It’s not a coincidence that same people who continue to spread irrational, anti-scientific smears against climate science and climate scientists, are also furiously defending Rush Limbaugh’s racist, misogynistic rants.
Just check the comments here.
James Delingpole is of course, the Brit equivalent of the smarmy troop of Rush wannabes that populate the right wing media here in the US. (see the video above to watch him disintegrate in the face rational dialogue)
That even Delingpole thought what Rush said was/is disgusting, should be a warning sign, but I suspect it will go unheeded.
Sure, if your war aim is simply to mouth off, vent your spleen, show the home team how incredibly right and funny you are, and make the enemy feel really unhappy then, yes, do what Rush did. (And what I do in arguments most of the time too….)
If, on the other hand, you actually want to achieve something useful for your cause than you simply have to think more strategically. In Conservative-land, Rush’s response was funny and apt and hilariously but justifiably over-the-top. But for anyone who is not a conservative – which is at least half America, not to mention most of the rest of the world, it was pure poison.
It gave, not least, the impression that conservatives are so stuck up that they even think kids messing around with sex before marriage are at best sluts, at worst prostitutes. Now I know this isn’t exactly what Rush meant, but it’s how it sounded to liberal ears and how it’s being spun in the broader media.
Trust me, it doesn’t make conservatives look good. It makes us look like unelectable freaks.
To be fair, if the majority of Americans were rational, intelligent, informed people, most of today’s Republican politicians would be unelectable.
“In Conservative-land, Rush’s response was funny and apt and hilariously but justifiably over-the-top.”
What does that say about “Conservative-land”?
James Delingpole’s complaint: “HE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE! . . . No, wait a minute. Not strong enough. He raped me with science. That’s it. HE RAPED ME WITH SCIENCE!”
I’d like to use one of those transvaginal ultrasound wands, run it up Delingpole’s nose, perhaps in his ear, and see just what’s inside that skull. I’m guessing a rabid rat on a treadmill. Maybe a banana slug.
Nah, they’re squishey enough alright. But a big ole banana slug’s got way too much mass. And there’s no real evidence that I can see of anything so substantial in there. The importantfirst clue here is in his empty headed thinking. And like Rush Limbaugh, his crappy outlook on reality has got to be coming from somewhere. And since the source has to be intra cranial, my money’s on that transvaginal ultrasound gadget revealing a brain case filled with microscopic particles of poo, widely separated, and suspended in a near vacuum as a fine aerosol mist.
Like the way you think, Dennis. In this context, Swiftian excrementalism is altogether appropriate.
The stupid defense of Limbaugh is doing almost as much damage to the conservative cause as the original outburst. Outright condemnation would have been an effective antidote, but conservatives have trouble admitting one their own was wrong.
Even silence would have seen the outrage die down in fairly short order. But no they have to race to Rush’s defense thus painting the conservative movement in the same misogynist light. The defense of Rush has been a nasty exercise, little attacking the substance of Sandra Fluke’s testimony and much smear and innuendo.
On a similar note, eventually climate change will be obvious to even the most willfully stupid. They will realize the ride they have been taken on. Even now there is a general acceptance of the problem and a dawning understanding of the unreliability of main stream media. Without viewers Fox noise will not have advertisers.
“On a similar note, eventually climate change will be obvious to even the most willfully stupid. They will realize the ride they have been taken on.”
Nope. They, through the dissemination of the demagogues-du-jour, will simply blame it on gay marriage and not praying hard enough:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-says-people-could-have-stopped-deadly-tornadoes-through-prayer
Global warming caused by gay marriage? I wish I could say no one would be that stupid, but some will.