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Speaker 1: M broadcasting from his studio in I don't know, some

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Speaker 1: fucking place with one liver tight behind his back to

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Speaker 1: make it fair for all of the narcotics in his system.

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Speaker 1: Robert Evans, you don't know, you don't like me, You

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Speaker 1: don't you don't like my my pseudo Russian intro stuffing.

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Speaker 1: Not on board, not not a fan of that introduction. Um,

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Speaker 1: this is behind the bastards. This is behind the Bastards.

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Speaker 1: A podcast that will never be as big as The

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Speaker 1: Russia Limbaugh Show because Sophie won't let me use cultic

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Speaker 1: mind control techniques on our audience. Um, that is inaccurate.

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Speaker 1: Feel free. Okay, well we're back. The man you just

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Speaker 1: heard is Paul F. Tompkins, our guest for this exploration

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Speaker 1: of the life and times of Rush Limbaugh. Everyone, Hey, Paul,

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Speaker 1: how are you feeling? How are you? How are you doing?

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Speaker 1: An hour and a half into talking about l Rush

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Speaker 1: Bow Feeling great? Feeling great, feeling. I feel energized that

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Speaker 1: he is dead. Yeah, I I too feel happy that

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Speaker 1: he's dead. It's fun. It hasn't worn off yet, it

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Speaker 1: has it never will. It will always be good that

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Speaker 1: he's dead. There's a few people who are like that

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Speaker 1: where it's like every now and then, I'm just like,

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Speaker 1: think back to the fact that Ryan hard Hydrick is dead,

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Speaker 1: and it's like good, good for him, you know, good

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Speaker 1: for him. So, once upon a time, Paul, the United

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Speaker 1: States used to have a thing called the fairness Doctrine. Now,

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Speaker 1: in short, the fairness doctrine required anyone with a broadcast

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Speaker 1: license to present controversial issues in a balanced way, providing

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Speaker 1: roughly equivalent time to present both sides of an issue.

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Speaker 1: And then this was obviously a flawed rule. Some issues,

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Speaker 1: for example, like climate change don't have two sides, right,

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Speaker 1: there may be different sides, but like what the right responses,

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Speaker 1: but there's not two sides to the reality of climate change. Um,

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Speaker 1: and while the but while the you know, the fairness starts.

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Speaker 1: So the Fahren's doctrine not a not a perfect not

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Speaker 1: a silver bullet, uh sort of of of thing of

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Speaker 1: a jig. But while it was in place, right wing

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Speaker 1: media in the form that we have today did not

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Speaker 1: and could not exist now since the dawn of the

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Speaker 1: fake news era which we're in now, a lot of

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Speaker 1: folks have talked about the time of guys like Walter Cronkite, right,

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Speaker 1: When when you had newsmen who basically every American trusted,

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Speaker 1: who could shift massive national issues just based on their

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Speaker 1: considered opinion. Right Cronkite calls Vietnam a quagmire, Suddenly national

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Speaker 1: opinion on its switches. Um. And a big part of

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Speaker 1: why these guys were trusted is they were required to

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Speaker 1: lend equal weight to both sides. They couldn't just be

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Speaker 1: partisan shills. Now, this generally meant that they would give

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Speaker 1: kind of the conservative opinion and the liberal opinion as

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Speaker 1: opposed to the far left of the far right. But

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Speaker 1: it did mean that you you you didn't have something

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Speaker 1: as unbalanced as Fox News right right. It's like the

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Speaker 1: voter guide you get, yeah, exactly. It gives you the

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Speaker 1: measured and says some people say this, say this yeah.

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Speaker 1: And as flawed as the fairness doctrine was, it was

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Speaker 1: part of why most Americans lived in a semi unified

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Speaker 1: media ecosystem back in up prior to nineteen eighties seven. Now,

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Speaker 1: obviously this did not last. In nineteen eight seven, the FCC,

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Speaker 1: as the result of a court case, the FCC rejected

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Speaker 1: the fairness doctrine. Conservatives cheered this on because fair media

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Speaker 1: was seen by arch conservatives guys like Roger Stone as

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Speaker 1: a big reason why Americans had broadly supported the impeachment

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Speaker 1: of Richard Nixon at the end of the Watergate investigation.

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Speaker 1: Watergate is one of these situations where when the investigation starts,

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Speaker 1: the vast majority of conservatives are against it. Right, don't

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Speaker 1: think Nixon did anything wrong. The evidence comes out in

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Speaker 1: opinion shifts, and it becomes very popular to get Nixon

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Speaker 1: out of office. Um, this is the last time that happens. Right,

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Speaker 1: This is the last time that like people's minds get

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Speaker 1: changed by the facts on a political issue in America. Um.

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Speaker 1: And it's the last time this happens. Because the right

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Speaker 1: goes after the fairness doctor, and after about a decade

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Speaker 1: or so of fighting, they're able to get it killed. Um.

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Speaker 1: And the end of the fairness doctrine was the necessary

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Speaker 1: precursor to the creation of a holy, separate, walled garden

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Speaker 1: of right wing content, which was seen by dudes like

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Speaker 1: Roger Ales as a necessary step to protecting right wing

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Speaker 1: voters from ever learning about other opinions, which would, they

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Speaker 1: believed protect the next criminal, white right wing president from impeachment. Now,

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Speaker 1: after Limbaugh's death, the new York Times let Ben Shapiro,

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Speaker 1: noted novelist, write a column about his professional idol. Benny

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Speaker 1: Shapps called the fairness doctrine quote, a standard that in

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Speaker 1: practice allowed for the domination of broadcast media by liberals,

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Speaker 1: with sporadic commentary by conservatives. Us of an imitation, It's

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Speaker 1: it's so rush. Limball was aware from the beginning that

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Speaker 1: his whole career hinged on the fairness doctrines. Death with

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Speaker 1: his and like he starts being national voice in nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty nine, two years after the end of the fairness doctrine.

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Speaker 1: That's not a coincidence. Now, with his unparalleled national platform

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Speaker 1: and his status as a chief thought leader of the

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Speaker 1: American right, Limbaugh went about turning the fairness doctrine into

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Speaker 1: his main boogeyman. I found a Vanity Fair article from

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Speaker 1: two thousand nine that lays this out quite well. Quote.

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Speaker 1: The single most important issue in Russia's radio career is

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Speaker 1: now among the hot button issues and conservative politics. The

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Speaker 1: fairness doctrine a formalized, fair and balanced rule for covering

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Speaker 1: the controversial issues on the nation's airwaves, which the Reagan

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Speaker 1: FCC killed in nineteen seven. The most liberal wing of

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Speaker 1: the Democratic Party, which puts substantial blame on talk radio

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Speaker 1: for a generation of conservative dominance in Washington, wants to

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Speaker 1: revive the doctrine, which would pretty handily destroy conservative talk.

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Speaker 1: According to the official Seapack polling of its members, restoring

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Speaker 1: the Fairest Fairness Doctrine is the third most significant Democratic

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Speaker 1: Congress policy initiative opposed by the right wing raking, only

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Speaker 1: behind expanding government in public healthcare. So yeah, there is

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Speaker 1: with Russia's orchestration, a rapidness to the cause. Opposing the

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Speaker 1: Fairness Doctrine is up there with opposing abortion. And he's

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Speaker 1: you know, he's it's really him that's responsible for making

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Speaker 1: this such a popular issue. It starts off as a

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Speaker 1: thing that kind of high up extreme right wingers, guys

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Speaker 1: who had been Nixon's right hand men push because they

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Speaker 1: want to protect the next guy like Nixon. And it

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Speaker 1: gets popular though because of Rush Limbaugh, because he sells

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Speaker 1: it to the American conservative mainstream. It's funny, like the

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Speaker 1: sorry but the idea that like with the Nixon era

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Speaker 1: after Watergate, Nixon, when Nixon resigns, that is maybe the

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Speaker 1: last time that there were real consequences for any for

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Speaker 1: the for the highest office. Where after that, you know,

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Speaker 1: Clintons impeachment, Trump's impeachment, whatever, it doesn't mean anything. It's

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Speaker 1: it really is just like an asterisk in history, you know,

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Speaker 1: essentially of saying like, just so you know, people, some

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Speaker 1: people thought this was bad, and uh they and they

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Speaker 1: said so officially, but there's no real consequence for any

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Speaker 1: of this. So really what they're doing is saying, we

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Speaker 1: cannot Nixon should not have had a consequence. We got

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Speaker 1: to make sure that there's never a consequence ever again.

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Speaker 1: And unfortunately that meant for everybody for like for I

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Speaker 1: don't know what if because if it didn't happen, if

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Speaker 1: it didn't happen after Bush, which there was not even

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Speaker 1: an impeachment for Bush, like for the Iraq war that

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Speaker 1: that we all know now was bogus. If there was

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Speaker 1: never gonna be a consequence for that, then it worked

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Speaker 1: and there there and and from now on, Like when

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Speaker 1: is it ever going to happen again? When if it

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Speaker 1: didn't happen, then when is it ever going to happen again? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I don't think it can because this propaganda eca system

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Speaker 1: turns out people who would fight to the death rather

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Speaker 1: than have somebody who on paper, is supposed to agree

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Speaker 1: with them face consequences for blatantly criminal activity, right, and

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Speaker 1: then and then it also it conditions whether whether you believe,

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Speaker 1: whether you believe in whether you're you're on Russia's side

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Speaker 1: or not, whether you're on that side of things or not.

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Speaker 1: It conditions everybody to feel like it's okay that there's

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Speaker 1: no consequences, because what are you gonna do? Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: just the way things are. You can draw a fucking

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Speaker 1: line between kind of the things that Rush starts because

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Speaker 1: it has an impact on on liberals and the left too.

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Speaker 1: You've got this. It's it's Beau and and it's it's

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Speaker 1: because obviously with the fairness doctrine, nobody ever heard anything

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Speaker 1: from the far left right the far left, and in

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Speaker 1: fact was criminally prosecuted a lot of times for their

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Speaker 1: opinions in this period. Um. But the positive thing about

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Speaker 1: the fairness doctrine is that it was a large part

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Speaker 1: of why there was a broadly agreed upon understanding of

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Speaker 1: the basic a basic reality in the United States, right

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Speaker 1: that we don't have anymore. And when you lose that,

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Speaker 1: I kind of think when you lose that, the only

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Speaker 1: like things inevitably escalate to deadly violence. Yeah. Um, and

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Speaker 1: that's bad, right, not that again, under the fairness doctrine,

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Speaker 1: Americans were led into Vietnam, were let into Grenado, were

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Speaker 1: led into Panama. We're letting to all these horrible, horrible things.

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Speaker 1: Obviously we like it. It did not. It did not

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Speaker 1: mean that Americans had an accurate understanding of the world.

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Speaker 1: But when they had an inaccurate understanding of the world,

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Speaker 1: it was still broadly similar. Right, And that is better

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Speaker 1: than where we are now. I guess I think it

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Speaker 1: is at least less toxic that. I guess you could

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Speaker 1: argue the United States had more power, the government had

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Speaker 1: more power to pursue violent activity overseas and stuff. I

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Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know. It's it's a complicated issue.

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Speaker 1: But whatever, whatever you can say about Russ Limball, he

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Speaker 1: was not a dumb man. Uh. He was a huge

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Speaker 1: bigot though, and that and that came any New York

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Speaker 1: Times right up. Makes it clear that, among other things,

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Speaker 1: he was quick to realize that rampant misogyny was an

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Speaker 1: incredible marketing tactic. This was, as we discussed in our

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Speaker 1: last episode, always cloaked in a thick haze of irony.

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Speaker 1: Quote this is Rush. We know that women in groups,

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Speaker 1: same office, same dormitory, same barracks eventually have synchronized minstrel cycles.

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Speaker 1: We also know that there's this thing called PMS, and

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Speaker 1: we know what turns a woman into a Hellian. We

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Speaker 1: know that PMS has been used as a defense against

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Speaker 1: a charge of murder. Here's my proposal. We have fifty

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Speaker 1: two battalions. We can prepare the nations that will have

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Speaker 1: on any given week of the year, a combat ready

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Speaker 1: battalion of Amazons to go into battle. Imagine that your manual,

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Speaker 1: Antonio Noriega, you were in the Papal Nuncial in Panama City.

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Speaker 1: You feel safe. All of a sudden you hear this

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Speaker 1: blood curdling scream outside. I am outraged, and there is

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Speaker 1: Sergeant Major mole Yard leading a battalion of Amazons with

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Speaker 1: PMS over the hill. That would be enough to scare

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Speaker 1: the pants off of anybody, everybody. I mean, it's like,

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Speaker 1: it's just not even that funny, That's what it's not.

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Speaker 1: That's one of the things that sucks about Rush Limbaugh

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Speaker 1: is that he for somebody who did a lot of

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Speaker 1: bits and you know, I was supposedly doing satire. He

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Speaker 1: just wasn't that funny. He wasn't. It's just that he

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Speaker 1: was saying the bigoted, terrible things that a lot of

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Speaker 1: bad people wanted to say, and the fact that it

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Speaker 1: was so horrible, and the fact that it scratched their

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Speaker 1: I made them laugh and made them think he was

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Speaker 1: a genius because somebody was finally telling them it was

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Speaker 1: okay to be as shitty as they kind of wanted

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Speaker 1: to be from the beginning, because you put the tiniest

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Speaker 1: effort into constructing these bits. Yeah, and it's it's it's

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Speaker 1: the same thing with all of these You've got this

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Speaker 1: kind of strain of comedians who thinks that it's important

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Speaker 1: that they be allowed to say the N word. Not

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Speaker 1: a single one of them has ever told a good

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Speaker 1: joke involving the N word. Right, it's not funny. You're

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Speaker 1: just going for shock value, right, that's all you're trying

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Speaker 1: to do. And that can be There's not that. No

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Speaker 1: good humor comes from shock value. But again, I haven't

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Speaker 1: heard a single good joke from a white comedian involving

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Speaker 1: the in word. Um, not that it would be appropriate then,

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Speaker 1: but I haven't heard one. You know, like so from

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Speaker 1: the beginning, the villains of the Rush limbaugh expanded universe were,

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Speaker 1: as The New York Times explained, quote black activists, gay activists,

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Speaker 1: abortion rights activists, homeless activists, animal rights activists, militant vegetarians, environmentalists,

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Speaker 1: artists with erotic tendencies, and above all, the now Game

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Speaker 1: gang that's the National Organization of women. His hatred Russia

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Speaker 1: said that his hatred for these people caused him an

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Speaker 1: uncontrollable urge to tweak. Quote. The simple fact of the

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Speaker 1: matter Limbaugh is apt to inform dolphins, savers and tree

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Speaker 1: lovers is that we are human beings, and we are

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Speaker 1: the most powerful, smartest species, and we can damn well

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Speaker 1: do whatever we want. And you can draw a line

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Speaker 1: from this kind of the way he's phrasing things. Here's

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Speaker 1: like it's stupid to care about the environment and animals

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Speaker 1: because we're more powerful than them. Um to the like

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Speaker 1: the ship that Identity Europa and Patriot Front, these like

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Speaker 1: explicitly fascist organizations exist. Now we'll put up these signs,

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Speaker 1: like these posters of the United States that say not

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Speaker 1: stolen conquered right where it's like, fuck the indigenous people,

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Speaker 1: we beat them and so we deserve all this right.

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Speaker 1: That's just an extension of what Russia is saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: and he the fact that he made that mainstream is

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Speaker 1: why they have a chance of making that mainstream, you know.

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Speaker 1: And the idea that it's so that they that they

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Speaker 1: that he phrased it as this uh matter of personal choice, um,

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Speaker 1: rather than like just common sense practical thinking, you know,

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Speaker 1: like do you really want to do you really want

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Speaker 1: to put your trash in two separate trash cands? You know,

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Speaker 1: And it's like, well, it's not so much that it's

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Speaker 1: a hassle. It's that we're gonna make earth unlivable for ourselves,

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Speaker 1: not that we're like, you know, fuck you the dodo

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Speaker 1: you should have you should have had claws or something.

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Speaker 1: It's that we're fucking ourselves. Like that's why why has

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Speaker 1: that been? Why is that so hard to understand? It's

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Speaker 1: so hard to comply with and so hard to uh

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Speaker 1: uh keep as part of the narrative when because the

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Speaker 1: logical extension is, what do you care You'll be dead

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Speaker 1: by the time by the time this ship, by the

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Speaker 1: time this ship affects people in in a meaningful way

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Speaker 1: to to you, a meaningful way, you'll be dead, So

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Speaker 1: what do you care? And and these are people that

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Speaker 1: are all allegedly all about the family, and it's like, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, do you plan on having grandchildren, great grandchildren,

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Speaker 1: great great grandchildren? Like do you care about what? I

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Speaker 1: don't know? I don't, I don't. I'm not being funny

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Speaker 1: now and I'm just being just being whiny. But what

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Speaker 1: you're getting at, Paul, and what the core of this

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Speaker 1: is is that Rush doesn't believe in positive things. And

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Speaker 1: I don't mean positive in a good sense. I mean

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Speaker 1: he doesn't believe in things that should be done. He

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Speaker 1: believes in tweaking people. That is what he turns American

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Speaker 1: Conservatism into. He turns it from were conservatives. These are

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Speaker 1: the things we believe about how the government and how

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Speaker 1: society should be run. And too conservatism is owning the Libs.

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Speaker 1: That's where we are now. And that's what this is

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Speaker 1: is is my politics are a sort of rhetorical violence

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Speaker 1: against the people I disagree with. Because improving the world,

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Speaker 1: changing making positive alterations to the world is difficult and

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Speaker 1: complicated and involves a lot of debate and trial and error.

