WEBVTT - CZm Rewind: Part Two: The Rush Limbaugh Episodes with Paul F. Tompkins

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<v Speaker 1>Also media.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and you know we're still

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<v Speaker 2>coming down from our end of the year celebration. I'm

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<v Speaker 2>headed off to Cees where we'll be doing reporting before

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<v Speaker 2>it could happen here and better offline, we're going to

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<v Speaker 2>be coming back for the new year soon. The Oprah

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<v Speaker 2>episodes will be in the can. Very excited to introduce

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<v Speaker 2>you all to that, But for this week, we're going

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<v Speaker 2>to be going back to a rerun, so please enjoy

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<v Speaker 2>the story of Rush Limbaugh broadcasting from his studio in

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<v Speaker 2>I don't know, some fucking place with one liver tight

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<v Speaker 2>behind his back to make it fair for all of

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<v Speaker 2>the narcotics in his system. Robert Evans presenting, you don't

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<v Speaker 2>you don't like me? You don't you don't like my

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<v Speaker 2>pseudo Rush intro suffing, I'm not on.

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<v Speaker 1>Board, not not a fan of the introduction. This is

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<v Speaker 1>Behind the Bastards.

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<v Speaker 2>Uh, this is Behind the Bastards, a podcast that will

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<v Speaker 2>never be as big as The Rush Limbaugh Show because

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<v Speaker 2>Sophie won't let me use cultic mind control techniques on

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<v Speaker 2>our audience.

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<v Speaker 1>That is inaccurate.

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<v Speaker 2>Feel free. Okay, well we're back. The man you just

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<v Speaker 2>heard is Paul F. Tompkins, our guest for this exploration

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<v Speaker 2>of the life and times of Rush Limbaugh. Hi, everyone,

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<v Speaker 2>Hey Paul, how are you feeling? How are you? How

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<v Speaker 2>are you doing? An hour and a half into talking

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<v Speaker 2>about l rushbo.

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<v Speaker 3>Feeling great, feeling great, feeling. I feel energized that he

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<v Speaker 3>is dead.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I too feel happy that he's dead.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's fun. It hasn't worn off.

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<v Speaker 2>Yet, it has it never will. It will always be

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<v Speaker 2>good that he's dead. There's a few people who are

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<v Speaker 2>like that, where it's like every now and then, I'm

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<v Speaker 2>just like, think back to the fact that Ryan hard

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<v Speaker 2>Heydrich is dead. It's like good, good for him, you know, good,

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<v Speaker 2>good for him. So, once upon a time, Paul, the

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<v Speaker 2>United States used to have a thing called the Fairness Doctrine. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>in short, the fairness doctrine required anyone with a broadcast

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<v Speaker 2>license to present controversial issues in a balanced way, providing

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<v Speaker 2>roughly equivalent time to present both sides of an issue. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>this was obviously a flawed rule. Some issues, for example,

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<v Speaker 2>like climate change, don't have two sides.

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<v Speaker 3>Right.

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<v Speaker 2>There may be different sides, but like what the right

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<v Speaker 2>response is, but there's not two sides to the reality

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<v Speaker 2>of climate change, and while the but while the you know,

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<v Speaker 2>the fairness doctors, So the fairness doctrine not a not

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<v Speaker 2>a perfect not a silver bullet, uh sort of of

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<v Speaker 2>of thing. Im a jig. But while it was in place,

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<v Speaker 2>right wing media in the form that we have today

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<v Speaker 2>did not and could not exist now since the dawn

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<v Speaker 2>of the fake news era, which we're in now, a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of folks have talked about the time of guys

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<v Speaker 2>like Walter Cronkite, Right, when when you had newsmen who

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<v Speaker 2>basically every American trust, who could shift massive national issues

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<v Speaker 2>just based on their considered opinion. Right Cronkite calls of

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<v Speaker 2>Vietnam a quagmire, suddenly national opinion on its switches. And

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<v Speaker 2>a big part of why these guys were trusted is

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<v Speaker 2>they were required to lend equal weight to both sides.

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<v Speaker 2>They couldn't just be partisan shills. Now, this generally meant

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<v Speaker 2>that they would give kind of the conservative opinion and

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<v Speaker 2>the liberal opinion as opposed to the far left of

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<v Speaker 2>the far right. But it did mean that you didn't

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<v Speaker 2>have something as unbalanced as Fox News right.

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<v Speaker 3>Right, It's like the voter guide you get, yeah, exactly.

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<v Speaker 3>It gives you the measured and says some people say this,

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<v Speaker 3>some people say.

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<v Speaker 2>This, yeah. And as flawed as the fairness doctrine was,

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<v Speaker 2>it was part of why most Americans lived in a

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<v Speaker 2>semi unified media ecosystem back in up prior to nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>eighty seven. Now, obviously this did not last. In nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>eighty seven, the FCC is the result of a court case.

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<v Speaker 2>The FCC rejected the fairness doctrine. Conservatives cheered this on

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<v Speaker 2>because fair media was seen by arch conservatives guys Roger

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<v Speaker 2>Stone as a big reason why Americans had broadly supported

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<v Speaker 2>the impeachment of Richard Nixon at the end of the

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<v Speaker 2>Watergate investigation. Watergate is one of these situations where when

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<v Speaker 2>the investigation starts, the vast majority of conservatives are against it. Right,

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<v Speaker 2>don't think Nixon did anything wrong. The evidence comes out

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<v Speaker 2>and opinion shifts and it becomes very popular to get

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<v Speaker 2>Nixon out of office. This is the last time that happens, Right,

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<v Speaker 2>This is the last time that like people's minds get

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<v Speaker 2>changed by the facts on a political issue in America.

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<v Speaker 2>And it's the last time this happens. Because the right

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<v Speaker 2>goes after the fairness doctrine after about a decade or

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<v Speaker 2>so of fighting, they're able to get it killed. And

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<v Speaker 2>the end of the fairness Doctrine was the necessary precursor

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<v Speaker 2>to the creation of a wholly separate, walled garden of

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<v Speaker 2>right wing content, which was seen by dudes like Roger

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<v Speaker 2>Ales as a necessary step to protecting right wing voters

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<v Speaker 2>from ever learning about other opinions, which would, they believed,

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<v Speaker 2>protect the next criminal right wing president from impeachment. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>after Limbaugh's death, the New York Times let Ben Shapiro,

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<v Speaker 2>noted novelist write a column about his professional idol. Benny

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<v Speaker 2>Shapps called the fairness doctrine quote, a standard that in

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<v Speaker 2>practice allowed for the domination of broadcast media by liberals

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<v Speaker 2>with sporadic commentary by conservatives. That's my Benny schaeff.

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<v Speaker 1>I said, how good that was of an immigration.

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<v Speaker 3>It's really quite good. It's really good.

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<v Speaker 2>So Rush Limbaugh was aware from the beginning that his

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<v Speaker 2>whole career hinged on the fairness Doctrine's death. With his

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<v Speaker 2>and like he starts being a national voice in nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>eighty nine, two years after the end of the Fairness Doctrine,

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<v Speaker 2>that's not a coincidence. Now, with his unparalleled national platform

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<v Speaker 2>and his status as a chief thought leader of the

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<v Speaker 2>American right, Limball went about turning the fairness Doctrine into

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<v Speaker 2>his main boogeyman. I found a Vanity Fair article from

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<v Speaker 2>two thousand and nine that lays this out quite well. Quote.

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<v Speaker 2>The single most important issue in Russia's radio career is

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<v Speaker 2>now among the hot button issues and concern fit of politics.

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<v Speaker 2>The Fairness Doctrine, a formalized, fair and balanced rule for

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<v Speaker 2>covering the controversial issues on the nation's airwaves, which the

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<v Speaker 2>Reagan FCC killed in nineteen eighty seven. The most liberal

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<v Speaker 2>wing of the Democratic Party, which puts substantial blame on

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<v Speaker 2>talk radio for a generation of conservative dominance in Washington,

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<v Speaker 2>wants to revive the doctrine, which would pretty handily destroy

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<v Speaker 2>conservative talk. According to the official Seapack pulling of its members,

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<v Speaker 2>restoring the fairest Fairness Doctrine is the third most significant

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<v Speaker 2>Democratic Congress policy initiative opposed by the right wing raking,

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<v Speaker 2>only behind expanding government and public health care. So yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>there is with Russia's orchestration a rabidness to the cause.

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<v Speaker 2>Opposing the fairness Doctrine is up there with opposing abortion

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<v Speaker 2>and he's you know, he's a it's really him that's

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<v Speaker 2>responsible for making this such a popular issue. It starts

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<v Speaker 2>off as a thing that kind of high up extreme

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<v Speaker 2>right wingers, guys who had been Nixon's right hand men

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<v Speaker 2>push because they want to protect the next guy, like

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<v Speaker 2>and it gets popular though because of Rush Limbaugh, because

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<v Speaker 2>he sells it to the American conservative mainstream.

