Anyone who ever sympathized with Eric Cartman's declaration, "I hate hippies! ... I want to kick 'em in the nuts" probably finds the word "tree-hugger" useful -- and plenty of other people dig the word, too.
Maybe you'd rather be a vile SUV-cuddler?
Photo: iStockphoto
At this point, it's hard to imagine the vocabulary of environmentalism or insults without "tree-hugger" and "tree-hugging." And these ol' chestnuts continue to spawn variations: tree-huggitude, tree-huggery, tree-huggage, tree-huggy, tree-huggish, non-tree-hugging, and treehugtastic were all google-able by this intrepid reporter.
The terms often punctuate news stories too. Last month, in The Financial Times, Paul Miles claimed that "caustic columnists" consider independent yogurt-makers such as himself to be "tree-hugging loonies." In August, New Hampshire's state environmental commissioner, Michael Nolin, caught heat for standing by while a fellow administrator dismissively referred to "tree-huggers" -- guess Nolin forgot his job was to be the state's tree-hugger-in-chief. Then there was the British Wind Energy Association's "touch a turbine" campaign this spring to encourage folks to learn about, touch, and -- you guessed it -- hug wind turbines. The campaign was described in the London Sunday Times as "21st-century tree-hugging."
What are the roots of this popular pejorative? Many sources claim "tree-hugger" was born as part of the 1970s-era Chipko movement in India, which involved peaceful resistance and literal tree-hugging. Unfortunately, this logical explanation is as full of crap as the popular etymology of "crap," a word that was not spawned by the tastefully named plumber Thomas Crapper. According to the Oxford English Dictionary -- the bible of the English language, but with fewer severe weather events -- "tree-hugger" has been out there since at least 1965. The first example discusses a battle in Appleton, Wis., between "the tree huggers and the city." The OED goes on to show the depreciative, positive, and even literal meanings of the term, including an example about a Barnum and Bailey circus monkey.
Only one related insult is even semi-established: the slur "panda-hugger," which refers to supporters of China, not cuddlers of adorable bears. But a new frontier for hugging was opened on the Feb. 7, 2006, Colbert Report, when Stephen Colbert's attack-poodle character chewed on the leg of former CIA director James Woolsey. As Woolsey explained why drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was a bad idea, Colbert interrupted with a question that was probably raised for the first time in all of human discourse: "You're not a caribou-hugger, are you?" Making hug-related allegations is a habit for Colbert, who has slammed other evildoers with the labels "Bill-of-Rights-hugger," "Constitution-hugger," and "lung-hugger."
As has been noted by everyone and that circus monkey's uncle, Colbert is a pitch-perfect spoof of the right. The movement's first-rate (first-grade?) name-calling tactics are summed up admirably by the title of linguist Geoffrey Nunberg's recent book Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show.
Nunberg claims that conservatives have done more than just tap into conceptual frames (see: George Lakoff) and coin effective catchphrases (see: "cut and run"). He says they've appropriated the language of politics on a very basic level, including structures like the "Volvo-driving, sushi-eating" compounds. Though the book is a careful, focused analysis of Republican and Democrat language use, one message comes through that's a lot less sophisticated than the style and author: name-calling works, and tree-huggers of all sorts ought to do more of it.
To help the cause, I've developed this handy list for the vocabulary-deprived on the left. When talking about a right-wing non-friend of the environment, please refer to the following linguistic options. By combining items from columns A, B, and C, any patriotic American can develop trusty insults along the lines of "Machiavellian oil-licker" or "vile extinction-embracer."
| A crafty malevolent two-faced vile nefarious lowdown Machiavellian crooked despicable treacherous lecherous foul |
B corporation carbon dioxide oil SUV pesticide nuke global warming smog hazardous waste extinction Bush Cheney |
C kisser stroker spooner cuddler canoodler licker nurser massager squeezer groper embracer Frencher |
Like our politically dominant foes, we must be childish and patient. It will probably take a few election cycles before a Democratic candidate for president is ready to talk smack like "crafty Cheney-Frencher," but we can lay the groundwork now.
Then we'll see how the nuke-nursers and corporation-canoodlers like it.
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Dispassion as the world ends: The absent heart of the great climate affair
Comments
View as Flat
akreider Posted 5:19 am
12 Oct 2006
My treehugger shirt has generated several laughs over the years, but even more compliments than you'd probably expect...
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pbearden47 Posted 6:08 am
12 Oct 2006
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bookerly Posted 7:06 am
12 Oct 2006
I am delighted to admit I have actually hugged trees and futhermore taught children to do so.
patrick
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suzglass Posted 7:50 am
12 Oct 2006
If it's planet sized, its beyond their comprehension or concern. If the timeline is beyond the next five years, its also beyond them...
New studies show the trees can alleviate some of the warming, so plant and hug your tress today!!
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Steve Erickson Posted 3:31 pm
12 Oct 2006
You've got 10 seconds in an elevator to insult some earth destroying moron.
Two rules:
Keep It Simple Stupid!
and
Say it with a smile on your face
Child hating SUV suckers
Selfish me-firster
Property wrongster
Greedy future masher
Poison spewing fools
Nature killers
Future destroyers
Bed pissing corporations
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EcoSpeak Posted 10:32 pm
12 Oct 2006
-Tail pipe smokers
-Corporate morass dumb*ss
-New-wave MCPs: Mean Capitalist Pigs
They call us Crunchy and Granola...maybe we call them Soggy Sugar Cereal?
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EcoSpeak Posted 10:35 pm
12 Oct 2006
Dad taught me years ago, but I've been in this tree-less city for too long now to remember...
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Backcut Posted 10:20 am
13 Oct 2006
On the subject of "treehuggers", I hug dozens of trees each week, measuring them with a tape. Sometimes it's to see if they're big enough to cut (9" dbh) or to see if they're too big to cut (over 30" dbh). Generally, we're cutting about 50% in small trees (9-14" dbh), cutting 40% in slightly bigger trees (14-20" dbh) and the rest in the "money trees" (20-30" dbh). The larger than 30" dbh trees all stay put, regardless of their vigor, diseases and health.
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randino Posted 7:50 am
15 Oct 2006
This all reminds me of the term politically correct. This was a term the right stole right out from under the left's nose. My earliest memory of the term politically correct, was that is was used by the left to laugh at the left. We would always say things like "We went to see Reds the other night. Everyone was there. It was so PC."
I suggest make the term a term of respect and honor. If you do not mind it and embrace it you will ruin the fun of those who use it as a term of denigration. People will only laugh at you if you let them.
Randy
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