Suddenly, Rush Limbaugh seems benign

[Armstead]

No, don't jump my butt.

I mean COMPARATIVELY benign.

Rush is pretty straightforward. He hates liberals, democrats, lefties, minorities, etc. He rags on us, he makes fun of us, he distorts what we stand for.

But at least, with el Rushbo you know where he stands. He's a butthead corporate conservative.

But after watching as much of Fux news and Glenn Beck as I could stand today, Rush seems like a quaint, familiar butthead. He's the voice of the disloyal opposition.

Glen Beck is whacko scary. That he's a whacko is clear. All the scary music, the faked tears about America, the "exposes" of anyone who isn't a right wing robot. But he pretends to be something else. The voice of a "non-partisan" insurrection against....What? Well I'm not sure. All I know is that he sees some shadow conspiracy of socialists, "community organizers," Uppity Negroes,Socialists, Liberals.....The people who have "stolen" the country by actually winning an election.
The same bogeymen that Rush goes after, except cloaked in some weird rhetoric about Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson...the Founding Slave Holders.

It kind of seems like he's against everything except some nebulous entity called "the people." What are the people? Who the hell knows?

He has no concept of moderation, compromise or even -- unlike Rush -- straightforward opposition. He is a corporate tool, and I don't know is he realizes that--- or cares.

What's scary is that his phony demagoguery is being swallowed by a significant portion of Americans.

I just hope he and his Bozo Army of Duped Patriots are a small minority, and that most Americans -- Republicans as well as Democrats,conservatives as well as liberals -- see through his shtick and narcissistic opportunism.

Rush, I dislike you. But at least I know you.

[Critters2]

1. Yep, He really scares me. I think we underestimate him at our own peril. nt

[hileeopnyn8d]

7. I agree.

I've tried pointing out to people I know that he isn't an idiot clown. I think the fact that he himself calls himself a clown is done for our benefit, not his followers. He has mastered propaganda, and he's using it in a dangerous way.

I don't really know what his ultimate goal is, but does anyone ever know what a cult-leaders goal is before it's too late?

I find it strange that his Wiki page is so small, and bears no mention of his production company Mercury Radio Arts. I could have sworn I read about it on there, but it isn't there now.

[grantcart]

2. Well now that there are a couple of them competing for Limbaugh's

nut cases we may see a competition on who can be craziest.


You have a point but Limbaugh may out manuever Beck and get even crazier.

[WinkyDink]

3. Limbaugh has used the word "NAZI" for Obama. Oh, excuse me; the "German National Socialist Party".

[Armstead]

9. Beck has said that Obama "hates" white people

They're about tied in the department of disrespecting Obama.

But as I said before, at least Rush has a coherent view of the political universe, even if it is ugly and wrongheaded.

Beck is this weird amalgam of shit that IMO seems to be more dangerous.

[HughMoran]

4. Wait 'till the next wanna be - and even more psycho - sees that crazy is selling

I can see these people filling large numbers of jail cells in the future.

[Hutzpa]

5. Yup!

he has the deadly combination...whacko and stupid, which makes him dangerous.

This is no laughing matter either...

:puke:

[iceman66]

6. They ARE a small minority!

Look at the turnout for todays big spectacle compared with the antiwar marches during the Bush years or even the Obama rallies during the campaign.

What's really scary about this 'movement' is not the number of people involved, but that it has the full power of the corporate media behind it.

[Colobo]

8. Glenn Beck is promoting fear and violence. That's what disturbs me about him.

[Armstead]

10. Yep -- Calling for an "insurrection" is pretty damn scary

[1Hippiechick]

15. And what corporate America loves about him. n/t

[Fla Dem]

28. Limpballs has stepped it up a notch too.

Four days before Obama was even sworn in - he told his listeners he "hopes" Obama fails. Limbaugh was fanning the flames even before Obama won the primary. He was playing "Barack the Magic Negro" before the elections. He's pushed the birth certificate idiocy and the death panels misinformation. He is not quite as overt as Beck but for those looking for a talisman for their cause Rush is their man. Beck has just taken it to a new level.

Some of Limbaugh's more outrageous statements.

"I want everything he is doing to fail," Limbaugh said on Jan. 16 - a wish he has continued to express ever since.

Limbaugh compared President Obama to Hitler: "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, ruled by dictate."

Limbaugh also believes the "Obama health care logo is damn close to a Nazi swastika logo."

From Media Matters...........
"On the January 16 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) a "half-minority" and said that "the media ... are in the midst of Obama-gasms" because "Barack Hussein Obama" has formed a presidential exploratory committee. Limbaugh called Obama "a half-minority" in the context of criticizing Obama for supporting his hometown Chicago Bears over the New Orleans Saints in the upcoming January 21 National Football Conference championship game.

Limbaugh presumably referred to Obama as a "half-minority" because of Obama's lineage: his father was black and born in Kenya, while his mother was white, born in Kansas. Similarly, conservative talk-radio host Brian Sussman previously characterized Obama as "Halfrican."

As Media Matters for America documented, on February 7, 2006, Limbaugh said he "kind of like" a caller's statement that Obama "is the Donovan McNabb of the U.S. Senate." The statement was an apparent reference to Limbaugh's controversial comments in 2003 about McNabb, a quarterback for the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles. Limbaugh, then an ESPN commentator, said that "he media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well" and, therefore, McNabb "got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve." As a result of his comments, Limbaugh resigned from ESPN."

http://mediamatters.org/research/200701170010


Don't kid yourself, Limbaugh is the puppet master pulling all the strings. They take their direction from him.