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<v Speaker 3>It's funny, like sorry, but the idea that like with

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<v Speaker 3>the Nixon era after Watergate, Nixon, when Nixon resigns, that

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<v Speaker 3>is maybe the last time that there were real consequences, yeah,

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<v Speaker 3>for any for the for the highest office. Where after that,

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<v Speaker 3>you know, Clint's impeachment, Trump's impeachment, whatever, it doesn't mean anything.

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<v Speaker 3>It really is just like an asterisk in history, you know,

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<v Speaker 3>essentially of saying like just so you know, people, some

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<v Speaker 3>people thought this was bad and they and they said

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<v Speaker 3>so officially, but there's no real consequence for any of this.

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<v Speaker 3>So really what they're doing is saying, we cannot Nixon

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<v Speaker 3>should not have had a consequence. We got to make

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<v Speaker 3>sure that there's never a consequence ever again. And unfortunately

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<v Speaker 3>that men for everybody, for like from I don't know

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<v Speaker 3>what if if because if it didn't happen, if it

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<v Speaker 3>didn't happen after Bush, which there was not even an

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<v Speaker 3>impeachment for Bush, like for the Iraq war that we

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<v Speaker 3>all know now was bogus. If there was never going

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<v Speaker 3>to be a consequence for that, then it worked and

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<v Speaker 3>they're there and and from now on, like, when is

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<v Speaker 3>it ever going to happen again? When if it didn't happen,

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<v Speaker 3>then when is it ever going to happen again? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 2>I don't think it can because this propaganda ecosystem turns

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<v Speaker 2>out people who would fight to the death rather than

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<v Speaker 2>have somebody who on paper is supposed to agree with

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<v Speaker 2>them face consequences for blatantly criminal activity, right.

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<v Speaker 3>And then and then it also it conditions whether whether

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<v Speaker 3>you believe, whether you believe in, whether you're you're on

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<v Speaker 3>Russia's side or not, whether you're on that side of

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<v Speaker 3>things or not. It conditions everybody to feel like it's

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<v Speaker 3>okay that there's no consequences because what are you gonna do? Yeah,

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<v Speaker 3>it's just the way things are.

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<v Speaker 2>You can draw a fucking line between kind of the

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<v Speaker 2>things that Rush starts because it has an impact on

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<v Speaker 2>liberals and the left too. Yeah, you've got this it's

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<v Speaker 2>it's and it's because obviously with the fairness doctrine, nobody

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<v Speaker 2>ever heard anything from the far left right. The far left,

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<v Speaker 2>in fact, was criminally prosecuted a lot of times for

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<v Speaker 2>their opinions in this period. But the positive thing about

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<v Speaker 2>the fairness doctrine is that it was a large part

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<v Speaker 2>of why there was a broadly agreed upon understanding of

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<v Speaker 2>the basic of basic reality in the United States. Right, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>that we don't have anymore. And when you lose that,

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<v Speaker 2>I kind of think when you lose that, the only

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<v Speaker 2>like things inevitably escalate to deadly violence. Yeah, yeah, and

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<v Speaker 2>that's bad, right, not that again, under the fairness doctrine,

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<v Speaker 2>Americans were led into Vietnam, or led into Grenada, We're

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<v Speaker 2>led into Panama, We're let into all these horrible, horrible things.

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<v Speaker 2>Obviously we like it. It did not mean that Americans

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<v Speaker 2>had an accurate understanding of the world, but when they

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<v Speaker 2>had an inaccurate understanding of the world, it was still

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<v Speaker 2>broadly similar. Right, And that is better than where we

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<v Speaker 2>are now. I guess I think it is at least

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<v Speaker 2>less toxic. I guess you could argue the United States

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<v Speaker 2>had more power, the government had more power to pursue

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<v Speaker 2>violent activity overseas and stuff. I don't know, I don't know.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a complicated issue. But whatever, whatever you can say

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<v Speaker 2>about rush Linball, he was not a dumb man. He

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<v Speaker 2>was a huge bigot, though, and that nineteen ninety New

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<v Speaker 2>York Times write up makes it clear that, among other things,

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<v Speaker 2>he was quick to realize that rampant misogyny was an

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<v Speaker 2>incredible marketing tactic. This was, as we discussed in our

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<v Speaker 2>last episode, always cloaked in a thick haze of irony. Quote,

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<v Speaker 2>this is rush We know that women in groups, same office,

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<v Speaker 2>same dormitory, Saint Barracks eventually have synchronized minstrel cycles. We

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<v Speaker 2>also know that there's this thing called PMS, and we

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<v Speaker 2>know it turns a woman into a hell. And we

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<v Speaker 2>know that PMS has been used as a defense against

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<v Speaker 2>a charge of murder. Here's my proposal. We have fifty

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<v Speaker 2>two battalions. We can prepare the nation so that we'll have,

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<v Speaker 2>on any given week of the year, a combat runny

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<v Speaker 2>battalion of Amazons to go into battle. Imagine that your

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<v Speaker 2>Manuel Antonio Noriega, you were in the Papal Nuncio in

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<v Speaker 2>Panama City. You feel safe. All of a sudden, you

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<v Speaker 2>hear this blood curdling scream outside. I am outraged, and

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<v Speaker 2>there is Sergeant Major molly Yard leading a battalion of

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<v Speaker 2>Amazons with pms over the hill. That would be enough

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<v Speaker 2>to scare the pants off of anybody.

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<v Speaker 1>Disgusting, not a.

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<v Speaker 2>Rush Rush Limba everybody.

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<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's like, it's just not even that funny.

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<v Speaker 3>That's one of the things that sucks about Rush Limbaugh

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<v Speaker 3>is that he for somebody who did a lot of

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<v Speaker 3>bits and you know, was supposedly doing satire, he just

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<v Speaker 3>wasn't that funny.

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<v Speaker 2>He wasn't. It's just that he was saying the bigoted,

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<v Speaker 2>terrible things that a lot of bad people wanted to say. Yea,

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<v Speaker 2>and the fact that it was so horrible and the

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<v Speaker 2>fact that it scratched their id made them laugh and

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<v Speaker 2>made them think he was a genius because somebody was

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<v Speaker 2>finally telling them it was okay to be as shitty

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<v Speaker 2>as they'd kind of wanted to be from the.

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<v Speaker 3>Beginning, because you put the tiniest effort into constructing these bits.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and it's it's the same thing with all of

0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:21.720
<v Speaker 2>these You've got this kind of strain of comedians who

0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:23.480
<v Speaker 2>thinks that it's important that they be allowed to say

0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:25.480
<v Speaker 2>the inWORD. Not a single one of them has ever

0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.680
<v Speaker 2>told a good joke involving the inward, right, Exactly, it's

0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.719
<v Speaker 2>not funny. You're just going for shock value, right, that's

0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.680
<v Speaker 2>all you're trying to do, and that can be There's

0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.120
<v Speaker 2>not that. No good humor comes from shock value. But again,

0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.560
<v Speaker 2>I haven't heard a single good joke from a white

0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:45.120
<v Speaker 2>comedian involving the inward. Not that it would be appropriate then,

0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.680
<v Speaker 2>but I haven't heard one, you know. Like So, from

0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.440
<v Speaker 2>the beginning, the villains of the Rush Limbaugh expanded universe were,

0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.559
<v Speaker 2>as The New York Times explained, quote, black activists, gay activists,

0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:03.600
<v Speaker 2>abortion rights activists, homeless activists, animal rights activists, militant vegetarians, environmentalists,

0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.400
<v Speaker 2>artists with erotic tendencies, and above all, the now Game

0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.280
<v Speaker 2>gang that's the National Organization of Women right. His hatred, Yeah,

0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.240
<v Speaker 2>Rushia said that his hatred for these people caused him

0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.959
<v Speaker 2>an uncontrollable urge to tweak.

0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:18.880
<v Speaker 3>Quote.

0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.120
<v Speaker 2>The simple fact of the matter, Limbaugh is apt to

0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.679
<v Speaker 2>inform dolphin savers and tree lovers is that we are

0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.520
<v Speaker 2>human beings, and we are the most powerful smartest species

0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.560
<v Speaker 2>and we can damn well do whatever we want. And

0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:31.120
<v Speaker 2>you can draw a line from this kind of the

0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.760
<v Speaker 2>way he's phrasing things. Here's like it's stupid to care

0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.160
<v Speaker 2>about the environment and animals because we're more powerful than them.

0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.040
<v Speaker 2>To the like the shit that Identity Europa and Patriot Front,

0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.840
<v Speaker 2>these like explicitly fascist organizations exist now will put up

0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.600
<v Speaker 2>these signs, like these posters of the United States that

0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:51.280
<v Speaker 2>say not stolen conquered right where it's like fuck the

0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.120
<v Speaker 2>indigenous people, we beat them and so we deserve all

0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:56.880
<v Speaker 2>this right. That's just an extension of what Russia is saying,

0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.160
<v Speaker 2>you know. Yeah, and he the fact that he he

0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.840
<v Speaker 2>made that mainstream is why they have a chance of

0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:04.320
<v Speaker 2>making that mainstream, you know.

