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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:21 AM
Original message
WHY IS RUSH EFFECTIVE?
Ya, some are going to dismiss the Dittoheads as idiots. End of story.

Yet I think Rush offers some insight into a greater human pathology that we all need to understand not just in others but ourselves. That is the propensity to slip into self-justifying belief systems. These belief systems are such that the combination of stated and unstated assumptions makes it difficult for one stuck inside the system ever able to disprove it. The system becomes essentially self-perpetuating. Religion is but one example. One's psychological defenses are another.

If you listen to Rush... he has carefully crafted... either by cynical design or by accident... such a comprehensive belief system. He has created a plausible paradigm in which to interpret all actions by liberals and Democrats. Essentially it is noting but a tranparent form or demonization. Simply stated, Liberals want everyone dependent on the government where they can have power over citizens. They are out to destroy the engine of everyone else's prosperity: the rich. They are out to damage the Right at all costs. They are so untrustworthy so everything they do is suspicious and it's better to listen to Rush's interpretation because what Liberals actually say can not be taken at face value. Dittoheads believe the above must be true since Rush has so many examples... even though he weaves them out of distortions and half-truths. Conversely, in Rush's Passion Play he constructs a plausible paradigm in which the Right is always noble and the only group truly interested in helping mankind. He passes himself off as essentially infallible. No other source of information is needed.... and BTW why not pay to be propagandized at Rush 24/7.

The Dittohead belief system inoculates them from any desire to seek or acknowledge information that would disprove the paradigm Rush has created. The circle of self-deception is complete. The Dittoheads have willfully further self-sabotaged their intelligence. Rush laughs all the way to the bank.
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fertilizeonarbusto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:22 AM
Response to Original message
1. So
you are basically explaining (very clearly, I might add) WHY the Dittoheads are idiots...
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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:27 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. idiot implies low IQ
The self-sabotage of one's own intellect is different. IQ is not a facor. One's ability for critical thinking is.

There's lots of bright people on the Left I think are just as irrational as the Dittoheads.

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fertilizeonarbusto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:32 AM
Response to Reply #12
19. Good point.
n/t
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Ron Green Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #12
52. "Idiot" doesn't imply low IQ...
From the Greek, it means, "In one's own world" .. as in "idiom" or "idiosyncracy." And indeed, Rush has created a comfortable world of "us" (those who work hard and aspire to upward mobility) vs. "them," those who don't want to work and therefore will steal, via the Government, from the working folks.
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MsConduct Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-05-05 07:14 AM
Response to Reply #52
58. Yeah, we're all just a bunch of slackers! LOL n/t
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liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:23 AM
Response to Original message
2. Because people like to see other people smeared and degraded
This is why the repuke campaign was so successfully, they smeared the opponent even to the point of lying about them.
The public ate it up even though they will tell you they don't like the dirty politics.
It is the very reason Reality TV does so well, someone is taking it in the shorts and they want to watch.
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Inland Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #2
33. There is entertainment value in someone insulting your opponents
I enjoy it too. By the posts on DU, we all enjoy it.

But the secret of Rush, I think, is that he never attempts anything else. Think of what Rush DOESN'T do. He doesn't have guests. He doesn't discuss policy except in the most broad terms. Oh, he will discuss votes and nominations in terms of us vs. them, but not in any depth. And he never says anything that the audience can take as less than a compliment to their goodness and smarts.