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Speaker 1: That's hard. All I want to do is own the Libs.

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Speaker 1: That's what Rush Limbaugh created, brought into the world and

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Speaker 1: turned into the entire that that's the only thing that's

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Speaker 1: left in conservatism. Right, You've got these odd You've got

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Speaker 1: a couple of dudes left on the right who actually

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Speaker 1: believe in something like Mitt Romney and Arnold Schwartz an

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Speaker 1: egger right. Not that what they believe in is great

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Speaker 1: or that I I believe in it too, but they

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Speaker 1: both have a clearly have a principles that aren't just

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Speaker 1: owning the Libs. But they're on the fringe now because

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Speaker 1: owning the Libs, as all the right has. Um, it's

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Speaker 1: just it's not it's not it's not standing for something.

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Speaker 1: It's it's I. It's like, not what I my politics are.

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Speaker 1: I don't want somebody telling me what to do. I

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Speaker 1: believe in a vague idea of a John Wayne movie.

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Speaker 1: And you know, things were better in this bygone era

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Speaker 1: before these people started to suggest that maybe we can

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Speaker 1: improve things and that's where it ends. Yeah, and it's

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Speaker 1: it's it's very frustrating, Paul, because that the core of

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Speaker 1: that idea that like I want to be left alone.

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Speaker 1: That's more or less my politics. That's what led me

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Speaker 1: to anarchism is like, don't fucking tell me what to do,

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Speaker 1: and I don't want to tell you what to do.

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Speaker 1: And that is what as a kid I was taught

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Speaker 1: conservatism was. But it's not what conservatism has ever been.

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Speaker 1: And I think a big part of why why the

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Speaker 1: Republican establishment embraces Rush is that by the early nineties,

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Speaker 1: in particular, by the mid nineties, definitely, it has become

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Speaker 1: clear that nothing that the right does works for the

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Speaker 1: actual people that that vote them into office. Down economics

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Speaker 1: does not function. You know it doesn't. It's well documented objectively,

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Speaker 1: does not work the way they say it does. They're

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Speaker 1: fighting against environmental regulations damages the world and makes it uninhabitable.

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Speaker 1: Fighting against corporate regulations gets a lot of their voters

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Speaker 1: killed by dangerous working conditions and stuff. All of the

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Speaker 1: wars they get us into our disasters and expensive, and

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Speaker 1: do not achieve the foreign policy or even the basic

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Speaker 1: national security goals they sat Conservatism as Americans do it

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Speaker 1: at least does not work. And when you know that,

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Speaker 1: you can't go back to the drawing table. You can't

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Speaker 1: admit failure, you can't acknowledge the mistake. What you can

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Speaker 1: do was own the Libs, you know, and that's why

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Speaker 1: that's all it is now, is owning the libs. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's good. It's a good, healthy, healthy society, Paul. It's

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Speaker 1: only going to get better too, so we gotta get better.

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Speaker 1: So Russia's justification for the outrageous caricature of a right

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Speaker 1: winger that he played on his show had always been

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Speaker 1: that these liberals and leftists advocating for black lives and

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Speaker 1: women's liberation and basic environmental safeguards were absurd, And, as

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Speaker 1: Rush put it, I demonstrate absurdity by being absurd. That's

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Speaker 1: his own words. Now this turned out to be an

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Speaker 1: objectively good business because none of his listeners seemed to

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Speaker 1: find Rush himself absurd. The character he played became the

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Speaker 1: man he was, and the once a political wanna be

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Speaker 1: DJ turned into a mouthpiece for the very worst of

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Speaker 1: our society's impulses. One thing that made the Russia Lmbough

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Speaker 1: Show groundbreaking was that, for the first time in an

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Speaker 1: explicitly political talk show, the focus was not on guests

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Speaker 1: or actual reporting or anything but the personality Limbaugh had created.

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Speaker 1: Rush was his own guest, and this was a deliberate

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Speaker 1: choice he made and a very intelligent one to make

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Speaker 1: the show more profitable. If the focus of your show

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Speaker 1: is on the news and on what guests have to say,

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Speaker 1: you can kind of slot any person with a decent

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Speaker 1: voice in to replace the host. Right that limits how

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Speaker 1: much money you're going to make, and it limits kind

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Speaker 1: of the length of your career. Rush himself explained in

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Speaker 1: an interview, I wanted to be the reason people listened.

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Speaker 1: That's how you pad your pocket. That's how you establish yourself,

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Speaker 1: and that's very smart. He did, in fact establish himself

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Speaker 1: in Rush's radio success finally got the TV people listening.

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Speaker 1: They decided to try him out as on screen talent.

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Speaker 1: He teamed up with Roger Ailes, the man who would

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Speaker 1: later invent Fox News, and together they produced one of

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Speaker 1: the most outrageous and vile news programs ever made. It

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Speaker 1: would sadly also turn out to be one of the

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Speaker 1: most influential. And now, Paul, it is time you and

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Speaker 1: I to take a journey into this particular piece of

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Speaker 1: our right history. So this episode from two of the

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Speaker 1: Russia Limbos show opens with a title card which features

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Speaker 1: an image of a microphone with the name Rush and

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Speaker 1: blazoned on it, and the words warning, the views expressed

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Speaker 1: on this program are not necessarily the views of the staff, advertisers,

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Speaker 1: or your local station, but they ought to be. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's good ship, man, it's good ship. So the episode

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Speaker 1: itself has a weirdly quiet intro, no music, just rushed,

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Speaker 1: with the pointers standing and what looks like an office

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Speaker 1: with wall to wall bookshelves and TVs interspersed within the

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Speaker 1: books on the bookshelves. He introduces himself and he starts

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Speaker 1: talking about a recent conversation he had with President George H. W.

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Speaker 1: Bush on his radio program. So there continues to be

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Speaker 1: more controversy surrounding my performance with the president yesterday when

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Speaker 1: he came by my radio program. The press is telling

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Speaker 1: you things that aren't true. But we have the tapes

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Speaker 1: and we have the truth me and we'll show you

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Speaker 1: and tell you both tonight. So that's telling. That's that's

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Speaker 1: that's extremely important what he does here. You have to

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Speaker 1: remember Fox news was not a thing yet at this time,

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Speaker 1: fake news was not a buzzword. Limbaugh is groundbreaking in

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Speaker 1: that he was not only critiquing mainstream news as being

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Speaker 1: fake and lying, but he's also telling his listeners I

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Speaker 1: am the truth. This paragraph from a write up by

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Speaker 1: Rolling Stone gets to the core of why I find

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Speaker 1: what he's doing here so terrifying. Quote. He wasn't selling

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Speaker 1: political ideas and he never has. He was selling political attitude,

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Speaker 1: the swaggering certitude, the mocking dismissiveness, the freedom to offend,

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Speaker 1: the right to assert your privilege without guilt or embarrassment.

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Speaker 1: And partly because he was modeling that liberation with such

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Speaker 1: wicked glee, Limbaugh was making himself indispensable. Within six weeks

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Speaker 1: of tuning in regularly, he would tell new listeners they'd

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Speaker 1: be on the cutting edge of social evolution. Best of all,

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Speaker 1: he promised, I will do all you're reading and I

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Speaker 1: will tell you what to think of it. I will

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Speaker 1: do all you're reading and I will tell you what

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Speaker 1: to think of it. Yeah. Wow, it's so and it's

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Speaker 1: so bald. Yeah, it's right out there. It's like he's

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Speaker 1: not there's no, it's not like um uh sort of

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Speaker 1: obfuscating language. He is to say very clearly what the

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Speaker 1: deal is, this is and this is the this is

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Speaker 1: the logical extent of this. I'm so smart, you know,

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Speaker 1: I gotta tie half my brain behind my back just

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Speaker 1: to make it fair. You know, I'm this big genius.

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Speaker 1: I'm so smart. You don't need to read or think.

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Speaker 1: I'll do it for you, and then you two will

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Speaker 1: be smart. And this is a huge thing. He spins

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Speaker 1: a lot of effort in reinforcing his intelligence. Um. After

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Speaker 1: this section of the show, he goes on to introduce

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Speaker 1: the other topics of that episode, which include feminazi glorious Steina,

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Speaker 1: interview of the movie The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

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Speaker 1: Then we cut into Yeah. Then we cut to the

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Speaker 1: actual intro, which is terrible nineteen nineties talk show music

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Speaker 1: played over a series of mocked up news articles with

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Speaker 1: titles like E I B linked to higher i Q.

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Speaker 1: Limbaugh gets patent, Limbos says no to presidential bid, Limbaugh

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Speaker 1: checks brain on donor's card. Limbaugh to carry a torch

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Speaker 1: at the Mental Olympics. Again, he puts a lot of

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Speaker 1: effort into and it's absurd, right, but it clearly works.

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Speaker 1: It worked on my parents, you know, all of the

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Speaker 1: people who raised me. To some extent, they're convinced he's fun. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's fun. But he also says things that I like

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Speaker 1: to hear. But he's fun. He's just fun. He's fun.

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Speaker 1: I think also You cannot underestimate the um the effect

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Speaker 1: of the pointer. If you have, if you have, if

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Speaker 1: you're on television and you have a you're you're walking

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Speaker 1: on over television with a pointer and pointing at something,

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Speaker 1: it looks very official. Totally absolutely, That's why I have

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Speaker 1: a point. Well I have a gun, but it works

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Speaker 1: the same way. Um. So, Robert, what all your weapons

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Speaker 1: in front of you? Well, I'm always I'm always surrounded

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Speaker 1: by weapons. What what's going to happen during this scusion?

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Speaker 1: You don't have anything on you right now? Mae? Right here? Yeah, strapped,

425
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 1: Paul fucking here's my knife there. That's lovely nice, A

426
00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 1: nice little hunchback there. That makes it. Yeah, alright, now

427
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 1: we're all armed. We can properly get back to the show.

428
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: I didn't realize this was this was a knife on

429
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,280
Speaker 1: the table show. I apologie. This is this is I mean,

430
00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 1: there are like three knives on the table right, this

431
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 1: is a significant number of that's a beauty on the table.

432
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:08,440
Speaker 1: I apologize. So the show proper starts after this point,

433
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: after these fake news articles kind of go through and

434
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 1: Russia's first subject on this episode is the then new

435
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 1: TV series Murphy Brown Murphy Brown was obviously the titular

436
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:21,280
Speaker 1: character of the show. She was a recovering alcoholic investigative

437
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: journalist and a primetime news anchor and a single mother.

438
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:28,119
Speaker 1: Murphy Brown was a very feminist and progress progressive series

439
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,959
Speaker 1: for its day. Limbaugh opens his episode by expressing anger

440
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 1: at the show's success, and then, in what I would

441
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: consider a fairly abusive manner, he tells his audience why

442
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: they shouldn't watch it. Clip. Oh, people on my radio

443
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 1: show didn't You probably watched it too, but you didn't

444
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 1: have to. You know why you didn't have to because

445
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: I told you you didn't have to. I have the script.

446
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 1: I told you everything that was going to happen on

447
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,680
Speaker 1: this show. I told you it wasn't funny. I told

448
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,479
Speaker 1: you it was defensive. I told you this show was

449
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: was was was a little heavy handed. I said that

450
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 1: they're they're focusing on the wrong thing in this show,

451
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:07,439
Speaker 1: and they really did. I have You've heard a lot

452
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:08,920
Speaker 1: of people say a lot of things about this show,

453
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 1: but I'll tell you the most important thing is that

454
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: they got very defensive about what a family is. They

455
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: trot out all these various examples of what a family

456
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: is and that's not what the Vice president or any

457
00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,240
Speaker 1: of the family values people. That's profoundly abusive. I think

458
00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 1: this is this You shouldn't have watched this show because

459
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 1: I told you not to, and I told you not

460
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,160
Speaker 1: to because it's not good for you to imbibe this

461
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 1: um And I think it's important to break down exactly

462
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: what he's doing here. First off, he is trying to

463
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 1: physically separate his audience from mainstream American society. Murphy Brown

464
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,639
Speaker 1: was a hugely popular show in this day. He is

465
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 1: literally telling them, you don't need to watch this thing

466
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: other people are watching because I am telling you not to.

467
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 1: And he justifies this by saying that Murphy Brown is

468
00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:57,280
Speaker 1: an assault on family values, which he goes on to

469
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: call functional values, because families, the ones portrayed on Murphy

470
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: Brown were, in Limbaugh's eyes, non functional. This is significant

471
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,840
Speaker 1: because Murphy Brown was a single mother. She was one

472
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: of the first single mother's portrayed on American TV as

473
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 1: not just existing but as being a successful person and

474
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: a competent parent. Was furiously not into it. I can't

475
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: let you can We can't let people watch this because

476
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:26,320
Speaker 1: it will give them the wrong idea, not just about

477
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:28,919
Speaker 1: single mothers. I also think it's worth noting that on

478
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,480
Speaker 1: the show itself, the idea of her being a single

479
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: mother was a uh a plot point that it was

480
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: a story arc that they discussed a lot on the show.

481
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: It was not a it was not a blive decision

482
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: by the character. It was um. They really talked about

483
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 1: what it because because it was a show that did

484
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 1: that did a lot of satire, talked about issues the

485
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: The discussion of whether or not she was going to

486
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,280
Speaker 1: have the baby and what it meant to be a

487
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: single work mother UM was discussed at great length on

488
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 1: the show. Yeah, and that that's why he wants, That's

489
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: why it is important to him to keep his audience

490
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 1: away from it. Now. That was not the only kind

491
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: of groundbreaking thing about Murphy Brown. The show was incredibly

492
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 1: significant in its portrayal of gay people. In several episodes,

493
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 1: most notably in nineteen two and nine four, homosexuals were

494
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: shown as not just normal, functional members of society, but

495
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: as existing in significant numbers throughout American society. There's an

496
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:36,880
Speaker 1: episode where like one of the characters buys a bar

497
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:39,280
Speaker 1: and it becomes through kind of like comedic hijings or

498
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: whatever becomes a gay bar, and he's like slowly realizes

499
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 1: what it is. But the point the episode was making

500
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 1: is that gay people are all around us. They're part

501
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: of our community. They are a significant, meaningful part of

502
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:54,840
Speaker 1: our society. This was rare in mainstream television for the time,

503
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: and it made Rush Limbaugh furious. We have another clip

504
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: here of of that just adults teaching kids doesn't matter

505
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: what the conversation a composition is of the family, and

506
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: nobody has has been critical that when Quayle said that

507
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: they glorified single mothers, what he was trying to point out,

508
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 1: my friends, was and I think this show proved it

509
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,760
Speaker 1: last night. This is another thing. This show has got

510
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,320
Speaker 1: an agenda. And they say all day long they don't

511
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: have an agenda, but last night's show proved it. It's

512
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,479
Speaker 1: okay that they have an agenda. Just say so, like

513
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: this show. We we are perfectly upfront and honest about

514
00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 1: what I am and what I believe on this show,

515
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: and we'll let that float out in the marketplace and

516
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: let you accept it as it is. There's no attempt

517
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: here to fool you, there's no attempt here to deny

518
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 1: what I am. But that's what they're all about. Now

519
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: this is also really significant. Um So what Russia is

520
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: doing here is he's framing his objection to Murphy Brown

521
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: as reasonable and not based in hate. He's saying, I'm

522
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: not against single mothers, or'm not against gay people or whatever.

523
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: I am against the fact that this show conceals its

524
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: political agenda. And I can see why people like most

525
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:05,440
Speaker 1: of my family would have found this reasonable. But what's

526
00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 1: happening here is very sinister, because Murphy Brown was not

527
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: trying to be left wing. It was trying to make

528
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 1: a point that single parents and that gay people are

529
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: regular human beings who contribute to society. It was trying

530
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 1: to point out that single parents are valid and functional people.

531
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: These should not be political points, and recognizing the humanity

532
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: of huge chunks of the population should not count as

533
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: an agenda, but it was critical for Rush Limbaugh to

534
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,520
Speaker 1: turn it into one, because if you can take the

535
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:40,240
Speaker 1: basic humanity of marginalized people and make it a political

536
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 1: talking point, then you make it into something people can

537
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: oppose on principle and thus frame their bigotry is not

538
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,360
Speaker 1: hate but simply a political stance that they have every

539
00:30:49,440 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 1: right to. Rush was not the first person to talk

540
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: about the gay agenda, or to oppose single motherhood. Not

541
00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:58,719
Speaker 1: even close. But before him, the most prominent voices attacking

542
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: these these groups of people were on the religious right,

543
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: which had first had risen as an organized political force

544
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: in the late seventies. They were obviously influential, but they

545
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 1: were also obviously religious extremists, and a lot of non

546
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: religious conservatives and libertarian types did not want to identify

547
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: with fundamentalists. Rush who had a documented history of mocking

548
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: religious conservatives, provided the more libertarian right with a secular

549
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: justification for bigotry against gay people and single mothers and

550
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: women in general. And that's one of his great innovations. Unfortunately,

551
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 1: he pioneered this idea that if you are saying this

552
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: is okay, this thing is okay, what you are doing

553
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: is saying that's that's somehow that's an attack on me

554
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: and what I'm so the idea of dan Quile saying

555
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: it glorifies single mothers, um no one that that show.

556
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: No one was ever saying we should do this instead right,

557
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 1: we should be doing we should be doing this instead

558
00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: of what you think is right. This is what we

559
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:09,920
Speaker 1: should be doing, rather than just saying can't isn't this okay?

560
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: Like these these people exist. Isn't that all right? These

561
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,240
Speaker 1: people exist, It's all right, and they shouldn't be hated

562
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:23,080
Speaker 1: or punished or or ostracized for being this. He's not

563
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: even talking about a slippery slope. He's he's just saying

564
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:29,400
Speaker 1: that if you are saying this is okay, that means

565
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: you are saying the way we live is not okay.