0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:10.640
<v Speaker 3>And the idea that it's so that that they that

0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:15.000
<v Speaker 3>he phrased it as this uh matter of personal choice

0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:20.400
<v Speaker 3>rather than like just common sense practical thinking, you know,

0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.840
<v Speaker 3>like do you really want to do you really want

0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.920
<v Speaker 3>to put your trash in two separate trash bands? You know,

0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.280
<v Speaker 3>And it's like, well, it's not so much that it's

0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:33.400
<v Speaker 3>a hassle. It's that we're gonna make earth unlivable for ourselves,

0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.400
<v Speaker 3>not that we're like, you know, fuck you the dodo

0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.840
<v Speaker 3>you should have you should have had claws or something.

0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:45.120
<v Speaker 3>It's that we're fucking ourselves, Like that's the why why

0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.120
<v Speaker 3>has that been? Why is that so hard to understand?

0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:51.240
<v Speaker 3>It's so hard to comply with and so hard to

0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:57.080
<v Speaker 3>uh uh keep as part of the narrative when because

0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.600
<v Speaker 3>the the logical extension is, what do you care? You'll

0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.680
<v Speaker 3>be dead by the time, by the time this shit,

0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.480
<v Speaker 3>by the time this shit affects people in a meaningful

0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.080
<v Speaker 3>way to you a meaningful way, you'll be dead. So

0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.640
<v Speaker 3>what do you care? And these are people that are

0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.560
<v Speaker 3>all allegedly all about the family, and it's like, well,

0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.080
<v Speaker 3>I mean, do you plan on having grandchildren, great grandchildren,

0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.240
<v Speaker 3>great great grandchildren? Like do you care about what? I

0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.960
<v Speaker 3>don't know. I don't. I'm not being funny now, and

0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:27.760
<v Speaker 3>I'm just being whiny.

0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.000
<v Speaker 2>But what you're getting at, Paul, and what the core

0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:36.800
<v Speaker 2>of this is is that Rush doesn't believe in positive things.

0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:38.480
<v Speaker 2>And I don't mean positive in a good sense. I

0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.440
<v Speaker 2>mean he doesn't believe in things that should be done.

0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.000
<v Speaker 2>He believes in tweaking people. That is what he turns

0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.080
<v Speaker 2>American conservatism into. He turns it from we're conservatives, these

0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:51.800
<v Speaker 2>are the things we believe about how the government and

0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.600
<v Speaker 2>how society should be run, and to conservatism is owning

0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.880
<v Speaker 2>the Libs. That's where we are now, and that's what

0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.520
<v Speaker 2>this is is it's my politics are a sort of

0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:08.040
<v Speaker 2>rhetorical violence against the people I disagree with. Because improving

0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.760
<v Speaker 2>the world, changing or making positive alterations to the world

0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.080
<v Speaker 2>is difficult and complicated and involves a lot of debate

0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.280
<v Speaker 2>and trial and error. That's hard. All I want to

0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.359
<v Speaker 2>do is own the Libs. That's what Rush Limbaugh created,

0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:25.560
<v Speaker 2>brought into the world and turned into the entire That's

0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.320
<v Speaker 2>the only thing that's left in conservatism. Right, You've got

0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.200
<v Speaker 2>these odd You've got a couple of dudes left on

0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.880
<v Speaker 2>the right who actually believe in something like Mitt Romney

0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.080
<v Speaker 2>and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:36.320
<v Speaker 3>Right.

0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.280
<v Speaker 2>Not that what they believe in is great or that

0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.320
<v Speaker 2>I believe in it too, but they both have a

0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.080
<v Speaker 2>clearly have a principles that aren't just owning the Libs.

0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.000
<v Speaker 2>But they're on the fringe now because owning the Libs

0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:50.720
<v Speaker 2>is all the right has, ye.

0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.840
<v Speaker 3>And it's just it's not it's not it's not standing

0:16:54.920 --> 0:17:01.920
<v Speaker 3>for something it's it's I it's like not what I

0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.520
<v Speaker 3>my politics are. I don't want somebody telling me what

0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.879
<v Speaker 3>to do. Yeah, I believe in a vague idea of

0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.080
<v Speaker 3>a John Wayne movie. And you know, things were better

0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.560
<v Speaker 3>in this bygone era before these people started to suggest

0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.560
<v Speaker 3>that maybe we can improve things. And that's where it ends.

0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:25.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and it's it's it's very frustrated, Paul, because that

0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:27.680
<v Speaker 2>the core of that idea that like, I want to

0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.520
<v Speaker 2>be left alone. That's more or less my politics. That's

0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.800
<v Speaker 2>what led me to anarchism is like, don't fucking tell

0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:34.120
<v Speaker 2>me what to do, and I don't want to tell

0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.600
<v Speaker 2>you what to do, right, And that is what as

0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.399
<v Speaker 2>a kid I was taught conservatism was. But it's not

0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.480
<v Speaker 2>what conservatism has ever been. And I think a big

0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.280
<v Speaker 2>part of why why the Republican establishment embraces Rush is

0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:50.280
<v Speaker 2>that by the early nineties, in particular, by the mid nineties, definitely,

0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:52.800
<v Speaker 2>it has become clear that nothing that the right does

0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:57.399
<v Speaker 2>works for the actual people that vote them into office.

0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.600
<v Speaker 2>True down economics does not function, you know, it doesn't.

0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.719
<v Speaker 2>It's well documented objectively does not work the way they

0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:09.320
<v Speaker 2>say it does. They're fighting against environmental regulations damages the

0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.680
<v Speaker 2>world and makes it uninhabitable. Fighting against corporate regulations gets

0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.440
<v Speaker 2>a lot of their voters killed by dangerous working conditions

0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.680
<v Speaker 2>and stuff. All of the wars they get us into

0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.919
<v Speaker 2>are disasters and expensive and do not achieve the foreign

0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.639
<v Speaker 2>policy or even the basic national security goals they set.

0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.679
<v Speaker 2>Conservatism as Americans do, it at least does not work.

0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:31.720
<v Speaker 2>And when you know that, you can't go back to

0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.600
<v Speaker 2>the drawing table. You can't admit failure, you can't acknowledge

0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.800
<v Speaker 2>the mistake. What you can do is own the Libs,

0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.160
<v Speaker 2>you know. And that's why that's all it is now,

0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:44.840
<v Speaker 2>is owning the Libs. It's good. It's a good, healthy society, Paul.

0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.119
<v Speaker 3>It's only gonna get better too, So we gotta get better.

0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.840
<v Speaker 2>So Russia's justification for the outrageous caricature of a right

0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:57.880
<v Speaker 2>winger that he played on his show had always been

0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.080
<v Speaker 2>that these liberals and leftists advocate for black lives and

0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.760
<v Speaker 2>women's liberation and basic environmental safeguards were absurd, and as

0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:09.480
<v Speaker 2>Rush put it, I demonstrate absurdity by being absurd, that's

0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:13.000
<v Speaker 2>his own words. Once now, this turned out to be

0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.240
<v Speaker 2>an objectively good business because none of his listeners seemed

0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.879
<v Speaker 2>to find Rush himself absurd. The character he played became

0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:23.080
<v Speaker 2>the man he was, and the once a political wannabe

0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.760
<v Speaker 2>DJ turned into a mouthpiece for the very worst of

0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.919
<v Speaker 2>our society's impulses. One thing that made the Rush Limbaugh

0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.439
<v Speaker 2>Show groundbreaking was that, for the first time in an

0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:35.160
<v Speaker 2>explicitly political talk show, the focus was not on guests

0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:39.280
<v Speaker 2>or actual reporting or anything but the personality Limbaugh had created.

0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.879
<v Speaker 2>Rush was his own guest, and this was a deliberate

0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.000
<v Speaker 2>choice he made, and a very intelligent one to make

0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.240
<v Speaker 2>the show more profitable. If the focus of your show

0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.280
<v Speaker 2>is on the news and on what guests have to say,

0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:54.840
<v Speaker 2>you can kind of slot any person with a decent

0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.840
<v Speaker 2>voice in to replace the host. Right That limits how

0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:00.240
<v Speaker 2>much money you're going to make, and it limits of

0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.880
<v Speaker 2>the length of your career. Rush himself explained in an interview,

0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.280
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to be the reason people listened. That's how

0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:11.080
<v Speaker 2>you pad your pocket, that's how you establish yourself, and

0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.560
<v Speaker 2>that's very smart. He did, in fact, establish himself. In

0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.800
<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety two, Rush's radio success finally got the TV

0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.560
<v Speaker 2>people listening. They decided to try him out as on

0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.800
<v Speaker 2>screen talent. He teamed up with Roger Ayles, the man

0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.600
<v Speaker 2>who would later invent Fox News, and together they produced

0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.240
<v Speaker 2>one of the most outrageous and vile news programs ever made.