If your goal was to build an army of mindless, kneejerk haters who will never turn the dial, that's the way you do it.
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jpgray Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:24 AM
Response to Original message
3. I think it's simpler than that
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 11:25 AM by jpgray
He makes people who have felt dumb, ugly, persecuted and powerless all their lives feel like they are smart and powerful while letting them do some persecuting of their own. This is a lever to enact a rightwing economic agenda that benefits the elite and is tremendously unpopular when related in honest terms. This is the same thing the "moral" wedge issues are for--Republicans don't really give two shits about abortion, but it gets votes. Republicans are about economics and getting elected, which is why as the polls shift so do their unshakable "moral" stances.
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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:29 AM
Response to Reply #3
14. ya, that's another theme
The Right, even though they have power loves to see itself as persecuted.
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fertilizeonarbusto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:33 AM
Response to Reply #3
21. tingtingting
We have a winner-elegantly put.
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Inland Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:58 AM
Response to Reply #3
35. And again, there is entertainment value in that
Rush taps into the feeling that the poor and dumb are being kept down by the liberals and democrats; that in a capitalist and democratic society, they SHOULD be on top but for the undeserving that are holding them down. Like everything the right wing does, it is essentially a compliment to their adherents that they are the bestest, smartest, most deserving of all and that anything they do is sanctified.

And nobody gets confused between telling people things and doing things. Rush, for example, compliments his listeners on their piety and demands christian symbols on public property and prayers in school--but he doesn't burden anybody with a prayer to open the show. One of these days, I am going to call in when he discusses prayer and invite him to pray with me. He wouldn't. It isn't going to entertain.
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bo44 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 09:24 PM
Response to Reply #3
56. so very true
good insight and explanation
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Geek_Girl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 09:42 PM
Response to Reply #3
57. I remember several years back
I watched Rush on TV just to see what all the hoopla was. I could not understand how anyone could take him seriously let alone believe what he has saying. It was just so over the top.

But I think your explanation is the best I've seen on why people actually listen to him.
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coloradodem2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:25 AM
Response to Original message
4. Yup. That is it.
He created a belief system and people believe it.
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edbermac Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:25 AM
Response to Original message
5. The same reason Hitler was so effective...
:grr:
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vi5 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
6. Because he distills everything to the simple...
..it's that easy. One look at the ridiculousness and vague stuff that gets bandied about on this board, and the infighting and differing priorities should give you an insight into the OPPOSITE of the minions rush commands. I'm not saying it's a good or a bad thing. But our side gets too hung up on minutiae and debating amongst ourselves and name calling and such and such. He makes it clear who the enemy is (liberals and democrats) and who the good guys are (Bush and republicans) and does nothing more than provide ammunition for these roles daily. It's that simple.
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jus_the_facts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
7. ignorance...hatred....closed minds.....
:nopity:
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Az Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
8. Certainty
Rush and others like him offer listeners certainty. Liberal ideologies offer tolerence and embrace diversity. This means that each person is allowed to find their own way in matters. To have their own terms. There is no certainty offered by the left.

Rush offers them a strong sense of being right. The left tends to tear down old systems and tries to more forward. Progress is not what everyone wants. Some believe that there is a right way to be and that their old traditions nailed it. And Rush offers them certainty that they are right.
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jpgray Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:32 AM
Response to Reply #8
16. Another good point
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 11:32 AM by jpgray
I would also add that a lot of these arguments are "faith-based"--Rush's listeners will entrench in their erroneous beliefs especially when they are ridiculed and humiliated by someone with facts and logical analysis. This is why in a sense putting up ever more outrageous falsehoods works to Rush's (and the Republicans') advantage--it triggers a feeling of almost religious persecution in the minds of their supporters--they see it as the godless enemies of faith trying to smear and debase someone who has a faith-based belief in whatever bullshit they're being sold at the moment. And the faith-based belief and reacting against the persecution starts to matter more than the facts, and becomes more admirable to the supporter than fact-based analysis.
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pantouflard Donating Member (184 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #16
32. From my POV, you have the best understanding of this
ugly phenomenon. The right wing nuts I know (and they are family, so I know them well) who listen to Rush and love Dennis Miller, are people who have always felt inferior, who have a serious persecution complex, and who never take responsibility for their actions. They are generally overly-defensive, quick to anger and overreaction. In other words, sociopathic.

No wonder Hate Radio is attractive to them. They're not interested in Truth. All they want is vindication, justification, and validation.
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yella_dawg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #32
37. Your description of ditto-heads in your family
could have been said about the rushbots in my family. Particularly the part about refusing responsibility for their actions. Is Rush selling a paradigm where you are only responsible for good things?

