Yesterday, we posted a link on our Facebook site, "Another Major Advertiser Dumps Rush Limbaugh – Boycotters Rejoice," from Liberals Unite at Samuel-warde.com, where they noted that "...Over 2600 national and local companies have succumbed to the Rush Limbaugh boycotts and petitions. Thousands of everyday people, as well as activists, have jumped on board to protest and put an end to Limbaugh’s blatant racism, sexism and gay-hating bigotry which he spins three hours a day, five days a week. This time, the bailing company is SodaStream..."
We have yet to devote much space to Limbaugh except to note periodically his historic significance as one of the best propagandists in the business since Joseph Goebbels. This omission should be corrected, and we begin by reprinting a short introduction, from Kellysite.net "Who Is 'Successful' Rush Limbaugh?":
"WHO IS "SUCCESSFUL" RUSH LIMBAUGH?
"According to Fortune Magazine, 'So far as the response of his audience is concerned, (he) is just about the biggest thing that ever happened to radio.' At one point, he had a stenographic staff of 145 to handle the tremendous volume of mail he was receiving.
"Rush Limbaugh? Nope. Father Charles Edward Coughlin, the "radio priest" of the 1930s.
"The similarities between Coughlin and Limbaugh are striking. In the 30s, Coughlin appealed to large numbers of the American public who wanted simple solutions for the complex economic problems of the depression. Radio listeners were eager to listen to anyone who would offer scapegoats to blame—as long as the scapegoats were 'them' and not 'us.'
"Coughlin's villains were government bureaucrats and 'big shots,' Jewish bankers and congressmen from New York City, the eastern elite and the New Deal Democrats—especially those with Jewish-sounding names. Although he charged others with being Fascists, he eventually defended the Nazis in their effort to 'block the Jewish-Communist plan for subjugating Germany.'
"Rush Limbaugh: Today's Father Coughlin
"For Limbaugh, today's villains are the homeless, the NAACP and various black leaders, the news media, welfare mothers, Democrats, liberals, 'Maarriooo,' American Indians, various indigenous peoples of the world —and anyone else who exposes, or represents, genuine weaknesses in our political system. While charging others with being 'feminazis,' 'enviromaniacs,' or fascists, he appeals to the prejudices of all those who never quite bought the idea that we need to address the historic injustices and costly problems of our country.
"Whether you agree or disagree with Limbaugh's views, you owe it to yourself to understand the reasons for his success. A good place to begin is to read Demagogues of the Depression by David Bennett, or The Fine Art of Propaganda by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. Both are based on the life of Coughlin and his demagogic techniques, such as: 'Band Wagon,' 'Name Calling,' 'Glittering Generality,' 'Transfer,' 'Testimonial,' 'Plain Folks,' and 'Card Stacking.'
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| Coughlin, addressing large Clevelan crowd. |
"As did Coughlin, Limbaugh uses all of them, but the most effective is undoubtedly the 'Band Wagon.' By screening callers, he gives the impression that there is a huge silent majority of right-thinking Americans out there who support the radical views he stands for. The rare 'liberal' he lets get through the switchboard is either a 16 year old student who wants high schools to hand out free condoms, or a person with a severe case of mike fright.
"Right now, many politicians welcome invitations to speak on Limbaugh's program and to associate with him at public gatherings. Apparently they don't realize that, when they link themselves with the mentality and viewpoints of a Rush Limbaugh, they say more about their own values than all the public pronouncements of their spin doctors.
"Republican Values: 1990s versus 1940s
"In 1940, Father Charles Coughlin endorsed Republican candidate Wendell Willkie for U.S. president. To his credit, when Willkie heard of the endorsement, he said: 'I am not only not interested in his support, I don't want it.' (Reported in THE GREAT DEPRESSION, by T.H. Watkins.)
"Note that Fr. Coughlin is now on every historian's list as one of the most famous American demagogues of the depression.
"Contrast Willkie with recent Republicans. Just prior to the 1992 Republican convention, Limbaugh announced that he had just had a 45-minute conversation with Bob Dole, and he described in detail some of the things they had talked about. More recently, he interviewed both Dole and Kemp on his radio program.
"The Charlotte Observer (6/23/96) reported Sen. Patrick Ballantine's (R-New Hanover) reaction to a stalemate in the NC legislature: 'What we're going to do is put them (Republican ads) on Rush so we can get to our Republican base. That'll spread the word like wildfire.' And in 1995, U.S. House Republicans even made Limbaugh an honorary member.