566
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: And that's just not there at all. It's just not

567
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,080
Speaker 1: there at all. But if he's if he's able to

568
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,719
Speaker 1: make it be that way to his listeners, then he

569
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 1: can number one, make sure they will always oppose these

570
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: things that he just finds gross. And number two, it

571
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 1: further separates them from mainstream society. This is the beginning

572
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 1: of the splintering of the mainstream American right from the

573
00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,680
Speaker 1: United States, from most of the people in this country.

574
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: And it is the beginning of making sure that there

575
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 1: there was no You cannot reconcile the right with with

576
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: the modern world, with the rest of civilization, because you

577
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 1: doing a different thing than them is an attack on them,

578
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 1: Like we're being attacked because you're different, and so we

579
00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:24,200
Speaker 1: get to fight you. That's Russia's great innovation. And also

580
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: that the way you think is the real America and

581
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: not the people think that's haunting. But you know what

582
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: isn't haunting, Robert, the products and services that support this podcast, hopefully,

583
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 1: hopefully unless it's Raytheon, which is very haunted products. But

584
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 1: that's a story for another day. And we're back. So Paul,

585
00:33:56,960 --> 00:33:59,360
Speaker 1: I would love to go with this through this entire

586
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 1: episode with In fact, I would love to do a

587
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,280
Speaker 1: reoccurring series where we just go through, point by point

588
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:07,160
Speaker 1: every episode of Rush limbas TV show and talk about it.

589
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 1: I think it would be amazing. It isn't wild, Yeah, yeah,

590
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:20,239
Speaker 1: what's the what's the opposite of Proustian? Yeah? Um, I

591
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 1: it would be very I think fun and also intellectually valuable.

592
00:34:24,200 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: But we just we have so much ground to cover,

593
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:27,880
Speaker 1: we that that this has to be the end of

594
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:29,920
Speaker 1: that episode of the show. Yeah. We can't do a

595
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: rewatch of the We can't do a rewatch podcast with

596
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:37,760
Speaker 1: the Rush Limbo Show. Yeah, at least not not today. Um.

597
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 1: I think we've gotten the point across and characterize what

598
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,839
Speaker 1: he's doing on the show and why it was significant. Now,

599
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: the Rush Limbaugh TV Show was what you'd call a

600
00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 1: modest success. The thirty minutes syndicated series ran from n

601
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:52,120
Speaker 1: which is not a long run, but isn't a super

602
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:54,000
Speaker 1: short run either. You know it was. It was not

603
00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,319
Speaker 1: a huge hit, but it was successful. That said, it's

604
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:01,279
Speaker 1: actual impact on history was much raider then its four

605
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:05,640
Speaker 1: seasons might suggest. As I said earlier, Roger Ales was

606
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 1: the executive producer of Limbough's TV debut. Limbaugh and Ales

607
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: had met in nineteen ninety, and Rush would later say

608
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,399
Speaker 1: that their meeting was quote like finding a soul mate.

609
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:17,360
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna quote here from a write up that

610
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: I found on courts the persona Ales helped Limbaugh create

611
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,080
Speaker 1: on that show, something between a commentator, political strategist, news anchor,

612
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 1: and entertainer is exactly the kind of act you can

613
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:30,200
Speaker 1: see today on Fox News. It is not hard to

614
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: draw a straight line from Limbaugh's TV show to talking

615
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,800
Speaker 1: heads like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. Like today's Fox

616
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,839
Speaker 1: News personalities. Limbaugh fancied himself as a man of the

617
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 1: people who railed against the latest liberal politicians and voters.

618
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 1: But as he did that, he was flying his private

619
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:48,840
Speaker 1: jet around the country to wine and dine with powerful figures.

620
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:51,239
Speaker 1: The myth he created of himself with the help of

621
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:53,560
Speaker 1: Ales is the same myth that we see pushed again

622
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: and again on Fox News by its biggest names. In retrospect.

623
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,880
Speaker 1: Ales may have been using Limbaugh's TV act is that

624
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: test run for Fox News to see if the brand

625
00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:05,040
Speaker 1: of conservative opinion that was working on the radio could

626
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,920
Speaker 1: be translated to and expanded on TV. In nineteen ninety six,

627
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,000
Speaker 1: the same year the Limbaugh Show ended, Ales co founded

628
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: Fox News at the behest of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

629
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 1: Much of what ensued, the liberal bashing, fearmongering alternative reality

630
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:23,120
Speaker 1: in which Fox's personalities lived was reminiscent of aless weird

631
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:27,319
Speaker 1: little Limbaugh talk show experiment. So this is really a

632
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 1: test case for what becomes Fox News, you know, And

633
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 1: the year Limbaugh Show in six is the year Fox

634
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: News launches. What's strange to me is well, I guess

635
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:40,920
Speaker 1: because the show was over, I guess the show, you know,

636
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,160
Speaker 1: the viewership went down. I wonder why he didn't just

637
00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,120
Speaker 1: stick Limbaugh on Fox News in those in those early days,

638
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:54,839
Speaker 1: he wanted to actually, um yeah, so uh like like

639
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,760
Speaker 1: Ales actually tried to get Rush to join the network

640
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 1: I think in two thousand six. Um, but each kind

641
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: of preferred radio. I don't think he actually liked being

642
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 1: on TV very much, not not not to the extent

643
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:09,239
Speaker 1: that he enjoyed, you know, doing his radio show. UM

644
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 1: So I think that was mainly the reason. But also

645
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:14,440
Speaker 1: by the time Fox News really got going, Ales had

646
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: a half dozen Rush limbas you know, which we'll talk

647
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: about a bit later. So throughout the mid and into

648
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 1: the late nineteen nineties, the Rush Limbaugh Show was a

649
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: bona fide cultural phenomenon. Rush created the first fully monetized

650
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,560
Speaker 1: right wing cult of personality within like the American media.

651
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:34,240
Speaker 1: At least as you heard in the clips we played,

652
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,120
Speaker 1: Rush discouraged his listeners from thinking for themselves. He was

653
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 1: the genius, and if you just agreed with him and

654
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,680
Speaker 1: thought the way he thought, then you were, by definition

655
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,760
Speaker 1: also smart. As a result, from the very early point,

656
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:48,880
Speaker 1: he gave his fans the nickname ditto heads. The New

657
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: York Times explains the etymology of this term as it

658
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,359
Speaker 1: evolved on his show. Ditto a time saving greeting used

659
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 1: by callers to avoid tedious repetition of the obvious. For example,

660
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 1: you're wonderful Rush, and I agree with everything you've said.

661
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: Dittohead then means a Limbaugh fan, So you're like, literally,

662
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 1: he's saying, my fans are people who say and believe

663
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 1: all of the exact same things that I do. Um,

664
00:38:13,440 --> 00:38:19,359
Speaker 1: and they're absolutely going to praise me. And so in

665
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 1: order to save some time, let's get let's just condense

666
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 1: all the fawning praise that you will, no doubt give

667
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,520
Speaker 1: me into one word, so we know that what you're

668
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 1: saying is, Rush, I love you. You are everything to me, um,

669
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 1: and I need you to know that before we get

670
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,759
Speaker 1: into whatever fucking issue we're going to get into. Yeah,

671
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,759
Speaker 1: you're the only thing that matters to me, or at

672
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 1: least your beliefs are, because I am so empty as

673
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: a person as a result of how capitalism has hollowed

674
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 1: me out and hollowed my my class out, that that

675
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,799
Speaker 1: I have nothing but the hatred of liberals that you

676
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:59,000
Speaker 1: embody until that first guy came along that had to

677
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,760
Speaker 1: implement mega dittos. Yes, yeah, and then there's mega dittos.

678
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 1: And I can't even get too much into some of

679
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 1: the terms used on the Russia Limbo Show because it

680
00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:09,840
Speaker 1: makes me want to punch things. Until my hands are broken.

681
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:11,799
Speaker 1: And I already said that happened last year because of

682
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: one of his fans. Anyway, the core of the Rush

683
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 1: Limbaugh show was not, as he would always claim, advancing

684
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:23,040
Speaker 1: conservative ideology, but was instead attacking liberals and the left,

685
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:26,800
Speaker 1: who he referred to as kami libs or pink kami libs.

686
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: And I don't know. I again at this fucking gun

687
00:39:29,880 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: class I was at last weekend. The instructor was like,

688
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 1: the far left wants to take your guns away, and

689
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:36,800
Speaker 1: obviously I couldn't be like, actually, the far left is

690
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 1: pretty heavily strapped. It's liberals think are but like, that's

691
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:44,440
Speaker 1: part of part that this idea that Joe Biden is

692
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 1: somehow a leftist right, that he's a communist, that you

693
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:49,680
Speaker 1: hear an auch and you hear all over the right. Now,

694
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,400
Speaker 1: that was Limbo saying anyone who is not a conservative

695
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,400
Speaker 1: as a far left, so it doesn't matter that actually

696
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:57,640
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party is a profoundly conservative political party. In

697
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:01,279
Speaker 1: today's Democrats are basically the same Republicans were when I

698
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 1: was growing up in the nineties. Um. There's also never

699
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 1: any follow up on these these the fearmongering claims whenever

700
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:13,279
Speaker 1: there's an election, like what happened to the Obama sleeper cells,

701
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 1: like he never are are they still in play? Is

702
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 1: he still waiting to give them the word? Like they

703
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 1: never go back and say, oh, it turns out that

704
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:24,440
Speaker 1: didn't happen. It's this, I mean, that's kind of the

705
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:27,239
Speaker 1: thing about Republican talking points. Like the other thing they

706
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,839
Speaker 1: kept panic like r like terrified during the Obama years,

707
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:32,439
Speaker 1: He's gonna take your guns. He's gonna take your guns.

708
00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: He's gonna take your guns. Barack Obama did not one

709
00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:39,439
Speaker 1: single thing to restrict gun ownership in the United States, um,

710
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:44,799
Speaker 1: whereas actually Trump actually did ban certain fire the bump stock.

711
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:48,160
Speaker 1: Like Trump put through more restrictions on gun rights than

712
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:51,240
Speaker 1: not that I'm saying bump stocks are dumb, but Trump

713
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:54,439
Speaker 1: objectively restricted gun ownership more than Obama. But you never

714
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 1: know it to listen to the right wing media, it's

715
00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 1: it's preposterous you that by now people would know, no,

716
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:03,759
Speaker 1: no one's going to take your guns. No one's going

717
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:08,040
Speaker 1: to take your there's too many of them. It's it's

718
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 1: not that you know, we'll talk anyway. Absolutely, yeah, it's yeah.

719
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:16,440
Speaker 1: As I said earlier, the core of Russia. Limbaugh's actual

720
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:20,960
Speaker 1: ideology was owning the Libs um his his conservatism was

721
00:41:20,960 --> 00:41:24,160
Speaker 1: built entirely around attacking the other, and over his years

722
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 1: on air, Rush built up an audience of millions, and

723
00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: eventually tens of millions, who began to see political victory

724
00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:33,240
Speaker 1: as being not about achievements that improve life, but about

725
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:36,200
Speaker 1: tearing down and harming the enemy. This is why you

726
00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 1: get to a point where now mainstream Republicans are selling

727
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 1: mugs with like that are like the tears of my

728
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:43,959
Speaker 1: enemies are in the Yeah, you know, I'm gonna quote

729
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 1: from the Rolling Stone here quote Any Republican Canada is

730
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: better than any Democratic candidate, Limbaugh told his audience early on,

731
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:53,440
Speaker 1: which might sound kind of innocuous on the surface, except

732
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,200
Speaker 1: that for Limbaugh, the superiority of our side and the

733
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:59,919
Speaker 1: inferiority of them was increasingly over the years a dead

734
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:05,239
Speaker 1: least serious matter. It became tribal warfare, which you know,

735
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 1: kind of where we are now. On January three, Time

736
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:14,879
Speaker 1: magazine featured Rush Limball on its cover. We see him

737
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:17,880
Speaker 1: wearing a suit and smoking a cigar. Smoke curls up

738
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,720
Speaker 1: out of his mouth. Behind the bold words is Rush

739
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:24,640
Speaker 1: Limbaugh good for America. Now, it was obvious to anyone

740
00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:26,960
Speaker 1: who was paying attention that he was not. But for

741
00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 1: the most part, the liberal media that Russia attacked and

742
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,680
Speaker 1: demonized embraced him as kind of like the loyal opposition,

743
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 1: as an erudit foil to debate with, to argue against,

744
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:39,239
Speaker 1: but nonetheless someone who deserved respect and honor due to

745
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:42,240
Speaker 1: his success. Like you can see this in the episode

746
00:42:42,239 --> 00:42:44,839
Speaker 1: of Family Guy that Rush was on right where it's

747
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,960
Speaker 1: like he has these fun bickering arguments with the token

748
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 1: liberal on the show, but in the end they really

749
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: both like each other, you know, um, as opposed to

750
00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:55,360
Speaker 1: what Rush actually represented, which is the politics of violent

751
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 1: elimination of the opponent. Um. And it's that. That's what's

752
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: most amazing to me is no matter what he said

753
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 1: about the mainstream media, about the liberal media, whatever, they

754
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:08,399
Speaker 1: fedded him, They they praised him, They made him like

755
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,399
Speaker 1: he was never treated as a pariah. Barbara Walters said

756
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 1: in an interview, people just can't get enough of him.

757
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Yeah, The Los Angeles Times described him

758
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:23,400
Speaker 1: as a self styled commander in chief, fighting his private

759
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,360
Speaker 1: culture war against the many liberal do gooder notions that

760
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 1: interfere with his right to eat and wear and spend

761
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:30,839
Speaker 1: whatever he damned well wants, and say whatever he damn

762
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 1: well pleases. C Span highlighted him in a fawning interview

763
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:36,560
Speaker 1: that helped turn him into a household name. Within a

764
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 1: year of that interview, he was carried by five hundred

765
00:43:39,080 --> 00:43:41,760
Speaker 1: and thirty stations and listened to by an estimated twenty

766
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: five million Americans. He started writing books with titles like

767
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 1: The Way Things Ought to Be, each of which dutifully

768
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,120
Speaker 1: went on to become a New York Times bestseller. For

769
00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:52,800
Speaker 1: a man who built his career attacking the liberal media,

770
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 1: Rush never received anything but encouragement and financial support from

771
00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:01,040
Speaker 1: his so called enemies. The fundamental hypocrisy seas that undergirded

772
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,040
Speaker 1: his career were seldom called out. Russia. Limbaugh had not

773
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:07,080
Speaker 1: even registered to vote until he was thirty five years old,

774
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,920
Speaker 1: two years before his show became a national, nationwide success.

775
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 1: The repeated double standards in his work and his life

776
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 1: never hurt his pull with his audience. For example, Russia

777
00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:20,719
Speaker 1: Limbaugh repeatedly attacked Bill Clinton as a draft dodger, which

778
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:23,720
Speaker 1: he was, but so was Rush. Limbaugh took the route

779
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:26,439
Speaker 1: that most wealthy young Americans during Vietnam took and found

780
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:28,880
Speaker 1: a doctor who would diagnose him with a bullshit injuries

781
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,040
Speaker 1: so that he couldn't be called up for service. When

782
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:33,839
Speaker 1: he was eventually called on this by some journalists who

783
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 1: were doing their jobs, he responded, I had student deferments

784
00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 1: in college, and upon taking a physical was discovered to

785
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,799
Speaker 1: have a physical by the virtue of what the military says,

786
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:45,319
Speaker 1: I didn't even know it existed, a physical deferment. And

787
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,400
Speaker 1: then the lottery system came along when they chose your

788
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 1: lot by birth date, and mine was high I and

789
00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,280
Speaker 1: I did not want to go, just as Governor Clinton didn't,

790
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: which on its own is a reasonable statement, except you

791
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:59,400
Speaker 1: spent years attacking Clinton for being a draft dodger. You

792
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:04,920
Speaker 1: draft funny and hypocritical. To me, my my favorite draft

793
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 1: dodge uh explanation of all time is still Dick Cheney.

794
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: I had other priorities. Yeah, that's that's just that's incredible,

795
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:17,960
Speaker 1: And it's true. Both Cheney and George W. Bush did,

796
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:21,240
Speaker 1: like rush, like Clinton, everything they could to not actually

797
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:23,080
Speaker 1: go and fight in Vietnam. One of the things that

798
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,800
Speaker 1: will always be the most infuriating thing in one of

799
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 1: the most infuriating things to happen in American politics. To

800
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:32,440
Speaker 1: me is the way in which um John Kerry, who

801
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:36,160
Speaker 1: is a whatever else you can say about him, fought courageously,

802
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 1: went to win despite the considerable privilege he was born into,

803
00:45:40,840 --> 00:45:44,840
Speaker 1: did an incredibly dangerous job, was wounded multiple times, and

804
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:47,600
Speaker 1: risked his life repeatedly for the lives of his men. Right,

805
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:49,600
Speaker 1: Vietnam was a terrible war we never should have been in.