0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:32.720
<v Speaker 2>It would sadly also turn out to be one of

0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.760
<v Speaker 2>the most influential. And now, Paul, it is time for

0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.000
<v Speaker 2>you and I to take a journey into this particular

0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:43.159
<v Speaker 2>piece of far right history. So this episode from nineteen

0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.359
<v Speaker 2>ninety two of the Rush Limbas Show opens with a

0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.119
<v Speaker 2>title card which features an image of a microphone with

0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.040
<v Speaker 2>the name Rush emblazoned on it and the words warning,

0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.080
<v Speaker 2>the views expressed on this program are not necessarily the

0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:57.159
<v Speaker 2>views of the staff, advertisers, or your local station, but

0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.600
<v Speaker 2>they ought to be. It's a lot of fun. Yeah,

0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.320
<v Speaker 2>it's good shit, man, it's good shit. So the episode

0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.120
<v Speaker 2>itself has a weirdly quiet intro, no music, just Rush

0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.399
<v Speaker 2>with a pointer standing in what looks like an office

0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.240
<v Speaker 2>with wall to wall bookshelves and TVs interspersed within the

0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.639
<v Speaker 2>books on the bookshelves. He introduces himself and he starts

0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:20.440
<v Speaker 2>talking about a recent conversation he had with President George H. W.

0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.040
<v Speaker 2>Bush on his radio program.

0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:27.800
<v Speaker 4>So there continues to be more controversy surrounding my performance

0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.720
<v Speaker 4>with the President yesterday when he came by my radio program.

0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:33.600
<v Speaker 4>The press is telling you things that aren't true.

0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:35.760
<v Speaker 2>But we have the tapes and.

0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.199
<v Speaker 4>We have the truth me and we'll show you and

0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:39.200
<v Speaker 4>tell you both tonight.

0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.800
<v Speaker 2>So that's telling. That's that's that's extremely important what he

0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.240
<v Speaker 2>does here. You have to remember Fox News was not

0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:48.320
<v Speaker 2>a thing yet at this time, fake news was not

0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.359
<v Speaker 2>a buzzword. Limbaugh is groundbreaking in that he was not

0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:56.000
<v Speaker 2>only critiquing mainstream news as being fake and lying, but

0:21:56.080 --> 0:22:00.440
<v Speaker 2>he's also telling his listeners I am the truth. This

0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.080
<v Speaker 2>paragraph from a write up by Rolling Stone gets to

0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.480
<v Speaker 2>the core of why I find what he's doing here

0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:10.000
<v Speaker 2>so terrifying. Quote. He wasn't selling political ideas and he

0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:14.600
<v Speaker 2>never has. He was selling political attitude, the swaggering certitude,

0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.080
<v Speaker 2>the mocking dismissiveness, the freedom to offend, the right to

0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.399
<v Speaker 2>assert your privilege without guilt or embarrassment. And partly because

0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.520
<v Speaker 2>he was modeling that liberation with such wicked glee, Limbaugh

0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.360
<v Speaker 2>was making himself indispensable. Within six weeks of tuning in regularly,

0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:31.080
<v Speaker 2>he would tell new listeners they be on the cutting

0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.760
<v Speaker 2>edge of social evolution. Best of all he promised, I

0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.000
<v Speaker 2>will do all your reading and I will tell you

0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:41.480
<v Speaker 2>what to think of it. I will do all your reading,

0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.400
<v Speaker 2>and I will tell you what to think of it. Yeah.

0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:49.199
<v Speaker 3>Wow, I know right. It's so abusive, it's so and

0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:53.199
<v Speaker 3>it's so bald. Yeah, it's right out there. It's like

0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:55.480
<v Speaker 3>he's not there's no, it's.

0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:55.760
<v Speaker 5>Not like.

0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:00.320
<v Speaker 3>A sort of obfuscating language. He is.

0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:04.879
<v Speaker 6>He's saying very clearly, Yeah, what the deal is?

0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:07.679
<v Speaker 3>This is unbelievable, And this.

0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.359
<v Speaker 2>Is the this is the logical extent of this. I'm

0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:12.560
<v Speaker 2>so smart, you know, I gotta tie half my brain

0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:14.760
<v Speaker 2>behind my back just to make it fair. You know,

0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.920
<v Speaker 2>I'm this big genius. I'm so smart. You don't need

0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.440
<v Speaker 2>to reader think. I'll do it for you and then

0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:21.800
<v Speaker 2>you too will be smart.

0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:22.400
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.920
<v Speaker 2>And this is a huge that he spins a lot

0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:30.879
<v Speaker 2>of effort in reinforcing his intelligence. After this section of

0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:32.840
<v Speaker 2>the show, he goes on to introduce the other topics

0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:35.919
<v Speaker 2>of that episode, which include femin Nazi, glorious steinem in

0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:37.960
<v Speaker 2>review of the movie The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.240
<v Speaker 2>Then we cut into Yeah. Then we cut to the

0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:44.640
<v Speaker 2>actual intro, which is terrible nineteen nineties talk show music

0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:47.600
<v Speaker 2>played over a series of mocked up news articles with

0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:52.719
<v Speaker 2>titles like EIB linked to higher IQ. Limba gets patent,

0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:57.439
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh says no to presidential bid. Limbaugh checks brain on

0:23:57.560 --> 0:24:04.320
<v Speaker 2>donor's card. Limbaugh to carry a torch at the Mental Olympics. Again,

0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.280
<v Speaker 2>he puts a lot of effort into I mean, it's absurd, right,

0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:10.600
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, it clearly works. It worked on my parents,

0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:13.280
<v Speaker 2>you know, all of the people who raised me to

0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:14.439
<v Speaker 2>some extent, they're all convinced.

0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:15.439
<v Speaker 3>He's fun.

0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:16.720
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's fun.

0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:19.440
<v Speaker 3>But but he also says things that I like to hear.

0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:21.480
<v Speaker 3>But he's fun. He's just fun.

0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:22.080
<v Speaker 2>He's fun.

0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:27.480
<v Speaker 3>I think also, you cannot underestimate the the effect of

0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:30.480
<v Speaker 3>the pointer. If you have, If you have, if you're

0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:33.960
<v Speaker 3>on television and you have you're you're walking out over

0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:37.359
<v Speaker 3>television with a pointer and you're pointing at something, it

0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:39.119
<v Speaker 3>looks very official.

0:24:39.840 --> 0:24:44.159
<v Speaker 2>Totally absolutely, That's why I have a point. Well I

0:24:44.200 --> 0:24:46.960
<v Speaker 2>have a gun, but it works the same way.

0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:51.679
<v Speaker 3>So Robert, what are all your weapons in front of you?

0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:55.040
<v Speaker 2>Well, I'm always I'm always surrounded by weapons.

0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:59.320
<v Speaker 3>What's going to happen during this discussion?

0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:02.719
<v Speaker 1>You know, have anything on you? Right now? I'm right here.

0:25:02.800 --> 0:25:03.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you're not.

0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:11.200
<v Speaker 3>Fucking h here's my knife.

0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:18.880
<v Speaker 2>There a nice little hunchback there that makes it good

0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:21.560
<v Speaker 2>for kind of close end work. Yeah, all right, now

0:25:21.600 --> 0:25:24.639
<v Speaker 2>we're all armed. We can properly get back to the show.

0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:27.160
<v Speaker 3>I didn't realize this was a this was a knife

0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:28.600
<v Speaker 3>on the table show. I apologiz.

0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:30.880
<v Speaker 2>This is this is I mean, there are like three

0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:35.520
<v Speaker 2>knives on the table, right, this is a significant number

0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:37.640
<v Speaker 2>of beau on the table.

0:25:38.160 --> 0:25:40.280
<v Speaker 3>All right, I apologize.

0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:44.600
<v Speaker 2>So the show proper starts after this point, after these

0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:47.080
<v Speaker 2>fake news articles kind of go through and Russia's first

0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:50.240
<v Speaker 2>subject on this episode is the then new TV series

0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:54.080
<v Speaker 2>Murphy Brown. Murphy Brown was obviously the titular character of

0:25:54.119 --> 0:25:57.679
<v Speaker 2>the show. She was a recovering alcoholic investigative journalist and

0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.679
<v Speaker 2>a primetime news anchor into single Murphy Brown was a

0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:05.719
<v Speaker 2>very feminist in progressive series for its day. Limba opens

0:26:05.720 --> 0:26:09.800
<v Speaker 2>his episode by expressing anger at the show's success, and then,

0:26:09.920 --> 0:26:12.840
<v Speaker 2>in what I would consider a fairly abusive manner, he

0:26:12.920 --> 0:26:15.600
<v Speaker 2>tells his audience why they shouldn't watch it.

0:26:16.359 --> 0:26:16.959
<v Speaker 1>Clip.

