As a rule, I avoid talking about politics or religion here. To be completely candid, I’ve broken my rule on multiple occasions. But still, it seems like me getting particularly vitriolic about something non-tea related might turn off someone reading, so I avoid it.
But ever since theTea Party has become so ever-present in American politics, there’s been an interesting twist to being a tea fanatic. There’s a Tea Party website nearly every time I make a general internet search for tea. Sometimes I actually click on the site before I realise it’s a wacko site. But there I go showing my bias. Not the place for that.
I’d give specific examples of such illicit Tea Parties, but I don’t want to be a party to driving any traffic to them, as it were. Anyway, you can easily use innocuous search terms including tea, and you’ll find what I’m talking about. For example, punch in ‘tea party socialism obamacare apocalypse’, and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.
But today I happened upon the inverse of this topic. What might that be, you ask? Well, the Democrats Abroad are very active around the world. And because there are plenty of Americans living in Germany, there are chapters of both major American political parties active in raising money and getting out the vote for ex-pats.
So here’s what I read today:
‘As a reminder, we are putting on a series of Coffee Talk videos, aka “Anything but a Tea Party”. Our thought is that you can watch YouTube in the comfort of your home while drinking a cup of coffee (or anything but tea). Then you donate what it would have cost if you had bought the drink at a coffee house or restaurant.’
This is their inventive way to raise funds. The money you saved that you would’ve spent in the cafe is what they’re asking you donate to the cause. I get that. Since the seventies or eighties they’ve used the phrase ‘for less than a cup of coffee a day‘ to get people to be more willing to donate to a good cause.
Children who’re starving in Africa? You can make sure that at least one of them eats if you donate such a miniscule amount.
But ‘anything but tea’? Did they have to call their Coffee Talk event ‘Anything but a Tea Party? Really?
I know this is a backlash against the people who call themselves the Tea Party. The inverse of the polluted web search. But I still don’t have to like it.
I agree with you.
In this case, politics is pollution.
The “Tea Party” is based on a misunderstanding of the events in Boston. It’s a great display of ignorance.
They celebrate being anti-tea.
The “Anything But a Tea Party” idea is a disgrace; it suggests that the opponents of the Tea Party as just as ignorant.
They oppose the anti-tea party by being anti-tea.
What a mob of idiots, the lot of them
Politics is communication.
Communication is oversimplification.
Politics is oversimplification.
glad I’m not the only one who is annoyed at ‘polluted’ results when I search for tea!
Its time to start a “real tea party”. “Tea drinkers of the world unite”: to purify the “tea party-search results” with real tea.
In other words: I’m irritated too.