806
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,680
Speaker 1: It was fundamentally immoral on a national scale, but on

807
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:56,439
Speaker 1: a human level, John Kerry did the right thing, which

808
00:45:56,520 --> 00:45:59,920
Speaker 1: is not use his privilege to get out of fight

809
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,520
Speaker 1: eating in a war that other people of his class

810
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 1: got us into. And he was portrayed during that campaign

811
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,960
Speaker 1: as like a liar and a craven coward. What George Bush,

812
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,800
Speaker 1: who did everything he could to not fight in Vietnam,

813
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:18,359
Speaker 1: was seen as this brave warrior hero. It's it's still

814
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 1: very frustrating. I don't even like John Kerry, but my god,

815
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:23,840
Speaker 1: the man did the thing all of you say is

816
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:27,520
Speaker 1: what you're supposed to do as a man. It's it's infuriating,

817
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 1: it's infuriating. The ditto Heads continued to listen to their

818
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,719
Speaker 1: idol Slam Clinton for being a draft dodger, even while

819
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 1: they celebrated a man who, by his own admission, had

820
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,000
Speaker 1: done the exact same thing. Rush would eventually rack up

821
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:42,759
Speaker 1: three to four and I should have stayed here. I'm not.

822
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 1: It's not bad to be a draft dodger. The Vietnam

823
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: War was again, horribly immoral. It's perfectly it's what. What

824
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 1: is immoral is dodging the draft and then going on

825
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 1: to incourage to do nothing but encourage more wars that

826
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 1: involve American serviceman. Right, that's immoral. It is not a

827
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,320
Speaker 1: moral to dodge the draft and say, hey, this was

828
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:04,920
Speaker 1: a bad war. We shouldn't get involved in stupid, pointless

829
00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:07,360
Speaker 1: wars that just kill people for the profits of a

830
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:09,880
Speaker 1: tiny number. Like that's bad. I'm not going to do it,

831
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:11,839
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to support it. That's fine. Yeah,

832
00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:14,359
Speaker 1: it's doubly a moral when you're well past the age

833
00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:18,919
Speaker 1: where it would affect you where it's you're now, there's

834
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,960
Speaker 1: another there's a later generation of people that will be

835
00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 1: affected by this very uh, you know, hypocritical line of attack. Yeah,

836
00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:32,320
Speaker 1: it's the moral inconsistency that's infuriating John Kerry. I actually

837
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 1: and John Kerry did not support the Vietnam War and

838
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:37,720
Speaker 1: became after he got out a very very outspoken voice

839
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:41,080
Speaker 1: against it. Um. But it's the if if Limbaugh had

840
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 1: served in Vietnam and then gone on to be a

841
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:45,800
Speaker 1: war hawk, then at least he would be ideologically consistent.

842
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,760
Speaker 1: You know, at least I could say Rush Limbaugh believes

843
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:51,880
Speaker 1: in something. It's like John McCain. At least he fucking

844
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,439
Speaker 1: believed in something. You know, it was terrible and fundamentally

845
00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:58,800
Speaker 1: toxic as well, But it was not He's not like Limbaugh.

846
00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 1: You know, he is a person who has beliefs. Um.

847
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:04,640
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's that It's not like that line

848
00:48:04,719 --> 00:48:07,560
Speaker 1: from the Big Lebowski right, like, say what you will

849
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:10,000
Speaker 1: about the tenants of national socialism, Dude. At least it's

850
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: an ethos, you know. Uh So, Rush Limbaugh was not

851
00:48:17,239 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: a man who I think believed in much much Other

852
00:48:19,719 --> 00:48:21,919
Speaker 1: than the fame and wealth of Rush Limbaugh. He would

853
00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:24,879
Speaker 1: eventually rack up three divorces and four wives. He never

854
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:28,200
Speaker 1: had any children. Despite this, tens of millions of conservatives

855
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 1: listened to him, opening on family values and traditional morality

856
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:35,279
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. Rush called it functional values, and

857
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: one key aspect of his functional value system was rejecting

858
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 1: illegal drugs. At one point on his TV show at

859
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 1: the height of the drug war, Rush told his audience,

860
00:48:44,719 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 1: if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they

861
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:48,720
Speaker 1: ought to be accused, and they ought to be convicted,

862
00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:50,520
Speaker 1: and they ought to be sent up the river. He

863
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:55,080
Speaker 1: repeatedly called addics junkies. Yeah, to go to prison if

864
00:48:55,120 --> 00:49:00,319
Speaker 1: you dog. He repeatedly called addics junkies, and some justed

865
00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:03,000
Speaker 1: that drug dealers deserved death for their crimes. Well. He

866
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: enthusiastically supported the drug war and the use of the

867
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:08,200
Speaker 1: car Serile state to lock up mostly black men for

868
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:12,040
Speaker 1: selling drugs. Rush Limbaugh was actively trafficking huge amounts of

869
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:15,759
Speaker 1: opiate pain killers. Rush used his housekeeper as a hook up,

870
00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 1: handing her cigar boxes filled with cash in exchange for

871
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,359
Speaker 1: thousands of pills of oxy content, hydrocodon and the like.

872
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: In two thousand three, she went public and knocked on

873
00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:26,000
Speaker 1: him to the police. When the story broke, he was

874
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:29,080
Speaker 1: charged for his crimes and Florida Sheriff's deputies opened an

875
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:32,960
Speaker 1: investigation into a drug trafficking ring. We don't know exactly

876
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:35,960
Speaker 1: what Rushes if he was just a customer, or if

877
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:37,440
Speaker 1: he had some other role in it, but he was

878
00:49:37,520 --> 00:49:41,480
Speaker 1: buying huge amounts of pain killers. I'm talking about a

879
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:44,280
Speaker 1: guy who was spending probably hundreds of thousands of dollars

880
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 1: on his addiction. And did it come from did he

881
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:49,839
Speaker 1: have some injury that got him hooked on it or yeah,

882
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:52,240
Speaker 1: he got it prescribed to him initially for an injury

883
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:55,279
Speaker 1: and he got addicted like most people do that. This

884
00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:57,799
Speaker 1: is this is not just with prescription painks. Most people

885
00:49:57,800 --> 00:50:01,040
Speaker 1: who have a problematic addiction to a drug get addicted

886
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:03,759
Speaker 1: because of something negative that happens in their life, right,

887
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:07,760
Speaker 1: trauma or an injury, or or an emotional depression whatever.

888
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:13,080
Speaker 1: That's most people who have a problematic addiction. Um Limbaugh said,

889
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:15,839
Speaker 1: anyone who does that should go to prison. Then he

890
00:50:15,880 --> 00:50:21,360
Speaker 1: did that, you know, and he oh, yeah, he gets caught. Uh,

891
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: And when he gets caught, it is a big story.

892
00:50:24,360 --> 00:50:27,160
Speaker 1: In two thousand three, his housekeeper went public, wore a

893
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:30,799
Speaker 1: wire recorded him doing a drug dealer deal, knocked on

894
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 1: him to the police, and when the story broke, he

895
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 1: was charged for his crimes and Florida Sheriff's deputies open

896
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 1: an investigation into that drug traffic trafficking ring um. His

897
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:43,239
Speaker 1: third wife left him, He checked himself into rehab while

898
00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:45,880
Speaker 1: his multimillion dollar team of lawyers went to work defending

899
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:48,359
Speaker 1: him in court. The legal battle would go on for

900
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 1: three years, during which time he began doctor shopping to

901
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:54,520
Speaker 1: maintain his addiction. He was charged again with fraud for

902
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:58,399
Speaker 1: concealing information to obtain prescriptions from four different doctors who

903
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:01,440
Speaker 1: prescribed him roughly two thousand pain pills during one six

904
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,279
Speaker 1: month period. The case would eventually wrap up in two

905
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,880
Speaker 1: thousand six, when Limbaugh agreed to a plea deal that

906
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:09,560
Speaker 1: allowed him to avoid prosecution if he sought treatment and

907
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:17,440
Speaker 1: avoided other criminal activity. It's very frustrated. Huh, Yeah, I

908
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 1: actually didn't. I didn't really, I wasn't really cognizant of

909
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:25,160
Speaker 1: all the the legal side of this. I just remember

910
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:31,280
Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of him being, you know, uh, just gobbling

911
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 1: up shaming and while he's gobbling down these pills. But

912
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:38,760
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I guess I didn't. I didn't. Uh,

913
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:42,600
Speaker 1: I didn't bother exploring that side of right, and like

914
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,520
Speaker 1: he doesn't even it's not even a slap on the wrist.

915
00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:47,680
Speaker 1: It's like a little light tap on the wrist. It's

916
00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:50,280
Speaker 1: not even a slap on the wrists. So fucking upsetting.

917
00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 1: And again, the immorality here is that he always advocated

918
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:57,080
Speaker 1: criminal consequences from people who did exactly what he did,

919
00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,160
Speaker 1: and then he didn't go on to suffer them. And

920
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:01,600
Speaker 1: that's what's It's that, like, there's nothing morally wrong with

921
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:04,840
Speaker 1: being addicted to pain killers. If it were legal, I

922
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:10,239
Speaker 1: would absolutely be a pain killer addict. Seems rad Um,

923
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:12,680
Speaker 1: it's it's the But I'm also consistent about the fact

924
00:52:12,719 --> 00:52:16,360
Speaker 1: that I don't think doing or possession any substant Yeah,

925
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 1: with the exception of, like, you know, some explosives. Um,

926
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:22,040
Speaker 1: there's a line to be drawn, and I don't think

927
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:27,239
Speaker 1: people should have certain but Harold, speaking of Heroin, you

928
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:32,480
Speaker 1: know who supports our podcast, Sophie, I don't know the

929
00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 1: fine people at the cinaaloa cartel, so very specifically, like, yes,

930
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:45,719
Speaker 1: this is a cartel supported podcast, And I just want

931
00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:49,319
Speaker 1: to say, let's go to ads before I get us

932
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:58,560
Speaker 1: in some trouble. Ah, we're back good times. So, while

933
00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:01,240
Speaker 1: Rush was using his wealth power to avoid the legal

934
00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:05,280
Speaker 1: consequences that he enthusiastically supported existing for the crimes he committed,

935
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:08,840
Speaker 1: he continued to act as the voice of America's conservative conscience.

936
00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:12,239
Speaker 1: Mostly this meant being super racist. At one point on

937
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:14,600
Speaker 1: his TV show, he played video clips of black men

938
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:17,560
Speaker 1: and boys standing in front of the TV and and like,

939
00:53:17,719 --> 00:53:20,160
Speaker 1: while he was playing these clips of black men and boys,

940
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:21,640
Speaker 1: he would stand in front of the TV and make

941
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:25,240
Speaker 1: guerrilla noises and grunts, the apparent joke being that black

942
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,319
Speaker 1: people were like monkeys, Like that's kind of I don't

943
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 1: know what else he could be saying, um, pretty sat

944
00:53:33,560 --> 00:53:38,440
Speaker 1: very satire, Like I think he got that from a

945
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:41,840
Speaker 1: New Yorker cartoon. It would be like if Jonathan Swift

946
00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:44,960
Speaker 1: actually murdered Irish children and then was like, this is

947
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:49,280
Speaker 1: a satire, Get it. The joke is that their food

948
00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:56,480
Speaker 1: rush repeatedly blamed corruption and violence in African like the

949
00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:59,720
Speaker 1: African nation national governments, as the fault of black people

950
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 1: being rid of white colonial leaders, as we see in

951
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:06,279
Speaker 1: this quote from two thousand seven quote. Right, so you

952
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:08,200
Speaker 1: go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you

953
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:10,320
Speaker 1: get rid of the white government there, you put sanctions

954
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:13,320
Speaker 1: on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela, who was bankrolled

955
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:15,800
Speaker 1: by communists for a time, had the support of certain

956
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:19,480
Speaker 1: communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia, you do the same thing. Right.

957
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:21,400
Speaker 1: He's saying that because the black people got rid of

958
00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:24,719
Speaker 1: their colonial oppressors, that's why Africa's in bad shape. Not

959
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:27,600
Speaker 1: the decades of trauma those governments pushed. Not the fact

960
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:30,479
Speaker 1: that when those governments gave up colonial control, they put

961
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:32,840
Speaker 1: people like Idi Amine, who had been a British military

962
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:34,719
Speaker 1: sergeant in charge of the government and turned out that

963
00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:38,000
Speaker 1: he was a fucking monster. Not because those governments, like

964
00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:41,280
Speaker 1: colonial governments, continue to suck wealth out of these countries

965
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 1: and support kleptocratic dictatorships that allowed them to suck more

966
00:54:45,000 --> 00:54:48,560
Speaker 1: wealth out, that made the country dysfunctional, and that led

967
00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:52,319
Speaker 1: to consistent, like decades and decades of violence. Not that

968
00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:54,759
Speaker 1: they supported ethnic groups one over the other, like they

969
00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:57,040
Speaker 1: didn't Rwanda, which led to their one to genocide. None

970
00:54:57,040 --> 00:54:58,880
Speaker 1: of that. It's because they got rid of the white people,

971
00:54:59,200 --> 00:55:02,160
Speaker 1: even the white people to actually leave. You know, it's

972
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:05,680
Speaker 1: super fucked up. I didn't know that he'd actually gone

973
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:13,600
Speaker 1: to the lengths of trying to smear Nelson Mandela. Yeah, communists, Uh,

974
00:55:13,719 --> 00:55:16,799
Speaker 1: it's good stuff. I mean Nelson Mandela also was at

975
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:20,160
Speaker 1: one point some guy somebody who supported like terrorism and stuff,

976
00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:23,200
Speaker 1: which also is totally justified. If your government is the

977
00:55:23,239 --> 00:55:26,560
Speaker 1: apartheid government of South Africa, terrorism is not necessarily the

978
00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 1: wrong thing to do. I would say, it's not off

979
00:55:29,080 --> 00:55:33,640
Speaker 1: the table. It's not off the table. Sometimes terrorists are right. Yeah.

980
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:37,840
Speaker 1: That is like you could argue that the founding fathers

981
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:40,480
Speaker 1: of this nation, who despite their own bigotry and slave

982
00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:43,839
Speaker 1: like the government they're rebelling against, also allowed slavery. They

983
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 1: were right to do terrorism to get rid of having

984
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:49,240
Speaker 1: a king, because kings are bad, you know, like terrorism

985
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:55,000
Speaker 1: is justified sometimes. Um So Rush was repeatedly critical of

986
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:58,279
Speaker 1: professional sports for the presence of black athletes, as we

987
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:01,360
Speaker 1: see in this two thousand seven quote. Look, let me

988
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,480
Speaker 1: put it to you. To you this way, the NFL

989
00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:05,760
Speaker 1: all too often looks like a game between the bloods

990
00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:10,360
Speaker 1: and the crips without any weapons there. I said it. Wow.

991
00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,640
Speaker 1: The inherent criminality of black people was a belief that

992
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:18,239
Speaker 1: Rush held deeply, and he expressed it constantly. In nine

993
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 1: he said, the a c P should have riot rehearsals.

994
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:25,440
Speaker 1: They should get a liquor store and practice robberies. You're

995
00:56:25,480 --> 00:56:27,920
Speaker 1: saying this after the la riots, you know, this is like,

996
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:30,560
Speaker 1: this is what the n A. This is not people

997
00:56:30,640 --> 00:56:34,399
Speaker 1: reacting to horrible violence the only way that they can, right.

998
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:36,760
Speaker 1: This is not a riot being the language of the unheard,

999
00:56:36,800 --> 00:56:40,719
Speaker 1: this is what the CP wants because to criticize athletes,

1000
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:44,800
Speaker 1: I bet he couldn't even do a jog. Yeah, it's

1001
00:56:44,840 --> 00:56:47,799
Speaker 1: it's pretty great. The the yeah, the ticking point of

1002
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:49,759
Speaker 1: like they just these you know, these people, they just

1003
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:53,560
Speaker 1: love to riot. Yeah, they just loved not these people

1004
00:56:53,560 --> 00:56:57,279
Speaker 1: are being oppressed and murdered, and finally violence was the

1005
00:56:57,360 --> 00:56:59,680
Speaker 1: only thing they could think to do because they were

1006
00:56:59,680 --> 00:57:02,239
Speaker 1: given no other options, and they've reached the end of

1007
00:57:02,280 --> 00:57:06,160
Speaker 1: their human tether. Like the people I idolized who founded

1008
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:10,640
Speaker 1: this nation, slavery is over. What more do you want?

1009
00:57:11,160 --> 00:57:12,680
Speaker 1: I mean? And when I say that, I don't mean

1010
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: to say like that. Obviously anyone rioting in Los Angeles

1011
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:18,960
Speaker 1: and was a thousand times more justified than George Washington.

1012
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:22,000
Speaker 1: And that said, I still think getting rid of a king,

1013
00:57:22,160 --> 00:57:24,320
Speaker 1: all other things being equal, getting rid of a king

1014
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 1: is a violent reason to do violence. Kings are bad. Yeah.

1015
00:57:27,840 --> 00:57:31,680
Speaker 1: So Rush repeatedly argued that white people shouldn't be blamed

1016
00:57:31,720 --> 00:57:35,240
Speaker 1: for slavery, saying it's preposterous that Caucasians are blamed for

1017
00:57:35,280 --> 00:57:37,200
Speaker 1: slavery when they've done more to end it than any

1018
00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:39,680
Speaker 1: other race. Any race of people should not have guilty.

1019
00:57:39,720 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 1: If any race of people should not have guilt about slavery,

1020
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:47,520
Speaker 1: it's Caucasians, bitch. It's amazing how many Caucasians fought to

1021
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:50,920
Speaker 1: keep the thought and died to keep slavery going. Rush

1022
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:53,240
Speaker 1: is this just like at this point when you say

1023
00:57:53,280 --> 00:57:57,919
Speaker 1: things like that, right, he is what do you think

1024
00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:02,360
Speaker 1: the percentages of uh for in Russia's mind? I actually

1025
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:05,320
Speaker 1: believe this or what is the most out to what

1026
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:07,760
Speaker 1: is the most outrageous thing that I could say? I

1027
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:13,120
Speaker 1: think he comes to believe it because these beliefs, well,

1028
00:58:13,240 --> 00:58:14,960
Speaker 1: I think what it is. It starts he's not a

1029
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:18,480
Speaker 1: political person. He doesn't care about politics. He starts with

1030
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:21,280
Speaker 1: a joke because he starts doing this persona because it

1031
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 1: gets him listeners. But he's also a narcissist, and these

1032
00:58:24,800 --> 00:58:29,120
Speaker 1: beliefs aren't political stances to him. There are aspects of

1033
00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:32,760
Speaker 1: his personality, and his narcissism dictates that he comes to

1034
00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:35,600
Speaker 1: believe it because believing it and defending these things is

1035
00:58:35,600 --> 00:58:38,440
Speaker 1: the same as defending himself. And again, he's a fucking narcissist.

