Used to be the democrats had their racists in the south and republicans had their racists in the north and west. I believe the new republican motto is "All your racists are belong to us!"

Even as long ago as Darwin, proponents of Evolution have been likened to apes, monkeys and baboons. It isn't always a racial slur. It's a common parody of Evolution.

The real story here, I think, isn't that the GOP is full of haw-haw-I'm-so-hylarious racists who are strangers to even seventh grade-level science.

The most interesting thing to me is how often these guys get caught in the time warp between now and when they could get away with this stuff. Even using email, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, texting, etc., etc., their little reptilian brains don't seem to grasp that:

-- it's no longer 1963 in Jackson
-- the majority of Americans today do not find this stuff at all amusing
-- the "joke" will, within 15 minutes, go to a far wider audience than a bunch of pig-faced white townsfolk gathered for the stump speech.

Holy crap. If he meant what it looks like he meant, he is a real jerk, and unbelievably stupid to make it publicly.

If she did make some comment about evolution, he needs to come up with it - where/when he read it - and fast.

I googled "michelle obama" + evolution and although there were zero mentions of apes, monkeys or gorillas, there were hundreds of references to her clothing choices.

It isn't always an anti-evolution slur. DePass may well have been comparing the first lady's fashion sense to another primate's. There's just no way to tell.

Even as long ago as Darwin, proponents of Evolution have been likened to apes, monkeys and baboons. It isn't always a racial slur. It's a common parody of Evolution.

True enough. One wonders however, what Michelle Obama has to do with the debate over evolution. I mean, he didn't decide to talk about say, Richard Dawkins right?

This is why Republicans are not only anti-science but anti-education as well, unless it's the kind that teaches kids that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs to church.

They just want to make the whole population as rock-stupid as they are themselves. It's just so painful to watch them fail so spectacularly.

Another Republican not ready for Prime Time.

As to whether humans are descended from apes, the word "ape" does not have a precise meaning, but people often use it to mean hominid, a family that includes chimpanzees, humans, gorillas and orangutans. The common ancestor of all these species was certainly a hominid, and could reasonably be called an "ape".

It's definitely a mistake to claim that we are descended from monkeys, or gorillas, or chimpanzees, but saying that we are descended from apes is roughly accurate.

I despair. I just plain despair for the future of this country.

So the guy *isn't* a politician, he's just an activist, or former State Senate candidate?

This one is in a gray area, but when does it qualify as trawling for outrage?

What's more, maybe now would be a good time to remind folks that modern biology says nothing about "humans descending from apes." The evolutionary model is based on shared ancestry, which isn't the same thing.

================
I'd suggest that some Republicans are turning INTO Apes... but that would be insulting to Apes, if not all simians!

Am I the only one who looks at Rusty's picture and sees him wearing a pair of overalls and ordering Ned Beatty to squeal like a pig?

** I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. This comment was clearly in jest **

Even as long ago as Darwin, proponents of Evolution have been likened to apes, monkeys and baboons. It isn't always a racial slur. It's a common parody of Evolution.

Right. But in this case, it's both a disgusting racial slur and a brainless "parody" of evolutionary theory.

So, win-win, I guess.

Well I wonder when Michelle will follow Sarah's example and go on all the morning TEEVEE shows expressing her outrage!!!...oh..she's acting like an adult..not dignifying the slur with a response..imagine that.

This one is in a gray area, but when does it qualify as trawling for outrage?

He's the former chair of the state board of elections.

Do we have your attention yet?

All your racists are belong to us!"

What you say!!

As long as 'outrages' like this one and Letterman's pedophilial leanings occupy the news cycle, there is little to no risk that the citizens of our fair land will be unduly distracted by actual issues...I, too, despair.

Even as long ago as Darwin, proponents of Evolution have been likened to apes, monkeys and baboons.

And as soon as you can produce the quote where Michelle Obama publicly made her opinion of evolution known, I might buy this argument. Until then, all you have is a guy who started out slurring evolutionists and immediately turned on the First Lady for no apparent reason except that his mind connected "ape" with the First Lady.

Holy crap. If he meant what it looks like he meant, he is a real jerk, and unbelievably stupid to make it publicly.

i've noticed a lot with these qualities among the whites of south carolina... it appears to be their version of christianity or something...

and hell, the governor is a piece of work.

Good golly, what. an. asshole! I mean, the remark and then this shit afterward? Are these underthelog cryptozoa (look it up) real, are they parodies, WTF?

