I have never once heard people use this word

  • Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Moonbat was a preferred term used by American conservatives/ chuds to describe "the extreme left" back in like 2010. And by extreme left, it really only meant liberals they saw on MSNBC who thought that imperialism should have a bit more polite wording to it. I don't think any actual leftist has ever been called a "moonbat". The term has pretty strongly fallen out of favor since

      • NonWonderDog [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        George Monbiot's name, apparently? I remember hearing that like 10 years ago.

        Pretty sure this was a Limbaugh thing.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          4 years ago

          From the folks unironically calling themselves "Dittoheads" and "Rushbots", a pejorative.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I believe it was paired with "wingnut" - a neologism of "right wing nutso" - from the liberal side.

      It looks like moonbat may have gained popularity thanks to George Monbiot, in the UK, being an outspoken liberal. So I imagine it just trickled across the pound and caught on among American conservatives because they thought it sounded pithy.