1036
00:58:38,920 --> 00:58:41,040
Speaker 1: I think that's how it works. I like the Trump

1037
00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:43,680
Speaker 1: thing where he starts out telling a lie, but then

1038
00:58:43,680 --> 00:58:47,040
Speaker 1: he repeats the lie enough times that it becomes true

1039
00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:51,120
Speaker 1: to him because he is saying, yes, that's exactly the case.

1040
00:58:51,720 --> 00:58:55,600
Speaker 1: So another repeated rush limbab bit was attacking the daughters

1041
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:59,800
Speaker 1: of Democratic presidents for being In nine, he called Jimmy

1042
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:03,720
Speaker 1: Arn's daughter Amy the most unattractive presidential daughter in the

1043
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:06,760
Speaker 1: history of the country. In the early nineteen nineties, he

1044
00:59:06,800 --> 00:59:12,200
Speaker 1: declared Chelsea Clinton to be the White House dog, which

1045
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:16,280
Speaker 1: is like just very vile. Um. I don't even think

1046
00:59:16,280 --> 00:59:20,520
Speaker 1: it's like the Trump boys and Ivanka made themselves political figures,

1047
00:59:20,560 --> 00:59:23,400
Speaker 1: perfectly fine to insult and attack them. You're never gonna

1048
00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:25,480
Speaker 1: hear me saying anything bad about like Tiffany or Barren,

1049
00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:29,320
Speaker 1: because there their children. You know, like, you don't fucking

1050
00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:31,720
Speaker 1: talk about them if they don't make themselves into a

1051
00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:36,200
Speaker 1: major part of things. You know, Now, Chelsea Clinton has done,

1052
00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 1: hasn't put herself in the public eye, and it's perfectly

1053
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 1: fair to criticize her for the things she does in

1054
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:42,600
Speaker 1: the public eye. But at that time, when he was

1055
00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:46,600
Speaker 1: saying that she was literally, but she was a child. Yeah,

1056
00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:50,360
Speaker 1: and what you're what he said about her is a

1057
00:59:50,480 --> 00:59:53,080
Speaker 1: kind You can't be a good person and say that

1058
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:59,560
Speaker 1: about a child to an audience. Yeah. In two thousand twelve,

1059
00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:02,480
Speaker 1: when your town law student Sandra Fluke went before Congress

1060
01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:05,080
Speaker 1: to argue that contraceptive should be covered by the Affordable

1061
01:00:05,080 --> 01:00:08,680
Speaker 1: Care Act, Limboch called her a slut and a prostitute.

1062
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:12,520
Speaker 1: It's it's hard. You can't overstate how vile he was.

1063
01:00:12,600 --> 01:00:18,360
Speaker 1: When um the Marty from Back to the Future, um uh.

1064
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,960
Speaker 1: Michael J. Fox, Michael J. Fox made some political statements

1065
01:00:21,960 --> 01:00:26,680
Speaker 1: that Limbab disagreed with. Limbob mimicked having Parkinson's disease to

1066
01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:31,640
Speaker 1: mock him on his Show's a bad person to say

1067
01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:34,600
Speaker 1: that to to and imply that Michael J. Fox was

1068
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 1: playing it up for the cameras when he went testified

1069
01:00:38,360 --> 01:00:41,280
Speaker 1: before Congress. I remember this. I remember this so well

1070
01:00:41,320 --> 01:00:45,240
Speaker 1: because Michael J. Fox deliberately did not take his medication

1071
01:00:45,520 --> 01:00:47,920
Speaker 1: and said that and said, I want you to see

1072
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:52,000
Speaker 1: this is what happens and Russia. Limbab accused him of

1073
01:00:52,160 --> 01:00:55,280
Speaker 1: like playing it up like it's not that bad, and

1074
01:00:55,320 --> 01:00:59,680
Speaker 1: he's he's jiggling all around like I that's like burned

1075
01:00:59,680 --> 01:01:03,280
Speaker 1: into my brain forever. It's horrific. I mean, it's like

1076
01:01:03,320 --> 01:01:05,160
Speaker 1: and and to say that it would be it's like,

1077
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:07,920
Speaker 1: I think what he did was perfectly reasonable. I'm not

1078
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:09,800
Speaker 1: going to take my medicine because you need to know

1079
01:01:10,080 --> 01:01:12,240
Speaker 1: what it is like for people who don't have access

1080
01:01:12,280 --> 01:01:14,280
Speaker 1: to the medicine. I'm rich. I have access to all

1081
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 1: the medicine I need. Here's what it's like if you don't.

1082
01:01:16,760 --> 01:01:18,960
Speaker 1: I want to make this less abstract to you. Yeah.

1083
01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:21,000
Speaker 1: I I had a friend. One of the big things

1084
01:01:21,000 --> 01:01:25,280
Speaker 1: in terms of like me changing my political attitude that

1085
01:01:25,360 --> 01:01:27,600
Speaker 1: started with like me changing my attitudes on drugs. This

1086
01:01:27,720 --> 01:01:29,880
Speaker 1: conservative that like marijuana should be I llegal, that it

1087
01:01:29,920 --> 01:01:31,760
Speaker 1: was a moral I had a friend who was much

1088
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:33,560
Speaker 1: older than I met on World of Warcraft, who had

1089
01:01:33,600 --> 01:01:36,960
Speaker 1: multiple sclerosis, and we were video chatting and she showed

1090
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:41,880
Speaker 1: me how badly her hands shook before she started smoking. Right,

1091
01:01:42,080 --> 01:01:44,320
Speaker 1: she like showed me herself shaking, and then she took

1092
01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:47,400
Speaker 1: a hit, which was difficult for her, and I watched

1093
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:50,160
Speaker 1: in real time how it affected her. And I never

1094
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:54,320
Speaker 1: again supported keeping that ship illegal because you can't when

1095
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:57,040
Speaker 1: you see it, right, you can't it's medicine, not that

1096
01:01:57,160 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: most people use it use it medicinally, which doesn't isn't wrong,

1097
01:01:59,600 --> 01:02:01,640
Speaker 1: like it's out wrong to use it recreationally, But just

1098
01:02:01,720 --> 01:02:04,400
Speaker 1: the idea that what she was doing was a crime

1099
01:02:05,040 --> 01:02:07,240
Speaker 1: made it clear to me how ammorl our drug laws

1100
01:02:07,240 --> 01:02:09,880
Speaker 1: were um in a way that maybe if I had

1101
01:02:09,960 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 1: like it would have taken longer otherwise I think, um

1102
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:17,520
Speaker 1: so Yeah. Anyway, Limbaugh did occasionally face consequences for his

1103
01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:21,160
Speaker 1: bald faced bigotry. In two thousand three, ESPN hired him

1104
01:02:21,160 --> 01:02:25,640
Speaker 1: as an on air commentator. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he

1105
01:02:25,680 --> 01:02:28,880
Speaker 1: was fired after like seven weeks because he said Philadelphia

1106
01:02:28,920 --> 01:02:32,520
Speaker 1: Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb didn't deserve any of the praise

1107
01:02:32,560 --> 01:02:37,360
Speaker 1: he received. So he said Donovan, Yeah, he said Donovan

1108
01:02:37,400 --> 01:02:40,520
Speaker 1: McNabb didn't deserve the praise that he received because, quote,

1109
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:42,800
Speaker 1: I think the media has been very desirous that a

1110
01:02:42,840 --> 01:02:45,760
Speaker 1: black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and

1111
01:02:45,760 --> 01:02:48,240
Speaker 1: black quarterbacks doing well. I think that there's a little

1112
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:49,960
Speaker 1: hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of

1113
01:02:49,960 --> 01:02:51,800
Speaker 1: credit for the performance of his team that he really

1114
01:02:51,800 --> 01:02:54,640
Speaker 1: didn't deserve. People just like this guy because he's black,

1115
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:57,280
Speaker 1: not because he's a good quarterback. The media has invested

1116
01:02:57,280 --> 01:02:59,760
Speaker 1: in black men being good quarterbacks. You know, I like

1117
01:03:00,120 --> 01:03:03,400
Speaker 1: you went into your Shapiro voice for that quote. It's

1118
01:03:03,440 --> 01:03:06,720
Speaker 1: what the funk man. You couldn't do what he's doing?

1119
01:03:06,840 --> 01:03:10,880
Speaker 1: How dare you like? So this combat drew enough widespread

1120
01:03:10,920 --> 01:03:14,040
Speaker 1: condemnation that Limbaugh was forced to resign from ESPN. But

1121
01:03:14,080 --> 01:03:16,560
Speaker 1: obviously this had little to no impact on his bottom line.

1122
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:20,400
Speaker 1: Maybe it annoyed him personally, but it didn't hurt him financially.

1123
01:03:20,760 --> 01:03:23,840
Speaker 1: By the early aughts, Rush was worth hundreds of millions

1124
01:03:23,880 --> 01:03:26,400
Speaker 1: of dollars. He had a private jet, He had a

1125
01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:29,960
Speaker 1: palatial mansion in Florida. He smoked cigars that cost more

1126
01:03:30,000 --> 01:03:33,640
Speaker 1: than some people's cars. This is disgusting, but I think

1127
01:03:33,640 --> 01:03:36,440
Speaker 1: any fair accounting of Limbaugh's career has to acknowledge how

1128
01:03:36,440 --> 01:03:39,520
Speaker 1: impressive it was too. The early two thousands saw the

1129
01:03:39,560 --> 01:03:42,040
Speaker 1: explosion of Fox News. This is the period where it

1130
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:44,840
Speaker 1: became the most watched news network in the country. A

1131
01:03:44,920 --> 01:03:48,360
Speaker 1: slew of Limbaugh imitators rose up, men like Bill O'Reilly,

1132
01:03:48,400 --> 01:03:51,360
Speaker 1: Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson, to name a few. While

1133
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:55,040
Speaker 1: these folks were all hugely successful and influential, none of

1134
01:03:55,080 --> 01:03:58,280
Speaker 1: them ever eclipsed Rush. This is because, in addition to

1135
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:03,680
Speaker 1: wielding influence, Rush held extrue actual, demonstrable political power. And

1136
01:04:03,680 --> 01:04:07,240
Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote the Rolling Stone again here. His sky

1137
01:04:07,320 --> 01:04:09,800
Speaker 1: hire ratings and the rabid fandom of his dittoheads, who

1138
01:04:09,800 --> 01:04:12,040
Speaker 1: just happened to fit the profile of people who voted

1139
01:04:12,040 --> 01:04:15,320
Speaker 1: frequently in Republican primaries, made it inevitable that the GOP

1140
01:04:15,400 --> 01:04:19,560
Speaker 1: would come courting. After he he boosted Pat Buchanan's pitchfork

1141
01:04:19,600 --> 01:04:22,520
Speaker 1: populist make America First Again challenge to George Bush, the

1142
01:04:22,560 --> 01:04:25,120
Speaker 1: President became so hell bent on gaining Limbaugh's favor for

1143
01:04:25,160 --> 01:04:27,560
Speaker 1: the general election that he not only invited the host

1144
01:04:27,600 --> 01:04:29,919
Speaker 1: to the White House, but toted his bags personally into

1145
01:04:29,960 --> 01:04:32,960
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Bedroom. Limbaugh had only praised for Bush from

1146
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:34,920
Speaker 1: that day forward, at least until he lost to Bill

1147
01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:39,160
Speaker 1: Clinton in November. That set a pattern. Limbaugh might instinctively

1148
01:04:39,200 --> 01:04:42,360
Speaker 1: gravitate to the radicals, but he was ultimately a team player,

1149
01:04:42,560 --> 01:04:45,440
Speaker 1: the national precincts captain of the Republican Party, as Mother

1150
01:04:45,560 --> 01:04:49,040
Speaker 1: Jones described him two years later, Limbaugh basically co captain

1151
01:04:49,080 --> 01:04:52,120
Speaker 1: the Republican Revolution with House Leader Newt Gingridge, when their

1152
01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:55,360
Speaker 1: efforts produced a landslide that brought seventy three anti government

1153
01:04:55,440 --> 01:04:58,200
Speaker 1: Zealots to Congress. The host was made an honorary House

1154
01:04:58,240 --> 01:05:01,360
Speaker 1: freshman and fed it at a GEOP orientation in December,

1155
01:05:01,360 --> 01:05:03,920
Speaker 1: where the new members wore Rush was right, buttons and

1156
01:05:03,960 --> 01:05:06,280
Speaker 1: listened to his marching orders. This is not the time

1157
01:05:06,280 --> 01:05:08,720
Speaker 1: to get moderate, he said, This is not the time

1158
01:05:08,760 --> 01:05:12,560
Speaker 1: to start trying to be liked. Ronald Reagan himself declared

1159
01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:16,160
Speaker 1: Limbaugh the number one voice for conservatism in our country,

1160
01:05:16,480 --> 01:05:21,560
Speaker 1: and Rush was always very clear. And Rush was always

1161
01:05:21,680 --> 01:05:24,720
Speaker 1: very clear about where he wanted to see the party head.

1162
01:05:25,200 --> 01:05:30,200
Speaker 1: Smaller government, stronger, more powerful corporations. He said all he

1163
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:39,439
Speaker 1: said outright. I consider myself a defender of corporate America. Yeah,

1164
01:05:40,760 --> 01:05:43,400
Speaker 1: it would not be wrong to view Rush Limbaugh as

1165
01:05:43,480 --> 01:05:46,120
Speaker 1: something of a cult leader. One of the strongest pieces

1166
01:05:46,120 --> 01:05:50,280
Speaker 1: of evidence supporting this conclusion is, in my mind, Limbaugh's

1167
01:05:50,320 --> 01:05:54,840
Speaker 1: embrace of the irrational politics. For Rush Limbaugh was never

1168
01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:59,000
Speaker 1: about concrete results or observable reality. It was a fight

1169
01:05:59,120 --> 01:06:03,480
Speaker 1: between good his side and evil anyone who disagreed with him.

1170
01:06:03,720 --> 01:06:06,160
Speaker 1: And since those were the stakes, it didn't matter if

1171
01:06:06,200 --> 01:06:09,280
Speaker 1: he lied or spread conspiracy theories because the essence of

1172
01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:12,680
Speaker 1: what he was saying, that the Democrats were monsters, was true.

1173
01:06:13,160 --> 01:06:16,000
Speaker 1: Nowhere is this clearer than in his hatred of the Clintons.

1174
01:06:16,600 --> 01:06:19,080
Speaker 1: It started when George H. W. Bush lost to Bill,

1175
01:06:19,240 --> 01:06:21,800
Speaker 1: robbing Rush of a president who would directly, you know,

1176
01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:24,920
Speaker 1: take him into the White House right. From an early stage,

1177
01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:27,840
Speaker 1: Rush realized that lying about the crimes committed by Bill

1178
01:06:27,880 --> 01:06:30,720
Speaker 1: and Hillary was a more productive route than criticizing them

1179
01:06:30,720 --> 01:06:34,560
Speaker 1: on policy, and so in nineteen four he announced Vince

1180
01:06:34,600 --> 01:06:37,520
Speaker 1: Foster was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton

1181
01:06:37,520 --> 01:06:40,560
Speaker 1: and the body was taken to Fort Marcy Park, rolling

1182
01:06:40,560 --> 01:06:44,200
Speaker 1: Stone rights conspiracy theories once the province of fringe right

1183
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:47,160
Speaker 1: wingers started to become the mainstream Republican fair they are

1184
01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:50,080
Speaker 1: today during Clinton's two terms, and Limbaugh was the great

1185
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:53,200
Speaker 1: popular riser of the genre. Long before Fox House began

1186
01:06:53,240 --> 01:06:56,320
Speaker 1: amplifying the fringe eyear theories about American politics, Limbaugh was

1187
01:06:56,360 --> 01:07:00,520
Speaker 1: busy mainstreaming wing nut world, the conspiracy cranks, the on Bircher's,

1188
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:04,120
Speaker 1: the Christian Zionists, the science deniers, the info warriors, their

1189
01:07:04,160 --> 01:07:07,240
Speaker 1: wildest fantasies, fears, and paranoias, all came out to play

1190
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:09,760
Speaker 1: in the national prime time on the Rush Limbaugh Show,

1191
01:07:10,040 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 1: repackaged by the host into a palatable fair for the

1192
01:07:12,520 --> 01:07:16,720
Speaker 1: Republican masses. And this isn't this is significant because Russia's

1193
01:07:16,760 --> 01:07:20,040
Speaker 1: demonizing of the Clinton's who There's plenty of very value

1194
01:07:20,160 --> 01:07:21,920
Speaker 1: valid things to critique them on, but at the end

1195
01:07:21,920 --> 01:07:26,040
Speaker 1: of the day, pretty normal neoliberal politicians. It's even spread

1196
01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:28,760
Speaker 1: on the left, this idea that Hillary Clinton is somehow

1197
01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:31,640
Speaker 1: more of a war monger than other liberals, right, is

1198
01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:35,400
Speaker 1: somehow like exceptionally bad. When she's not. She's very much

1199
01:07:35,400 --> 01:07:38,280
Speaker 1: in line with everyone else in in the party, and

1200
01:07:38,320 --> 01:07:41,440
Speaker 1: everyone else who was had has held those positions and

1201
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:43,640
Speaker 1: is not as bad as some of them. Right, She's

1202
01:07:43,680 --> 01:07:46,920
Speaker 1: more hated by certain people. Even on the left. You'll

1203
01:07:46,920 --> 01:07:50,080
Speaker 1: find people who are who are more directly aggressive towards

1204
01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:52,840
Speaker 1: her than they are to fucking Kissinger. Um. And it's

1205
01:07:52,840 --> 01:07:55,720
Speaker 1: not that she's not bad. She is. So is Bill.