"How times have changed. Whereas Republican Willkie publicly denounced the leading demagogue of the '30s, today's Republicans not only welcome the support of the leading demagogue of the '90s, they actively curry his favor. Thus they endorse his values (such as the glorification of greed), his lack of ethical standards in communicating (i.e., half truths and innuendoes), and his lack of commitment to objective problem solving (such as distracting the public from the real causes of income disparity between the top 20% of Americans and everyone else).
"Recent political changes in our country suggest that most people want leaders who will actually address and solve our country's problems—not make them worse by blaming, dividing, and scapegoating.
"And if we all spread the word about what's really happening in our country, we can regain our traditional, true, family values."
And from the Daily Kos, we get this amusing biographical sketch in their piece by "BenGoshi," "Limbaugh defends a pedophile. Reminds us of his own proclivities."
"I'm not saying Rush Limbaugh's a pedophile, that he's a fat old sweaty man who likes to have sex with children. But since he's the de facto head of the Republican Party, I think asking whether his personal conduct squares with his Party's 24/7 proclamations of standing at the top of the Moral High Ground is legitimate. Besides, his and like-minded persons' track-record, one cannot be blamed for wondering...
"Three things worth noting and considering:
"1. We all know that a great number of Über Conservatives maintain sexual impulses that range from the merely unusual, to howlingly weird, to the tragic & creepy. Why should Limbaugh be any different? Well? I mean just being a blowhard can't be the only reason he's gone through 3 wives, can it?
"2. Sadly, the Dominican Republic has been a destination country for sex tourism. This is a matter of record. We know of at least one trip to the DR taken by Limbaugh wherein he packed Viagra, a drug used to make a man's otherwise flaccid penis hard in order to have sex. That trip occurred in June 2006, about a year and a half after Limbaugh's third divorce (note that attorneys had that court file Sealed. Why was that, Rush?). About 7 1/2 years ago a Harvard University report cited a study in which the DR as one of the Latin American/Caribbean nations where children were sexually exploited in and by the sex tourism trade:
'"Casa Alianza, a non-profit advocacy group for street children in Mexico and Central America, estimates that some 5,000 street children in Honduras are involved in sex tourism. Similar problems exist in Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. . . .'"Limbaugh took his Viagra to the Dominican Republic about 3 1/2 years after this report came out. From the abstract of a United Nations study:
"'Included in the preliminary findings is a case study from yet another region, Latin America and the Caribbean. This case is included as an illustration of a coordinated effort to prevent and combat the sexual exploitation of children for the purposes of sex tourism in the Dominican Republic. . . .'This is not a problem that's run its course in the DR. From a March 2010 article:
"'The study, by law professor Benjamin Perrin from the University of British Columbia, found that the offenders – mostly men – usually travel from a rich country to a developing region such as Latin America, an area which is growing in popularity and replacing southern Asia as the main destination for sex offenders due to its low cost and close proximity. . .'
"'In 2008, nearly 11,700 [global hotel giant] Accor employees were trained worldwide to recognize a typical high-risk situation. These training programs were conducted in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Singapore), Africa (Ivory Coast, Benin, Senegal, and Cameroon), Europe (Austria and Switzerland) and in the Caribbean (Dominican Republic).'"3. While all of this may be circumstantial, it certainly makes Limbaugh's actions consistent with American/conservative sex tourists (see end of the article), even those who exploit children. What caused me to write this Diary, though, was Limbaugh's remarks yesterday, April 19, wherein he blamed the Oklahoma City bombing on, and railed against, Bill Clinton and Janet Reno for the raid on the Branch Dividian compound in 1993 without ever mentioning that it's freak leader, David Koresh, was, according to multiple accounts, a proud, unabashed child molester/rapist.
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"So, then, Limbaugh's a hard core, holier-than-thou conservative, just like the politicians and preachers who have practiced all sorts of wrongful and/or otherwise sordid sex acts. He travels to the Dominican Republic -- without question a sex tourist destination -- with Viagra. He's an apologist for child molester and cult leader David Koresh. Does this mean Limbaugh sexually exploits anyone, especially children? No. Is it consistent with a deviant who does? It seems that way to me. I don't know for sure, though. Wish Limbaugh would stop avoiding the subject, though."
The comments after the original post are fascinating as ditto-monkey Conservative Sheeplets attempt to diffuse the explosion of the circumstantial evidence surrounding Limbaugh's sexuality.
We'll follow up in successive days on the study of the populist-propaganda that has made an underserving human being so wealthy, starting with the science of propaganda itself.
Who knows, someone reading this can learn how to help convince Sheeplets as well as the uninformed voters how necessary for democracy it is to criminalize Conservatism before it's too late.
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"...no other animal is so stupid as a human fool." Herbert J. Muller,
*Freedom In The Ancient World.*
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