0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:20.920
<v Speaker 4>Oh, people on my radio show, didn't You probably watched

0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:23.720
<v Speaker 4>it too, but you didn't have to. You know why

0:26:23.760 --> 0:26:27.040
<v Speaker 4>you didn't have to because I told you you didn't

0:26:27.040 --> 0:26:29.840
<v Speaker 4>have to. I had the script. I told you everything

0:26:29.880 --> 0:26:31.840
<v Speaker 4>that was going to happen on this show. I told

0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:34.400
<v Speaker 4>you it wasn't funny. I told you it was defensive.

0:26:34.720 --> 0:26:38.240
<v Speaker 4>I told you this show was a little heavy handed.

0:26:38.560 --> 0:26:40.959
<v Speaker 4>I said that they're focusing on the wrong thing in

0:26:41.000 --> 0:26:43.119
<v Speaker 4>this show, and they really did. You've heard a lot

0:26:43.160 --> 0:26:44.680
<v Speaker 4>of people say a lot of things about this show,

0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:48.040
<v Speaker 4>but I'll tell you the most important thing is that

0:26:48.119 --> 0:26:50.800
<v Speaker 4>they got very defensive about what a family is. They

0:26:50.840 --> 0:26:54.119
<v Speaker 4>trot out all these various examples of what a family is,

0:26:54.160 --> 0:26:56.159
<v Speaker 4>and that's not what the Vice president or any of

0:26:56.200 --> 0:26:57.720
<v Speaker 4>the family values people.

0:26:57.840 --> 0:27:03.560
<v Speaker 2>That's profoundly I think this is this You shouldn't have

0:27:03.600 --> 0:27:05.960
<v Speaker 2>watched this show because I told you not to, and

0:27:06.000 --> 0:27:08.399
<v Speaker 2>I told you not to because it's not good for

0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:11.560
<v Speaker 2>you to imbibe this. And I think it's important to

0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:13.879
<v Speaker 2>break down exactly what he's doing here. First off, he

0:27:14.000 --> 0:27:19.240
<v Speaker 2>is trying to physically separate his audience from mainstream American society.

0:27:19.320 --> 0:27:21.760
<v Speaker 2>Murphy Brown was a hugely popular show in this day.

0:27:22.160 --> 0:27:24.440
<v Speaker 2>He is literally telling them, you don't need to watch

0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:26.959
<v Speaker 2>this thing other people are watching because I am telling

0:27:27.000 --> 0:27:29.560
<v Speaker 2>you not to, and he justifies this by saying that

0:27:29.640 --> 0:27:32.600
<v Speaker 2>Murphy Brown is an assault on family values, which he

0:27:32.640 --> 0:27:35.800
<v Speaker 2>goes on to call functional values, because family is like

0:27:35.840 --> 0:27:38.640
<v Speaker 2>the ones portrayed on Murphy Brown were, in Limbaugh's eyes,

0:27:39.040 --> 0:27:42.879
<v Speaker 2>non functional. This is significant because Murphy Brown was a

0:27:43.000 --> 0:27:45.879
<v Speaker 2>single mother. She was one of the first single mother's

0:27:45.960 --> 0:27:49.679
<v Speaker 2>portrayed on American TV as not just existing but as

0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:55.280
<v Speaker 2>being a successful person and a competent parent. Was furious,

0:27:56.680 --> 0:28:00.240
<v Speaker 2>I can't let we can't let people watch this because

0:28:00.280 --> 0:28:01.800
<v Speaker 2>it will give them the wrong idea, and not just

0:28:01.840 --> 0:28:02.760
<v Speaker 2>about single mothers.

0:28:02.920 --> 0:28:05.800
<v Speaker 3>I also think it's worth noting that on the show itself,

0:28:06.640 --> 0:28:09.520
<v Speaker 3>the idea of her being a single mother was a

0:28:11.760 --> 0:28:16.160
<v Speaker 3>plot point that was a story arc that they discussed

0:28:16.320 --> 0:28:18.760
<v Speaker 3>a lot on the show. It was a It was

0:28:18.800 --> 0:28:22.880
<v Speaker 3>not a blithe decision by the character. It was they

0:28:22.920 --> 0:28:26.320
<v Speaker 3>really talked about it because because it was a show

0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:29.520
<v Speaker 3>that did a lot of satire, talked about issues. The

0:28:30.080 --> 0:28:32.640
<v Speaker 3>discussion of whether or not she was going to have

0:28:32.760 --> 0:28:35.520
<v Speaker 3>the baby and what it meant to be a single

0:28:35.560 --> 0:28:39.800
<v Speaker 3>working mother was discussed at great length on the show.

0:28:40.280 --> 0:28:43.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and that's why he wants, That's why it is

0:28:43.920 --> 0:28:48.320
<v Speaker 2>important to him to keep his audience away from it. Now,

0:28:49.880 --> 0:28:51.920
<v Speaker 2>that was not the only kind of groundbreaking thing about

0:28:52.040 --> 0:28:55.720
<v Speaker 2>Murphy Brown. The show was incredibly significant in its portrayal

0:28:55.840 --> 0:28:59.200
<v Speaker 2>of gay people in several episodes, most notably in nineteen

0:28:59.280 --> 0:29:02.880
<v Speaker 2>ninety two, when eineightteen ninety four, homosexuals were shown as

0:29:02.960 --> 0:29:06.840
<v Speaker 2>not just normal, functional members of society, but as existing

0:29:06.920 --> 0:29:11.280
<v Speaker 2>in significant numbers throughout American society. There's an episode where

0:29:11.320 --> 0:29:13.480
<v Speaker 2>like one of the characters buys a bar and it becomes,

0:29:13.560 --> 0:29:15.720
<v Speaker 2>through kind of like comedic hijinks or whatever, becomes a

0:29:15.760 --> 0:29:18.440
<v Speaker 2>gay bar, and he's like slowly realizes what it is.

0:29:18.600 --> 0:29:20.240
<v Speaker 2>But the point the episode was making is that gay

0:29:20.240 --> 0:29:23.120
<v Speaker 2>people are all around us. They're part of our community.

0:29:23.360 --> 0:29:27.200
<v Speaker 2>They are a significant, meaningful part of our society. This

0:29:27.480 --> 0:29:31.240
<v Speaker 2>was rare in mainstream television for the time, and it

0:29:31.400 --> 0:29:36.080
<v Speaker 2>made Rush Limbaugh furious. We have another clip here of that.

0:29:36.840 --> 0:29:40.480
<v Speaker 4>Just adults teaching kids doesn't matter what the composition is

0:29:40.520 --> 0:29:43.200
<v Speaker 4>of the family, and nobody has been critical that. When

0:29:43.240 --> 0:29:46.040
<v Speaker 4>Quail said that they glorified single mother is what he

0:29:46.080 --> 0:29:48.680
<v Speaker 4>was trying to point out, my friends was and I

0:29:48.720 --> 0:29:50.640
<v Speaker 4>think this show proved it last night. This is another

0:29:50.680 --> 0:29:53.160
<v Speaker 4>thing this show's got an agenda. And they say all

0:29:53.240 --> 0:29:56.200
<v Speaker 4>day long they don't have an agenda, but last night's.

0:29:55.960 --> 0:29:56.880
<v Speaker 3>Show proved it.

0:29:56.880 --> 0:29:59.280
<v Speaker 4>It's okay that they have an agenda. Just say so,

0:30:00.200 --> 0:30:03.200
<v Speaker 4>like this show, we are perfectly upfront and honest about

0:30:03.200 --> 0:30:05.680
<v Speaker 4>what I am and what I believe on this show,

0:30:05.960 --> 0:30:08.000
<v Speaker 4>and we'll let that float out in the marketplace and

0:30:08.080 --> 0:30:09.040
<v Speaker 4>let you accept it as it is.

0:30:09.040 --> 0:30:10.360
<v Speaker 3>There's no attempt here to fool you.

0:30:10.400 --> 0:30:12.640
<v Speaker 4>There's no attempt here to deny what I am.