1206
01:07:56,000 --> 01:08:00,680
Speaker 1: They're greedy, Bills a rapist. They they have supported, you know, Initiati,

1207
01:08:00,720 --> 01:08:03,920
Speaker 1: the Iraq War, a number of violent actions overseas that

1208
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:07,720
Speaker 1: were disasters, but there they did that as part of

1209
01:08:08,320 --> 01:08:12,680
Speaker 1: uh uh as as like within a large group of people. Right,

1210
01:08:12,840 --> 01:08:16,280
Speaker 1: there's nothing about them that is exceptionally bad for the

1211
01:08:16,280 --> 01:08:20,439
Speaker 1: the the the crew that they run with, but this

1212
01:08:20,840 --> 01:08:24,000
Speaker 1: absolute demonizing of them that has a real impact by

1213
01:08:24,040 --> 01:08:26,080
Speaker 1: the on the election. That's a big part of what

1214
01:08:26,200 --> 01:08:29,680
Speaker 1: we get Trump is something that Rush Limbough pioneers. The

1215
01:08:29,720 --> 01:08:33,000
Speaker 1: Clintons are not like my parents hated Trump, hated Trump

1216
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:35,960
Speaker 1: when he was running and voted for him because their

1217
01:08:36,040 --> 01:08:41,439
Speaker 1: hatred of Hillary Clinton was it's beyond rational. It's it's

1218
01:08:41,439 --> 01:08:46,160
Speaker 1: it's it's and again a lot of super valid criticisms

1219
01:08:46,200 --> 01:08:47,840
Speaker 1: of Hillary Clinton. I don't think she should have ever

1220
01:08:47,920 --> 01:08:50,720
Speaker 1: been president. Also hard to say she would have been

1221
01:08:50,760 --> 01:08:53,840
Speaker 1: worse than Trump. Um, And if you are saying like

1222
01:08:53,880 --> 01:08:56,679
Speaker 1: she would have, for example, been more killed more people

1223
01:08:56,720 --> 01:08:59,640
Speaker 1: overseas than Trump, you're not actually paying attention to the

1224
01:08:59,680 --> 01:09:02,680
Speaker 1: death toll as a result of American air strikes and

1225
01:09:02,720 --> 01:09:05,680
Speaker 1: missile strikes and drone strikes as it changed from the

1226
01:09:05,680 --> 01:09:08,760
Speaker 1: Obama administration where Clinton was Secretary of State to the

1227
01:09:08,760 --> 01:09:11,800
Speaker 1: Trump administration. Because there was a massive escalation and death

1228
01:09:11,840 --> 01:09:13,840
Speaker 1: under that. In addition to repealing of the rule about

1229
01:09:13,840 --> 01:09:16,839
Speaker 1: any sort of reporting about civilian casualties from US air strikes,

1230
01:09:17,120 --> 01:09:20,080
Speaker 1: Trump was worse on this sort of stuff, but you'd

1231
01:09:20,120 --> 01:09:21,920
Speaker 1: never know it anyway. I don't want to get into

1232
01:09:21,960 --> 01:09:25,000
Speaker 1: a rant on this, but like that, you can't. It's

1233
01:09:25,000 --> 01:09:30,679
Speaker 1: almost impossible to analyze the Clintons, their impact, their crimes,

1234
01:09:30,760 --> 01:09:35,439
Speaker 1: and their and their um and their their behaviors, their

1235
01:09:35,479 --> 01:09:40,479
Speaker 1: policies with any sort of rationality because this they've been

1236
01:09:40,479 --> 01:09:47,040
Speaker 1: turned into goblins. Right. It's it's very frustrating, um and

1237
01:09:47,080 --> 01:09:48,519
Speaker 1: it makes it it makes it so that if you

1238
01:09:48,600 --> 01:09:50,880
Speaker 1: try to say, like, well, actually, this thing you're criticizing

1239
01:09:50,920 --> 01:09:52,599
Speaker 1: them on isn't a reasonable thing to or at least

1240
01:09:52,600 --> 01:09:55,240
Speaker 1: the way you're criticizing them isn't reasonable, Suddenly you're defending them,

1241
01:09:55,240 --> 01:09:57,040
Speaker 1: and it's like, no, that's not what I'm It's very

1242
01:09:57,240 --> 01:10:00,160
Speaker 1: I hate it. I hate everything. Sorry, it gets that

1243
01:10:00,360 --> 01:10:05,200
Speaker 1: that's sort of specific personality demonization gets in the way

1244
01:10:05,280 --> 01:10:13,400
Speaker 1: of actually accomplishing, uh, you know, discussions of of policy

1245
01:10:13,760 --> 01:10:16,400
Speaker 1: and where and where we are as a country and

1246
01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:20,639
Speaker 1: how we do things. Because absolutely they were completely typical

1247
01:10:20,840 --> 01:10:24,559
Speaker 1: of the people that occupy the White House on any

1248
01:10:24,600 --> 01:10:27,720
Speaker 1: given year, you know what I mean. And and and

1249
01:10:28,000 --> 01:10:33,240
Speaker 1: like you know, Hillary, uh, even if she had killed

1250
01:10:33,439 --> 01:10:37,800
Speaker 1: as many people overseas as Trump did, probably fewer people

1251
01:10:37,960 --> 01:10:42,400
Speaker 1: domestically in terms of policy. Um, if you're talking about that,

1252
01:10:42,479 --> 01:10:45,120
Speaker 1: if you're gonna talk again into the pandemic and stuff

1253
01:10:45,160 --> 01:10:47,840
Speaker 1: like that, if she had been elected, um and and

1254
01:10:48,120 --> 01:10:52,040
Speaker 1: you know anyway, Yeah, I totally agree that it's like

1255
01:10:52,600 --> 01:10:58,920
Speaker 1: it's a very weird um uh thing that uh, that's

1256
01:10:58,960 --> 01:11:03,440
Speaker 1: that that absolutely sprung out of the Rush Limbaugh uh

1257
01:11:03,840 --> 01:11:08,880
Speaker 1: personal personal demonization that that that then gets into you know,

1258
01:11:08,920 --> 01:11:17,000
Speaker 1: like this fucking Alex Jones ship where there's a fly. Yeah, exactly,

1259
01:11:17,040 --> 01:11:20,400
Speaker 1: it's this, it's this turning people from like, Okay, let's

1260
01:11:20,439 --> 01:11:23,280
Speaker 1: analyze what this person has actually done, how it's worked,

1261
01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:25,800
Speaker 1: when it's been successful, when it's been unsuccessful, when it's

1262
01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:27,920
Speaker 1: been moral, when it's been a moral And to know,

1263
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:30,960
Speaker 1: she's just a criminal, she's just a warmonger, and we

1264
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,479
Speaker 1: don't have to analyze what she actually did or anything.

1265
01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:35,800
Speaker 1: We don't have to. We we just have to condemn her.

1266
01:11:35,840 --> 01:11:39,400
Speaker 1: We should. And it's not that she doesn't deserve condemnation

1267
01:11:39,479 --> 01:11:41,800
Speaker 1: for a lot of things, but like for one thing,

1268
01:11:41,880 --> 01:11:44,040
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't I don't want to get

1269
01:11:44,040 --> 01:11:47,840
Speaker 1: onto a defending because I don't like Hillary Clinton, but

1270
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:51,280
Speaker 1: she's also has it like it's very frustrating. Yeah, it's

1271
01:11:51,360 --> 01:11:54,479
Speaker 1: very it's all just very frustrating. Um and and he's

1272
01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:56,880
Speaker 1: and he creates this culture and it it spreads. Now

1273
01:11:56,920 --> 01:11:59,599
Speaker 1: it's not just the Clintons now now it's it's everyone. Right,

1274
01:11:59,680 --> 01:12:02,800
Speaker 1: you don't have to analyze people that you disagree with.

1275
01:12:03,080 --> 01:12:05,240
Speaker 1: You come up with a three word thing about them,

1276
01:12:05,320 --> 01:12:10,000
Speaker 1: and you spread these like like Bill Clinton has committed crimes.

1277
01:12:10,040 --> 01:12:12,400
Speaker 1: He's a fucking rapist. You don't have to make up

1278
01:12:12,439 --> 01:12:17,240
Speaker 1: that he and his wife are having people murdered. Like, yeah,

1279
01:12:17,280 --> 01:12:19,840
Speaker 1: like he's a rapist. That's bad. But of course a

1280
01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:22,360
Speaker 1: lot of people calling him a rapist or rapists themselves,

1281
01:12:22,360 --> 01:12:23,880
Speaker 1: and they have to make it up that. Now, no,

1282
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:27,280
Speaker 1: he's a murderer. You know. It's it's fucking bullshit. It's

1283
01:12:27,400 --> 01:12:31,440
Speaker 1: very frustrating. So Rush also led the charge on demonizing

1284
01:12:31,479 --> 01:12:34,719
Speaker 1: and denying global warming and climate change. In his book

1285
01:12:34,840 --> 01:12:37,439
Speaker 1: See I Told You So, he declared that quite a

1286
01:12:37,439 --> 01:12:40,559
Speaker 1: few scientists are now backtracking on their once dire predictions

1287
01:12:40,560 --> 01:12:44,679
Speaker 1: of melting ice caps and worldwide flooding. Cut to Texas

1288
01:12:44,720 --> 01:12:47,719
Speaker 1: being submerged in the layer of snow that destroys civil

1289
01:12:47,840 --> 01:12:53,160
Speaker 1: society or the entire West Coast burning down last year. Anyway,

1290
01:12:53,680 --> 01:12:57,360
Speaker 1: he lampooned Al Gore uh and scientists who warned about

1291
01:12:57,439 --> 01:13:00,680
Speaker 1: climate change as quote a few hardline do sayers who

1292
01:13:00,680 --> 01:13:07,800
Speaker 1: are sticking to their thermostats. Yeah, yep. His conclusion was,

1293
01:13:08,360 --> 01:13:11,800
Speaker 1: you know, and now it's it never affected him and

1294
01:13:11,840 --> 01:13:18,160
Speaker 1: he never affected him. Now he's dead. Yeah, as far

1295
01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:21,080
Speaker 1: as he knows, he was right about this. He was

1296
01:13:21,200 --> 01:13:26,720
Speaker 1: right about this. Limball was unquestionably the single most influential

1297
01:13:26,720 --> 01:13:29,719
Speaker 1: American conservative from about nineteen eighty nine to at least

1298
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:33,160
Speaker 1: two thousand eight. Now, his star did start to fade

1299
01:13:33,160 --> 01:13:35,120
Speaker 1: by the end of George W. Bush's term, and there

1300
01:13:35,120 --> 01:13:36,920
Speaker 1: are a couple of reasons for this. For one, he'd

1301
01:13:36,920 --> 01:13:39,280
Speaker 1: been out at as an opiate addict, gone to rehab

1302
01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:42,040
Speaker 1: three times, and through it all had repeatedly defended an

1303
01:13:42,080 --> 01:13:45,280
Speaker 1: administration that led the United States into two disastrous and

1304
01:13:45,320 --> 01:13:48,920
Speaker 1: expensive failed wars. By the time Barack Obama was elected,

1305
01:13:48,960 --> 01:13:51,679
Speaker 1: many of the more libertarian minded right wing we're starting

1306
01:13:51,680 --> 01:13:54,760
Speaker 1: to reject the neo conservative ideology that Russia had spent

1307
01:13:54,840 --> 01:13:58,400
Speaker 1: eight years hyping up. Now the fact that Barack Obama

1308
01:13:58,479 --> 01:14:00,719
Speaker 1: was the man who finally broke. A years of GLP

1309
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:04,679
Speaker 1: power wound up being the salvation of Limbaugh's influence. Yes,

1310
01:14:04,760 --> 01:14:07,479
Speaker 1: he'd encouraged the nation to burn through its treasure and influence,

1311
01:14:07,560 --> 01:14:10,280
Speaker 1: losing two wars, but now a black man was president,

1312
01:14:10,600 --> 01:14:13,720
Speaker 1: the floodgates of right wing racism open wide. In the

1313
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:16,280
Speaker 1: first four years of Obama's term, the number of hate

1314
01:14:16,280 --> 01:14:18,920
Speaker 1: groups in the United States rose by seven hundred and

1315
01:14:18,960 --> 01:14:22,920
Speaker 1: fifty five percent. This surge in public anti black racist

1316
01:14:23,040 --> 01:14:25,280
Speaker 1: I know, it's pretty shocking when you actually look at

1317
01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:32,000
Speaker 1: the number. Yeah, the idea, there's there's a black resident.

1318
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:35,160
Speaker 1: We're gonna need more hate groups. Guys. This here's the

1319
01:14:35,200 --> 01:14:37,920
Speaker 1: hate groups, the extant hate groups that we're not going

1320
01:14:37,960 --> 01:14:40,800
Speaker 1: to get it done. We need more hate groups. There

1321
01:14:40,880 --> 01:14:43,160
Speaker 1: is a black president who in his actual policies is

1322
01:14:43,160 --> 01:14:49,000
Speaker 1: not wildly different from George H. W. Bush. But like, yeah, um,

1323
01:14:49,080 --> 01:14:52,559
Speaker 1: the fact that Barackoba. Yeah, So, this surge in anti

1324
01:14:52,760 --> 01:14:55,960
Speaker 1: in public anti black racism was heralded, in cited, and

1325
01:14:56,040 --> 01:15:00,000
Speaker 1: led by Rush Limbaugh, the USA's most prominent bigot. There

1326
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:02,080
Speaker 1: already a lot of different clips that I could select

1327
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:04,880
Speaker 1: and make this point, Paul, but none is more appropriate

1328
01:15:04,920 --> 01:15:08,280
Speaker 1: than this song. That aired on Russia's program while Obama

1329
01:15:08,360 --> 01:15:11,439
Speaker 1: was still on the campaign trail. Now, the context of

1330
01:15:11,439 --> 01:15:13,960
Speaker 1: this is that Limbo was talking about the fact that

1331
01:15:14,120 --> 01:15:17,479
Speaker 1: um Al Sharpton Barack Obama. Now Sharpton had like a

1332
01:15:17,520 --> 01:15:20,080
Speaker 1: public series of arguments, right, I think Sharpton was backing

1333
01:15:20,160 --> 01:15:23,840
Speaker 1: Hillary at first. Um So this is this song that

1334
01:15:23,880 --> 01:15:26,400
Speaker 1: you're about to hear. The singer is supposed to be

1335
01:15:26,479 --> 01:15:29,760
Speaker 1: Al Sharpton singing about Barack Obama. And I'm just gonna

1336
01:15:29,840 --> 01:15:43,479
Speaker 1: let Sophie play the clip now imaging indecing times because

1337
01:15:43,520 --> 01:15:55,519
Speaker 1: he's not send him County what God him and not

1338
01:15:56,200 --> 01:16:02,639
Speaker 1: mecause he's not from see real black man, snoop call

1339
01:16:06,640 --> 01:16:10,880
Speaker 1: have talk and talk and walk the walk not coming

1340
01:16:11,640 --> 01:16:28,160
Speaker 1: and one imagic All right, I think that's enough of that. Yes,

1341
01:16:29,360 --> 01:16:33,479
Speaker 1: pretty bad. I mean I just I guess I just

1342
01:16:33,520 --> 01:16:36,559
Speaker 1: wish that non comedy people would stay in their lane.

1343
01:16:37,479 --> 01:16:43,879
Speaker 1: You know what that that like the meter was terrible.

1344
01:16:44,600 --> 01:16:49,479
Speaker 1: It's bad. It's not it's not funny unless you're bigot,

1345
01:16:49,520 --> 01:16:54,200
Speaker 1: you know, unless you're a bigot. So Limbaugh had other

1346
01:16:54,240 --> 01:16:56,920
Speaker 1: Obama singers saying at one point, if he weren't black,

1347
01:16:56,960 --> 01:17:00,559
Speaker 1: he'd be a tour guide in Hawaii. In two thousand eight,

1348
01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:03,880
Speaker 1: he compared Obama to a cartoon monkey he repeatedly called

1349
01:17:03,960 --> 01:17:07,559
Speaker 1: Michelle mouchell and while because she's a cow, you know,

1350
01:17:07,880 --> 01:17:09,680
Speaker 1: and by the and all the while, he claimed that

1351
01:17:09,800 --> 01:17:12,240
Speaker 1: racism had nothing to do with his hatred of Obama.

1352
01:17:12,400 --> 01:17:15,000
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter to me what his races. He's liberal is

1353
01:17:15,040 --> 01:17:19,360
Speaker 1: what matters to me. Yeah, Okay, Barack the magic Negro guy. Yeah,

1354
01:17:20,520 --> 01:17:23,160
Speaker 1: I just I just brought it up time, that's all. Yeah,

1355
01:17:23,439 --> 01:17:26,080
Speaker 1: I just I can't talk about it enough, but I'm not.

