"Wingnut"?

Mar. 1st, 2009 07:16 pm
bunsen_h: (Default)
[personal profile] bunsen_h
Yesterday evening, [livejournal.com profile] beable  and I were chatting with our friend D.- and described someone as a "wingnut".  It was a term that D.- hadn't encountered before, and she asked us to explain.  It wasn't as simple as I'd have thought.

I've been trying to come up with a way of clarifying the concept.  Looking over some recent silliness on a mailing list, where one participant was reading a whole lot of her own Bad History into a discussion and seeing stuff that not only wasn't there, but which was the opposite of what really was there, I got a glimmer.

A wingnut is someone whose attitude and exposition are such that even people who fundamentally agree with his/her basic position wish that s/he would shut up, because s/he's making that position look bad.

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