And MRMarler: since most educated people believe in evolution, there's no excuse for zeroing in on "Michelle" anyway- - if it was still controversial and soandso was a prominent proponent, it might make sense to reference that person - otherwise, no excuse. It is a known habit of racists to compare monkeys and blacks. Your asinine attempt to cover for such a skunk is inexcusable, maybe you should have once again pretended to be "MatthewRQuarreler."

Flubber: so "he's just an activist"? That's a silly excuse to ignore it, but he's an important one anyway:

Longtime SCGOP activist and former state Senate candidate Rusty DePass responded with the comment, "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless."
DePass told WIS News 10 he was talking about First Lady Michelle Obama.
DePass has been involved in state politics for decades, and helped elect Republican Governor Jim Edwards in 1974. He was an early South Carolina supporter of former President George W. Bush in 2000.

BTW, did this ever make it to Drudge? (Report; it was of course on "Retort" www.drudge.com.)

This episode is proof positive that successful humor requires both wit and intelligence. Mr. DePass, sadly, possesses neither.

The clincher on why this guy should be condemned is his "apology": Michelle Obama NEVER MADE THE STATEMENT that supposedly set him off.

South Carolina, still the heartland of Southern moron stupidity, proof of what ten generations of "inbreeding" creates when you start with transported pig inseminators for your DNA. Too bad my ancestors didn't burn the home of southern treason to the ground when we had the opportunity.

Since we're descended from "apes", we're necessarily descended from monkeys (primates).

Welcome to the internets.

South Carolina always seems to be at least a century or so behind that rest of the nation. This is pretty stock stuff. It is just ye olde fashioned racist humor that everyone else thought went out of style 50 years ago. It belongs to a culture that thinks minstrel shows and mammy caricatures are entertaining. It is “informed� by mid-nineteenth century racist “science�- something that has quite popular, along with the Bible, as a justification for white dominance before the Civil War. It seems it has perennial appeal in the sub-tropical climate of the Palmetto State. A typical racist book of the genre is the Indigenous Races of the Earth (1857) by Josiah Clark Nott (a South Carolinian) and George Robins Gliddon. In it “Negroes� are ranked as an evolutionary step between chimpanzees and “Greeks� (which should be interpreted as Europeans similar in appearance to Rusty DePass). He really should keep up with molecular biology.

Actually, we aren't only descendant from apes, we are apes. Chimps are more closely related to humans than they are to gorillas. If both chips and gorillas are apes, then so are we.

iucaffeind: if you were intelligent enough to have a clue, you would know that your side's "shrieking point" about Letterman and "pedophilia" is another example of life in WingnutFantasyWorld - he was referring the Bristol Palin, who the last time I looked was old enough to vote and therefore not a child.\

But it's always fun watching the descendants of transported pig inseminators try to act like they're not a separate species of hominid - one lacking frontal lobes and opposable thumbs.

"What's more, maybe now would be a good time to remind folks that modern biology says nothing about "humans descending from apes." The evolutionary model is based on shared ancestry, which isn't the same thing."

That's not exactly accurate, is it, since our most recent shared ancestors with chimps and gorillas would also have been "apes"? It's true that we did not descend from modern chimps and gorillas (or "monkeys," as creationists like to call them), but we all did, I believe, descend from now-extinct ape species.

I think the saddest part of the whole affair is that DePass's only defense to charges of racism is that he's actually an ignorant creationist. Ah, South Carolina.

Re: the opinion that this is a common anti-evolutionary slur, and hence, not necessarily racist.

Apparently the theory is that if a comment or joke has even a remotely possible interpretation that is not about race, then it is innocent of racism.

On the other hand, a comment by a person of color that can be stretched into expressing a preference for folks other than white people, is undoubtedly racist. See the "wise latina" comment.

Mr. DePass, I am originally from South Carolina and I recognize racist speech when it's used. Mr. DePass, you knew exactly what you were saying and fully intended it to be "in jest" only to people who think like you. You, sir, certainly qualify to be a racist speaker.

It is just ye olde fashioned racist humor that everyone else thought went out of style 50 years ago.

And it's exactly getting rid of this sort of racist stuff by public officials that has been transformed by the right wing into the evil of "PC" - which in their eyes is so much more dangerous and abusive to whites than any sort of racist speech (by public officials!) can possibly be to minorities.

This really is one of those "emporer has no clothes" sort of moments.

Ah, Willy Brunsonburner, Jr - You should avail yourself of some of that education from the Mental Health people where you serve on their board. Or perhaps, spend some more time, actually, studying the bible at that First Presbyterian Church where you are a First Elder.

However, you might want to add one more Sons of to your list. As you are a Sons of the American Revolution and Sons of the Confederacy, how about adding Sons of the Striped Ass Baboons to your resume? Yeah, and you were a Useless Second Loonie serving at Ft "Useless", as well, eh?

