# Michael Savage **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047 "2019-11-27T03:27:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/1 "2019-11-27T03:27:35Z")
Has anyone listen to The Savage Nation, a rightwing talk radio show, hosted by nationalist Michael Savage since 1994. Savage is one of the most listened to talk show hosts in America, which has vaulted him to the Talk Radio Hall of Fame. I don’t care for his Trump approval, but he is very intelligent. He has a master’s collegiate degree in medical botany and anthropology at the University of Hawaii and a Ph.D. in nutritional botany from the University of California, Berkley. > **[Michael Savage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Savage)** > > Michael Alan Weiner (born March 31, 1942), known by his professional name Michael Savage, is a right wing author, conspiracy theorist, political commentator, activist, and former radio host. Savage is best known as the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk show that aired on Talk Radio Network across the United States until 2021, and in 2009 was the second most listened-to radio talk show in the country with an audience of over 20 million listeners on 400 stations across t Sav... ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/2 "2019-11-27T03:36:36Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > Has anyone listen to The Savage Nation, a rightwing talk radio show, hosted by nationalist Michael Savage since 1994. Not me. > [@Yankees 1996 Champs](#): > > I don’t care for his Trump approval, but he is very intelligent. He has a master’s collegiate degree in medical botany and anthropology at the University of Hawaii and a Ph.D. in nutritional botany from the University of California, Berkley. Always flattered to hear somebody endorsing the assumption that having a Ph.D. automatically makes a person “very intelligent”, irrespective of whether or not the subject of their doctoral work has anything to do with what they’re expressing opinions about. But I’m not sure it holds up in Michael Savage’s case. For one thing, his [endorsement of homeopathy](https://medium.com/@alanmilner/calling-out-michael-savage-for-promoting-mass-hysteria-7ae391c0f6f2) doesn’t speak well for his intelligence. Summary from above link: > [@](#): > > On the basis of his published writings as both [his legal name] Michael Weiner and Michael Savage, he might be described as a health nut who believes that white, Christian people are under assault from the heartless, atheistic left-wing, that strong borders will prevent the spread of virulent, immigrant-borne diseases, and that there are natural cures for everything from heart disease, to cancer, HIV, and liberal thinking. […] > > Michael Weiner aka Michael Savage is one of those people who have made a career — and a considerable fortune — lying to the American people to create impressions that exacerbate the hysteria on the RIGHT while claiming that the left is hysterical. He is a rabble rouser with a following, and that makes him a very dangerous man, but not a very smart one. ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/3 "2019-11-27T03:42:41Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Not me. > Always flattered to hear somebody endorsing the assumption that having a Ph.D. automatically makes a person “very intelligent”, irrespective of whether or not the subject of their doctoral work has anything to do with what they’re expressing opinions about. But I’m not sure it holds up in Michael Savage’s case. For one thing, his [endorsement of homeopathy](https://medium.com/@alanmilner/calling-out-michael-savage-for-promoting-mass-hysteria-7ae391c0f6f2) doesn’t speak well for his intelligence. > > Summary from above link: He is rightwing, yes. What makes a person intelligent in your opinion? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/4 "2019-11-27T03:46:09Z")
What has homeopathy to do with being right wing? ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/5 "2019-11-27T03:55:33Z")
I’m vaguely aware of Savage being a right wing nut who says hateful things (didn’t he once tell a caller that he hoped the caller got AIDS and died?) but he doesn’t really take up much space in my brain. Why is this in the Pit? What’s your opinion of him? ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/6 "2019-11-27T04:20:39Z")
> [@Defensive\_Indifference](#): > > I’m vaguely aware of Savage being a right wing nut who says hateful things (didn’t he once tell a caller that he hoped the caller got AIDS and died?) but he doesn’t really take up much space in my brain. > > Why is this in the Pit? What’s your opinion of him? I think Savage is rude and nuts, but he makes good points about society. America is losing social cohesion of community. America has a social issue. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/7 "2019-11-27T04:30:16Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > What has homeopathy to do with being right wing? I don’t know, but right wingers eat that shit up. The left isn’t immune to it, by any means, but right wing loons seem to have had a lot more success peddling it - almost all these shrieking demagogues like Savage have a major side-line in snake oil. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/8 "2019-11-27T04:37:57Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > {…} America is losing social cohesion of community. > > America has a social issue. “Social cohesion of community” . . . what the fuck _is_ that, and when did America have more of it??? CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/9 "2019-11-27T04:39:54Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > I think Savage is rude and nuts, but he makes good points about society. America is losing social cohesion of community. Largely thanks to Michael Savage and his ilk [spewing their rudeness and nuttiness all over the place](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/03/party-of-one-2), as **Defensive Indifference** recalled: > [@](#): > > Television viewers may still remember Savage’s brief, unhappy tenure on MSNBC, which ended after he responded to a prank caller by saying, “Oh, you’re one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig.” The fact that someone like Savage can make millions off of decades of whipping up his fellow conservatives to hate people, and then be taken seriously by them when he whines that America is “losing social cohesion”, merely demonstrates how abjectly conservatives in general these days have abandoned critical thinking and regard for facts. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/10 "2019-11-27T04:44:45Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > What has homeopathy to do with being right wing? They dilute facts until they’re nonexistent, and peddle the result as remedies for society? ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/11 "2019-11-27T04:48:57Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Largely thanks to Michael Savage and his ilk [spewing their rudeness and nuttiness all over the place](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/08/03/party-of-one-2), as **Defensive Indifference** recalled: > The fact that someone like Savage can make millions off of decades of whipping up his fellow conservatives to hate people, and then be taken seriously by them when he whines that America is “losing social cohesion”, merely demonstrates how abjectly conservatives in general these days have abandoned critical thinking and regard for facts. Michael Moore, Cenk Ugyr whips up fellow progressives to hate people as well. Both sides have their crackpots. ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/12 "2019-11-27T04:51:58Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > “Social cohesion of community” . . . what the fuck _is_ that, and when did America have more of it??? > > CMC fnord! A sense of belonging. A sense that Americans have a bond of honor, trust, strength, faith. Those things have been lost since the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/13 "2019-11-27T04:57:33Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > A sense of belonging. > > A sense that Americans have a bond of honor, trust, strength, faith. > > Those things have been lost since the 1990s. In the 1990s, Pat Buchanan declared at the RNC that “there is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America,” because of things like “the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women.” James Byrd, Jr. was dragged to death because he was black. Mathew Shepard was beaten and left to die because he was gay. Abortion clinics were bombed. The Oklahoma Federal Building was bombed. The Unabomber was active. And Rush Limbaugh was building his media empire by incessantly attacking feminazis, communists, the NAACP (“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”), and anyone else he could demonize. You really think that there was a sense of belonging for all Americans in the 1990s? ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/14 "2019-11-27T04:59:45Z")
The OP’s posting style reminds me very much of someone else. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is though. There’s something about the cadence of his posts that’s familiar to me. Interesting how that works, isn’t it? I wonder if it’s just a coincidence. Are we ever going to know the truth? I hope so. But maybe it’s just not in the cards. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/15 "2019-11-27T05:01:46Z")
Something Aaron Sorkin wrote in friggin’ 1995 in “The American President” > [@The American President](#): > > That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. You’d think people would eventually learn better than to fall for nostalgia and the ‘better days’ trap. But nope. PT Barnum nailed it. One born every second. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/16 "2019-11-27T05:15:49Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > You really think that there was a sense of belonging for all Americans in the 1990s? Point. I think maybe what the OP is experiencing as “loss of social cohesion” is mostly just the long-overdue realization that straight white traditional-family-values-type Americans aren’t automatically going to be the people in charge of running everything in the country, and aren’t even always going to be a majority in the country. Personally, I’ve got plenty of social cohesion with everybody from the ladies in the local quilting group (many of whom are probably Trump voters but we’re not there to talk politics) to my fellow demonstrators at the climate protests. If you need the illusion of constant agreement and social uniformity to be able to feel a sense of community, then you probably never really had any “social cohesion” in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/17 "2019-11-27T05:26:23Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Point. I think maybe what the OP is experiencing as “loss of social cohesion” is mostly just the long-overdue realization that straight white traditional-family-values-type Americans aren’t automatically going to be the people in charge of running everything in the country, and aren’t even always going to be a majority in the country. > > Personally, I’ve got plenty of social cohesion with everybody from the ladies in the local quilting group (many of whom are probably Trump voters but we’re not there to talk politics) to my fellow demonstrators at the climate protests. If you need the illusion of constant agreement and social uniformity to be able to feel a sense of community, then you probably never really had any “social cohesion” in the first place. Has nothing to do with race so I don’t know race got brought up at all. What I am talking about is no sense of faith, no sense of valor. Nothing to do with race. Nothing to do with race. ---
**Author:** ![Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankees_1996_Champs)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/18 "2019-11-27T05:29:03Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > In the 1990s, Pat Buchanan declared at the RNC that “there is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America,” because of things like “the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women.” James Byrd, Jr. was dragged to death because he was black. Mathew Shepard was beaten and left to die because he was gay. Abortion clinics were bombed. The Oklahoma Federal Building was bombed. The Unabomber was active. And Rush Limbaugh was building his media empire by incessantly attacking feminazis, communists, the NAACP (“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”), and anyone else he could demonize. > > You really think that there was a sense of belonging for all Americans in the 1990s? Talking heads are not the issue, necessarily. Its about faith, vigor, valor. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/19 "2019-11-27T05:35:54Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > What I am talking about is no sense of faith, no sense of valor. 😕 “No sense of faith” in what way? Religious faith? “No sense of valor” in what way? AFAICT there are about as many brave people around as there ever were, and appreciation levels for them are about the same. > [@Yankees 1996 Champs](#): > > Its about faith, vigor, valor. 😕 😕 “Vigor”? I think you’re going to have to explain exactly what it is you’re talking about. It may seem obvious to you that America is suffering from a loss of “faith, vigor, valor”, but that sounds absolutely meaningless to me (unless by the “faith” bit you mean that more Americans are identifying as non-religious nowadays, which I agree is factually true). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047/20 "2019-11-27T05:45:06Z")
> [@Yankees\_1996\_Champs](#): > > Michael Moore, Cenk Ugyr whips up fellow progressives to hate people as well. Both sides have their crackpots. That’s your argument, “they do it too!” ? Not very convincing, dude. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-savage/844047.md?page=2)