# Tell me about Michael Savage **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 6, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526 "2009-05-06T10:10:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/81 "2009-05-13T03:13:06Z")
The dude is weaksauce and beneath acknowledgement. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/82 "2009-05-13T03:15:51Z")
I don’t understand the ban at all. I find this disturbing on so many levels. What happened to the nation that stood up against Hitler in the early days of WWII? What’s next, little red books of politically correct speech? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/83 "2009-05-13T04:23:13Z")
I know that Cat Stevens was on the no US entry list for a while. And he is a lot less of an asshole than Michael Savage has been since he was Alan Ginsberg’s butt boy. [Cat Stevens - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens) ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/84 "2009-05-13T04:23:42Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Does he hate gays? - yes > Has he made fun of disabled children? - yes > Is he a loudmouth neanderthal social conservative? - yes Yes, he does have strong opinions on gay marriage. Not saying he is right or wrong, but he does have the right to his own opinion. Disabled Children - that rant was actually directed toward the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry - both of which he was accusing of pandering to each other at the child’s expense. loudmouth social conservative? I think I’ve already stated such ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/85 "2009-05-13T07:08:58Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I know that Cat Stevens was on the no US entry list for a while. And he is a lot less of an asshole than Michael Savage has been since he was Alan Ginsberg’s butt boy. [Cat Stevens - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens) The same Cat Stevens that said he was joking when he supported the death of Rushdie? Didn’t he write some anti Jewish stuff in the 80’s? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/86 "2009-05-13T08:04:50Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The same Cat Stevens that said he was joking when he supported the death of Rushdie? Didn’t he write some anti Jewish stuff in the 80’s? If you are correct, he said two bad things in the past 30 years and think that treating Savage the same way is wrong? If I had to listen to one of them for the next 10 years, it wouldn’t be Savage, a professional hate propagandist. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/87 "2009-05-13T11:55:47Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > Yes, he does have strong opinions on gay marriage. Not saying he is right or wrong, but he does have the right to his own opinion. [“Oh, you’re one of the sodomites. You should get AIDS and die, you pig.”](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3054136.stm) Strong opinions about gay marriage? Looks a little deeper to me. I don’t buy his apology…he can apologize all he wants, you don’t say stuff like that if you don’t mean it. And yes, he has a right to his own opinion. And I have the right to think he’s an inhuman asshole for them. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/88 "2009-05-13T13:54:06Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I don’t understand the ban at all. I find this disturbing on so many levels. What happened to the nation that stood up against Hitler in the early days of WWII? What’s next, little red books of politically correct speech? 😕 Banning Michael Savage != going Nazi. And the Britain you refer to, of that period, is the same Empire that jailed Gandhi. Not exactly a tradition of respecting the other dude’s right to say what you hate. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/89 "2009-05-13T13:59:54Z")
He regularly refers to any political figure from California as “bathhouse boys, come on, you know what I mean” and his dislike for Islam is not centered on extremists. He does not differentiate between a quiet peacful shia living his live and a Sunni extremist. He thinks they are all practicing a relgion of hate and should be executed. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/90 "2009-05-13T14:05:26Z")
> [@halen2020](#): > > To be honest I kinda like Savage. I also kinda like **Lionel**.. Is that Lionel, an ex-lawyer from Florida? If so, and if he’s remotely like he was about fifteen years ago when he had a show on WABC in New York (back when it has commentators from both sides of the spectrum), he’s about the most honest, rational voice on radio. Opinionated, yes, and fairly libertarian, but far from making sweeping generalizations of ‘the other side’ and bending over backwards to explain away ‘his sides’ transgressions. And funny. Funny in a good, non-partisan way. Made me take up skydiving, and long to shoot a machine gun. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/91 "2009-05-13T15:39:43Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I know that Cat Stevens was on the no US entry list for a while. And he is a lot less of an asshole than Michael Savage has been since he was Alan Ginsberg’s butt boy. [Cat Stevens - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens) I mentioned Cat Stevens on the previous page and was completely ignored by, well, everyone. I thought it was a good point as well. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/92 "2009-05-13T20:55:30Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I know that Cat Stevens was on the no US entry list for a while. And he is a lot less of an asshole than Michael Savage has been since he was Alan Ginsberg’s butt boy. Wait…what? ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/93 "2009-05-13T22:28:50Z")
Yeah, Michael Savage is basically Dennis Miller, except he never had a sense of humor to start with. He’s a self-loathing hippie. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/94 "2009-05-14T00:00:02Z")