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pantouflard Donating Member (184 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:25 PM
Response to Reply #37
40. Of course! It's the basis of the US vs THEM mentality.
If you're a jerk, the only way to validate your existence is to blame everyone else for all the wrong in the world. Right?
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flygal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 01:16 PM
Response to Reply #8
42. I agree
the repugs I know never seem to give a little on their beliefs.
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Osamasux Donating Member (846 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
9. Very well put.
So how do we establish one of our own?
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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:31 AM
Response to Reply #9
15. Glad you asked!!!!!!!!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2873568

though hopefully any such paradigm would also be self-correcting.
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MissBrooks Donating Member (614 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:27 AM
Response to Original message
10. I wonder if they say the same things about us
when it comes to Michael Moore and Al Franken and William Pitt - along with others ....
We all have our "pundits" and news people that we like and believe in.


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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #10
36. so what's the acid test?
I think it's that Rush can not believe all that he says... and therefore anyone out to manipulate followers must have contempt for them. That's different from being a mere partisan who may believe things that are not totally true.
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MissBrooks Donating Member (614 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 01:42 PM
Response to Reply #36
44. Why do you think he doesn't believe what he says?
Maybe he does believe?!
What makes you think his followers are manipulated? Do you think we are manipulated?

What is the acid test!? Good question..
It seems that our reality is different than theirs.

We can both look at the same picture and see two (or 200) different versions of that picture. Which is right and which is wrong!?

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Robbien Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #44
48. First define that "we" you keep talking about
????

Unlike Rush followers, the Rush non-believers have so many different opinions.

Rush followers all believe whatever comes out of Rush's racist mouth and post his vile opinions everywhere they go (especially on liberal sites). Rush followers also believe anyone who does not follow the right wing hatred should all be lumped into the Bush hater group. It is always an us or them situation with the dittoheads.

Your posting of "we" all like Moore and "we" lefties all think the same thing falls directly in line with Rush's doctrine.

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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #44
54. reality isn't THAT subjective
For example the Right has done an rewrite of the Reagan fiscal record to show there was a revenue boom and if there were huge deficits... the Dems squandered the revenue. This is Orwellian in the extreme.

The facts are that there the 1981 ERTA tax cuts predictably reduced revenue... and Congressional spending over what Reagan wanted only accounts for about 10-20% of the deficits. There were deficits because there was less revenue.

Rush and anyone on the Right has to know the truth... but since they are out to promote more tax cuts... they have to hide it.

This from Rush's site a few years back shows he's being careful to not to lie outright but shows a clear intent to mislead:

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_010803/content/truth_detector.guest.html "If it brings in, say, two dollars for every dollar of tax relief, we'll have more money in the treasury – and thus safeguard programs like Social Security! The idea behind tax cuts is to get the economy to grow. The economy is not static. The pie is not one size forever, with no new slices. The object is to grow so we have more people working and paying taxes. Presidents Kennedy and Reagan proved this with their tax cuts. The Democratic Congress spent every new dollar and more that Reagan brought in, but the fact is that the revenue coming into the treasury nearly doubled over his two terms."

Note the Orwellian distortions: Rush's implies that tax cuts will bring in $2 for every $1 cut. Is there ANY proof of this? Nah! The BEST evidence I've seen is tax cuts LOSE 65 cents on the dollar. He then moves on to claim there was so much revenue flowing in after the tax cuts but the Democrats spent it. How does he construct this revenue boom? With statistical smoke & mirrors that try to prove less revenue is a revenue boom.
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MsConduct Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:27 AM
Response to Original message
11. Because he appeals to the non-humane side of human nature. n/t
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:28 AM
Response to Original message
13. Being given permission to hate is very seductive
Being given that permission by a guy in a nice suit who speaks the vernacular of the "nice" middle class is even more seductive. When you've got a lot of free floating anxiety from years of having your wages fail to keep up with inflation (and yer too dumb to figure that out cause you were never good at arithmetic), being handed places to blame for that anxiety is irresistible.

