Cuckservative

Cuckservative is a neologistic epithet.[1] It is a portmanteau of the word cuckold and the political designation conservative, and has become an increasingly popular pejorative label used within the conservative movement,[2] and among white supremacists in the United States.[3][4][5]

The word cuckservative reached the cusp of mainstream political conversation around mid-July 2015, where it gained media attention just a few weeks before the start of the first Republican primary debate for the 2016 United States Presidential election.[4][6] It has maintained its popularity, especially with the rise of Donald Trump and his presidential run.

The term originated on websites such as 4chan (specifically the /pol/ imageboard), the right-wing message board My Posting Career,[1][3] the political and social blog The Right Stuff,[7] and other sites in the alt-right movement.[3][8][9]

Definition

One definition of cuckservative is a conservative who sells out,[10] having bought into all of the key premises of the left,[11] and is enthralled with liberal values.[6] According to white supremacist Richard B. Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute which has been designated as a hate group,[12] the term is a shorthand used to express "a certain kind of contempt for mainstream conservatives".[13] The phrase is similar to "Republican In Name Only" (RINO).[14] Social conservatives who use the term condemn what they see as Republicans running on socially conservative values to appeal to their base during an election cycle, only to use vote trading to compromise on those values while in office.[13] The term cuckold has a long history as an insult implying that a specific man is weak and emasculated, and may even feel pleasure at his own humiliation because of sexual masochism. The term cuckservative similarly implies that certain male Republicans are humiliated through their actions while feeling thrilled and excited from their own degradation because of the abandonment of their own moral standards.[3][15]

Those in the self-described conservative media targeted by the cuckservative slur along with various moderate and left leaning news sites decried the term as an anti-Christian,[4] racist slur[11][16] and a rallying cry for white supremacists and neoreactionaries.[17] Some observers, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, say that the term's usage has been rising among white supremacistss in the United States.[3]

Some American political writers have suggested that the term is racially charged by being seemingly derived from a genre of interracial pornography in which a white married woman spurns her white husband for sex with a black man.[15][18][19][20]

Far right anti-immigrant groups have used the term to condemn white politicians who they say unknowingly promote "the interests of Jews and non-whites".[5] The Anti-Defamation League says that the term is used by white supremacists as a synonym of the pre-existing phrase "race traitors".[5]

A conservative news site in Spain translated cuckservative to cornuservador, stating that: "Republicans are nothing but the 'controlled opposition' completely in the hands of the political left, whose only aspiration is for those rare occasions when those hands pat them on the head, and the media rewards them with the coveted adjective 'moderate': these are the cornuservadores."[21]

Use

Jeet Heer of The New Republic wrote that the word is a "fine example of how the sound of a word can reinforce its meaning: abrasive on the ears, cuckservative appropriately enough has an ugly origin and meaning".[15] The word was most popularly adopted in mid-2015 after some alt-right web users were disapproving of the attempts by John McCain, Jeb Bush, and other Republicans to establish more politically liberal positions, dubbing those who did "cuckservatives". Over a matter of weeks, the term then proceeded to attain usage additionally on social media and the wider internet.[15]

Writing for Hot Air, Taylor Millard criticized the word and its history of usage of by white supremacists within the conservative movement. He called it short-sighted, giving his opinion that Rand Paul's popularity at leading majority-black universities could make African Americans more conservative in the future.[10] Matt Lewis, in The Daily Beast, gave his opinion that the word could become as popular with Republicans as "RINO" (Republican In Name Only), even if they were oblivious to its often racial connotations.[17] Erick Erickson, of right-wing website RedState.com, called the word an insult to Christian Republicans by white supremacists.[17] Milo Yiannopoulos of right-wing site Breitbart News said the term was not purely racist, and that the term cuck had long been used on 4chan to attack any individual considered cowardly or lacking in principles.[22] Writing in The Washington Post, David Weigel described the term as arising from disaffected elements of the right wing.[1]

Elizabeth Nolan Brown of Reason argues that the Democratic party uses constant appeal of identity politics to various minority groups, and that the Republican party is at a crossroads in whether to accept a form of white identity politics.[23]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Weigel, David (July 29, 2015). "'Cuckservative' — the conservative insult of the month, explained". Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  2. ↑ Rozsa, Matthew (August 13, 2015). "Conservatives' crippling masculinity crisis: Cuckservatives, men's rights activism and the privilege the right refuses to acknowledge". Salon. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Getting Cucky: A Brief Primer On The Radical Right's Newest 'Cuckservative' Meme". Southern Poverty Law Center. August 7, 2015. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  4. 1 2 3 Petersen, Austin (August 4, 2015). "Is "Cuckservative" the New, Hip Racial Slur For White Nationalists?". The Libertarian Republic. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  5. 1 2 3 Greenblatt, Jonathan (August 11, 2015). "White Supremacists Relish "Cuckservative" Controversy". ADL. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  6. 1 2 Bernstein, Joseph (July 28, 2015). "Behind The Racist Hashtag That Is Blowing Up Twitter". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  7. ↑ "Alt Right: A Primer about the New White Supremacy". Anti-Defamation League. February 10, 2016.
  8. ↑ Gray, Rosie (December 27, 2015). "How 2015 Fueled The Rise Of The Freewheeling, White Nationalist Alt Right Movement". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
  9. ↑ Welton, Benjamin (2016-02-01). "What, Exactly, is the 'Alternative Right?'". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2016-02-05.
  10. 1 2 Millard, Taylor (July 26, 2015). "Don't believe the #cuckservative lie". Hot Air. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  11. 1 2 Erick Erickson (July 29, 2015). ""Cuckservative" is a Racist Slur and an Attack on Evangelical Christians". Red State. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  12. ↑
  13. 1 2 Rappeport, Alan (August 13, 2015). "From the Right, a New Slur for G.O.P. Candidates". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  14. ↑ Yuhas, Alan (August 13, 2015). "'Cuckservative': the internet's latest Republican insult hits where it hurts". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Heer, Jeet (July 26, 2015). "Conservatives Are Holding a Conversation About Race". New Republic. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  16. ↑ Christopher, Tommy (July 29, 2015). "Trump Fans Target 'Mike Cuckabee' for Being a 'Cuckservative'". Mediaite. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  17. 1 2 3 Lewis, Matt (July 28, 2015). "Twitter's Right-Wing Civil War". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  18. ↑ Walsh, Joan. "The GOP crack-up continues". Salon. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  19. ↑ Bernstein, Joseph. "Behind The Racist Hashtag That Is Blowing Up Twitter". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  20. ↑ Lewis, Matt. "What’s Behind The ‘Cuckservative’ Slur? (NSFW)". Daily Caller. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  21. ↑ Esteban, Carlos (August 8, 2015). "'Cornuservador': el término que saca de quicio al Partido Republicano" ['Cuckservative': the term that annoys the Republican Party]. Gaceta (in Spanish). Retrieved 2015-08-21.
  22. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo (July 28, 2015). "'Cuckservative' Is A Gloriously Effective Insult That Should Not Be Slurred, Demonised, Or Ridiculed". Breitbart News. Retrieved 2015-08-19.
  23. ↑ Brown, Elizabeth. Are Republicans Becoming the Party of White Identity Politics?, Reason magazine, Hit and Run Blog, August 21, 2015
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