So, now I'm anti-Catholic? WTF?

[SoxFan]

Those of you who have seen me in action in GD and GDP will understand how absurd this is. On another Dem site, a guy (definitely a non-Catholic) accused me of making anti-Catholic smears. My offense? I used the term "mackerel snapper" in a joking and self-referential way.

Keep in mind that we now have a Jewish dude defending the integrity of the Holy Mother Church against an onslaught by a lifelong, churchgoing Catholic, former altar server, eucharistic minister, Catholic school grad, who had a Catholic seminarian as a groomsman at his wedding.

The real reason? He's mad that I made some relatively mild critical comments about his candidate in a congressional primary.

Oh, he also accused me of making "commie class warfare" comments because I said that the local Women For Obama leader ignored volunteers who weren't wealthy and/or graduates of elite colleges.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. "Mackerel snapper?"

I've never even heard that term before.

[rurallib]

4. when I was young my girlfriend's father called me that every day

and he meant it as an insult. Eventually he broke us up.
I hate fish

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Weird....

...as a lifelong Catholic I've never heard that term. Maybe it's a pre-Vatican II era type insult? I dunno.

[rurallib]

7. I had never heard it before or since. Late '60s

He was an extremely bigoted person

[Demoiselle]

13. Yeah, it's an old slur.

Truly practiced bigots shortened it to "Snapper."
And chuckled at their own cleverness in country club locker rooms.
Ycccch.

[MicaelS]

10. I never heard it either

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

Mackerel Snapper is a sectarian slur for Roman Catholics, originating in the United States in the 1850s.<1> It referred to the pre-Vatican II Catholic discipline of Friday abstinence from red meat and poultry, for which fish was substituted. That practice distinguished Catholics from other Christians, especially in North America, where Protestant churches prevailed and Catholics tended to be poor immigrants from Italy and Ireland.

[SoxFan]

12. It's really an anachronism at this point

I picked it up from my Constitutional Law professor, who is also a Catholic, who used it kiddingly to refer to himself.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. ...

:rofl:

[VMI Dem]

3. Thats pretty ironic actually.

Heh.

[edbermac]

5. Went to Catholic grade/high school, never heard that before.

:shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Nice post, mackerel snapper. I see that you don't deny the commie class warfare charge.

:P

[Zomby Woof]

9. I tend to think of you as anti-reason

A bit right-wingy at times, but ya know, big tent and all that. :shrug:

[Deep13]

11. I don't think it matters who is making a criticism or who...

...is trying to refute it. Granted, being Catholic yourself does tend to negate any claim of malice, but anything critical one has to say is either well taken or not based on its own terms. The religion etc. of the person making the argument is irrelevant.

"Commie class warfare?" Are we in favor of egalitarianism or not? The reason that there is no class struggle in this country is because one side isn't fighting and the other has already won.