Cucks and kooks. Plus: An open message to Syrian Girl

I keep thinking that I am beyond shock. But there is always something new.

Today, that "something new" is a meme called cuckolding. Not long ago, that word was just a Shakespearean way of saying "cheatin' on your husband." In recent times, that term has come to describe a sexual fetish -- and a type of porn -- in which a white woman humiliates her husband by having sex with a black man in front of him. Some guys like to be humiliated; it's a thing. Why any self-respecting black man would go along with these soul-destroying theatricals is beyond me. Then again, most types of unconventional sex originate in a psychological realm way beyond rationality.

Conservatives, who apparently know more about the world of extreme porn than I do these days, have applied the term cuckolding to politics. In their view, America under Obama has been cuckolded.

If I gave you an hour to come up with an uglier metaphor, you'd fail.

It's important to understand that "cuckservative" is an insult directed not at liberals but at any Republican who concedes that racism is an evil. It's a term used by far-rightists to bully other right-wingers into open expressions of contempt for black people.

Joan Walsh has taken a good look at the rise of this meme.

The spread of the epithet “cuckservative” is a sign that the crudest psycho-sexual insecurity animates the far right.

Lewis explains it this way: “A cuckservative is, therefore, a race traitor.”

This is not merely a new way to shout “RINO.” It’s a call to make the GOP an explicitly racist party, devoted to the defense of whites.

Rush Limbaugh, whom I never thought would sink quite this low, has announced his preference for Donald Trump over "your average, ordinary, cuckolded Republican." Limbaugh must no longer see any need to veil his racism.

White nationalist Richard Spencer (cited by Walsh) has written a post which opened my eyes to the schisms within his alien subculture:

Jared Taylor recently wrote,

American conservatism can conserve nothing if it cannot conserve the nation’s founding stock. I’ll put it bluntly: Nothing you love will survive without white people.

In other words, the #cuckservative meme doesn’t make any sense without race. It’s all about race.

Spencer also draws a distinction between cucks and neocons:

And so it’s worth asking—Are neocons cuckservatives?

My answer is no. To the contrary, the neocons excelled at cucking conservatives.

Wow. Speaking as someone who has devoted numerous posts to the dangers of neoconservatism, all I can say is...wow.

I hate the neocons, but I sure as hell don't want to be classified alongside guys like Spencer.

When Eric Ericson of RedState turned against Trump, he (Ericson) was decried as a "cuckservative." Bill O'Reilly and other anti-Trump Fox Newsers have been given the same label.

According to The New Republic's Jeet Heer, the rise of cuck links up with the rise of Trump:

The bizarre popularity of cuckservative is intimately connected with the startling rise of Donald Trump, with many of his fans contrasting him with Jeb Bush and John McCain, who they brand as exemplar cuckservatives.

Going back to the Southern Strategy of the early 1960s, the party has used racial dog whistles to appeal to bigoted voters. But after losing two elections in a row to a black president, one who is increasingly shaping up to be a transformative figure, those voters are no longer content with dog whistles. They feel that the party they support hasn’t been vocal enough in advocating for the interests of white Americans, so they are searching for a champion. So far, Donald Trump looks to be the hero white nationalists have been waiting for.

The big problem with this passage is that Obama has hardly been transformative. As I predicted in 2008, he turned out to be just another corrupt politician. Nevertheless, this country is filled with reactionaries who can't see beyond Obama's race. These creeps do consider the President to be a radical, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

At this point, a very freaky and very ugly story gets even freakier and even uglier. This useful article (published on Kos, a site which I usually avoid) informs us that the Breitbarters have embraced use of the term "cuckservative" as a way of blasting the despised forces of moderation.

Paradox!

The Breitbarters are not just neocons, they are ultra-neocons. Andrew Breitbart was a Netanyahu-class Israel-firster. Yet the Breitbarters, like the followers of Robert Spencer, have no problem using the word "cuckservative" to describe right-wingers who are insufficiently hate-filled.

In this context, it is worth noting that the Breitbarters have apparently been taking Trump money -- hence their embrace of Trump-ish terminology.

This, to me, is the most interesting development in the short history of this meme. Old-school racists like Spencer hope to copyright this neologism. But the Sieg Heilers who want to call dibs won't admit -- can't admit -- that neoconservatism is itself a form of fascism, and fascists will always find ways to embrace innovations in hate.