> [@stolichnaya](#): > > Yeah, Michael Savage is basically Dennis Miller, except he never had a sense of humor to start with. > > He’s a self-loathing hippie. Definitely true about the lack of a sense of humor. A few years back I stumbled across his show while station-surfing and heard him saying that he never found old comics like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or the Marx Brothers funny because they reminded him of child molesters. His obnoxious ranting reactionary act is either a deliberately phony persona for radio or a sign of severe mental issues. In any case, I don’t think the UK has any business banning him from the country because of his right-wing crackpot views. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/95 "2009-05-14T00:17:48Z")
> [@alexandra](#): > > Wait…what? [If you believe Salon:](http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/03/05/savage/) > [@](#): > > Mar 5, 2003 | At first glance, Michael Alan Weiner seems like an improbable candidate to be America’s angriest, most vicious conservative radio host. Born 60 years ago in the Bronx, Weiner has lived in Northern California for most of his adult life, making a living as an herbalist and nutritionist. He communed with Fijian traditional healers, got married in a rain forest and studied ethno-medicine at the University of California at Berkeley. He swam naked with Allen Ginsberg, dreamed of being the next Lenny Bruce and wrote a rambling novel about a half-mad alter ego. His son’s middle name is Goldencloud. For years, he made a name cranking out a pile of books on alternative medicine, recommending bizarre remedies such as using vitamin C to stop AIDS and kicking cocaine with coffee enemas. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/96 "2009-05-14T02:01:04Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > He regularly refers to any political figure from California as “bathhouse boys, come on, you know what I mean” and his dislike for Islam is not centered on extremists. He does not differentiate between a quiet peacful shia living his live and a Sunni extremist. He thinks they are all practicing a relgion of hate and should be executed. And you’ve heard him say this (views on Islam)? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/97 "2009-05-14T02:40:36Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > And you’ve heard him say this (views on Islam)? > I think not. Well, you can read and listen to things that Savage has gone on record as saying about Islam [here](http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=23608&&name=n&&currPage=1&&Active=1). It doesn’t seem to me that **Tristan** is significantly exaggerating about Savage’s indiscriminate antipathy to Muslims in general. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/98 "2009-05-14T03:13:34Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > And you’ve heard him say this (views on Islam)? > I think not. [Also from Salon:](http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/03/05/savage/) > [@](#): > > These days, Weiner’s more interested in purging the body politic. Using the pseudonym Michael Savage, he’s launched a one-man mission to save America from its enemies at home and abroad, which on any given day includes liberals, gays, academics, the homeless, the Clintons, immigrants, feminists, CNN, the American Civil Liberties Union, Muslims and other minorities. Broadcasting three hours a day, five afternoons a week, from a rented studio in downtown San Francisco, he gives voice to the right wing’s darkest fantasies. He muses about launching preemptive nuclear strikes on the Middle East (“I wish to God the hatches were open and the missiles were flying!”), suggests gunning down illegal immigrants (“If we had a government, we’d blow them out of the desert with airplanes!”), dreams of dispatching with “commies, pinkos and perverts” and other undesirables (“I say round them up and hang 'em high!”) and even paraphrases a remark attributed to Nazi leader Hermann Goering (“When I hear someone’s in the civil rights business, I oil up my AR-15!”) > > Woe be unto those who label him racist, sexist or homophobic – or even worse, threaten his livelihood. When an Oregon group started a boycott of his advertisers last summer, he became downright apoplectic. “I’m more powerful than you are, you little hateful nothings!” he screeched, before intoning darkly in his trademark New-Yawk accent: “I’m gonna warn you again: If you harm me – and I pray that no harm comes to you – but I can’t guarantee that it won’t.” Just last week, Savage fumed about the “brownshirt groups” who dare to criticize him: “You stinking rats who hide in the sewers! … You think I’m going to roll over like a pussy? You’re wrong!” ---
**Author:** ![caligulashorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@caligulashorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulashorse)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/99 "2009-05-14T03:45:20Z")
Savage is a stereotypical neo-con, which makes him well removed from being labeled “right wing”. I’ve always been perplexed by the visceral hatred modern liberals have towards neo-cons, since neo-cons are just better dressed liberals. Everything out of their mouths is the same big gubment/steal your rights dogma. They are two turds in the same nasty toilet bowl. They should love one another. Familiarty breeds contempt, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526/100 "2009-05-14T04:19:05Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Well, you can read and listen to things that Savage has gone on record as saying about Islam [here](http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=23608&&name=n&&currPage=1&&Active=1). It doesn’t seem to me that **Tristan** is significantly exaggerating about Savage’s indiscriminate antipathy to Muslims in general. I’m sure the lawsuits between him and CAIR wouldn’t have any bearing on the picture they may try to paint If you actually listen to the program, you hear things very different. One can make anyone look or sound the way they want by using out of context quotes and sound byte dribble. Frankly, I’m glad his show is not for everyone, but then he doesn’t try to be. He says what he feels, if you like it fine - if not, turn him off. He would expect nothing less. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-michael-savage/495526.md?page=6)