# Explain Rush Limbaugh to this foreigner **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2010, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121 "2010-05-03T05:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/121 "2010-05-06T16:44:23Z")
> [@gravitycrash](#): > > And yet somehow a Rush thread shows up in the pit about once a month started by a liberal and guaranteed to go on for about 5 pages with responses like: Right on! Yeah! He’s an asshole! Rush is a fat! He’s a blow hard! > > Good thing you’all ignore him. Interestingly that hardly seems like a fair summation of this very thread right here. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/122 "2010-05-06T16:48:42Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > You know, I actually caught some of that Rush show. This was during the Clinton era, and Rush had urgently wanted to know from his listeners if some theater crowds had erupted in cheers when the White House was blown up by the aliens, which was some rumor he was chasing. Disgusting. OMG, I remember that! Of course, what apparently bothered me was that he didn’t watch the movie. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/123 "2010-05-06T17:53:12Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > Rush Limbaugh is a racist, sexist, far right wing conservative … Translation = Limbaugh makes fun of liberals’ wrongheaded efforts to address racism and sexism. Limbaugh sometimes has African Americans host his show in his absence and had his good personal friend Clarance Thomas perform the ceremony when he wed Marta Fitzgerald. Of course in the eyes of liberals these guys don’t count as a blacks because they’re conservatives. And his wisecracks about “Feminazis” were aimed at strident, in-your-face feminists of the type inclined to call stay-at-home moms names for not seeking their own careers and attempting to harangue women into getting abortions when they were undecided about it…oh, yeah, and arguing that all sex was rape. :rolleyes: It had nothing to do with feminism per se nor equal pay as **gonzomax** claimed, just as the song “Barack the Magic Negro” was not an insult to blacks but a comment about people who voted for Obama simply _because_ he was black. It’s pretty much impossible to criticize anything liberals do in this country on the behalf of women and blacks, no matter how wrongheaded, without being labeled sexist or racist and that’s why Limbaugh gets accused of sexism and racism. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/124 "2010-05-06T17:54:55Z")
As you can see from this thread, people who _hate_ liberals _love_ Rush. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/125 "2010-05-06T17:59:40Z")
So people who dislike a certain political ideology tend to enjoy an entertainer who makes fun of that ideology and exposes its flaws and weaknesses? Yeah, I’d say so. Hardly a news flash. How do you feel about Al Franken and Janeane Garofolo? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/126 "2010-05-06T18:03:45Z")
See, he can’t be a racist— some of his best friends are Clarence Thomas! ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/127 "2010-05-06T18:08:02Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > So people who dislike a certain political ideology tend to enjoy an entertainer who makes fun of that ideology and exposes its flaws and weaknesses? Yeah, I’d say so. Hardly a news flash. How do you feel about Al Franken and Janeane Garofolo? Basing your entire shtick around hating the other side is sad, pathetic, and pretty much exactly what’s wrong with politics in this country today. I’ve said in the past that I have no problem with conservatives; it’s the anti-liberals (and anti-conservatives) that piss me off. If all you can be is _against_, not _for_, the problem isn’t with the other side. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/128 "2010-05-06T18:19:32Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > See, he can’t be a racist— some of his best friends are Clarence Thomas! The point is that if he were truly racist it’s unlikely that smart, knowledgeable and highly educated blacks like those in Limbaugh’s circle would have anything to do with him. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/129 "2010-05-06T18:30:00Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Basing your entire shtick around hating the other side is sad, pathetic, and pretty much exactly what’s wrong with politics in this country today. Funny how little of that there was prior to the late sixties, isn’t it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/130 "2010-05-06T18:40:59Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Funny how little of that there was prior to the late sixties, isn’t it? 😉 Yeah, talk radio really dicked us over. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/131 "2010-05-06T18:43:50Z")
What facet of liberalism is one mocking when one attempts damage control on behalf of Republicans by attempting to portray the Republican policy of torturing prisoners as “frat pranks”? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/132 "2010-05-06T19:06:38Z")
So you are attempting to equate our torturing of three prisoners (and that’s all it’s been, including the mastermind of 9/11) with leading someone around on a dog leash? Now admittedly it isn’t necessarily a good thing for guards to be leading prisoners around on dog leashes, but it is perhaps understandable when you consider the atrocities that soldiers witness during times of war and committed by the likes of those in their custody. Still, the two are hardly the same. And then we have your contention that torture is “Republican policy”. Where in the Republican platform does it say, “Yay, torture!”? Aren’t you really just talking about a policy adopted by a few members of a Republican administration who suddenly found themselves charged with protecting the lives of American citizens and soldiers from terrorists and enemy combatants and who were doing all they could to glean information necessary to do so? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/133 "2010-05-06T19:44:48Z")
Ooh, could one of Rush’s fans tell me more about how liberals think and what they’re going to do, please? I can’t decide what to make for dinner tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/134 "2010-05-06T19:46:21Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Yeah, talk radio really dicked us over. You might note that talk radio - a reactive phenomenon btw, not a proactive one - began at least two decades after the counter-culture revolution and the decline in civil behavior that followed in its wake. Hatred, anger and aggressiveness toward its opponents is virtually a defining characteristic of liberal politics, and the reason is obvious - liberals simply feel that anyone who disagrees with them is by definition an asshole, and therefore the gloves should quite rightly be off. Naturally the other side doesn’t agree and retaliates in kind. And thus we come to where we are today where liberals lament the lost civility of conservatives like William F. Buckley, but have created an environment in which the likes of Buckley would never be able to find an audience to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/135 "2010-05-06T19:57:41Z")
Well, thanks, but that doesn’t really make my dinner decision any easier. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/136 "2010-05-06T19:58:43Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Well, thanks, but that doesn’t really make my dinner decision any easier. Well, hatred with a side of aggressiveness sounds pretty tasty. Probably spicy, though. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/137 "2010-05-06T20:18:40Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > You might note that talk radio - a reactive phenomenon btw, not a proactive one - began at least two decades after the counter-culture revolution and the decline in civil behavior that followed in its wake. Can you explain this statement further? I’m assuming you date “the counter-culture revolution,” as most do, from 1967 or so (the year hippies became a nationally known rather than a localized west coast phenomenon). So “talk radio” began in 1987? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/138 "2010-05-06T20:28:47Z")
> [@DChord568](#): > > Can you explain this statement further? > > I’m assuming you date “the counter-culture revolution,” as most do, from 1967 or so (the year hippies became a nationally known rather than a localized west coast phenomenon). > > So “talk radio” began in 1987? More like 1988, I’d say, which is when Limbaugh’s show went national, though he didn’t really begin to be regarded as a figure of significant political influence until the early nineties or so. And it was still some time after that before other conservative voices began cropping up in the talk radio format. And by “talk radio” I mean talk radio with a conservative (or at least political) agenda, which I believe is what **Bosstone** had in mind when she used the term. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/139 "2010-05-06T20:31:04Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > And by “talk radio” I mean talk radio with a conservative (or at least political) agenda, which I believe is what **Bosstone** had in mind when she used the term. She? Oh man, do I go for the polite correction, the snarky correction, or head games? …Wait, I posted out loud, didn’t I… ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121/140 "2010-05-06T20:33:44Z")
Okay, when “he” posted. But the point remains. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-rush-limbaugh-to-this-foreigner/538121.md?page=8)