0:30:13.200 --> 0:30:17.440
<v Speaker 2>But that's what they're all about. Now, this is also

0:30:17.560 --> 0:30:23.560
<v Speaker 2>really significant. So what Russia's doing here is he's framing

0:30:23.600 --> 0:30:27.720
<v Speaker 2>his objection to Murphy Brown as reasonable and not based

0:30:27.760 --> 0:30:30.720
<v Speaker 2>in hate. He's saying, I'm not against single mothers, or

0:30:30.720 --> 0:30:32.840
<v Speaker 2>I'm not against gay people or whatever. I am against

0:30:32.840 --> 0:30:36.680
<v Speaker 2>the fact that this show conceals its political agenda. And

0:30:36.720 --> 0:30:39.280
<v Speaker 2>I can see why people like most of my family

0:30:39.440 --> 0:30:41.880
<v Speaker 2>would have found this reasonable. But what's happening here is

0:30:42.000 --> 0:30:45.400
<v Speaker 2>very sinister because Murphy Brown was not trying to be

0:30:45.600 --> 0:30:48.520
<v Speaker 2>left wing. It was trying to make a point that

0:30:48.640 --> 0:30:52.320
<v Speaker 2>single parents and that gay people are regular human beings

0:30:52.360 --> 0:30:55.560
<v Speaker 2>who contribute to society. It was trying to point out

0:30:55.600 --> 0:30:59.680
<v Speaker 2>that single parents are valid and functional people. These should

0:30:59.720 --> 0:31:04.280
<v Speaker 2>not be political points, and recognizing the humanity of huge

0:31:04.360 --> 0:31:07.800
<v Speaker 2>chunks of the population should not count as an agenda,

0:31:07.960 --> 0:31:10.400
<v Speaker 2>but it was critical for Rush Limbaugh to turn it

0:31:10.440 --> 0:31:13.320
<v Speaker 2>into one, because if you can take the basic humanity

0:31:13.360 --> 0:31:16.840
<v Speaker 2>of marginalized people and make it a political talking point,

0:31:17.000 --> 0:31:19.320
<v Speaker 2>then you make it into something people can oppose on

0:31:19.480 --> 0:31:22.840
<v Speaker 2>principle and thus frame their bigotry as not hate but

0:31:23.000 --> 0:31:25.480
<v Speaker 2>simply a political stance that they have every right to.

0:31:26.280 --> 0:31:28.480
<v Speaker 2>Rush was not the first person to talk about the

0:31:28.480 --> 0:31:31.600
<v Speaker 2>gay agen or to oppose single motherhood, not even close.

0:31:31.840 --> 0:31:35.680
<v Speaker 2>But before him, the most prominent voices attacking these groups

0:31:35.720 --> 0:31:38.400
<v Speaker 2>of people were on the religious right, which had first

0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:41.000
<v Speaker 2>arisen as an organized political force in the late seventies.

0:31:41.280 --> 0:31:44.840
<v Speaker 2>They were obviously influential, but they were also obviously religious extremists,

0:31:44.840 --> 0:31:48.479
<v Speaker 2>and a lot of non religious conservatives and libertarian types

0:31:48.840 --> 0:31:52.640
<v Speaker 2>did not want to identify with fundamentalists. Rush, who had

0:31:52.680 --> 0:31:57.480
<v Speaker 2>a documented history of mocking religious conservatives, provided the more

0:31:57.520 --> 0:32:02.560
<v Speaker 2>libertarian right with a secular justification for bigotry against gay

0:32:02.560 --> 0:32:05.920
<v Speaker 2>people and single mothers and women in general, and that's

0:32:07.360 --> 0:32:08.960
<v Speaker 2>one of his great innovations.

0:32:09.040 --> 0:32:14.840
<v Speaker 3>Unfortunately, Yeah, he pioneered this idea that if you are

0:32:14.920 --> 0:32:19.400
<v Speaker 3>saying this is okay, this thing is okay, what you

0:32:19.440 --> 0:32:21.960
<v Speaker 3>are doing is saying that's it, that's somehow that's an

0:32:22.000 --> 0:32:25.080
<v Speaker 3>attack on me and what I believexactly. So the idea

0:32:25.080 --> 0:32:30.240
<v Speaker 3>of dan Quayle saying it glorifies single mothers. No one

0:32:30.760 --> 0:32:33.520
<v Speaker 3>that that show. No one was ever saying we should

0:32:33.520 --> 0:32:37.480
<v Speaker 3>do this instead right, we should be doing we should

0:32:37.520 --> 0:32:39.720
<v Speaker 3>be doing this instead of what you think is right.

0:32:40.040 --> 0:32:42.800
<v Speaker 3>This is what we should be doing, rather than just

0:32:43.200 --> 0:32:47.640
<v Speaker 3>saying can't isn't this okay? Like these these people exist.

0:32:47.680 --> 0:32:48.440
<v Speaker 3>Isn't that all right?

0:32:48.800 --> 0:32:51.360
<v Speaker 2>These people exist, it's all right, and they shouldn't be

0:32:51.600 --> 0:32:57.520
<v Speaker 2>hated or punished or or ostracized. Being this for.

0:32:57.640 --> 0:33:01.400
<v Speaker 3>Me, he's not even talking about a slippery he's just

0:33:01.520 --> 0:33:04.760
<v Speaker 3>saying that if you are saying this is okay, that

0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:08.040
<v Speaker 3>means you are saying the way we live is not okay. Yes,

0:33:08.200 --> 0:33:11.000
<v Speaker 3>and that's just not there at all. It's just not

0:33:11.120 --> 0:33:11.720
<v Speaker 3>there at all.

0:33:12.120 --> 0:33:14.520
<v Speaker 2>But if he's if he's able to make it be

0:33:14.680 --> 0:33:17.480
<v Speaker 2>that way to his listeners, yeah, he can. Number one,

0:33:17.680 --> 0:33:19.960
<v Speaker 2>make sure they will always oppose these things that he

0:33:20.120 --> 0:33:24.320
<v Speaker 2>just finds gross. And number two, it further separates them

0:33:24.560 --> 0:33:28.400
<v Speaker 2>from mainstream society. This is the beginning of the splintering

0:33:28.480 --> 0:33:33.960
<v Speaker 2>of the mainstream American right from the United States, from

0:33:34.000 --> 0:33:35.800
<v Speaker 2>most of the people in this country. And it was

0:33:35.840 --> 0:33:37.880
<v Speaker 2>the beginning of making sure that there there was no

0:33:38.640 --> 0:33:44.640
<v Speaker 2>You cannot reconcile the right with the modern world, with

0:33:44.720 --> 0:33:49.400
<v Speaker 2>the rest of civilization, because you doing a different thing

0:33:49.480 --> 0:33:53.040
<v Speaker 2>than them is an attack on them, Like we're being

0:33:53.080 --> 0:33:55.960
<v Speaker 2>attacked because you're different, and so we get to fight you.

0:33:56.360 --> 0:33:59.080
<v Speaker 2>That's Russia's great innovation.

0:33:59.480 --> 0:34:03.680
<v Speaker 3>And also that the way you think is the real America.

0:34:04.080 --> 0:34:06.600
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, not what these people think exactly.

0:34:07.280 --> 0:34:10.560
<v Speaker 1>That's haunting. But you know what isn't haunting, Robert.

0:34:11.920 --> 0:34:16.800
<v Speaker 2>The products and services that support this podcast, hopefully, hopefully

0:34:17.360 --> 0:34:23.359
<v Speaker 2>unless it's Raytheon, which is very haunted products. But that's

0:34:23.400 --> 0:34:32.080
<v Speaker 2>a story for another day. And we're back. So Paul,

0:34:32.719 --> 0:34:35.120
<v Speaker 2>I would love to go with this through this entire

0:34:35.160 --> 0:34:36.880
<v Speaker 2>episode with you. In fact, I would love to do

0:34:36.920 --> 0:34:39.680
<v Speaker 2>a reoccurring series where we just go through, point by

0:34:39.760 --> 0:34:42.440
<v Speaker 2>point every episode of Rush Limbaugh's TV show and talk

0:34:42.480 --> 0:34:44.320
<v Speaker 2>about it. I think it would be amazing.

0:34:44.960 --> 0:34:50.200
<v Speaker 3>It is wild to see those clips. Yeah, yeah, what's

0:34:50.200 --> 0:34:52.000
<v Speaker 3>the what's the opposite of Pristian.

0:34:56.400 --> 0:34:59.920
<v Speaker 2>It would be very I think fun and also intellectually valuable.

0:35:00.120 --> 0:35:02.680
<v Speaker 2>We just we have so much ground to cover. This

0:35:02.760 --> 0:35:04.760
<v Speaker 2>has to be the end of that episode of the show.

0:35:04.840 --> 0:35:07.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we get to a rewatch of the We can't

0:35:07.160 --> 0:35:09.520
<v Speaker 3>do a rewatch podcast with the Rush Limbau Show.

0:35:10.160 --> 0:35:14.400
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, at least not not today. I think we've gotten

0:35:14.440 --> 0:35:17.040
<v Speaker 2>the point across and characterize what he's doing on the

0:35:17.080 --> 0:35:19.480
<v Speaker 2>show and why it was significant. Now, the Rush Limbaugh

0:35:19.520 --> 0:35:22.400
<v Speaker 2>TV Show was what you'd call a modest success. The

0:35:22.480 --> 0:35:25.360
<v Speaker 2>thirty minute syndicated series ran from nineteen ninety two to

0:35:25.440 --> 0:35:27.239
<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety six, which is not a long run, but

0:35:27.320 --> 0:35:29.319
<v Speaker 2>isn't a super short run either, you know, it was.

0:35:29.360 --> 0:35:31.920
<v Speaker 2>It was not a huge hit, but it was successful.