[starroute]

11. I think Beck is pushing New World Order conspiracy theories

That's probably the key to a lot of the seemingly meaningless rhetoric. Beck's followers believe in some variant of an Illuminati conspiracy that's taken over the American government in order to either hand over control to a cabal of bankers, or destroy Western civilization on behalf of the shadowy brown-skinned masses, or bring about the apocalypse -- or maybe all three at once.

That's what all the weeping over "I want my America back" or "I don't recognize America anymore" is really saying. They think the country has fallen into the hands of malevolent alien forces, they're quite honestly scared shitless, and they believe that only an armed uprising can take it back.

This is also why Beck and Michele Bachmann and people like that come across as totally batshit crazy, compared with Rush or Ann Coulter who are merely nasty and unscrupulous and vindictive. Rush and Ann don't believe. These guys do.


On edit: This also explains why the white supremacists, the anti-abortionists, the anti-gay marriage forces, and any number of other groups that might seem to nothing in common can happily work together. They all see their particular pet peeve as part of the same vast conspiracy.

It also explains why people who call themselves "patriots" can hate their government -- since they see it as the pawn of an alien conspiracy.

[BREMPRO]

12. an ass tumor in remission. n/t

[Peregrine Took]

13. He was too big - the parade has passed "ole gasbags" right on by. n/t

[jasi2006]

14. Who of the RW-hate pundits was present at the march today?

Rush? Hannity? O'Reilly? Beck?

[jenmito]

16. Thank you. You said what I have been thinking for a while now about Beck..

and every once in a while he throws in a line like, "You gotta stand up-Democrats, Republicans, ALL of you who love America MUST stand up for our FREEDOM!" He must think he's innoculating himself by saying "Democrats are patriots, too" even though everything ELSE he says is against Dems. only. He's dangerous.

[Armstead]

19. He likes Democrats -- As long as they are white, racist and conservative

[jenmito]

29. Exactly. In other words....

he likes Democrats if they're Republicans.

[Jennicut]

17. Wonder if Limpballs is jealous? Beck is wacko because it gets him ratings.

Its all a show for these guys (and gals....Michelle Malkin is especially wacked out).

Beck knows how to use imagery to suck the brain dead in.

[Armstead]

22. Yeah...he's weirdly talented

That's not a compliment.

It's important to remember that he started out as your garden variety shock jock before he started being taken seriously

[Jennicut]

23. He actually was the morning DJ for a radio station I listened to as a kid and a teen

He worked for KC101..pop music station here in Connecticut. I vaguely remember him. CT is small and there are only 3 main stations that played music kids listened to. He was not remarkable in any way.

[Vicar In A Tutu]

18. British TV Critic Charlie Brooker on Fox and its characters, Beck included

(well, mostly Fox...there's a light-hearted jab at Olbermann, but he gets off as "warm hearted")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aEk864YrKw

Both funny and terrifying to think of how many people take Fox and its 'stars' dead seriously! It's truly bizarre, it's entirely beyond my comprehension. It's almost as though it's *so* ridiculous, *so* biased that it warps minds and causes these silly people to think that it must be true. Afterall...nothing which calls itself a news network could be THAT outlandish, could it...?

[msallied]

20. I feel very much the same way

We've been dealing with Limbaugh for 20 years and he's grown predictable. He's the old-school, predictable right-wing "Godfather" type to Glenn Beck's over-zealous, psychotic nutjob with a twitchy finger hovering over the red button of America's collective consciousness. He scares the living crap out of me because, as someone pointed out above, he actually believes what he's saying.

What I honestly hope with all of my being is that he's discovered with a basement full of kiddie porn, or something so vile that even those lunatics wouldn't be able to endorse him anymore.

[msallied]

21. I should also say that he reminds me of that evil broadcaster from V for Vendetta

only douchier, if that's at all possible.

[Cha]

24. Oh yeah, there's always going to be a bigger hatemonger

just like there's always going to be someone who's more intelligent, prettier, or talented in other realms of life.

Betcha limpbaugh is jealous.

[Avalux]

25. I watched a little bit of Beck today and I agree.

He claims to be a 'man of the people'; reaching out to anyone upset about anything; doesn't identify himself as a Republican.

It's scary because everything he does and says is ambiguous.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

26. Unortunately Limpballs gets hours of air time and

he definitely has brainwashed my 3 siblings.

:(

[tavalon]

27. You understand sociopaths

but unless you've been close to a bipolar with narcissistic characteristics, it's probably pretty scary. He's truly mentally ill and he's manic right now. He sees connections where there are none and this will culminate with him either killing himself, killing someone else, or best case scenario, with him in the hospital getting on the necessary medication. I hope for the last one. Now, don't get me wrong. I want him off TV because no unstable bipolar should wield the kind of power Faux News is giving him, but I have far less respect for Limbaugh because he knows he's a huckster, Beck is just mentally ill. No self understanding of the damage he does.

[opihimoimoi]

30. Zit Butt is on the Wane...all this GOP silliness and trite shit during Aug has

revealed the Pub Underbelly....

The loss of creds has taken its toll

Pubs losing at the Poll

Obama now on the Roll

GOP Lost its SOUL

[Solomon]

31. I think you misunderstand the role that Limbaugh plays.

He lets the wackos say the tupid things first. Then he reports on it. It becomes mainstream news because he reports on it.

See how that works? That's how the craziest right wing shit gets transferred to the mainstream as though it's normal behavior.

He nots competing with the Becks at all. He's using 'em.