Wingnut

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A typical wingnut, sporting an attractive bright zinc plated finish.
Note that the right wing is diametrically opposed to the left wing, but otherwise identical.

A wingnut is a specialized, convenient item of hardware.

Like a normal nut, it has threads on the inside to engage the threads on a bolt or stud. However, instead of flat faces that must be engaged with a wrench (or Mr. Goodpliers), a wingnut has (typically) two large "wings" that allow it to easily be tightened or loosened with the fingers.

[edit] Alternative meaning

Oh, were you expecting to read about the fringe lunatics at the extreme of the political wings both liberal and conservative,[1] screwing and repressing the subjects in question? Tweet tweet.

Note however that just like not all conservatives are neocons, not all conservatives are wingnuts either. Being a wingnut requires a particularly paranoid worldview, teetering on the edge of or falling wholesale into tinfoil hat territory, as wingnuttery causes the victim to refuse to accept any source of information that doesn't back up their prejudices (essentially, wingnuts are almost always right-wing authoritarians as well as being politically right-wing). Racism and misogyny as well as a slavish devotion to cognitive dissonance and crackpot theories of economics (i.e. Austrian school) are also, if not required, at the very least nearly universal symptoms.

Unfortunately, in the United States, that seems all more common every day.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. Keith Olbermann, however, will assure you that the proper term for left-wing wingnuts is moonbat.
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