Apparently the theory is that if a comment or joke has even a remotely possible interpretation that is not about race, then it is innocent of racism.

Well, in Marler's eyes, yes. He's made something of a cottage industry of defending comparisons of black people to non-human apes. Not so long ago, he devoted an embarrassing number of posts to the argument that because people on the left have called Bush "Chimpy," the approving comparison of Barack Obama to a slaughtered cartoon chimpanzee is entirely without racial overtones.

Why, Matt assured us, he had never, ever in his long life even heard of the racial slur in which blacks are called monkeys, gorillas or apes! He doubts that such a slur even exists and just doesn't have any idea how to go about finding out whether it does. If only there were some way to look that up.

I seem to recall many comparisons made between GW Bush and a chimpanzee...but those implications were contextually made to explicitly refer to Bush's lack of intelligence.

Had Michelle Obama repeatedly displayed a lack of intelligence, then we're in a sticky area: can one use the monkey/ape metaphor to refer to a stupid black person (like Alan Keyes) without being racist? I dunno, but I do think its inappropriate for obvious reasons.

Comparing Michelle Obama --who so far as I know is not obviously stupid-- to an ape seems more like Pat Buchanan's old-school racism than anything else.

Before they were victims of political correctness the racists were victims, in their own minds, of black people (you can substitute any minority or outside group here). The outside group, at every turn, threatens the integrity of the nation. The denunciation of PC is just an evolution of the never-ending culture of victimization that seems to define right-wing politics the world over.

James von Brunn was a victim of the Jews and their puppet in the White House. In one sense he was acting in self-defense. These people can not live with anyone outside of the group. Society must be segregated or the enemy must be eliminated.

Seems like an opportune thread to put in a plug for the Great Ape Project:

The Great Ape Project (GAP), founded in 1993, is an international organization of primatologists, psychologists, ethicists, and other experts who advocate a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes that would confer basic legal rights on non-human great apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. The rights suggested are the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture.

The organization also monitors individual great ape activity in the United States through a census program. Once rights are established, GAP would demand the release of great apes from captivity; currently 3,100 are held in the US, including 1,280 in biomedical research.

The book of the same name, edited by philosophers Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer, features contributions from thirty-four authors, including Jane Goodall and Richard Dawkins, who have submitted articles voicing their support for the project. The authors write that human beings are intelligent animals with a varied social, emotional, and cognitive life. If great apes also display such attributes, the authors argue, they deserve the same consideration humans extend to members of their own species.

The book highlights findings that support the capacity of great apes to possess rationality and self-consciousness, and the ability to be aware of themselves as distinct entities with a past and future. Documented conversations (in sign languages) with individual great apes are the basis for these findings. Other subjects addressed within the book include the division placed between humans and great apes, great apes as persons, progress in gaining rights for the severely mentally retarded (once an overlooked minority), and the situation of great apes in the world today.

'iucaffeind: if you were intelligent enough to have a clue...'

TC-undoubtedly true...I've been questioning my intelligence for quite some bit of time, now.

Since you don't know me, you probably didn't see my metaphorical tongue in my literary cheek. Almost all of my 'shrieking points' are quite progressive. My point is not that this bigot from Dixie is anything except reprehensible, rather, I submit that the railings of Palin about Letterman's intent (which was, I quite agree, about Bristol), and racist bile like that spewed by DePass serve the WingNut Nation quite well by distracting the electorate from more pressing concerns.

I'm not immune...I can't help but watch the Republican Trainwreck when I just KNOW that I should be doing more politically constructive things.

Hope this clarifies matters...I've been away too long and my bona fides are a bit rusty...

Peace.

Monty wrote: "... can one use the monkey/ape metaphor to refer to a stupid black person (like Alan Keyes) without being racist?"

I don't know, but one certainly cannot use a derogatory monkey/ape metaphor to refer to anyone as being "stupid" without being speciesist.

Monkeys and non-human apes are not stupid. They are highly intelligent.

... he was referring the Bristol Palin, who the last time I looked was old enough to vote and therefore not a child.

It's even more than that - the joke was at the expense of Eliot Spitzer, not any of the Palins. Didn't stop Sarah from flipping out like an attention-starved celebrity retard, though.

Our first lady is too classy to go on TV and cry about this. To all the rethugs who a few weeks ago were saying Mrs Obama breached protocol when she touched the queen of England. It seems she did indeed touch the queen in a very different way, she impressed her very much. Our first lady seems to have had a private meeting with the queen when she was in the UK, the girls were given a tour of the palace. This is unprecedented. Suck on that GOP!

