We enjoy owning the libs, but we’re really conflicted now. First Nikki Haley and then Orrin Hatch cautioned high school students at a Turning Point USA summit against “owning the libs just to own the libs,” and now writer Eve Peyser has blown the lid right off of owning the libs with a piece in Rolling Stone exposing the “haunting emptiness” of it all.
I wrote about "owning the libs" for @RollingStone—how it went from a meme to the ruling Republican ideology, and the haunting emptiness of it all. https://t.co/iHhfeLxTX3
— eve peyser (@evepeyser) July 26, 2018
Peyser uses as sources such Twitter personalities as staunch never-Trumper Rick Wilson and David Frum:
David Frum, an editor at the Atlantic and former George W. Bush speechwriter, tells Rolling Stone, “When people are losing politically, they retreat from politics and take refuge in cultural criticism.” Even though Republicans control two-thirds of state houses, the executive and the legislative branches, they still feel this underdoggian impulse to score culture war points.
“People on the left want to talk about Medicare-for-all and universal basic income and federal job guarantees,” Frum says. “They have a series of things they want to do with the state [and] big ideas that they want the public to think about. Conservatism really doesn’t have those right now.”
He’s right: universal basic income and federal job guarantees are ideas conservatism really doesn’t have right now, and that’s why it’s so important to own libs like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So what’s the problem?
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The problem is, the “owning the libs” model of politics doesn’t have a point of view. It isn’t about furthering an ideological goal, only churlishness — it seeks to make the world a nastier and dumber place. The emptiness of it all is haunting.
Rolling Stone’s rape hoax made the world a nastier and dumber place, so forgive us if we don’t consult it as our bible of political thought, OK?
Sorry guys … it looks like it’s not OK for conservatives to have fun on Twitter. Just shadow ban us all and end our empty online lives.
The fact that libs are so mad at "owning the libs" that they write pieces on "owning the libs" is the ultimate owning of the libs.
Thank you, .@ComfortablySmug https://t.co/sWyvMA3EwL
— Not In Blackface Ranger (@mecantyping) July 26, 2018
Libs taking “owning the libs” seriously is a major owning of the libs. https://t.co/9D6u6XK3gO
— Anais (@TheSleepyRebel) July 26, 2018
Writing about Cons owning the Libs to own the Libs for being owned by the Cons. https://t.co/twD7qQrFeR
— The Dank Knight ? (@capeandcowell) July 26, 2018
Irony is bad now https://t.co/mgO36zlQl3
— Currently between fraudulent suspensions (@jtLOL) July 26, 2018
haunting emptiness
— Sede Vacantist (@dibassetto) July 26, 2018
'haunting emptiness'?
Seriously, you wrote that?
This isn't some Victorian Gothic novel, lady.
Grow up.— Carmenta (@radmadmid) July 26, 2018
you seem spiritually full https://t.co/IxTlSLLUFp
— Anthony Bialy (@AnthonyBialy) July 26, 2018
More evidence that the left can't meme
— Stephen Shaw (@czechov) July 26, 2018
One could say this about the left's ownership of the rest of media. It's their hauntingly empty ideology.
They're just mad because they can't meme in this one realm.
Well, we have a saying for that online: get gud, newb. Or keep getting owned and ratio'd. https://t.co/xtMU9TdrBM
— prop op (@ProperOpinion) July 26, 2018
You got it wrong. Owning the libs is meant to mock the elitism of the modern left. Also it’s not intended to further an ideology, it’s for fun. Lastly, rick Wilson and frum are not the people to ask for comment on it.
— Phil (@earlp1231) July 26, 2018
"Owning the libs" is nothing more than using their own ridiculousness against them. They "self own" most of the time. We just point it out.
It's funny. It mocks them.
And the fact you wrote about it is one of the greatest owns of all.
— Not In Blackface Ranger (@mecantyping) July 26, 2018
Rick Wilson and David Frum in lieu of @ComfortablySmug?
Really?
— JWF (@JammieWF) July 26, 2018
Where is Smug? Probably off owning some libs. Hey, we were right!
Amazon delivering my package a day early to own the libs
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) July 26, 2018
Oh, the haunting emptiness of it all.
Related:
OH NO! Now Sen. Orrin Hatch is cautioning young conservatives about "owning the libs" https://t.co/WTP3vmccOr
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 26, 2018
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