Slang dictionary
libtard
[lib-tahrd]
What does libtard mean?
Libtard is an insult usually used by conservative trolls online to characterize liberals as stupid.
Where does libtard come from?
Libtard is a blend of the word liberal and the slur retard and is the result of the political polarization that has divided the United States since at least the 1990s. (It’s not just a US thing, though, as libtard sees some currency in the likes of the UK, too.)
It’s unknown who invented the term—such things are tricky to pin down—but early evidence of it online came in an Usenet group in 2004. There, when it was used in a message board on Michael Moore, the outspoken liberal filmmaker, to mock a person who was concerned about being American abroad during the War on Terror.
By 2005, it made its debut on Urban Dictionary, defined as a general insult used by conservatives and Republicans against liberals and Democrats. Since then, the term often targets liberals over political correctness, social welfare, and racial and gender equality.
For what it’s worth, a Quora user named Jeff Jenness claimed he might’ve accidentally invented the term in 2004, stating “I’m pretty sure I pulled it out of my butt back then…I was a 19 year old conservative troll back then.” Jenness then described himself as a left-leaning moderate, so some online users might throw the libtard insult back at him.
Regardless, the term has become increasingly prevalent since the 2016 US presidential election with the rise of the vehement alt-right, pro-Trump community online. That year, Chicago Tribune writer Rex Huppke asked angry conservatives to retire the word libtard—not because it insulted liberals, but because, calling up the offensive slang retard, it demeaned people with developmental disabilities.
Examples of libtard
Who uses libtard?
As Rex Huppke pointed out, the real problem with the word libtard, as opposed to its cousins like snowflake, is that it makes fun of political opponents at the expense of persons with developmental disabilities. Insulting someone’s politics is one thing, but mocking disabilities is another.
memegenerator
The other problem with libtard is that, as far as insults go, liberals themselves aren’t very likely to feel insulted by it. Because libtard resembles something a grade-school bully might say, it paints the user as being, well, juvenile. If you disagree with someone’s political opinions, it’s probably better to explain why, rather than dropping weird nicknames.
People who say “libtard” and “trumptard” are 95% of the time dumber than the people they’re insulting
— Carson (@carturcs) May 29, 2018
None of this is to overlook the fact, though, that some liberals use (the admittedly less common) right-wing counterparts, conservatard and Trumptard, which are equally problematic.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of libtard like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of libtard that will help our users expand their word mastery.