Cuckservative

"Cuckservative" is a neologistic epithet^[1] formed as a portmanteau of the word cuckold and the political designation conservative.^[2] It has become an increasingly popular pejorative label used among alt-right supporters in the United States.^[3][4][5]

The word "cuckservative" reached a high level 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 and origin

One definition of "cuckservative" is a conservative who sells out,^[10] having bought into all of the key premises of the left,^[11] and sympathizes with liberal values.^[6] According to Richard B. Spencer, the president of the National Policy Institute, the term is a shorthand used to express "a certain kind of contempt for mainstream conservatives".^[12] The phrase is similar to "Republican In Name Only" (RINO).^[13] 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.^[12] 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][14]

Those in the self-described conservative media targeted by the "cuckservative" slur, as well as journalists and commentators from other media outlets, have decried the term as an anti-Christian,^[4] racist slur^[11][15] and a rallying cry for white supremacists and neoreactionaries.^[16] Some observers, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, say that the term's usage has been rising among white supremacists in the United States.^[3]

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."^[17]

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.^{[14][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]

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".^[14] 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.^[14]

Writing for Hot Air, Taylor Millard criticized the word and its history of usage 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.^[16] Erick Erickson, of right-wing website RedState.com, called the word an insult to Christian Republicans by white supremacists.^[16] 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 anyone considered cowardly or lacking in principles.^[21] Writing in The Washington Post, David Weigel described the term as arising from disaffected elements of the right wing.^[1]

See also

• Bootleggers and Baptists
• Dog-whistle politics
• Quisling
• Regressive left
• Social justice warrior
• Un-American

References