That's Rush's shtick in a nutshell.
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madison2000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:35 AM
Response to Reply #13
22. Agreed. He sanctifies the ugly things that people think but are afraid
to say out loud.
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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:36 AM
Response to Reply #13
25. misdirection
The Right is very good at misdirecting attention from what they are really up to. Bush's tax cuts are a prime example. As the strangle the beast crowd tries to dismantle the safety net and rig the system to benefit the interests of wealth and power... those tax cuts help conceal the fact that since 1967 the bottom 4 quintiles have been losing ground in aggregate income to the to 20%... and especially the top 5%. http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/histinc/ie3.html

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oc2002 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
17. BECAUSE HE IS A LIAR, WITHOUT consciousness of any truth or morality
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 11:32 AM by oc2002
Libruls just do not know how to talk to the ignorant masses like Rusho.

Yes, he LIES to them, because he knows they are stupid dumb asses, and its lies the WANT TO HEAR.

Its that simple.
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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:50 AM
Response to Reply #17
30. Rush has CONTEMPT for his listeners
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 11:52 AM by ulTRAX
One has to wonder if Rush actually believes what he says or is a cynical partisan blatantly manipulating those who listen to him.

I believe it's mostly the latter.

Once at http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_010803/content/truth_detector.guest.html a page now taken down Rush made the following statement supporting tax cuts:

"If it brings in, say, two dollars for every dollar of tax relief, we'll have more money in the treasury – and thus safeguard programs like Social Security! The idea behind tax cuts is to get the economy to grow. The economy is not static. The pie is not one size forever, with no new slices. The object is to grow so we have more people working and paying taxes. Presidents Kennedy and Reagan proved this with their tax cuts. The Democratic Congress spent every new dollar and more that Reagan brought in, but the fact is that the revenue coming into the treasury nearly doubled over his two terms."

The statements are Orwellian. Rush's implies that tax cuts will bring in $2 for every $1 cut. Yet the BEST evidence I've seen is tax cuts LOSE 65 cents on the dollar. He claims there was so much revenue flowing in but the Democrats spent it. Yet looking at actual revenue figures from the Reagan era we see that revenues didn't get back up to Carter's FY79 level until about FY84. The Reagan "revenue boom" was fabricated using statistical smoke and mirrors.

Rush is too bright NOT to know the truth. Yet it also shows utter contempt for his listeners that he would so willfully try to manipulate them.



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proud patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
18. Rush Smokes Cuban Cigars in Paris France
He laughs at his listeners because he has them
believe that the underdogs are the elites while
he puffs on Cuban Cigars in Fancy Hotels in France.

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madrchsod Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
20. good analysis of the pig boy
listened to him weave the south east asia disaster into it was their fault,bureaucrats/democrats telling people they can`t build on the shoreline,global warming,we are all going to die sometime of something. the whole rant was less than 5 minutes and made absolutely no sense what so ever.
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theboss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
23. To begin with, I think he's talented
I think he's grown isolated and is totally out of touch with reality (like Stern, Imus, and any other broadcaster who makes millions a year), but years ago, I could find his shown entertaining. It's now largely a self-parody, but the template he created is still in place.

Franken should take a few lessons:

1. Be fast-paced. His show moves. He talks fast, jumps from topic to topic, and has that little trick where he is racing against himself as the break comes. The few times I've listend to Franken's show, it feels like there are these long stretches of dead air, which is death on radio.

2. Be simple. Rush manages to tie everything back into his simple philosophy - He and his listeners are actually the oppressed minority fighting the elitists in the government in the media who want to control their lives. He does this on every subject. His real trick is that he has managed to get Right-Wing Christians on his side when he is pretty obviously not very religious. How? Because he simply turns religious issues into this "elitists want to tell you what to do and who to worship" rant. Same with eduaction. Same with taxes. You may think it would get boring, but he's done it for 15 years or so. Hell, Stern has done farting and lesbian jokes for 25 years.