0:35:32.400 --> 0:35:35.960
<v Speaker 2>That said, its actual impact on history was much greater

0:35:36.200 --> 0:35:40.200
<v Speaker 2>than its four seasons might suggest. As I said earlier,

0:35:40.360 --> 0:35:44.040
<v Speaker 2>Roger Ayles was the executive producer of Limbaugh's TV debut.

0:35:44.440 --> 0:35:47.480
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh and Ales had met in nineteen ninety and Rush

0:35:47.520 --> 0:35:50.320
<v Speaker 2>would later say that their meeting was quote like finding

0:35:50.400 --> 0:35:52.640
<v Speaker 2>a soulmate. And I'm going to quote here from a

0:35:52.680 --> 0:35:56.040
<v Speaker 2>write up that I found on Quartz. The persona Ales

0:35:56.080 --> 0:35:59.160
<v Speaker 2>helped Limbaugh create on that show, something between a commentator,

0:35:59.280 --> 0:36:02.879
<v Speaker 2>political stratus, news anchor, and entertainer is exactly the kind

0:36:02.920 --> 0:36:05.239
<v Speaker 2>of act you can see today on Fox News. It

0:36:05.320 --> 0:36:07.600
<v Speaker 2>is not hard to draw a straight line from Limbaugh's

0:36:07.640 --> 0:36:11.240
<v Speaker 2>TV show to talking heads like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.

0:36:11.719 --> 0:36:15.120
<v Speaker 2>Like today's Fox News personalities, Limbaugh fancied himself as a

0:36:15.160 --> 0:36:18.759
<v Speaker 2>man of the people who railed against elitist liberal politicians

0:36:18.760 --> 0:36:21.240
<v Speaker 2>and voters. But as he did that, he was flying

0:36:21.280 --> 0:36:23.560
<v Speaker 2>his private jet around the country to whine and dine

0:36:23.560 --> 0:36:26.480
<v Speaker 2>with powerful figures. The myth he created of himself with

0:36:26.600 --> 0:36:28.480
<v Speaker 2>the help of Ales is the same myth that we

0:36:28.560 --> 0:36:30.839
<v Speaker 2>see pushed again and again on Fox News by its

0:36:30.840 --> 0:36:34.840
<v Speaker 2>biggest names. In retrospect, Ales may have been using Limbaugh's

0:36:34.840 --> 0:36:37.480
<v Speaker 2>TV act as a test run for Fox News to

0:36:37.520 --> 0:36:39.960
<v Speaker 2>see if the brand of conservative opinion that was working

0:36:39.960 --> 0:36:43.040
<v Speaker 2>on the radio could be translated to and expanded on TV.

0:36:43.560 --> 0:36:46.480
<v Speaker 2>In nineteen ninety six, the same year the Limbaugh Show ended,

0:36:46.719 --> 0:36:49.200
<v Speaker 2>Ayles co founded Fox News at the behest of the

0:36:49.239 --> 0:36:53.320
<v Speaker 2>media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Much of what ensued the liberal bashing,

0:36:53.440 --> 0:36:57.440
<v Speaker 2>fear mongering alternative reality in which Fox's Personalities Lived was

0:36:57.480 --> 0:37:02.040
<v Speaker 2>reminiscent of Ales's weird little Limbaugh talk shit experiment. So

0:37:02.080 --> 0:37:05.440
<v Speaker 2>this is really a test case for what becomes Fox News,

0:37:05.520 --> 0:37:08.560
<v Speaker 2>you know, And the year Limbaugh Show ends nineteen ninety

0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:11.000
<v Speaker 2>six is the year Fox News launches.

0:37:11.680 --> 0:37:14.640
<v Speaker 3>What's strange to me is well, I guess because the

0:37:14.680 --> 0:37:16.800
<v Speaker 3>show was over. I guess the show, you know, the

0:37:16.920 --> 0:37:21.360
<v Speaker 3>viewership went down. I wonder why he didn't just stick

0:37:21.719 --> 0:37:24.280
<v Speaker 3>Limbaugh on Fox News in those in those.

0:37:24.080 --> 0:37:30.239
<v Speaker 2>Early days, he wanted to actually, okay, yeah, so like

0:37:30.680 --> 0:37:33.520
<v Speaker 2>Ales actually tried to get rushed to join the network

0:37:33.560 --> 0:37:36.239
<v Speaker 2>I think in two thousand and six, but Limbaugh kind

0:37:36.239 --> 0:37:38.839
<v Speaker 2>of preferred radio. I don't think he actually liked being

0:37:38.880 --> 0:37:41.920
<v Speaker 2>on TV very much, not to the extent that he enjoyed,

0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:45.600
<v Speaker 2>you know, doing his radio show. So I think that

0:37:45.640 --> 0:37:47.960
<v Speaker 2>was mainly the reason. But also by the time Fox

0:37:48.000 --> 0:37:51.080
<v Speaker 2>News really got going, Ales had a half dozen Rush

0:37:51.120 --> 0:37:53.920
<v Speaker 2>Limbaughs you know, right, yeah, which we'll talk about a

0:37:53.920 --> 0:37:56.319
<v Speaker 2>bit later. So throughout the mid and into the late

0:37:56.400 --> 0:37:59.360
<v Speaker 2>nineteen nineties, the Rush Limbaughs show was a bona fide

0:37:59.360 --> 0:38:03.960
<v Speaker 2>cultural thing phenomenon. Rush created the first fully monetized right

0:38:04.040 --> 0:38:07.440
<v Speaker 2>wing cult of personality within like the American media. At

0:38:07.520 --> 0:38:10.560
<v Speaker 2>least as you heard in the clips we played, Rush

0:38:10.600 --> 0:38:14.560
<v Speaker 2>discouraged his listeners from thinking for themselves. He was the genius,

0:38:14.600 --> 0:38:16.360
<v Speaker 2>and if you just agreed with him and thought the

0:38:16.360 --> 0:38:19.280
<v Speaker 2>way he thought, then you were, by definition also smart.

0:38:19.719 --> 0:38:21.879
<v Speaker 2>As a result, from the very early point, he gave

0:38:21.880 --> 0:38:25.240
<v Speaker 2>his fans the nickname ditto heads. The New York Times

0:38:25.239 --> 0:38:27.920
<v Speaker 2>explains the etymology of this term as it evolved on

0:38:28.000 --> 0:38:31.720
<v Speaker 2>his show. Ditto a time saving greeting used by callers

0:38:31.719 --> 0:38:35.799
<v Speaker 2>to avoid tedious repetition of the obvious. For example, you're wonderful, Rush,

0:38:35.800 --> 0:38:39.520
<v Speaker 2>and I agree with everything you've said. Dittohead then means

0:38:39.600 --> 0:38:43.680
<v Speaker 2>a Limbaugh fan. So you're like, literally, he's saying, my

0:38:43.760 --> 0:38:46.799
<v Speaker 2>fans are people who say and believe all of the

0:38:46.840 --> 0:38:51.120
<v Speaker 2>exact same things that I do and profoundly accomplice.

0:38:51.560 --> 0:38:55.399
<v Speaker 3>They're absolutely going to praise me, and so in order

0:38:55.520 --> 0:39:00.400
<v Speaker 3>to save some time, let's just condense all the fawning

0:39:00.440 --> 0:39:03.800
<v Speaker 3>praise that you will, no doubt give me into one word,

0:39:04.040 --> 0:39:06.920
<v Speaker 3>so we know that what you're saying is, Rush, I

0:39:07.000 --> 0:39:11.799
<v Speaker 3>love you. You are everything to me, and I need you

0:39:11.880 --> 0:39:14.799
<v Speaker 3>to know that before we get into whatever fucking issue

0:39:14.840 --> 0:39:15.560
<v Speaker 3>were going to get into.

0:39:15.960 --> 0:39:18.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you are the only thing that matters to me,

0:39:19.360 --> 0:39:21.960
<v Speaker 2>or at least your beliefs are, because I am so

0:39:22.239 --> 0:39:24.719
<v Speaker 2>empty as a person as a result of how capitalism

0:39:24.719 --> 0:39:28.200
<v Speaker 2>has hallowed me out and hollowed my class out, that

0:39:28.840 --> 0:39:32.560
<v Speaker 2>I have nothing but the hatred of liberals that you embody.

0:39:32.480 --> 0:39:36.200
<v Speaker 3>Until that first guy came along that had to implement megadiddos.

