Weird! I wonder how many crazy liberal hippies (:)) read this guy’s crazy hippie books without realizing just exactly who he is?
I know herbal remedies and homeopathy and so on aren’t exclusively the domain of “liberal” types but still, it certainly seems like those into them aren’t exactly Mike Savage types…
-FrL-
I wonder how many rightwingers listen to his stuff without knowing this tidbit.
(emphasis mine)
Apparently, you can find the pic on the web. I’m not going to be googling to see if that’s true, however.
I’ve heard this about Savage, to whom I cannot listen for more than a few moments before my blood starts to boil.
My question is: What happened? Is it just a work–that is, did Savage just see the success of Rush and the other personalities and decide that was where the action, and more importantly, the money, was? (If so, I think he’s kinda overselling it–but then, it seems to work for him.) If not, did he have some glorious conversion experience one day, when he ‘recognized the error of his ways?’ What’s the deal with this guy?
Tuckerfan beat me to it. There’s a pun in there somewhere.
My dad sent me Savage’s book, The Enemy Within. I gave it an honest try, despite the fact that my dad’s view of the world and mine are terribly at odds. My first impression is that Savage seems relatively intelligent and is a decent writer. He also makes terrible logical errors, doesn’t check any facts at all, and uses obvious propaganda techniques in his tirades. The autobiographical points are well done. If he stuck to that it would have been a decent read. Unfortunately, the point of writing is his weird-assed politics and so he has to go off on these demagogic rants.
After about ten pages, I started making brief notes when I encountered something that I knew was incorrect, or when I noticed a particularly strained point of “logic,” just to preserve my sanity. I never finished the book because it did bad things for my blood pressure, and after 7 typewritten pages of notes—all around a paragraph or less—I figured it was a lost cause. I think it’s safe to say that Dad and I shouldn’t discuss politics. At all.
Considering some of his logical leaps, the homeopathy stuff doesn’t really surprise me. He was making mistakes about epidemiology that a layman like me could catch, despite his supposedly having a Ph.D. in biology. I hope that Ginsberg at least found him a decent lay. I doubt it though since, judging from his current behavior, he probably had some pretty heavy mental blocks about his sexuality even then. I’m guessing here, since a nude photo could be as innocent as skinny-dipping, but hanging out with guys who are pushing the boundaries of society and consiousness, a couple of whom were pretty openly gay, would probably lead to experimentation in a bit more than just drugs, I would think.
What happened to Savage’s politics? Heck, a lot of political extremists/ranters have had major pendulum swings. Look at the history of Lyndon LaRouche- in the late 1970s, he seemed to go into mondo-John Birchite conspiracy theory, but in the 60s, he was an avowed Trotskyite. As far as herbal remedies & homeopathy, I’ve found that dietary & medical unorthodoxy emerge to equal extents on the fringes of Right and Left, basically because of a shared distrust of “the Establishment”.
He says quite often that he became conservative when he tried to get a professorship at a California university and was told “white males need not apply”. For a while I listened to him just for the entertaining insanity of it all and because my job was boring. Now I just think he’s sad.
I have no idea who this guy is, under either name. From what little I can glean, I don’t care to.
But I’m also not understanding why homeopathy and/or herbal remedies is antithetical to conservative politics.
Jeez, my home library contains a book by Michael Savage! (Plant A Tree).
It’s earnest, Earth Day-type stuff with no nude photos or semi-psychotic political ravings.
But I feel unclean anyway. 
Because it’s ungodly hippy stuff and can lead to homersexuality! :eek: There’s a thread around here on Savage which recounts his views on sexuality. Let’s just say that he’s got more “issues” than John Harvey Kellogg, the guy who invented Graham crackers, and Ted Haggard combined! :eek:
Yes, his son is Russel Goldencloud Wiener, who is the man behind the disgusting Rockstar energy drink.
He seems to be a pretty good looking guy and stylish guy.