Did anyone see the Michael Savage clip on PBS Bill Moyers Journal last Friday? Today, would Hitler be allowed to rant like M. Savage on U.S. talk radio if he used the word ‘liberal’ instead of the word ‘Jew’? Did I hear correctly that these ‘commentators’ have 8 million regular listeners?
Did I hear correctly that these ‘commentators’ have 8 million regular listeners?
Thanks, smokey ... (I think). What’s shocking is the market for it. Even those who don’t consider themselves religio-political extremists or aren’t regular listeners don’t understand their contribution to this kind of hateful, destructive and intolerant form of thought, since they basically align themselves with it. They can never claim the higher moral ground because there is no semblance of higher-order thinking in the process; just listening to it and believing it disqualifies one for that. How they can think it’s defensible proves their lack of reason. Wingnuts & Fuckwits, they’re everywhere like in an old science-fiction horror movie. Scary.
Since I was forcibly evicted from the “Pushing Air” thread because of what some may suspect is a cultist-like attention to B. Dylan’s lyrics, I post a couplet here:
“Well, there’s voices in the night trying to be heard
I’m sitting here listening to every mind polluting word..”
Well, I’m not. I can’t listen to those guys. They don’t amuse me, they don’t interest me, and I don’t feel the need to be aware of what they are saying in order to counter them. When someone says some crazy shit to me, I just say, “That’s some crazy shit.” I don’t need to know which wingnut it came from.
HOWEVER
I had to get a rental car the other day, and the rental company sent this guy to pick me up who was older than me ... this guy had to be 70, and here he is doing delivery boy work for a car rental company, so I’m feeling sorry for him, and starting to worry about my financial future, hoping I don’t end up a lot-boy pushing around an aluminum walker. So I get in the car, and he has Rush Limbaugh on the radio. And he keeps Rush Limbaugh on the whole way to the rental company (OK, it was only about 3 miles away). I don’t say anything. Which is pretty much not like me. But I’m thinking, this guy’s entire life is reduced to fetching for a bunch of underpaid 30 something twits who think they are Rental Car Executives because they get to punch shit into the computer on the counter and wear company blazers. And here this guy is, old enough to be the grandfather of some these counter worker/executive/managers, just schlepping customers and car parts around at the snap of Mr. Junior Executive’s finger.
So, I don’t have the heart to give him any shit about listening to fascist clowns, and I don’t have the time to explain what the real source of his grievances are, so I made a deal with myself (and I can be a pushover in some of these negotiations). If he doesn’t say anything about what’s on the radio, I won’t either.
He didn’t, and I didn’t.
But I’m still thinking I should have said something. I didn’t have to be vitriolic or angry or tell him he was a bug, or anything, but I think I should have said something about the fact that Limbaugh and his ilk misdirected people from considering the true source of their greivances and anxieties. Maybe just that. If the guy wanted to argue, I actually had a little extra time. If he wanted to ignore me, OK. If he wanted to talk, maybe it would have been interesting.
Maybe feeling sorry for the guy was patronizing, and I should have leveled with him about his choice of radio shows.
Or maybe, the last guy who rented that car listened to these right wing stations, and the old guy wasn’t paying any attention at all to what was on the radio.
I don’t know, teuchter. An opportunity like that staring you in the face seems rarer and rarer these days. People are either happy or not, independent of whether or not they need to do menial shit into their old age. (I’m sure I will if I last that long.) I tend to assume that most everyone I come into contact with are reasonably happy, or they’d be elsewhere right now, such as attempting gradual suicide by using debilitating levels of alcohol or drug-of-choice.
People are either happy or not, independent of whether or not they need to do menial shit into their old age.
True enough. This guy didn’t seem happy to get out of the house and make himself useful. He seemed pretty depressed.
unknown zone - 27 July 2009 07:58 PM
I tend to assume that most everyone I come into contact with are reasonably happy, or they’d be elsewhere right now, such as attempting gradual suicide by using debilitating levels of alcohol ...
What are you suggesting? Has Bruce Burleson been talking about me?
