One definition of "cuckservative" is someone who is associated with theright-wing politics in contemporary America but also opposes white supremacy.[12] According toRichard B. Spencer,[13] awhite supremacist, the term is a shorthand used to express "a certain kind of contempt for conservatives".[14]
Initially, the term was also used bysocial conservatives in a manner similar to "Republican in Name Only" (RINO) against conservatives who were seen as not conservative enough.[3][15] Social conservatives use the term to condemnRepublicans they accuse of running on socially conservative values to appeal to theirbase during an election cycle only to usevote trading to compromise on those values while in office and, thus, capitulate to liberal politicians and public sentiment.[3][14] Some observers, such as theSouthern Poverty Law Center, say that the term's usage was rising among white supremacists in the United States as of August 2015.[8]
The term "cuckold" has a long history as an insult implying that a specific man is weak and emasculated, and may even feel pleasure at his own humiliation. The shortened form "cuck" arose in this manner as an Internet insult, and it also refers to agenre of pornography in which a married woman spurns her weak husband for sex with a strong man. The husband is thus cuckolded or "cucked".[1]
Some American political writers have suggested that the terms "cuck" and "cuckservative" are fetish-charged due to their pornographic roots, instead of simply being a sexual insult like the original "cuckold".[16][3][17] Thus, "cuck" is said by various writers to project the insulter's own anxieties by insinuating that the target is weak or enjoys his humiliation.[18][19] The term "cuckservative" is said to imply that certain Republicans are humiliated through their actions while feeling thrilled from their own degradation of others because of the "abandonment of their own moral standards".[8][16]
White supremacists have used the term to condemn white politicians who they say unknowingly promote "the interests of Jews and non-whites".[5] TheAnti-Defamation League says that the term is used by white supremacists as a synonym of the pre-existing phrase "race traitors".[5] Those in the self-described conservative media targeted by the "cuckservative" slur, as well as journalists and commentators from other media outlets, have decried the term as ananti-Christian,[4]racist slur[20] and a rallying cry for white supremacists andneoreactionaries.[21]
Carlos Esteban from Spain's conservative news siteLa Gaceta translated "cuckservative" tocornuservador, stating that: "Republicans are nothing but the 'controlled opposition' completely in the hands of the political left, whose only aspiration is for those rare occasions when those hands pat them on the head, and the media rewards them with the coveted adjective 'moderate': these are thecornuservadores."[22]
Jeet Heer ofThe New Republic wrote that the word is a "fine example of how the sound of a word can reinforce its meaning: abrasive on the ears,cuckservative appropriately enough has an ugly origin and meaning".[16] The word was most popularly adopted in mid-2015 after some alt-right web users were disapproving of the attempts byJohn McCain,Jeb Bush, and other Republicans to establish more politically conservative positions, dubbing those who did "cuckservatives". Over a matter of weeks, the term then proceeded to attain usage additionally onsocial media and the wider internet.[16]
Writing forHot Air, Taylor Millard criticized the word and its history of usage by white supremacists on the political right. He called it short-sighted, giving his opinion thatRand Paul's popularity at leading majority-black universities could make African Americans more conservative in the future.[12] Matt Lewis, inThe Daily Beast, gave his opinion that the word could become as popular with Republicans as "RINO" (Republican In Name Only), even if they were oblivious to its often fetish connotations.[21] Writing inThe Washington Post,David Weigel described the term as arising from disaffected elements of the right wing.[1]
Gretel Kauffman,"White supremacists convene in celebration of Trump victory"Archived November 8, 2020, at theWayback Machine,Christian Science Monitor, November 20, 2016. The annual conference of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank, experienced a rise in attendance this year... 'It's been an awakening,' Richard Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, said at the conference."
Media related toCuckservative at Wikimedia Commons