3. Control the debate. Rush takes very few callers these days, does no interviews, and those calls that get through are scrubbed to a remarkable degree. Therefore, his show creates a comfortable echo chamber effect. And again, he justifies this through his very simple philosophy of "I am providing equal time."

4. Even in victory, paint yourself as the underdog. During Rush's career, Republicans have become the majority party in Congress, taken the Presidency twice, and largely taken over the media. Yet, he has not changed the "us against the elites in power" message. He keeps finding elites with power - at universities, cocktail parties, wherever.
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stanwyck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
24. There has to be a "they"
whether you're making a Hollywood movie or hosting a talk show. You need the dynamics of a villian or an opposing force (aliens, tornados...) in order to create interest. Rush is Frankenstein. He was created by a female program director who years ago saw the need for a rightwing animal for the swarming angry white males who fail to take personal responsibility for their miserable lives. They're underpaid, over-fed, ultra-divorced, and estranged from their kids. Rush was a failed (on unemployment off and on) DJ who needed a schtick. Viola. Rush is born, giving voice to those who need an enemy..the "others", "they".
Rush is the anti-thesis of moral, family values. No matter. His listeners aren't authentic, either. They accept this straw man as a prophet. He's failed at three marriages. He's a drug user. He distorts facts. He dodged the draft and is now an ardent warrior. Very brave from a far distance.
But his listeners' need for some kind of validation is stronger than their need for truth.
These are sad, pathetic people. They deserve pity.

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pelagius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:47 AM
Response to Reply #24
29. Eric Hoffer, in "The True Believer"...
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 11:49 AM by pelagius
...(a short book every DUer should read) argues that a mass movement needn't have a Messiah figure, but it must have a Devil figure.

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0060505915-0
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DBoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
26. So his strength is the fact that his viewpoint is totalitarian
It has the logical consistency of a madman, backed up by hatred and resentment.

I see a whole herd of rhinoceros running amok, stupid ugly brutes following their leader. Sometimes I feel like the last human left alive when I watch this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=93852
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n2doc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:37 AM
Response to Original message
27. because he's everywhere
He is hard to escape if you live outside the big cities. And he has many proxies who keep spewing the same propaganda when he is not on. I think that many people initially just "left the radio on" but listening to that crap, even subliminally, gets to you after a while, even if you should know better.
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TWiley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:46 AM
Response to Original message
28. Rushwad is only the most visible part of a larger effort
Fox news, Sinclair corp, Clear Channel, and a bevy of right wing fundamentalist churches reinforce his bullshit every day.

Rush would be the lone voice of stupidity if there were responsible journalists who challenged his lies and distortions.
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Virginian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
31. I agree
He has made it easy to hate by having a club of haters to back up the individual. Hanging it on religion changes the word "Hate" to the word "Values". This keeps it from sounding evil to the followers.
He has, in the same way, made those who felt weak to feel strong.

As he has become more popular, he has added more things to hate. His followers, who now feel they are a member of the club, do not choose to go against their new support system, so they buy in to the new things to hate.
I have never seen such a universal control of the masses. A lot of it has to be due to a need of the individual to "belong".

Is Rush the Anit-Christ?
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
34. As with all snake-oil salesmen, he has a product that makes life easier.
You can blame liberal America for every and anything.

Don't feel like looking through several newspapers and websites to find out what's going on in the world? Just listen to my show, you'll know all you need to know.

He is basically selling irresponsibility. Rather than seeing news, applying a little mental elbow grease, and coming to informed conclusions, you can simply turn your mind off, and allow Rush to supply you with interesting and original thoughts.