I think some of our resident trolls need to let this one go. Trying to spin it as anything but an intentional racial slur is ridiculous.
This guy knew exactly what he was saying and he got busted. Unfortunately, the Repubs will probably just elevate him to a higher status.
Did Michael Steele comment on this?

Mr Marler, I thought you were a better student of history. Can you not recall the political cartoons during the Presidency of Lincoln depicting him as an ape for his anti-slavery positions? Now, why would slave supporters use an ape to demean the President? Why did German and Japanese soldiers expect to find tails attached to African-American soldiers in WWII? This demeaning did not begin in the mushmouth of Rusty DePass. Much of the depiction of Shrub as a chimp had far more to do with his facial resemblance to Curious George, which was an irony because, if anything, George was not curious. In addition, there was a theory the the chimp from "Bedtime for Bonzo" had been left behind by Reagan and Shrub assumed the role.

Why, Matt assured us, he had never, ever in his long life even heard of the racial slur in which blacks are called monkeys, gorillas or apes!

I remember that discussion. It was a truly impressive display of argumento pro impium ut gluteus volantus (that is, "argument from ridiculously lying your ass off") from Marler.

It's amazing how many things you can argue for using this technique. Did I tell you guys I won the trillion dollar lottery last week? Go me!

Did Michael Steele comment on this?

I'm glad you asked! From my press statement:

"Earlier this week, GOP stalwart Rusty DePass made a lighthearted remark about the First Lady on his Facebook page. It's unfortunate that rather than recognizing the spirit of fun and solidarity among primates in which this joke was intended, some of my black brothers and sisters chose to take themselves too seriously -- and take offense. I call upon Michelle Obama to reject the politics of polarization and racial division, and to set an example to the nation by joining me in a hearty laugh at Mr. DePass's kindly meant remark."

He's [DePass] the former chair of the state board of elections.
Makes you wonder, how make blacks didn't get to vote or have it counted, on account of that cryptozoan.

Heh, that Michael Steele! The real one is almost as much a doof.
BTW, re "apes" - Wikipedia says this, which sounds pretty good:

An ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates.[1] In less scientific language, it has various meanings, although it often (but not always) excludes humans.[2] Due to its ambiguous nature, the term 'ape' is less suitable as a means of describing taxonomic relationships.

Elsewhere,
A primate...the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, lorisids, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes ,...

Didn't stop Sarah from flipping out like an attention-starved celebrity retard, though.

There you go, defaming her poor afflicted child again.

There you go, defaming her poor afflicted child again.

Oh, that's nothing. A co-worker of mine said, "good morning" to me earlier today. Now that's a horrible insult to the Palin children that will not stand!!!

Dear SecularAnimist@3.58PM

I'm a secular humanist. Compared to homo sapiens, monkeys/apes are stupid, but otoh I agree with you wrt to monkey/apes having intelligence. Cetaceans, esp dolphins/porpoises display tremendous intelligence, but of a completely different order.

Old philosophy joke: 'Describe the history of human thought, and compare it other systems of thought.'

The right wing is just trawling to get us in shouting matches with them about nothing. Who needs to be in a ditch with them trying to one up them on insults to this person or that?

This is nothing but distraction to prevent focus on debates and discussions that move this country away from their old fears and delusions.

What this guy thinks about anything is just not important. He could call her or anyone any name he wants -- it is completely unimortant. We are giving him and his ilk what they want -- attention and distracting us from thinking about what is really important.

I feel MUCH better now!

No Elie, wrong wrong wrong. The more lots of undecided voters hear about people like DePass, the less they'll vote for Republicans. We talk plenty about "real issues", but what can we do about those issues unless we can elect more of our own.

BTW, I doubt very seriously they are weird and convoluted enough to plan stuff making them look bad so we have "distractions" to talk about! Rusty was just being himself, really.

The fact that he said the gorilla was an "ancestor" suggests he was referencing views on evolution. Now there's always the possibility that he was going for the anti-evolution/racist twofer, especially since the remark that supposedly prompted his comment appears not to exist. Or that he subconsciously associates black people with gorillas, and therefore she came to mind when he wanted to make an anti-evolution joke. But at best, he made a comment with easily perceived racial overtones without realizing how it would read. Not that that's much of a defense.

What hogwash! True Christian believers (TM) know that men and women are direct familial descendants of dust and ribs, respectively. They read it in a book, so it must be true.

The sumbitch don't get de pass from me. From someone who has to de-scale himself every morning, this "joke" is in an extremely poor taste. Your pterodactyl grandpa called, sucker!

They believe in evolution only as it relates to other living beings. As they will tell you without batting a lash, white humans didn't evolve: they 'arrived'. Jesus says so.

