Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Ain't This America Stop wishing Rush Limbaugh dead

I live in the suburbs of Indianapolis Indiana.
All my neighbors, at least 80% of my friends and most of the teachers my kids had all the way up through high school are firm believers in what Rush spews.
Most of these people are not halfwits. I never have figured out why they believe it. They think I'm the one being fooled.


I don't wish his death but it would be nice to see his hospital paperwork lost and see him treated like the underinsured.

Toadster, that's pretty much the demographic around these here parts too.

Very cogent point. If those of 'differing opinion' can do nothing but deride others, it does nothing to change the equation and gives negative ammunition to those that they deride. If their intellect truly is superior, they would find more effective ways to express their opinions in order to change others' perspective.

Shame Red Fox isn't around these days.

This isn't simply a matter of "differing opinions." If I'm of the opinion that the Earth is flat, and someone else is of the opinion that the Earth is round...well, we're not just talking about "differing opinions." If Rush Limbaugh is of the opinion that the US has the best health care system in the world which doesn't need fixing because he just got first-rate care, well duhhh...but that opinion is based only on the fantasy in his fat head that the health care he got is available to all Americans.

Rick,
You seem to forget: people who don't have health insurance don't matter. Ask Rush.

Rush does as much deriding as those who oppose him do. The point was about deriding those who agree with some of Rush's points. One does not change minds by ridiculing them.

Which begs the question as to why so many conservative pundits spend so much time in the allegedly counter productive endeavor of ridiculing liberals?

Doug has pegged it. Entertainment, pure and simple. It does nothing to further the national discussion in any serious manner.

Sky, I do understand, and respect the point you are making although I often allow myself to indulge in the ridicule that you disdain.

That said, I wonder if you are not effectively ignoring a reality that you find unpleasant. I have seen conservative politicians ridiculing liberal values for years.... characterizing them as absurd, wrong headed, unpatriotic, stupid, elitist, etc etc etc... ad nauseum. As far as I am concerned, this incessant demeaning attack on liberalism has been extremely effective... to a point where mostly no one wants to admit that they are a liberal at all.

I will agree that ridicule can be unpleasant, distasteful, and rude. I do not agree that it is ineffective.

What I have found to be mostly ineffective is rational argument, though I would prefer it to be otherwise.

I think Jon Stewart is an example of a person who ridicules politicians... and does so VERY effectively. What he does is enormously more effective that any sort of rational discourse. He effectively shows that fundamental absurdity and hypocrisy of so many politicians.

Saturday night live has ridiculed many politicians... Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Palin Come to mind. In my view that ridicule changed public perception of those politicians. Like it or not, the ridicule had an enormous impact.

Bringing the matter to the present time, there is the question as to whether we should allow ourselves to express the contempt that we may feel? When a self-righteous politician will lecture us on family values... all the while he is having an affair.... this is not matter of rational debate. It is fairly a matter of contempt for a vile hypocrite. And I see no reason why that reality should be suppressed.

And when the architects of "deficits do not matter" .... now come calling with the proposition that they are scandalized by out of control deficits.... I am sorry to say that there is nothing in me but contempt for the self serving hypocritical swine.