What the (bleep) is a "moonbat?"

[Archae]

I've heard the term several times, and this one asshole I spar with on another message board calls DU, "Moonbat Central."

What is a "moonbat," anyway?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. Here it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbat

snip
According to de Haviland, a moonbat is "someone on the extreme edge of whatever their -ism happens to be." Adriana Cronin defines the term as "someone who sacrifices sanity for the sake of consistency." This term has long been used to describe protesters on the political Left, and is sometimes used to describe protesters on the political Right.

snip

[Archae]

3. In other words, Freeper.

:D

[Crazy Guggenheim]

4. It can be applied to them.

[cabbage08]

6. Thanks, I was also wondering about the reference n/t

[RevCheesehead]

2. That's a new one to me.

Here at DU, we have Robb, the dingbat.
And of course, Senselessbrenner, a/k/a "batshit crazy."

[LeftyDarthBrodie]

7. Zell Miller takes the cake

since that man is:

CRAZY. BATSHIT. INSANE.

[Xithras]

5. It has another meaning in addition ot the one above.

It's a reference to conspiracy minded extremists. According to its definition, people who believe that 9/11 was a BFEE planned event are moonbats. By the same token, freeper skinheads who see Jewish conspiracies everywhere are ALSO moonbats.

It's a not-so-veiled reference to the whackjobs that inhabit late night talk radio. People who are on the extreme edges of a political belief system and grab onto any conspiracy theory they can find in order to support their position are moonbats. It's a reference to being "batty" and "howling at the moon" (an old euphamism for being crazy).

[Tyrone Slothrop]

8. Sort of a modern version of "lunatic"

Considering the etymologies of the two words

[Xithras]

10. Exactly.

Flip on Coast to Coast with George Noory some night and listen to the callers describing our government agents as "alien replicants", or talk about how we're all slaves to the government mind control machines, or how planet X is going to kill us all next week and the government doesn't want us to know, and you'll understand just how appropriate the term is. They're up all night yapping about the battiest subjects you've ever heard.

In political speech, it's typically used to describe left-wing conspiracy theorists. I won't name anyone, but there are certainly people here on DU who sometimes qualify for the moniker ;)

[Chichiri]

9. A manifestation of conservative projectionism.