Hasn't any politician learned this yet??

I once made a joke that cut a little close to the bone for one listener. He said something, gently, enough to call my attention to the situation. I felt embarrassed. I felt an urge to be defensive. But all I said was, "I am sorry." No qualifiers, no explanation, no bullshit. Just the apology.

It did wonders. He forgave me and the whole thing went away. Total time spent on awkwardness: about 90 seconds.

If anyone's wondering where the supposed Michelle obama statement came from, it probably came from the "joke" you can see here at MyRightWingDad.net, which collects such pearls of wisdom.
http://myrightwingdad.blogspot.com/search/label/MICHELLE%20OBAMA
It's the third joke down.

Monkeys and non-human apes are not stupid. They are highly intelligent.

Posted by: SecularAnimist

i'll believe that when they can successfully tell a joke.

(and no guff about washoe and koko - henny youngman they weren't.)

your pal,
blake

It must be hot in South Carolina; it looks like all of its Repub "operatives" had deep fried their brains. On top of DePass' "eruption", here are two others:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/15/racist-image-eyes/
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/south-carolina-gop-operative-doesnt-deny-racist-tweet-against-obama.php?ref=fpblg

I'll have to yield to you guys on this. I have seen more Republicans and evolutionists portrayed as gorillas, monkeys and baboons than I have African-Americans. I did hear a person call African-Americans "jungle-bunnies" once, but those are not specifically primates, and it was not in print. And "coons", also not in print.

I was compared to an ape by a roommate of mine. Sooner or later, doesn't everybody get compared to other apes or monkeys, orangutans or baboons?

MatthewRMarler, I thought about deconstructing your entire post, but really, typing "Fuck you, you disingenuous manipulative sleaze" gives you more time than you deserve.

Sooner or later, doesn't everybody get compared to other apes or monkeys, orangutans or baboons? -- MatthewRMarler, @22:25

I don't know, do they? I know that the kids in primary school used to tell me I was the living proof of Darwin's theory because I could tie my shoes standing "at attention" (not *really* true, as a matter of fact), but I always thought I was unique (kind-a like US)

1. It was a joke and as funny as any of Letterman's. Bottom line, screw the Dems. Of course since Dems have no morals they can never violate them. The guy apologized, let's all move on. Unless you want to make stupidity the single issue that determines your vote. In that case the Dems would lose unless Joe Biden switches parties.
2. Give the geeks time, they'll find Michell saying something like that. At the very least if she believes in evolution then the statement is potentially true.
3. I doubt that the statement was truly racist. It is everyone else who thinks it was racist.
4. I don't see people of color trying to prove all those "racists" in South Carolina wrong. They're just screaming racist. How about rolling out some facts to show that the "racists" have no basis for their misguided opinions.

Susan Johnson: I thought about deconstructing your entire post, but really, typing "Fuck you, you disingenuous manipulative sleaze" gives you more time than you deserve.

In about 1970 Walt Kelly portrayed J. Edgar Hoover as a bulldog and Spiro Agnew as a hyena. They were quite good caricatures. I wonder whether it would be racist to portray Obama as a dog? A black dog?

About 6 years ago a British political cartoonist portrayed Ariel Sharon as Chronos eating his children, modeled after the famous painting by Goya. There was a debate about whether the cartoon was antisemitic, the case being basically that it made Sharon look like a Jewish caricature, and that eating children reminded Jews of the history of "Blood libel". The cartoon won the British award for best political cartoon of the year. The point was that Sharon was destroying the future of the Isreali children, not the Palestinian children, because Chronos ate his own children . You can deconstruct that one twice, first forgetting that Chronos ate his own children (and that there is a famous painting of it), and secondly remembering it. Most of the people who thought that the cartoon was racist evidently did not know the legend, but the cartoonist and the people who gave the award did. I disagreed with the cartoonist's point, but it was a really good political cartoon, and I do not think it was anti-semitic, despite the history of blood libel.

In about 1970 Walt Kelly portrayed J. Edgar Hoover as a bulldog and Spiro Agnew as a hyena.

Yep. And this has absolutely zero to do with the long-standing, undeniable, and clear-cut practice of racists depicting African-Americans as monkeys.

It was, however, a fascinating look at your diversionary tactics and willingness to excuse the inexcusable once again. It's sort of like masturbating in public to draw attention away from the rape that just happened to someone else, and lecturing everyone at the same time that sex acts in public are just natural and have happened since Roman times.

Is there any outrage, horror, or tragedy you won't just write off or pretend didn't happen, from the slaughter of innocents to theft and corruption and racism?

Clearly there isn't.

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