Most people don't see the logical conclusions of those thoughts...corporate slavery and the rise of fascist America.
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Liberal In Texas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:16 PM
Response to Original message
38. Good points, plus...
Edited on Tue Jan-04-05 12:18 PM by LibInTexas
...they like to think of themselves as the oppressed majority. Somehow the minority is keeping them down.

Much of it goes back to an uneducated distrust, fear, and suspicion, of people who are different than they are: minorities, foreigners, the well educated, even anybody with a better job.

Rush et al. are masters of turning this into hate.
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Done Donating Member (680 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 12:16 PM
Response to Original message
39. I don't know...could it be...maybe.....
......SATAN!!!!!!

:evilgrin:
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ulTRAX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 01:10 PM
Response to Original message
41. US is so decent that the world doesn't deserve us
This is another theme. Listening to Rush now he's on a tear about the tsunami relief effort. He doesn't believe the death totals... and is defending his insensitivity because the Left and UN is exploiting this disaster to play politics and gain power.

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formernaderite Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 01:41 PM
Response to Original message
43. One word answer: Entertainment (long answer)
...I'm often on job sites where the guys with radios are blaring Rush. Not because they're right wingers, hardly any are. Alot of them are union guys who like Rush's un -pc jokes, his sarcasm and laugh at his potty humour. My fear, and I'm not someone who advocates shutting him down...is that though they start out just listening for the humour, the politics creep under their skin.
If democrats go after his listeners portraying them as morons, they're wrong and will never win back and audience that should be theirs. What they are is average people, and I assume mostly men.

If, there was a less shrill liberal counterpart to Rush, he or she would do equally well.
I personally am of the NPR stripe....I like serious radio talk. If I want potty humour I listen to Stern. I've tried to listen to Air America over the internet, while home sick. I found they droned on and on. Randy Rhodes was the most humorous, but too loud and shrill as well. Franken is just not that funny on air, although his books rock. Janeane Garafalo is a cutie and will probably improve, but she takes herself way too seriously on the radio.

Bottom line....entertain, be funny, bitingly so and don't preach beyond the choir.

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Cats Against Frist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 02:13 PM
Response to Original message
45. The Totalitarian Brain and the Repetition of False Binaries
It works like this -- most of it I learned reading this:

http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php

by David Niewert, some of it I've added to through my studies.

Remember the study by those people at Berkeley who found that Republicans have the tendency to think mostly in "black and white," which is a simplified way of saying that they believe in "absolutes" and "extremes."

This is one of the things that is also characteristic of the Totalitarian Brain. Now this can apply to both the left and the right, and can work with both left-wing and right-wing propaganda.

You have a person who thinks in "black and white" -- imagine two sides of a coin, kind of flipping around in their brain. When this is the primary thinking patter that is marked on the brain, it is much easier to "substitute" black for white, and white for black, if necessary, because of the lack of NUANCE (John Kerry) in between.

(Psychologically, the development of the "totalitarian coin" is because of a characteristic called "splitting and projecting," which means that the world is always separated into the "good object" and the "bad object" -- basically, black and white. When the "bad object" is identified, all kinds of things are PROJECTED onto the bad object -- which can arise from the fears, weaknesses or perceived lack of power of the projector, external events, etc.)

Rush is a peddler of what's called LOGICAL fallacy. In fact, the entire Republican propaganda program relies on it. The major thing that can play off of the totalitarian brain coin is the "FALSE BINARY" or the "FALSE DILEMMA," meaning that only ONE option is given when, in fact there may be more than one answer. Usually a false dilemma is turned into a false binary. An example of "false dilemmas:"

"You are either with us, or against us."

"Public criticism of the troops undermines the troops' efforts."

"If you do not support the president in a time of war, you hate America."

"Since Osama and the Democrats have the same criticism of Bush, that must mean that the Democrats and Osama agree on everything!!" (actually heard the day before the election by my own ears, out of Rush's mouth).