1356
01:17:26,840 --> 01:17:29,400
Speaker 1: It's just convenient that he's black. It's not a problem

1357
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:31,680
Speaker 1: that I have with them, but it's convenient for me

1358
01:17:32,120 --> 01:17:35,640
Speaker 1: from my satire. God, I hate this guy. Is he

1359
01:17:35,680 --> 01:17:37,880
Speaker 1: even doing satire at this point? Like? Has he has

1360
01:17:37,920 --> 01:17:40,840
Speaker 1: he pretended? Has he dropped that pretense? Yeah? I mean

1361
01:17:40,880 --> 01:17:43,679
Speaker 1: I can play you songs that like there's a bunch

1362
01:17:43,760 --> 01:17:46,400
Speaker 1: of Nazis that will go through and like rewrite Disney

1363
01:17:46,439 --> 01:17:49,600
Speaker 1: songs to be about hating the Jews and stuff, or

1364
01:17:49,640 --> 01:17:52,320
Speaker 1: about race traders and whatnot, because it's the kind of

1365
01:17:52,320 --> 01:17:54,400
Speaker 1: thing that's easy to spread. Right. You You make a

1366
01:17:55,360 --> 01:17:58,639
Speaker 1: racist song and people laugh and at first it's a joke,

1367
01:17:58,680 --> 01:18:00,600
Speaker 1: and then it becomes less of a joke. It's the

1368
01:18:00,640 --> 01:18:03,559
Speaker 1: whole story, right, That's exactly what Limbaugh is doing. You know,

1369
01:18:03,880 --> 01:18:06,960
Speaker 1: it's not even all that much less racist. Um, he

1370
01:18:07,080 --> 01:18:11,160
Speaker 1: just doesn't say the N word. Um. When Canada Obama

1371
01:18:11,160 --> 01:18:16,040
Speaker 1: became president, Obama, Rush said, I hope he fails, explaining

1372
01:18:16,080 --> 01:18:19,760
Speaker 1: that rooting for liberalism to fail is rooting for America

1373
01:18:19,880 --> 01:18:23,960
Speaker 1: to succeed. Limba declared that stopping Obama was quote what

1374
01:18:24,040 --> 01:18:27,040
Speaker 1: I was born to do. One of his tactics to

1375
01:18:27,080 --> 01:18:30,120
Speaker 1: this end seemed to be stoking fears that because Obama

1376
01:18:30,160 --> 01:18:32,479
Speaker 1: was anti white, he was trying to gin up a

1377
01:18:32,600 --> 01:18:36,400
Speaker 1: race war. In two thousand nine, Rush declared, in Obama's America,

1378
01:18:36,640 --> 01:18:38,880
Speaker 1: the white kids now get beat up with the black

1379
01:18:38,960 --> 01:18:42,200
Speaker 1: kids cheering. Clearly he would have preferred it when you know,

1380
01:18:42,320 --> 01:18:45,080
Speaker 1: I don't know when white kids were burning down black

1381
01:18:45,160 --> 01:18:50,479
Speaker 1: kids schools in his hometown. Those were the days. Those

1382
01:18:50,479 --> 01:18:54,679
Speaker 1: were the days, my friend, he thought they'd never had. Yeah,

1383
01:18:54,720 --> 01:18:58,439
Speaker 1: it's great. Limba was not the only person who stoked

1384
01:18:58,439 --> 01:19:00,920
Speaker 1: white resentment in anti black Big a Tree in this period.

1385
01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:03,479
Speaker 1: He was not close to the only person, but he

1386
01:19:03,720 --> 01:19:06,519
Speaker 1: was the man who had created the blueprint and the

1387
01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:09,800
Speaker 1: cultural space that all of those other right wing media

1388
01:19:09,840 --> 01:19:13,360
Speaker 1: figures acted in. Ben Shapiro was very open about the

1389
01:19:13,400 --> 01:19:16,639
Speaker 1: fact that Limball was his hero and idol. Alex Jones

1390
01:19:16,960 --> 01:19:20,439
Speaker 1: altered the way he spoke and altered the acoustic setup

1391
01:19:20,439 --> 01:19:23,559
Speaker 1: of his Info Wars studio in order to more closely

1392
01:19:23,600 --> 01:19:27,679
Speaker 1: resemble Rush Limbaugh. In two thousand ten, Limbaugh was picked

1393
01:19:27,720 --> 01:19:31,559
Speaker 1: to address SPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. He was

1394
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:33,679
Speaker 1: the main event that year and gave what he called

1395
01:19:33,720 --> 01:19:36,799
Speaker 1: his first Address to the Nation. Limbaugh was so central

1396
01:19:36,840 --> 01:19:39,519
Speaker 1: to the Republican Party at this point that RNC Chairman

1397
01:19:39,600 --> 01:19:42,800
Speaker 1: Michael Steele was asked on CNN if Limball was the

1398
01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:46,360
Speaker 1: effective party leader. When Steele claimed that Rush was just

1399
01:19:46,439 --> 01:19:50,400
Speaker 1: an entertainer, This piste off Rush Limbaugh, who attacked Michael

1400
01:19:50,439 --> 01:19:53,920
Speaker 1: Steele on air and caused such an outpouring of right

1401
01:19:53,920 --> 01:19:57,840
Speaker 1: wing rage against the RNC chairman that Michael Steele was

1402
01:19:57,920 --> 01:20:00,240
Speaker 1: forced to make a public apology to Rush limb Ball

1403
01:20:01,160 --> 01:20:03,160
Speaker 1: kind of proving that he was effectively the leader of

1404
01:20:03,200 --> 01:20:05,800
Speaker 1: the Republican Party. Yeah. No, it puts me in mind

1405
01:20:05,800 --> 01:20:09,960
Speaker 1: of Howard Stern Uh coming into the Philadelphia market and

1406
01:20:10,080 --> 01:20:13,080
Speaker 1: Uh forcing John Dobella, the host of the Morning Zoo

1407
01:20:13,120 --> 01:20:16,280
Speaker 1: to apologize for being on the radio. Jesus, I didn't

1408
01:20:16,280 --> 01:20:21,320
Speaker 1: know that it happened. It was It was ridiculous. So,

1409
01:20:21,920 --> 01:20:25,679
Speaker 1: as leader of the Republican Party, Limbaugh spent the Obama

1410
01:20:25,760 --> 01:20:28,840
Speaker 1: years repeatedly hammering home the idea that there could not

1411
01:20:29,000 --> 01:20:32,080
Speaker 1: be peaceful coexistence between the right and left in the

1412
01:20:32,160 --> 01:20:36,160
Speaker 1: United States. Quote from Rush, we live in two universes.

1413
01:20:36,439 --> 01:20:39,960
Speaker 1: One universe is a lie. One universe is an entire lie.

1414
01:20:40,240 --> 01:20:43,320
Speaker 1: Everything run dominated, controlled by the left here and around

1415
01:20:43,320 --> 01:20:46,080
Speaker 1: the world is a lie. Every other universe where is

1416
01:20:46,120 --> 01:20:49,040
Speaker 1: where we are, and that's where reality reigns supreme and

1417
01:20:49,080 --> 01:20:53,320
Speaker 1: we deal with it America, the real America, and there

1418
01:20:53,320 --> 01:20:57,920
Speaker 1: can be no coexistence this now. Now we're in the

1419
01:20:57,960 --> 01:21:02,600
Speaker 1: age of you know, because Biden said the you know,

1420
01:21:02,600 --> 01:21:06,719
Speaker 1: it's looking for unity. Anytime somebody's looking for unity, and uh,

1421
01:21:06,840 --> 01:21:10,599
Speaker 1: there is a there's a criticism of a famous monster

1422
01:21:10,720 --> 01:21:13,839
Speaker 1: like Rush Limbaugh. The response from the right is always,

1423
01:21:14,000 --> 01:21:17,280
Speaker 1: where's the famous unity? Where what I thought you wanted unity?

1424
01:21:18,080 --> 01:21:20,400
Speaker 1: And it's like, well, do you care about unity? You

1425
01:21:20,400 --> 01:21:22,880
Speaker 1: don't give a shit about it. You're already living in

1426
01:21:22,880 --> 01:21:26,519
Speaker 1: a world that says if you don't, if you don't

1427
01:21:26,560 --> 01:21:30,400
Speaker 1: come to believe the things that I believe. You are

1428
01:21:30,520 --> 01:21:35,200
Speaker 1: against America, and you are. You're the real racist, You're

1429
01:21:35,240 --> 01:21:39,439
Speaker 1: the real misogynist, you are the real hater of of

1430
01:21:39,479 --> 01:21:43,519
Speaker 1: all things that are decent. So it's I don't know

1431
01:21:43,600 --> 01:21:47,080
Speaker 1: how we I don't know how we unfunck ourselves from this,

1432
01:21:47,280 --> 01:21:52,679
Speaker 1: from this situation. Yeah, it I don't know that we can. UM,

1433
01:21:52,800 --> 01:21:57,400
Speaker 1: But the way to do it is not too not

1434
01:21:57,479 --> 01:22:01,559
Speaker 1: to yield to these people, right, it's it's it's not

1435
01:22:01,640 --> 01:22:05,519
Speaker 1: to just let them get what they want, because what

1436
01:22:05,560 --> 01:22:08,680
Speaker 1: they want is the annihilation of the other and and

1437
01:22:08,760 --> 01:22:11,559
Speaker 1: honestly the annihilation of themselves, because it's a fucking death

1438
01:22:11,640 --> 01:22:14,840
Speaker 1: cult at this point, like they can't be allowed to win.

1439
01:22:15,439 --> 01:22:21,479
Speaker 1: And like the people and and that's not to say that, um,

1440
01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:26,200
Speaker 1: every aspect of what has what traditional conservative ideology is wrong.

1441
01:22:26,280 --> 01:22:28,560
Speaker 1: They have some points. That's why it brings people in

1442
01:22:28,640 --> 01:22:30,760
Speaker 1: the idea that like you should always be worry about

1443
01:22:30,760 --> 01:22:33,880
Speaker 1: giving the government control of things, You fucking should, you know,

1444
01:22:34,080 --> 01:22:38,960
Speaker 1: like there's a space, there is a space for conservatism

1445
01:22:38,960 --> 01:22:42,960
Speaker 1: in society. That is not what rush Limbaugh turned it into.

1446
01:22:43,040 --> 01:22:44,679
Speaker 1: Which is not to say that it was because fucking

1447
01:22:44,960 --> 01:22:47,840
Speaker 1: Reagan was president before Limbaugh came onto the scene, and

1448
01:22:47,880 --> 01:22:51,280
Speaker 1: he was terrible and very toxic, not like to toxicity,

1449
01:22:51,280 --> 01:22:54,920
Speaker 1: and the Republican Party goes back very far. But also

1450
01:22:55,800 --> 01:22:58,559
Speaker 1: it's not for nothing that the Republicans used to be

1451
01:22:58,640 --> 01:23:02,240
Speaker 1: the party of Abraham Lincoln. You know, uh, there, it's

1452
01:23:02,320 --> 01:23:04,920
Speaker 1: it's not there. There is a way to have a

1453
01:23:04,960 --> 01:23:08,320
Speaker 1: conservatism that is influential in society that isn't a fucking

1454
01:23:08,360 --> 01:23:11,280
Speaker 1: death cult. And we have to at very least get

1455
01:23:11,280 --> 01:23:13,080
Speaker 1: back to that if we're going to continue to be

1456
01:23:13,120 --> 01:23:17,120
Speaker 1: a democracy that doesn't spiral inevitably into civil war. You know,

1457
01:23:17,560 --> 01:23:21,000
Speaker 1: I have I'm a pretty committed leftist, but I also

1458
01:23:21,400 --> 01:23:24,600
Speaker 1: do not seek a society that forces my beliefs on

1459
01:23:24,680 --> 01:23:32,000
Speaker 1: other people. But you can't. You can't give these people

1460
01:23:32,120 --> 01:23:35,320
Speaker 1: an inch because they'll take everything. That's how they are,

1461
01:23:35,520 --> 01:23:38,439
Speaker 1: you know, That's what part what Rush had a big

1462
01:23:38,479 --> 01:23:41,920
Speaker 1: impact in making them into. By two thousand fifteen, Rush

1463
01:23:42,000 --> 01:23:44,559
Speaker 1: Limball had succeeded in leading a right word push that

1464
01:23:44,640 --> 01:23:48,080
Speaker 1: finally prepared the Republican Party to nominate an obvious fascist,

1465
01:23:48,280 --> 01:23:52,200
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. Limbaugh embraced Trump early on right wing radio

1466
01:23:52,240 --> 01:23:54,799
Speaker 1: host and never Trump or Joe Walsh, who is another

1467
01:23:54,960 --> 01:24:00,559
Speaker 1: actually principled conservative, draws a direct line between Limbaugh and Trump. Quote.

1468
01:24:01,000 --> 01:24:04,120
Speaker 1: The average Trump supporter loves Trump because he fights man.

1469
01:24:04,200 --> 01:24:07,080
Speaker 1: He fights, not because of any policy or issue or

1470
01:24:07,080 --> 01:24:10,000
Speaker 1: political philosophy. That's why they love to Rush. Before him,

1471
01:24:10,120 --> 01:24:13,200
Speaker 1: it wasn't about conservatism. I still can't tell you after

1472
01:24:13,280 --> 01:24:15,479
Speaker 1: thirty years what the funk he believes in. But he

1473
01:24:15,560 --> 01:24:18,360
Speaker 1: knew how to prey on audiences, grievances and resentments, which

1474
01:24:18,400 --> 01:24:21,400
Speaker 1: is what conservative talk radio does. Rush was the son

1475
01:24:21,439 --> 01:24:23,599
Speaker 1: of a bitch. He'd lie about the dims and punch

1476
01:24:23,680 --> 01:24:25,400
Speaker 1: them and make fun of them. That gave him a

1477
01:24:25,439 --> 01:24:28,800
Speaker 1: quote like following from the beginning. Trump sort of inherited it,

1478
01:24:29,520 --> 01:24:33,360
Speaker 1: and I Joe Walsh again not a grade I agree

1479
01:24:33,439 --> 01:24:36,080
Speaker 1: agree with on much, but he's right on the money here.

1480
01:24:36,439 --> 01:24:40,320
Speaker 1: He's analyzing it properly. Absolutely. The thing I think the

1481
01:24:40,360 --> 01:24:43,800
Speaker 1: thing also about Trump is like, like Rush doesn't really

1482
01:24:44,040 --> 01:24:48,160
Speaker 1: have any deeply ill beliefs like that you could you

1483
01:24:48,200 --> 01:24:52,400
Speaker 1: couldn't say this guy, even convincing himself, really cares that

1484
01:24:52,520 --> 01:24:55,400
Speaker 1: much about anything beyond what's right in front of his

1485
01:24:55,479 --> 01:24:58,719
Speaker 1: fucking face that is about him. All he cares about

1486
01:24:58,760 --> 01:25:02,000
Speaker 1: is his own aggrandized right. It's it's narcissism. Trump and

1487
01:25:02,080 --> 01:25:06,479
Speaker 1: Limbaugh are very similar. Rush bent the knee to Trump,

1488
01:25:06,560 --> 01:25:08,920
Speaker 1: declaring him everything but the Second Coming. And we will

1489
01:25:08,960 --> 01:25:11,840
Speaker 1: not labor long on Rush during Trump's years, because once

1490
01:25:11,840 --> 01:25:14,800
Speaker 1: he had helped shepherd his massive audience into Trump's arms,

1491
01:25:14,840 --> 01:25:17,640
Speaker 1: his cultural influence faded. It was watered down by the

1492
01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:21,040
Speaker 1: sheer mass of right wing idolaw ideologues who flooded the

1493
01:25:21,040 --> 01:25:24,840
Speaker 1: Internet and increasingly urged their followers to embrace a rationality

1494
01:25:24,920 --> 01:25:29,880
Speaker 1: conspiracy and fascism. In February of Rush led the charge

1495
01:25:29,920 --> 01:25:32,760
Speaker 1: denying the reality of COVID nineteen. He called it the

1496
01:25:32,800 --> 01:25:35,839
Speaker 1: common cold and mocked even his old ally Matt Drudge

1497
01:25:35,880 --> 01:25:38,920
Speaker 1: for caring about the burgeoning plague. He urged his listeners

1498
01:25:38,920 --> 01:25:42,160
Speaker 1: against mask wearing, calling it a symbol of fear. Russia

1499
01:25:42,160 --> 01:25:45,479
Speaker 1: had long denied the dangers of smoking, particularly second hand smoke,

1500
01:25:45,760 --> 01:25:48,320
Speaker 1: but this was a new level for him. When Trump

1501
01:25:48,360 --> 01:25:51,720
Speaker 1: lost reelection to Biden, Limbaugh immediately called the election a

1502
01:25:51,800 --> 01:25:55,080
Speaker 1: sham and joined the chorus of voices claiming fraud. By

1503
01:25:55,120 --> 01:25:57,479
Speaker 1: this point, though, he was sick, and the playing field

1504
01:25:57,520 --> 01:26:00,439
Speaker 1: was so flooded with men who sounded like him, triggered

1505
01:26:00,439 --> 01:26:03,000
Speaker 1: the libs like him light like him, that his voice

1506
01:26:03,040 --> 01:26:06,240
Speaker 1: hardly rose above the din Rushi had succeeded in building

1507
01:26:06,240 --> 01:26:09,439
Speaker 1: a right wing so made in his own image that

1508
01:26:09,520 --> 01:26:12,799
Speaker 1: he no longer stood out in it. His last show

1509
01:26:12,880 --> 01:26:16,000
Speaker 1: was February second. He died less than two weeks later,

1510
01:26:16,439 --> 01:26:18,880
Speaker 1: killed by the lung cancer he denied had anything to

1511
01:26:18,880 --> 01:26:20,960
Speaker 1: do with smoking, because that was another thing Rush denight

1512
01:26:21,040 --> 01:26:26,960
Speaker 1: his entire career. Joe Walsh, a former Limbaugh lover, UH

1513
01:26:27,080 --> 01:26:29,320
Speaker 1: found like when he was much younger, he got into

1514
01:26:29,360 --> 01:26:31,880
Speaker 1: talk radio because of Limbaugh, eventually wound up and to

1515
01:26:31,960 --> 01:26:35,080
Speaker 1: be fair before Trump rejecting Limball in a lot of

1516
01:26:35,120 --> 01:26:38,200
Speaker 1: ways found the whole arc of Russia's career to be

1517
01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:41,400
Speaker 1: terribly sad. Quote. I didn't think that at the end

1518
01:26:41,439 --> 01:26:43,160
Speaker 1: of his life Brush would sell out to Trump the

1519
01:26:43,200 --> 01:26:45,920
Speaker 1: way he has. He had every opportunity this final year

1520
01:26:45,960 --> 01:26:47,920
Speaker 1: to come clean and be decent. I mean, he was

1521
01:26:47,960 --> 01:26:50,880
Speaker 1: still on this February lying about a stolen election. He'll

1522
01:26:50,960 --> 01:26:53,719
Speaker 1: keep up this act till he dies, and it's sad.

