This is not really intended to foster a lot of discussion, although it’s great if it does. I’m just depositing a little rudimentary social science research here for safe-keeping. The dream of many social scientists is to be there taking notes right at the beginning of when a phenomenon begins. I was reading some reports on the debate last night and the recent McCain stooge’s rally introduction, and suddenly it struck me that sooner or later people were going to hit on this phrase. It turned out to be sooner — I’m about a month late to have spotted the start of the bud — but I still think this is worth noting here before the meme blossoms any further.
That meme is reference to this name: “Jesus Hussein Christ.”
I’m not even sure what it evokes, or what is intended to mean, and a review of the sources I cite below suggests that it can be positive, negative, or neutral to Obama, to Muslims, and maybe to Christians as well, and that has occurred to people with evident good senses of humor and those without. But as of today it has occurred only 25 times, discounting repetitive entries, according to the Google, and if you look at the date stamps you can see it is going to be taking off, especially if Obama is nominated and even more so if he is then elected.
If it were purely absurdity, I’d find it merely witty. But, of course, if you read the sources below — and I don’t recommend it, except for the funny bits from http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us, which is pretty good — you’ll see that this is also going to be used as a weapon against Obama. I’m not sure what forearming this forewarning might offer, whether there’s a way to blunt the racism that some people appear to see and delight in it, but at least it’s here for our consideration.
ALL OF THE GOOGLABLE USES OF THIS PHRASE, ORDERED BY DATE:
As you can see, as of the past two weeks or so, it’s started catching on. Next month, expect it to be much more prevalent.
6/10/06 — http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/…
5/31/07 — http://www.haloscan.com/commen…
8/30/07 — http://www.crooksandliars.com/…
1/13/08 — http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs…
1/18/08 — http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/n…
1/27/08 — http://www.democraticundergrou…
2/4/08 — http://porchdog.wordpress.com/…
2/4/08 — http://www.thedailypage.com/fo…
2/5/08 — http://forums.pearljam.com/sho…
2/6/08 — http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/n…
2/13/08 — http://hotair.com/archives/200…
2/16/08 — http://www.dailykos.com/commen…
2/17/08 — http://debatebothsides.com/sho…
2/19/08 — http://justoneminute.typepad.c…
2/19/08 — http://althouse.blogspot.com/2…
2/19/08 — http://www.dailykos.com/commen… and http://www.dailykos.com/commen…
2/20/08 — http://letters.salon.com/a88ca…
2/21/08 — http://www2.indystar.com/forum…
2/26/08 — http://www.thedailypage.com/fo…
2/26/08 — http://politiporn.com/2008/02/…
2/27/08 — http://answers.yahoo.com/quest… and http://answers.yahoo.com/quest… [apparently to be deleted]
no date — http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/qu…
no date — http://www2.indystar.com/forum…
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I don’t think so — looking at the increasing rate of usage by date, it’s pretty clearly going to happen anyway. This is one of those cases where not only great minds think alike. The only question is how to respond.
in this handbasket???
ive been pretty clear that i dont support either remaining candidate…and also that i think obama has some vulnerabilities beneath the hype (tho i havent always been that tactful about it)…but his middle name?? really?? in the political process?? ha!
if i were obama, this would be my new campaign theme song…