These are all false dilemmas, and they have become false binaries, meaning, I guess, that many people adhere to them, which would establish these as binary-oppositional constructs in THIS PARTICULAR arena of discourse -- the American political discourse. As Foucault and my deconstructionist friends say, that this language, these new binaries, are being used to stiffle dissent by those in power.

Well, duh.

The second major logical fallacy that the Republicans and Rush use is the "Style-over-Substance" fallacy. This is actually probably as prevalent, if not more prevalent than the false dilemma. You know this one.

Someone makes an argument. You can respond by making a logical counter-argument, or you can respond by making the mistake of using any one of a number of LOGICAL FALLACIES. Probably the most well known is the "argumentum ad hominem" fallacy, which means that you simply attack the character, dress or whatever of the speaker:

A: "You haven't cleaned your room."

B: "Well, you're a big asshole."

This is too easily identifiable, however. There are all kinds of others to choose from, my favorites being tu quoque (well, you do it too), and argumentum ad populum (everyone believes it, so it must be true). Republican propagandists, however have a favorite. Instead of attacking the speaker outright, they attack the TIMING, DELIVERY or TONE of the message: the "style-over-substance" fallacy. You are probably VERY familiar with their most shining examples:

"You can not speak bad of Reagan, because he just died." (timing)

"When John Kerry spoke about Mary Cheney, he was a bad man." (delivery)

Again "Criticizing the government in a time of war, undermines our efforts." (timing)

"Howard Dean is wild-eyed." (tone & delivery)

Another is the VEHICLE by which the criticism is made. Remember when Donald Rumsfeld was embarrased at the press conference by the soldier who grilled him over armor for the vehicles. It only took one day for the GOP to play up that the soldier was coached by a reporter. REGARDLESS of who really "set up" the question -- the question itself was still valid. The GOP did not, however, respond to the question, but made "noise" about the WAY THE QUESTION WAS ASKED.

Rush, Hannity and all the rest of them are MASTERS at this type of manipulation. It is also the basics of the "Orwellian language" stuff that we hear so much about.

The third is really the "appeal to emotion" or to fear, or most notably, in conservatives: insecurity and perceived lack of power. This is where Rush really shines. For some reason his listeners can listen to him work himself into a paranoid, sweating, yelling, near-delusional frenzy for YEARS, while he is accusing the Democrats of being "angry."

I think this is the part where idiocy comes in -- and hard.







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0rganism Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 02:23 PM
Response to Original message
46. I think it has to be Neil Peart's drumming
He's been amazingly solid over the years, solid yet rythmically innovative, and since we all know it isn't Geddy Lee's voice... oh wait, did you mean Rush Limbaugh? My bad.
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mattclearing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 03:10 PM
Response to Reply #46
49. You sure it wasn't Alex Lifeson's rap sheet?
eom
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Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 02:24 PM
Response to Original message
47. he's had almost 20 years to pound out his message
without any major dissenting view until recently...believe me, Rush is not an overnight sensation, and it took him a long time to get where he is
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RobinA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
50. Fear
he caters to the fear of many lower middle class white guys (generalizing here) that they are losing their traditional power to feminazis, gays, welfare queens, etc. Notice how everything he is against is about empowering, even slightly, somebody besides white guys.
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Wiley50 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 03:21 PM
Response to Original message
51. He gives them someone to blame their misery on n/t
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KamaAina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 03:26 PM
Response to Original message
53. Because it cuts off oxygen supply to the brain
come to think of it, that applies both to rush (the inhalant) and Rush (the Oxy freak) :-)
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yankeedem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-04-05 08:58 PM
Response to Original message
55. Average Rush Listener
"The typical Limbaugh listener is a white male, suburbanite, conservative," says Times-Mirror pollster Andrew Kohut. "Better-than-average job, but not really a great job. Frustrated with the system, with the way the world of Washington works. Frustrated by cultural change. Maybe threatened by women."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1995/05/talbot.html

Yea, that's the average dittohead alright. Also threatened by minorities and "fureners". Also see Sean Hannity.

Rush tells them their predjudices are ok.
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