How 'Owning the Libs' Became the GOP's Core Belief

[DonViejo]

The weird journey of a tongue-in-cheek catchphrase from conservative-mocking putdown to the defining tenet of the Republican Party’s way of life.

By DEREK ROBERTSON

03/21/2021 07:22 AM EDT

Derek Robertson is the digital editor for Indianapolis Monthly. Follow him on Twitter @derek_j_rob.

For a political party whose membership skews older, it might be surprising that the spirit that most animates Republican politics today is best described with a phrase from the world of video games: “Owning the libs.”

Gamers borrowed the term from the nascent world of 1990s computer hacking, using it to describe their conquered opponents: “owned.” To “own the libs” does not require victory so much as a commitment to infuriating, flummoxing or otherwise distressing liberals with one’s awesomely uncompromising conservatism. And its pop-cultural roots and clipped snarkiness are perfectly aligned with a party that sees pouring fuel on the culture wars’ fire as its best shot at surviving an era of Democratic control.

In just the past month, Sen. Ted Cruz self-consciously joked at the Conservative Political Action Conference about his ill-timed jaunt to Cancun, decried mask-wearing as pro-statist virtue signaling, and closed his speech by screaming “Freedom,” a la William Wallace; House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted a video of himself reading a Dr. Seuss book in protest of the supposed censorship of the children’s author (whose estate decided to stop publishing six titles on account of stereotypes in their illustrations); Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene erected a sign outside her congressional office in Washington declaring “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE” across the hallway from the office of Democratic Rep. Marie Newman, whose daughter is transgender; even Rush Limbaugh, the late talk radio giant and progenitor of liberal “ownage,” got in one last braggadocious slap from beyond the grave: the occupation listed on his death certificate is “greatest radio host of all time.”

In one sense, this is the natural outgrowth of the Trump era. Inasmuch as there was a coherent belief that explained his agenda, it was lib-owning — whether that meant hobbling NATO, declining to disavow the QAnon conspiracy theory, floating the prospect of a fifth head on Mt. Rushmore (his, naturally), or using federal resources to combat the New York Times’ “1619 Project.”

more
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/21/owning-the-libs-history-trump-politics-pop-culture-477203

[brewens]

1. Political correctness is a way of taking their whites away when they wish they could go around using

whatever racial or sexist slurs whenever they like.

[quickesst]

2. They will cast their morals away....

....disregard any sense of decency, plus they will lie with abandon, and wholly embrace willful ignorance, all for the chance, no matter how small, to "own the libs". It is their idea of being a true patriot, and for them the ultimate victory.

[Bettie]

3. When a party has nothing to offer in terms of real issues

they make them up: "owning the libs" allows them to turn people against the other humans in their lives.

So, Republicans vote based on hating their neighbors, it doesn't matter if they will lose based on Republican policies as long as those they have been told they hate lose as well.

[Hugin]

4. I agree. It's their way of feeling like they're winning when the 'libs'...

are actually winning on the real issues.

It was the same with the video games... Those who couldn't win the games due to a lack of talent resorted acting like their cheating was a win.

[mikeysnot]

5. The plutocrats reward their lemmings ignorance

With a figment of their followers imagination...

[Montauk6]

6. Big Obama Fist Bump for today's relevance