's wrong, then it never happened.

Original Mike said...

"What do you know personally about the rest of Wisconsin? Little, I think."

Because Wisconsin is sooo different than the rest of the country.

section9 said...

By the way, once again,the comment thread here proves Media Matters' point that Althouse is merely a paid KKKoch Brothers mouthpiece posing as a "cruelly neutral" moderate.

They burn KKKrosses in Madison, don't they?

Seriously, what the left does online can be summed up as follows: somewhere in Nuremberg, a Fuhrer is missing out on his Torchlight Parade.

MadisonMan said...

Leftists all threaten to move to Canada if they lose and then do the opposite and stay

No one threatens to leave Wisconsin in May or early June. The weather is too glorious here then. Now, if this election were being held in mid-February, there'd be extra incentive to get out of State.

traditionalguy said...

Of course Beer Summits imply equals.

That alone must have infuriated the Elites of Madison.

I would suggest Brats at 40 Paces, which is a Norwegian paintball game using mustard. It is judged by a Native American Shamans who read the splashes.

Petunia said...

I read a few pages of the InTrade commentary. Almost every one of that commentator's posts were personal attacks on other posters. Typical.

Meade must get a huge kick out of baiting the Isthmus types. Pretty easy targets.

Ann Althouse said...

"By the way, once again,the comment thread here proves Media Matters' point that Althouse is merely a paid KKKoch Brothers mouthpiece posing as a "cruelly neutral" moderate."

It would be so easy for the Koch Brothers to hit my PayPal button!

Original Mike said...

"Check out what happened over at the Isthmus forum ..."

Do you have to register over there just to read the comments?

Synova said...

"Now, if this election were being held in mid-February, there'd be extra incentive to get out of State."

Yes, but in mid-February, who in their right mind would threaten to move NORTH?

Sigivald said...

I'm sure "I will buy you a beer" must be some sort of horrible right-wing-death-beast code-word threat or something, right?

More seriously, it looks like typical behavior from a set of primates (and to be clear, we're all primates - my point is that this is primal stuff) who've never before been exposed to a "serious" challenge to their received beliefs, being forced to see one.

The only reason, I think, we don't see as much of it from the Right is that the national media have been so Left-tilted for decades that people on the Right have always had to see challenges from the Left, unless they were so cocooned they could just reject it all as irrelevant.

An ideology that is never challenged is one that is hard to defend... from lack of practice, regardless of what merits it might have.

I suspect the Isthmus readers aren't well practiced at actually defending their beliefs, rather than just name-calling.

(And what Dan From Madison said - if the guy really believes the InTrade guys are so wrong, he should buy up shares on the other side as fast as they'll buy 'em, and make a killing.

Funny thing about markets; for someone to buy, someone has to sell, and vice versa.)

Christopher in MA said...

Because Wisconsin is sooo different than the rest of the country.

Of course it is. Wisconsin isn't Massachusetts, which isn't Maryland, which isn't West (By God) Virginia. Presuming you know all about a place just from seeing pretty pictures on TV or on the web is a mug's game.

But I must say I do love how the Walker recall has devolved from This is what democracy looks like! to "yeah, whatever, local politics, nothing to see here, move along. . ." Garage and his fellow Walker Derangers must be stewing in kettles of their own bile just now.

Original Mike said...

"Second, why would Meade engage with an Isthmus forum. Bear baiting?"

More like beer baiting.

Rocketeer said...

It would be so easy for the Koch Brothers to hit my PayPal button!

PayPal is not conspiratorial or indirect enough. Your Koch paycheck has to laundered through an additional 20 RWDB-approved "fronts" for lefties to really know you're on the take.

Anonymous said...

It's not that the Democrats can't be civil it's that they take politics far too seriously. It's just like those obsessive sports fan who are miserable when their team looses. There's no balancing interest, no personal distance from the results. The proper response to Meade was a counter offer to buy him a beer if Walker wins.

Anonymous said...

MM, I was about to say the same thing.

I'm not about to leave Wisconsin, should Barrett lose or win, until January through April, heading west to SoCa.

Revenant said...

Isn't "the rest of Wisconsin" the part where the conservatives live? My impression was that Wisconsin was a standard farm state -- blue cities, red countryside.

edutcher said...

Notice, now that both WI and the national sweepstakes aren't looking anything like the Demo walkovers they were supposed to be, all our little trolls who talked about us wingers and mittens and all have been pretty conspicuous for their absence.

Yeah, the arrogance is going to be replaced by a lot of defensive nastiness as we go along.

Lefties are bad winners and worse losers.

PS Assuming this moron voted for Hopenchange, he's got a lot of nerve talking about anybody's intellect, but, then, he's probably another one that's been betting on the wrong horse the last 30 years.

Chip Ahoy said...

Dan from Madison, exactly, that was my favorite part, where the guy explains how easy and profitable it's been for him coming into contact with shit for brains and with money on the table. Woot. The part about how he exploited that. That was great.

Alex said...

Notice the contempt liberals have for conservative counties like Waukesha.

Anonymous said...

Being a liberal that lives in Waukesha County, I only hold it in contempt because my taxes are significantly higher than "blue" counties, which there are plenty of.

leslyn said...

What Synova said. Anyway, this forum stands on a glorious principle of civility bullshit.

Alex said...

Allie - I thought you liberals were all for high taxes because that means great local services. Why the complaint?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Most of the blue county's public services are better than in my county despite the lower tax rate. Go figure.

Alex said...

Allie - no doubt your GOP politicians are pocketing the larger tax revenue and giving it straight to the Koch Brothers.

/wacko

Anonymous said...

Yep that's it, no doubt. Those bastards.

purplepenquin said...

I'm only seeing incivility from the anti-Walkerites

I'm confused by this statement. Are you saying that all of the people who are against our current Governor are acting uncivil or are you saying that nobody who supports Walker is acting uncivil?

Alex said...

pp - are you purposely dumb?

purplepenquin said...

Upon further thought, I bet the answer is "both"

Q said...

It's not that the Democrats can't be civil it's that they take politics far too seriously. It's just like those obsessive sports fan who are miserable when their team looses. There's no balancing interest, no personal distance from the results.



For Democrats the personal is political, and vice versa. There is no substantive difference in their minds between curbing the power of public sector unions and pissing on their mothers grave. If that sounds like hyperbole, you don't know the people in question. Since most of them are part of public sector unions they'd actually be less personally offended if you pissed on their mothers grave.

Unknown said...

The constant ad hominens and vulgarity of the left, completely retrograde and unimaginative, is another example of how this movement is an empty husk.

Let the preference cascade begin!

tim in vermont said...

"So often the way with liberals--the question will answer itself in a few days, just wait. But they can't, they must hurl their insults now! "

This guy might be French. You know why their national symbol is the rooster? Because they always crow too early while they are knee deep in shit. (Not my joke, BTW)

walter said...

My impression of many on the left, especially in Madison and much of academia, is that they are so used to traveling in like minded circles that an opposing view..no matter how calmly presented..registers as shouting. They don't understand how completely arrogant it is to wade into highly contentious topics assuming agreement. As if to suggest that because they get along with you generally, certainly you are on the "right" side of the issues.
It's especially comfortable when they are a client.

DADvocate said...

Meade can by me a beer any time. Although, I prefer it to be sometime when he's back in the Queen City for some reason. But, heck, I'll buy Meade a beer if I ever get the chance. 80% of all Samuel Adams is brewed in Cincinnati.

Issob Morocco said...

If Meade is buying a beer, I will be happy to meet him anytime, anywhere! I can teach him about Kashi!