Owning the libs

[10] Conservative student activist groups like Turning Point USA and remixes of campus speakers like Ben Shapiro played a key role in developing the strategy during the 2000s and 2010s.

[4] The 2008 vice presidential campaign of Sarah Palin was a precursor to the owning the libs method, according to former Republican strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson.

[14] Online troll Jacob Wohl has stated that the goal in owning the libs is to evoke in people "the type of unhinged emotional response that you would expect out of somebody who is suffering a serious mental episode.

[16] Shared enjoyment of owning the libs maintains group cohesion among a conservative voting bloc, according to Nicole Hemmer of Columbia University.

[16] The phrase "the cruelty is the point" was coined from the title of Adam Serwer's 2018 article in The Atlantic about Trump supporters building community together by delighting in the suffering of those they consider outsiders.

At a 2018 Turning Point USA event, Republican Nikki Haley remarked:[4] Raise your hand if you've ever posted anything online to quote-unquote own the libs.

It's the exact opposite.In her book Troll Nation, Amanda Marcotte argues that owning the libs is so central to the political right that any effort to show care and concern for the well-being of others, or even for oneself, is viewed as suspiciously liberal.

[21][22] Exhaust from rolling coal is sometimes directed at drivers of fuel-efficient cars and cyclists, in order to offend their presumed liberal environmentalist values.