I think, teuchter, you thought about it too much. A simple, “Turn that shit off,” would be enough for me. I did it to my dad after getting in his car a couple times, as he’s a Dittohead, and he’s considerate enough to not insult his passengers as they are trapped in the car.
I do the same with my passengers unless they like three-chord-punk-rock á la The Ramones and Social Distortion.
I tend to assume that most everyone I come into contact with are reasonably happy, or they’d be elsewhere right now, such as attempting gradual suicide by using debilitating levels of alcohol or drug-of-choice.
I’ve seen travel programs and news reports lately that lead me to suspect that the general public in Iran might be happier than they are in the U.S. Is that why the shock jocks want to bomb them?
This morning I saw an Allstate (‘You’re in good hands’) ad reporting that in 2007 teen drivers killed more than 3000 people in other vehicles. This caused me to wonder if the roads in the U.S. are more dangerous than the roads in Iraq. In 2007, besides the teen mayhem, there were about 38,000 other traffic fatalities, 15,387 of them alcohol related. (speaking of debilitating levels of alcohol)
An old colleague of mine loved to listen to Limbaugh and Savage.
I really liked the guy and he knew I was a lefty yet we still got along just fine, and he was even able to see my side of things and consider some new arguments.
One thing that always stuck with me was something he said when we met for a round of joint sales calls one morning. As he was exiting his car he told me that he’d been listening to Rush during his morning commute and that he felt really good and ‘pumped up’.
Since my colleague also enjoyed large amounts of chewing tobacco, which I have been told gives a very strong nicotine rush, I couldn’t help but make the connection between these two highs he liked to experience.
Since I was forcibly evicted from the “Pushing Air” thread because of what some may suspect is a cultist-like attention to B. Dylan’s lyrics,
Just for the record, I have nothing against Dylan’s lyrics, but as the owner of a set of functioning eardrums I think I speak for all civilized and decent bipedal primates when I say that hearing this man’s voice is the auditory equivalent of having sex with Rosie O’Donnell.
Since my colleague also enjoyed large amounts of chewing tobacco, which I have been told gives a very strong nicotine rush, I couldn’t help but make the connection between these two highs he liked to experience.
If you run into him again, tell him that he’ll get a much better “boost” by carburating a Winston while listening to Dropkick Murphys’ Heroes of the Past.
And, by the way, I think Dylan often has an amazingly beautiful voice; listen again to Ramona or to Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.
Although Nina Simone’s cover of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Sophie B. Hawkins’ cover of I Want You, Roberta Flack’s Just Like a Woman, Joan Baez’ Farewell Angelina and even the Dixie Chicks’ Mississippi show that Dylan’s songs, sung by women, are even better.
Since I was forcibly evicted from the “Pushing Air” thread because of what some may suspect is a cultist-like attention to B. Dylan’s lyrics,
Just for the record, I have nothing against Dylan’s lyrics, but as the owner of a set of functioning eardrums I think I speak for all civilized and decent bipedal primates when I say that hearing this man’s voice is the auditory equivalent of having sex with Rosie O’Donnell.
Thanks, smokey ... (I think). What’s shocking is the market for it. Even those who don’t consider themselves religio-political extremists or aren’t regular listeners don’t understand their contribution to this kind of hateful, destructive and intolerant form of thought, since they basically align themselves with it. They can never claim the higher moral ground because there is no semblance of higher-order thinking in the process; just listening to it and believing it disqualifies one for that. How they can think it’s defensible proves their lack of reason. Wingnuts & Fuckwits, they’re everywhere like in an old science-fiction horror movie. Scary.
Does anyone else see the irony/hypocrisy in this post?
Even those who don’t consider themselves religio-political extremists or aren’t regular listeners don’t understand their contribution to this kind of hateful, destructive and intolerant form of thought, since they basically align themselves with it…..Wingnuts & Fuckwits, they’re everywhere like in an old science-fiction horror movie. Scary.
Does anyone else see the irony/hypocrisy in this post?