1523
01:26:54,280 --> 01:26:56,680
Speaker 1: When a writer from Rolling Stone asked if maybe the

1524
01:26:56,720 --> 01:26:59,559
Speaker 1: reason he kept backing Trump was that Limbaugh truly believed

1525
01:26:59,560 --> 01:27:02,160
Speaker 1: in what said, Walsh countered with a theory of his

1526
01:27:02,240 --> 01:27:06,360
Speaker 1: own quote. Maybe knowing him, it's one last, big, extended

1527
01:27:06,439 --> 01:27:09,120
Speaker 1: fuck you. Maybe it's Limbaugh saying I'm not going to

1528
01:27:09,240 --> 01:27:11,840
Speaker 1: bend to the Dims and anybody else, no matter what,

1529
01:27:12,200 --> 01:27:14,880
Speaker 1: never to the end, I'm never gonna do it. And

1530
01:27:14,920 --> 01:27:17,040
Speaker 1: at the end of this, I can't help but think

1531
01:27:17,040 --> 01:27:19,400
Speaker 1: that there's something terribly meaningful and the fact that Joe

1532
01:27:19,400 --> 01:27:22,479
Speaker 1: Walsh rejected Limbaugh in his later years and at his end,

1533
01:27:22,880 --> 01:27:25,880
Speaker 1: Walsh gained prominence as a voice of the Rising Tea Party.

1534
01:27:26,000 --> 01:27:29,800
Speaker 1: He is very conservative, but his constant principal resistance to

1535
01:27:29,840 --> 01:27:32,439
Speaker 1: President Trump proves that he is not a fascist. And

1536
01:27:32,479 --> 01:27:35,640
Speaker 1: it turns out what Limbaugh was really selling, what he

1537
01:27:35,680 --> 01:27:39,880
Speaker 1: was preparing the American right for all along, was fascism.

1538
01:27:39,920 --> 01:27:42,559
Speaker 1: If you want confirmation of this, you need look no

1539
01:27:42,680 --> 01:27:46,360
Speaker 1: further than how America's most prominent neo Nazis reacted to

1540
01:27:46,439 --> 01:27:50,519
Speaker 1: Limbaugh's death. Chris can't Well was one of the speakers

1541
01:27:50,520 --> 01:27:53,680
Speaker 1: and organizers of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

1542
01:27:53,880 --> 01:27:56,640
Speaker 1: He is a straight up Nazi. He assaulted left wing

1543
01:27:56,720 --> 01:27:59,400
Speaker 1: counter protesters at the event, and when this brought legal

1544
01:27:59,439 --> 01:28:02,360
Speaker 1: consequence is on him. He filmed himself crying in fear,

1545
01:28:02,560 --> 01:28:06,719
Speaker 1: earning the nickname the Crying Nazi. Can't Well gained prominence

1546
01:28:06,760 --> 01:28:09,360
Speaker 1: among the all right as a podcaster with shows like

1547
01:28:09,479 --> 01:28:15,960
Speaker 1: Outlaw Conservative and Chris can't Well openly sees Rush Limbaugh

1548
01:28:16,000 --> 01:28:18,559
Speaker 1: as the man who invented his style of content, who

1549
01:28:18,640 --> 01:28:21,360
Speaker 1: made his career possible. He's in jail right now because

1550
01:28:21,400 --> 01:28:23,840
Speaker 1: he made a bunch of illegal threats and stuff. But

1551
01:28:23,920 --> 01:28:26,760
Speaker 1: he was interviewed for another fascist podcast by guy named

1552
01:28:26,800 --> 01:28:30,680
Speaker 1: Jared Howe on like right after Limbaugh's death, and in

1553
01:28:30,720 --> 01:28:34,080
Speaker 1: this clip about to play The Crying Nazi, Chris can't

1554
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:38,160
Speaker 1: Well discusses his reaction to learning about Rush Limbaugh's death.

1555
01:28:39,040 --> 01:28:40,960
Speaker 1: And when I heard, you know, when I heard Katherine's

1556
01:28:41,000 --> 01:28:43,800
Speaker 1: voice like chop up, and I said, oh no, he

1557
01:28:43,880 --> 01:28:49,960
Speaker 1: knew you. Yeah, yeah, I knew. And Katherine Limball I

1558
01:28:50,040 --> 01:28:53,200
Speaker 1: had actually uh she wrote a letter to Rush. I guess.

1559
01:28:53,200 --> 01:28:55,120
Speaker 1: I kept thought hoping that you know, I get out

1560
01:28:55,120 --> 01:28:56,479
Speaker 1: of here in time that I can like call into

1561
01:28:56,520 --> 01:28:58,720
Speaker 1: the show or drop an email. And I started realized, like,

1562
01:28:58,760 --> 01:29:01,720
Speaker 1: all right, he's at philansan of weeks. Uh, if I'm

1563
01:29:01,720 --> 01:29:04,280
Speaker 1: gonna contact this guy just proa got to do it

1564
01:29:04,320 --> 01:29:06,760
Speaker 1: by mail. And I was actually gonna I forgot to

1565
01:29:06,760 --> 01:29:08,080
Speaker 1: do what I was gonna ask you to get me

1566
01:29:08,200 --> 01:29:09,800
Speaker 1: see if there was an address that I canna write to.

1567
01:29:10,520 --> 01:29:12,679
Speaker 1: And uh, it turns out to a little late vision.

1568
01:29:13,680 --> 01:29:16,479
Speaker 1: But you know when I when I heard her voice,

1569
01:29:16,520 --> 01:29:18,599
Speaker 1: I choked up and I said, oh no, my Shelly

1570
01:29:18,640 --> 01:29:20,840
Speaker 1: Ivy and he knew exactly what was going on to

1571
01:29:21,080 --> 01:29:26,519
Speaker 1: tell her and um and so yeah, I heard it

1572
01:29:26,520 --> 01:29:28,240
Speaker 1: when it happened, and I was like, you're gonna be

1573
01:29:28,280 --> 01:29:32,439
Speaker 1: fucking kids me, man. So that's I mean, you know,

1574
01:29:32,720 --> 01:29:37,400
Speaker 1: you he's legitimately affected by this. He's mourning Rush Limbaugh,

1575
01:29:37,439 --> 01:29:40,799
Speaker 1: this Nazi, and he's not the only Nazi. Morning Rush Limbaugh.

1576
01:29:41,320 --> 01:29:44,400
Speaker 1: The Daily Showa is one of the most prominent Nazi

1577
01:29:44,520 --> 01:29:47,519
Speaker 1: podcasts on the Internet. The words show up is the

1578
01:29:47,560 --> 01:29:49,760
Speaker 1: Hebrew term it mean I think it means calamity for

1579
01:29:49,880 --> 01:29:52,240
Speaker 1: the Holocaust. So there, it's literally this is the Daily

1580
01:29:52,320 --> 01:29:56,400
Speaker 1: Holocaust and it is maybe the most prominent Nazi podcast

1581
01:29:56,479 --> 01:30:00,320
Speaker 1: on the Internet now. TDS is its hosts call. It

1582
01:30:00,320 --> 01:30:02,320
Speaker 1: has been on the years for years at this point,

1583
01:30:02,360 --> 01:30:05,760
Speaker 1: since before Trump was in office, and the hosts of

1584
01:30:05,800 --> 01:30:09,320
Speaker 1: The Daily show a consider Limbaugh to be something of

1585
01:30:09,360 --> 01:30:12,160
Speaker 1: an idol. Now, these guys are hardcore Nazis, so they

1586
01:30:12,160 --> 01:30:14,960
Speaker 1: consider Russia moderate and they do demean him at times

1587
01:30:15,000 --> 01:30:18,640
Speaker 1: for that, but they also recognize that he paved the

1588
01:30:18,680 --> 01:30:22,680
Speaker 1: way for their financial success and cultural influence. And in

1589
01:30:22,720 --> 01:30:25,519
Speaker 1: this next audio clip you can hear several members of

1590
01:30:25,560 --> 01:30:29,639
Speaker 1: the Daily Showa can't emphasize that name enough. Learn live

1591
01:30:29,800 --> 01:30:33,360
Speaker 1: about Rush Limbaugh's death and the emotional impact it has

1592
01:30:33,439 --> 01:30:37,559
Speaker 1: on them is undeniable news cuked on that that's what

1593
01:30:37,680 --> 01:30:41,800
Speaker 1: happened today. What sen that's bad news for you, Buddy,

1594
01:30:42,080 --> 01:30:46,439
Speaker 1: Rush Limbaugh is dead. I mean, well, I guess I

1595
01:30:46,479 --> 01:30:48,240
Speaker 1: can't see what he's saying about tex I'm not gonna

1596
01:30:48,360 --> 01:30:50,680
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna dance on his grave. He said a

1597
01:30:50,680 --> 01:30:52,640
Speaker 1: lot of really dumb things. But I'm still something kind

1598
01:30:52,640 --> 01:30:54,640
Speaker 1: of sad about that. Like I'm very sad about that.

1599
01:30:54,760 --> 01:30:57,479
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be here. If not, I wouldn't be here,

1600
01:30:57,880 --> 01:31:01,479
Speaker 1: says host of the Daily Showa. Without Rush Limbaugh, I

1601
01:31:01,520 --> 01:31:04,720
Speaker 1: can't think of a more damning thing to say in

1602
01:31:04,760 --> 01:31:09,759
Speaker 1: a man's passing, but that he was truly honestly mourned

1603
01:31:09,920 --> 01:31:15,200
Speaker 1: by Nazis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the end of the day.

1604
01:31:15,560 --> 01:31:18,000
Speaker 1: That's what you can say about Rush. And that is

1605
01:31:18,040 --> 01:31:21,840
Speaker 1: the end of our episodes on Rush Limbaugh. You're doing, Paul,

1606
01:31:22,240 --> 01:31:26,600
Speaker 1: I'm good. I mean, look, he said some dumb things.

1607
01:31:25,360 --> 01:31:30,479
Speaker 1: I'm absolutely going to dance. He sucked and I'm glad

1608
01:31:30,479 --> 01:31:33,040
Speaker 1: he's dead. He was a bad person. And I have

1609
01:31:33,160 --> 01:31:37,479
Speaker 1: to say on social media when when the story broke

1610
01:31:37,560 --> 01:31:40,000
Speaker 1: people were talking about it, there were a lot of

1611
01:31:40,040 --> 01:31:44,439
Speaker 1: people that wanted to say, you know, you can you

1612
01:31:44,439 --> 01:31:46,360
Speaker 1: you know, you can say whatever you want. But Rush

1613
01:31:46,600 --> 01:31:50,040
Speaker 1: was hugely successful, more successful and you will ever be

1614
01:31:50,160 --> 01:31:54,080
Speaker 1: had more influence. He was a millionaire. Guys take the

1615
01:31:54,280 --> 01:31:57,080
Speaker 1: w do you know what I mean? You can't. And

1616
01:31:57,120 --> 01:31:59,120
Speaker 1: this is the problem with these guys, with Trump, with

1617
01:31:59,160 --> 01:32:02,559
Speaker 1: people like this, is it's not enough for them to win.

1618
01:32:03,320 --> 01:32:06,439
Speaker 1: They need people to lick the boots. They need people

1619
01:32:06,479 --> 01:32:10,080
Speaker 1: to say you are the greatest. It is never enough

1620
01:32:10,120 --> 01:32:13,519
Speaker 1: for them. It is never enough for them to be hated,

1621
01:32:13,760 --> 01:32:16,840
Speaker 1: to be feared, to have all the marbles. They need

1622
01:32:16,880 --> 01:32:20,200
Speaker 1: you to say I love you too. They need it.

1623
01:32:20,840 --> 01:32:24,559
Speaker 1: And that is that is what the only solace I

1624
01:32:24,600 --> 01:32:28,360
Speaker 1: can take in a life like this is that in

1625
01:32:28,400 --> 01:32:32,160
Speaker 1: the end he didn't get the thing that he wanted,

1626
01:32:32,200 --> 01:32:35,960
Speaker 1: which was everybody saying You're the greatest and I love

1627
01:32:36,000 --> 01:32:41,120
Speaker 1: you and that. Yeah, it was piss and a bunch

1628
01:32:41,160 --> 01:32:44,360
Speaker 1: of Nazis crying. If you if you make if this

1629
01:32:44,439 --> 01:32:47,599
Speaker 1: is what you make of your life. This is how

1630
01:32:47,720 --> 01:32:49,679
Speaker 1: This is what's going to happen, is that you're gonna

1631
01:32:49,720 --> 01:32:51,760
Speaker 1: have people saying rest and piss. You're gonna have people

1632
01:32:51,800 --> 01:32:54,320
Speaker 1: saying this and it's and and sorry. You can have

1633
01:32:54,360 --> 01:32:56,960
Speaker 1: all the success you want. You're never gonna get that love.

1634
01:32:57,200 --> 01:33:01,320
Speaker 1: It's not gonna happen. And people are actively making plans

1635
01:33:01,360 --> 01:33:06,519
Speaker 1: to ship on your grave because you materially harmed their lives, Yes,

1636
01:33:06,960 --> 01:33:10,519
Speaker 1: and the lives of people that they loved. You have

1637
01:33:11,080 --> 01:33:14,760
Speaker 1: you have made life that much harder for generations of

1638
01:33:14,800 --> 01:33:19,920
Speaker 1: people of humans you have Rush Limbaugh had a material,

1639
01:33:20,439 --> 01:33:23,920
Speaker 1: significant negative impact on billions of people, many of whom

1640
01:33:23,920 --> 01:33:29,599
Speaker 1: are yet unborn. Yeah, rest and piss brush. I wish

1641
01:33:29,600 --> 01:33:34,240
Speaker 1: this to cancer had worked faster, you know. Yeah, anyway, Paul,

1642
01:33:34,320 --> 01:33:36,160
Speaker 1: you gotta got some plug. Double plug. At the end

1643
01:33:36,200 --> 01:33:40,640
Speaker 1: of this episode, Um, I'm gonna be appearing on The

1644
01:33:40,680 --> 01:33:45,920
Speaker 1: Daily Show, uh in a couple of weeks. TDS fan,

1645
01:33:46,320 --> 01:33:48,320
Speaker 1: By the way, I want to. I want to shout

1646
01:33:48,320 --> 01:33:50,839
Speaker 1: out and give face to Daniel Harper of the wonderful

1647
01:33:50,880 --> 01:33:54,320
Speaker 1: podcast I Don't Speak German, which is the deepest dives

1648
01:33:54,320 --> 01:33:58,280
Speaker 1: you're going to find on Nazi content creators. I guess

1649
01:33:58,320 --> 01:34:00,519
Speaker 1: you go Nazi thought leaders in the and I estate's

1650
01:34:00,880 --> 01:34:03,400
Speaker 1: very important work. Daniel Harper, I don't speak German. He

1651
01:34:03,439 --> 01:34:06,320
Speaker 1: provided those clips to me. Thank you, Daniel. UM, sorry

1652
01:34:06,320 --> 01:34:09,280
Speaker 1: back here, No, not at all. UM. You can follow

1653
01:34:09,280 --> 01:34:14,000
Speaker 1: me at p F Tompkins on Twitter and Instagram and um,

1654
01:34:14,040 --> 01:34:18,720
Speaker 1: I have a few podcasts that you can listen to. UM.

1655
01:34:18,840 --> 01:34:20,960
Speaker 1: You know, just all the usual stuff. You can find

1656
01:34:20,960 --> 01:34:23,960
Speaker 1: out about me on Paul off Thompkins dot com al

1657
01:34:24,040 --> 01:34:27,519
Speaker 1: F Tompkins dot com. Well that's gonna do it for

1658
01:34:27,600 --> 01:34:31,200
Speaker 1: us here at Behind the Bastards. UM, so go out

1659
01:34:31,240 --> 01:34:34,000
Speaker 1: into the world, tie one half of your brain behind

1660
01:34:34,040 --> 01:34:37,720
Speaker 1: your back and then die because that would actually kill you.

1661
01:34:37,880 --> 01:34:40,280
Speaker 1: That that would that would immediately lead to your death.

1662
01:34:41,040 --> 01:34:44,720
Speaker 1: Exposed brain. There's reason we have skulls people to take

1663
01:34:44,760 --> 01:34:50,160
Speaker 1: your brain inside of it. Yeah, anyway, I guess