I guess you’ve never met Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
If you had written this post in 1973, I would have been able to pull cite after cite of hate-driven leftist politics, from the SLA to the Red Guard. Nowadays I agree that the far right is far more poisonous than the far left, but all y’all, left and right, still exalt ideology over the practical concerns of everyday people.
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still exalt ideology over the practical concerns of everyday peoplep/quote]
Definitely true, but what do we do about it? Hatred sure seems to be effective. but if you fight against it, it’s reverse discrimination.
Out of curiosity I listened to Hannity’s show yesterday to see what people were saying about this. He said he was reserving judgement until he saw the clip for himself, but when a caller confirmed that Savage had indeed said those things, Hannity even said he had gone too far, that he wouldn’t say those things to his worst enemy, and said if it was true then Savage should apologize immediately. Now I’m no follower of Hannity but if even he thinks Savage should apologize, I’m not sure how many ultra-right-wingers are standing behind Savage on this one. If Hannity thinks you are too conservative…well, I don’t know what to say.
I know Savage has a pretty large following but I think a lot of people were shocked by this one. I think (hope?) he will lose a lot of respect after this, and hopefully advertisers won’t touch him now.
You need to get out more. The Earth First! types certainly qualify. There’s nothing quite so intolerant as a “liberal” after all.
Rexdart said, “If they (MSNBC) did their homework, read the book, listened to a few hours of the radio program, they’d have known exactly what they were getting.”
They did all of the above and knew EXACTLY what they were getting. They were purchasing high ratings. Which is what TV stations do. In today’s climate of post-9/11, flag-waving, patriotism-spewing, right-wing “Americans”, they were gambling that this guy would draw in the conservative crowd without offending the “others” too much. I think it was a carefully calculated move that HAD to self-destruct sooner or later. It just happened sooner.
You need to get out more. The Earth First! types certainly qualify. There’s nothing quite so intolerant as a “liberal” after all.
Like I said, a few silly socialists, not a cultural movement.
The REAL story behind the cancellation, as told by Michael Savage.
That’s amusing.
Maybe the caller was his ex.
Of course, that I’m aware of they don’t form the primary counterculture of entire swaths of states.
That’s only a slightly better “apology” (quotes because I don’t believe it for a fucking second) than “I apologize if anything I said might have offended someone who wasn’t intended to hear it; that wsa not my intent”. IE I’m not sorry I said it, I’m annoyed I got caught.
Now wait a minute. For one thing, I really don’t think the far left or the far right embraces a consistent ideology. They each apply totally different standards to economic issues than they do to personal freedom issues. I’d say they’re both authoritarian statists looking to use the power of government to force the people of this nation into being more like they want them to be, which seems downright arbitrary at times.
And why should ideology take a backseat to “practical” concerns? Ideology is the underlying philosophy that should tie together your conclusions and actions, it makes things consistent and eliminates contradictions, it represents your knowledge of the universe as observed by your senses and developed by your power of reason. On any issue, one position will be right and the others will be wrong, and the goal is to discover which position is the right one. If we’re baking a cake for my mother, and I want to put in arsenic and you don’t, we don’t just “compromise” and put in a little arsenic. To do so, you would be sacrificing truth and reality to meet my deadly ignorance in some nebulous “middle ground”.
Unless you own the place, you’re just being a petty asshole.
Want to make a statement about him? Make a sign and go march around town. As it stands all you are doing is making more work for people who aren’t associated with him.
I remember finding a copy of “The Way Things Ought To Be” in the humor section.
Giggle.
Damn straight … but it’s so much fun and it makes me feel good. (Anyway, I love how people think they’re making a stronger point by throwing in a bad word. “Asshole” back at you.)
Now that would just be silly.
And I apologize to those poor folks who must turn the books back around. It’s the price we all pay for my small effort to decrease his point-of-purchase book sales.
Cool, as long as we agree.
Man, I really wish he hadn’t picked my City as a backdrop for his book cover.
Oh, shut up.
Here’s more of Savage’s response (from the above link):
This doesn’t seem to jive. Even if there was a delay (which doesn’t make sense as it’s not a live show, AFAIK), you could still hear Savage’s remarks. He quite obviously cut off the caller when he said “Don and Mike,” and in NO WAY was “attacking” Savage. How the hell did he even guess the guy was gay because he referred to “Don and Mike?” The whole thing makes no sense.
Oh, please. First, the “I didn’t know I was still on the air” bit is bullshit. Second, even if this was you “personally as an indivdiual” defending yourself, your comments were STILL way out of line.
What a bunch of horseshit. It didn’t reflect your views, but you said it anyway? How can you go from “I want to heal the world” to “get AIDS and die?” I’d call him a prick, but I like them too much.
You apologize for my reaction to your comments? Christ, the guy doesn’t even know how to write for fuck’s sake. His books must be pure drivel.
So it’s ok because it wasn’t mean to be broadcast. Sorry that everyone knows how you really feel now (as if that wasn’t patently evident before). Who was the “mean spirited vicious” person in that exachange? You, you overblown jackass.
“Many?” I defy you to find one.
Fucker.
Esprix
Odd, then, that his wasthe highest rated show in the MSNBC nighttime lineup for the last six months – September 2002 to February 2003 – right before he got cancelled. Granted, Donahue wasn’t pulling in the numbers O’Reilley was pulling in, but considering that his was the best-rated show in the MSNBC lineup, cancelling him makes no sense at all…