it’s pretty hard to wrap your brain around just how big of a self-absorbed, my-own-shit-doesn’t-stink, self-righteous, hypocritical, boorish, prevaricating, fucking asshole one would have to be to do this. but the brain is capable and does wrap around the realization that rush limbaugh is that asshole.
but there are two things perhaps even more horrible than limbaugh himself. one is the fact that he is as successful as he is. because that means that there are actually a lot more SAMOSDSSRHBPF assholes out there who hang on his every word without ever having a critical thought or bothering to do even a cursory fact check. these dittoheads then spread the lies as best they can in their inarticulate circular fashion—hosts carrying the parasite’s message.
the second is painful to write about and admit. i once listened to rush fairly regularly. i honestly have no idea now what i could possibly have found in common with the spoutings of half-truths and innuendo that served as hyperbolic bookends around ads for snapple. (“made from the best stuff on earth!” rush would say. odd, i don’t think i’ve ever seen oxycontin on the nutritional label…)
but i listened. and on occasion, i would proselytize whoever might listen to me. ranting on about whatever… throwing in a few catchphrases i’d heard on the show. and though i didn’t know it then, i was probably doing the devil’s work of simply marketing virally a set of government-supplied talking points, helpfully disseminated by hacks like limbaugh.
i would have to say, looking back, that listening to rush coincided with my ‘angry young man’ phase, where cynicism ruled and excessive self-medication was the rule rather than the exception. strangely enough, it was also the most intense period of my 20 years as a deadhead. it was quite a schizophrenic time in my life. i really don’t know what eventually nudged me a full 180 degrees away from limbaugh’s brand of sloganeering, profiteering conservatism. did peace and love win out over war and hate? i suppose that’s part of it. did i realize that rush sounded a lot like my dad and that my dad ended up being about 95 percent full of shit? probably that too. i also got older and it’s hard to keep being an uninformed self-righteous asshole year after year.
but somehow i had an epiphany and learned how to do the following: a) ask the right questions; b) discover what i truly believed about important things; c) do the research required to separate truth from propaganda as accurately as possible; and d) make smart, informed decisions. and let’s be honest here: if you are smart and informed, you don’t listen to rush limbaugh. unless, of course, you’re monitoring his show for media matters or something. but intelligent people who think for themselves can’t abide his lies and hypocrisy, no matter how much they may agree with him on tax issues.
no, the only reason anyone would listen to rush would be to seek some sort of validation of their own cynical and dark view of humanity. to find easy answers to hard questions. to justify untenable positions by surrounding oneself with an echo chamber of likeminded malcontents. trust me on this one. i was there once. and it’s no way to go through life.