What's in a Name?

What indeed is gained by calling names? In one of the episodes of the TV show "Everybody Loves Raymond" Frank says something disparaging about gays and Marie chides him with, "You know, Frank, some people would be offended by that." Frank comes back with, "I know, that's why I said it."

Soon after Obama was elected the first time, he got a law passed raising the tax on cigarette making materials, I mean a lot. The price of tobacco almost doubled, and the price of papers went up by almost half. Of course they had been taxing the shit out of cigarettes for some time, which is why I started making my own. I had tried rolling my own before but I was no good at it. Besides, a hand rolled cigarette doesn't smoke like a factory made cigarette, and there is no way to put a filter on it. I had been ordering my cigarettes by mail from North Carolina where the tax is way cheaper, but the company went out of business, they said because of pending legislation that was going to shut them down anyway. It was then I discovered that they make hand operated machines that stuff tobacco into prefabricated paper tubes. The product is pretty close to factory made cigarettes at about one third the cost. Obama's tax on tobacco and papers almost cancelled out the advantage of making your own, or it would have if it hadn't also raised the price of store bought cigarettes. There was a lot of talk at the local smoke shop that we all should write to Obama and our congressmen to protest this outrage, but I thought that would be a waste of time. Those guys all knew what they were doing when they passed that law, they did it on purpose, and they were unlikely to change their minds now, since their jobs were secure until the next election. Conversely, I, who voted against all of them in the previous election, was not likely to vote for them in the next election even if they did back down on this one issue, which they weren't going to do anyway.

This was a classic case of the frustrated voter who has just discovered how little weight his one vote carries in the greater scheme of things. I was pissed, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I started calling Obama "Yo Momma". It was the only arrow I had in my quiver, and Obama was safely out of range, but it was better than doing nothing. It was like that famous photo of Hungarian protesters throwing rocks at Soviet tanks back in the 50s. They knew those rocks would be ineffective against those tanks, but they threw them anyway because they were the only weapons they had. I suspect this is why some people who didn't vote for Trump insist on calling him anything else but "Trump". Well it's only a theory so, if I'm wrong, tell me the real reason.