On a sad note: Syrian Girl, the Syrian activist whom I once adored, has embraced the term "cuckservative." She also has taken to decrying "cultural Marxism," a right-wing term-of-opprobrium which she probably thinks has actual meaning. (Nobody uses that silly phrase outside of the insular world of the far-right myth-makers.)

Apparently, she picked up this nonsense during her time of immersion in the inane "Gamergate" controversy. This brouhaha, which began as a fairly reasonable debate over political correctness in video games, soon morphed into a frenzied attack on feminists and liberals. As the Gamergaters writhed in ever-intensifying throes of hate-gasm, they indulged in death threats, rape threats, doxxing, bullying, hyper-paranoia and other thuggish pursuits. The Gamergaters rationalized this bestial behavior on the lunatic grounds that they were doing battle with a powerful conspiracy against the video game industry. This "conspiracy" was, of course, imaginary.

Naturally, this toxic landscape soon attracted white nationalists and other freakazoids (many of whom didn't really give a damn about gaming). In fact, there is some evidence that the term "cuckservative" originated with certain creeps who made their voices heard within the Gamergate subculture.

Here is my open letter to Maram Susli, a.k.a. Syrian Girl:

You broke my goddamned heart.

You could have been a world leader. You could have been a new Lumumba, a new Malcolm X, a new Gandhi, a new Oscar Romero. Instead, at the very moment when your home country was falling to pieces, you became involved with a puerile debate over fucking video games.

Screw Syria, you decided. Let ISIS and Nusra take over. Instead, you focused your attentions on a fantasy-pastime for the perpetually childish.

I'm not Syrian; I am an American. Nevertheless, throughout the past year, I have devoted post after post to exposing the neocons and their plans for regime change in your home country (and elsewhere).

And what did you do during that time, Maram? You abandoned the struggle. You abandoned a nation which your own mother wanted you to lead.

Instead of acting like a leader, you played games. Like a child.

Worse, you immersed yourself in a subculture inhabited by Alex Jonesians, 4channers, 8channers, white supremacists, militarists and likeminded dicks. Those quasi-psychotic ultraconservative creeps do not represent any kind of movement for justice and peace. They crawled out of the darkest regions of America's dark heart. Despite their anti-Establishment pretenses, they are the very reason why this country has gone so wrong.

There's a saying, Maram: Lie down with dogs and you'll wake up with fleas. We can take that sentiment further: Lie down with rabid dogs and you'll wake up with frothy white bubbles dribbling out of your mouth.

Sure enough, Maram, you caught a form of political rabies. You stupidly got in bed with a bunch of white racists and fundamentalist Christians who hate your culture as much as they hate Obama's skin color.

Maram, if you think that you can justify your use of a consummately ugly term like "cuckservative" -- a term favored by the fans of Rush Limbugh, Donald Trump and Andrew Breitbart -- don't expect to have any friends among the civilized. Neither Rush nor "The Donald" have the best interests of the Syrian people at heart. Mark my words: Those two guys -- and their fans -- will screw you over. It's happening already: As noted above, Trump is tossing money at the Breitbart crew, who are devoted to the neocon agenda of regime change throughout the Middle East.

Previously, I thought your interview with David Duke was excusable on the grounds that you simply did not know who was who on the American fringe. I now understand that your mindset is similar to Duke's. Like him, you stand with the far right of the far right.

As erudite as you are, Maram, you cannot talk your way out of this one. Popular culture is an addiction, a kind of smack, and you obviously didn't know when to yank the damned needle out of your arm. The gamer subculture pulled you away from the plight of your nation; in the end, it pulled you away from decency itself.

Many young people of high intelligence tend to use their brainpower to rationalize their love of the low. This is a characteristic failing of your generation. You could not rise above your peers. In fact, you now inhabit a space which places you far, far below most of the harmless fanboys trading tweets about the new Star Wars movie.

Indeed, I now consider you to be close kin to the Nazis who have functioned as neocon bullyboys in Ukraine. Don't you dare say one more word against the Nusra front, Maram. You are Nusra. You are an extremist. Worse than that: You are so foolish, so childish, so lacking in self-awareness, that you cannot even admit to yourself that you have become "as one" with your former enemies.

What a falling off is here! What narcissism, what decadence, what idiocy!