I ran across an article by Molly Ivins in Mother Jones called, "A Lyin' Bully." It was published in 1995. It was about Rush Limbaugh. Ivins called him a lyin' bully who picks on dead people, little girls, and the homeless, none of which can fight back. You see, Ivins made her living making fun of politicians. But, she strongly objected to Limbaugh's type of political rhetoric. You can read the article here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1995/05/lyin-bully
I find it amazing that 20 yrs later we still have what Ivins decried as, "plain old nastiness in our political discussion." Indeed, it may even have gotten uglier. Like Ivins, I think we must take Limbaugh seriously. He has an audience that feeds on his vitriol. Limbaugh appeals to the lowest common denominator. He invites class hatred and feeds the racism that is barely under the surface in America today. For this reason alone, Rush Limbaugh is a dangerous force in American politics and HE MUST BE STOPPED.
There is ONE thing you can do to achieve that goal. Just stop buying anything from companies that advertise and support his show. Here is one article that lists some of his main advertisers: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/28/1353710/-10-Rush-Limbaugh-Sponsors-Every-Liberal-Should-Boycott# I agree that every Liberal should boycott these sponsors of Rush's hate machine. And I think you should let them know why you are stopping buying their products. Money is the only language they comprehend. Show them with your pocketbook that you find Limbaugh's program to be disgusting!
You can also support the #StopRUSH hashtag on Twitter. If we all work together, perhaps we can get this bombastic, dangerous fool off the air.
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ReplyDeleteLove ya Pat, but seriously, why are surprised 20 years later we have plain old nastiness? Actually, we now have a full blown hate cult, and its appendages, posing as a political party.
ReplyDeleteAnd why not? Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and 12 years ago, FOX SPEWS, made it clear -- hate sells, fear sells even better, and if you can pump it up though self confident males and attractive females, you can make the stupid hate whoever you want.
This is not ending, this is just beginning. If Rush was off the air tomorrow, it would not help. The millions of people indoctrinated into the hate cult, are essentially frozen that way. That is their narrative. That is their mental framework -- I should hate ____________ because he is liberal, dangerous, out to destroy America and my way of life,.
Obama being black added a major layer, or incorporated it, of the hate and fear of blacks, Not since Stephen A Douglas used every debate to tell the public emphatically and repeatedly that Lincoln would have their daughters sleep with black men, has a party greased the skids to power more.
Cult is the right word -- a culture. Where a pecking order is created, and people compete to get to the top., You are rewarded, in this cult, for being more hateful, more loud, more proud, more clear about your hate for Obama, or liberals. The slick FOX SPEWS made hate no long a fringe group, but the norm. Hundreds of times a day, in ways overt, covert, and effective, FOX SPEWS instills a narrative of hate.
ReplyDeleteHate spreads by words, by the way. A young man in Keokuk Iowa, who never met a politician, who never took history class seriously, who couldn't tell you who his US Senators or, is absolutely convinced that Obama is an evil man, a muslim, arrogant, destroying the constitution and our country., He does not even suspect this might be partly wrong, The utter self confidence of hate radio hosts, and FOX SPEWS talking heads, and the slogans used over and over, are ingrained. Long after Obama is away from the white house, if this kid somehow writes history books, he will tell the world OBama was an evil man, who tried to destroy America.,
Hate doesn't go away -- is my point. He wont likely learn some new facts, and go :"Oh, wow, those hate mongers had me all screwed up". It could take you hours to get the Keokuk kid to grasp ONE fact differently than he already had wrong, within his hate narrative. His mind would be like a piece of steel, welded and shaped. YOu may be able, with great effort, to bend it just slightly for a moment, but it will spring back, and there, stay.
Hate does that, because hate drives out all doubt. Hate and fear have always been effective motivators -- ask the Germans. And the hate is pushed by men who are utterly convinced, and who have the voice, the cadence, the tone, that someone resonates with some molecule in their cerebral cortex, and then stored in an unlockable box you could call beliefs,
So you can get rid of Rush, maybe, with unreal effort, over time. But there are 1000 Rush wanna bees already. A hundred hate copy cats, already.
Getting rid of Rush, Im sorry to say, is like brushing back a bit of water in a rushing flood. There is endless water coming anyway.
And it has always been thus -- only know, the hate mongers are more numerous, more sophisticated, more slick, You should see the speeches before the Civil War by the hate demagogues of that day -- insisting powerfully and emphatically that the white race was doomed, just if Lincoln could stop the spread of slavery, Just stopping the spread of slavery would mean the extinction of the white race.,
Why did the author of that speech, and others, go to that extreme. He had to out do the other haters for attention. Rush has same problem -- how to out hate, out lie, out impress, the stupid,. In a hate cult, if you are not hateful enough, not only do you not get attention and power, if you show doubt, if you show a willingness to even listen or compromise, you get run over by the hate train,
ReplyDeleteSo things must -- and will - grow worse, As the competition to infuse more hate, with more self confidence, with more authority, makes the most hateful float to the top. Polarization comes from competition of hate mongers,
The only solution I see is education, weak as that may seem. Educate the kids in school about the techniques of hate demagogues. The history of demagogues. How they start wars, by pumping up the hate, but almost never go fight them, in fact, are usually personal cowards.
Teach too the vile nature of religious based hate, and how there hate speech can really thrive.
Teach about Orwellian double speak, and the true history of what religion and hate speech as done in US and the world.
If there is another solution, I don't know it.
Sorry this is so long. Im Film Critic One on Twitter, btw.