0:39:36.600 --> 0:39:39.680
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yeah, and then there's megadiddos. And I can't even

0:39:39.680 --> 0:39:41.560
<v Speaker 2>get too much into some of the terms used on

0:39:41.600 --> 0:39:43.759
<v Speaker 2>the Rush Limba show because it makes me want to

0:39:43.760 --> 0:39:46.080
<v Speaker 2>punch things until my hands are broken, and I already

0:39:46.120 --> 0:39:48.720
<v Speaker 2>had that happen last year because of one of his fans. Anyway,

0:39:50.760 --> 0:39:53.239
<v Speaker 2>the core of the Rush Limbas show was not, as

0:39:53.239 --> 0:39:57.240
<v Speaker 2>he would always claim, advancing conservative ideology, but was instead

0:39:57.280 --> 0:40:00.160
<v Speaker 2>attacking liberals and the left, who he referred to as

0:40:00.280 --> 0:40:04.560
<v Speaker 2>kami libs or pink kami libs and I don't know again,

0:40:04.640 --> 0:40:07.000
<v Speaker 2>at this fucking gun class I was at last weekend,

0:40:07.000 --> 0:40:09.080
<v Speaker 2>the instructor was like, the far left wants to take

0:40:09.120 --> 0:40:11.640
<v Speaker 2>your guns away, and obviously I couldn't be like, actually,

0:40:11.760 --> 0:40:16.840
<v Speaker 2>the far left is pretty heavily strapped. It's liberal, but

0:40:17.000 --> 0:40:19.600
<v Speaker 2>like that's part of part that this idea that Joe

0:40:19.600 --> 0:40:22.719
<v Speaker 2>Biden is somehow a leftist, right, that he's a communist,

0:40:23.080 --> 0:40:24.919
<v Speaker 2>that you hear an Auch and you hear all over

0:40:24.920 --> 0:40:27.279
<v Speaker 2>the right. Now, that was Limba saying anyone who is

0:40:27.320 --> 0:40:29.400
<v Speaker 2>not a conservative is a far left, so it doesn't

0:40:29.400 --> 0:40:32.640
<v Speaker 2>matter that actually the Democratic Party is a profoundly conservative

0:40:32.640 --> 0:40:35.799
<v Speaker 2>political party and today's Democrats are basically the same as

0:40:35.840 --> 0:40:38.400
<v Speaker 2>Republicans were when I was growing up in the nineties.

0:40:39.200 --> 0:40:43.000
<v Speaker 3>There's also never any follow up on these these the

0:40:43.000 --> 0:40:47.360
<v Speaker 3>fearmongering claims whenever there's an election, like what happened to

0:40:47.400 --> 0:40:51.000
<v Speaker 3>the Obamas leeper cells, like he never are they still

0:40:51.040 --> 0:40:53.800
<v Speaker 3>in play? Is he still waiting to give them the word?

0:40:54.000 --> 0:40:56.479
<v Speaker 3>Like they never go back and say, oh, it turns

0:40:56.480 --> 0:40:57.400
<v Speaker 3>out that didn't happen.

0:40:58.000 --> 0:41:00.800
<v Speaker 2>It's this, I mean, that's kind of the thing about

0:41:00.880 --> 0:41:04.160
<v Speaker 2>Republican talking points. Like the other thing they kept panic

0:41:04.360 --> 0:41:06.920
<v Speaker 2>like like terrified during the Obama years, He's going to

0:41:06.960 --> 0:41:08.399
<v Speaker 2>take your guns. He's going to take your guns. He's

0:41:08.400 --> 0:41:10.919
<v Speaker 2>going to take your guns. Barack Obama did not one

0:41:11.000 --> 0:41:14.480
<v Speaker 2>single thing to restrict gun ownership in the United States,

0:41:15.640 --> 0:41:20.279
<v Speaker 2>whereas actually Trump actually did ban certain fire the bump

0:41:20.280 --> 0:41:23.800
<v Speaker 2>stock like, Trump put through more restrictions on gun rights

0:41:23.800 --> 0:41:26.360
<v Speaker 2>than not that I'm saying anything. Bump stocks are dumb,

0:41:26.520 --> 0:41:29.759
<v Speaker 2>but Trump objectively restricted gun ownership more than Obama. But

0:41:29.800 --> 0:41:31.960
<v Speaker 2>you never know it to listen to the right wing media.

0:41:32.200 --> 0:41:33.840
<v Speaker 2>It's it's preposterous.

0:41:35.400 --> 0:41:38.719
<v Speaker 3>You people would know. No, no one's going to take

0:41:38.719 --> 0:41:39.040
<v Speaker 3>your guns.

0:41:39.120 --> 0:41:41.880
<v Speaker 2>No one's going to take your guns. There's too many

0:41:41.920 --> 0:41:45.360
<v Speaker 2>of them. It's not that you know, we'll talk anyway.

0:41:46.600 --> 0:41:49.040
<v Speaker 3>It's separate. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, it's yeah.

0:41:49.320 --> 0:41:52.879
<v Speaker 2>As I said earlier, the core of Rushlimbaugh's actual ideology

0:41:53.040 --> 0:41:57.800
<v Speaker 2>was owning the Libs. His conservatism was built entirely around

0:41:57.800 --> 0:42:00.560
<v Speaker 2>attacking the other, and over his years on air, Rush

0:42:00.560 --> 0:42:03.320
<v Speaker 2>built up an audience of millions and eventually tens of millions,

0:42:03.360 --> 0:42:06.440
<v Speaker 2>who began to see political victory as being not about

0:42:06.600 --> 0:42:10.480
<v Speaker 2>achievements that improve life, but about tearing down and harming

0:42:10.520 --> 0:42:12.520
<v Speaker 2>the enemy. This is why you get to a point

0:42:12.560 --> 0:42:15.879
<v Speaker 2>where now mainstream Republicans are selling mugs with like that

0:42:15.920 --> 0:42:18.600
<v Speaker 2>are like the tears of my enemies are in the Yeah,

0:42:18.640 --> 0:42:20.640
<v Speaker 2>you know, I'm going to quote from the Rolling Stone here,

0:42:20.719 --> 0:42:24.880
<v Speaker 2>quote Any Republican candidate is better than any Democratic candidate

0:42:24.960 --> 0:42:27.520
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh told his audience early on, which might sound kind

0:42:27.520 --> 0:42:30.080
<v Speaker 2>of innocuous on the surface, except that for Limbaugh, the

0:42:30.120 --> 0:42:33.799
<v Speaker 2>superiority of our side and the inferiority of them was

0:42:33.920 --> 0:42:37.760
<v Speaker 2>increasingly over the years a deadly serious matter. It became

0:42:38.120 --> 0:42:42.279
<v Speaker 2>tribal warfare, which you know, is kind of where we

0:42:42.320 --> 0:42:47.040
<v Speaker 2>are now. On January twenty third, nineteen ninety five, Time

0:42:47.120 --> 0:42:50.600
<v Speaker 2>magazine featured Rush Limbaugh on its cover. We see him

0:42:50.640 --> 0:42:53.600
<v Speaker 2>wearing a suit and smoking a cigar. Smoke curls up

0:42:53.640 --> 0:42:56.520
<v Speaker 2>out of his mouth behind the bold words is Rush

0:42:56.560 --> 0:43:00.440
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh good for America? Now? It was obvious to anyone

0:43:00.440 --> 0:43:02.719
<v Speaker 2>who was paying attention that he was not. But for

0:43:02.800 --> 0:43:05.640
<v Speaker 2>the most part, the liberal media that Rush attacked and

0:43:05.760 --> 0:43:09.400
<v Speaker 2>demonized embraced him as kind of like the loyal opposition,

0:43:09.480 --> 0:43:12.160
<v Speaker 2>as an erudent foil to debate with, to argue against,

0:43:12.160 --> 0:43:14.960
<v Speaker 2>but nonetheless someone who deserved respect and honor due to

0:43:15.000 --> 0:43:18.000
<v Speaker 2>his success. Like you can see this in the episode

0:43:18.000 --> 0:43:20.280
<v Speaker 2>of Family Guy that Rush was on, right where it's

0:43:20.680 --> 0:43:23.720
<v Speaker 2>like he has these fun bickering arguments with the token

0:43:23.760 --> 0:43:25.399
<v Speaker 2>liberal on the show, but in the end they really

0:43:25.440 --> 0:43:28.400
<v Speaker 2>both like each other, you know, as opposed to what

0:43:28.520 --> 0:43:31.759
<v Speaker 2>Rush actually represented, which is the politics of violent elimination

0:43:31.880 --> 0:43:35.799
<v Speaker 2>of the opponent. And that's what's most amazing to me

0:43:35.880 --> 0:43:38.600
<v Speaker 2>is no matter what he said about the mainstream media,

0:43:38.680 --> 0:43:42.759
<v Speaker 2>about the liberal media, whatever, they fetted him, they praised him,

0:43:43.080 --> 0:43:46.680
<v Speaker 2>They made him like he was never treated as a pariah.

0:43:46.960 --> 0:43:50.160
<v Speaker 2>Barbara Walters said in an interview, people just can't get

0:43:50.280 --> 0:43:54.600
<v Speaker 2>enough of him. The Los Angeles Yeah, The Los Angeles

0:43:54.640 --> 0:43:58.200
<v Speaker 2>Times described him as a self styled commander in chief,

0:43:58.200 --> 0:44:01.120
<v Speaker 2>fighting his private culture war agains the many liberal do

0:44:01.239 --> 0:44:03.520
<v Speaker 2>gooder notions that interfere with his right to eat and

0:44:03.560 --> 0:44:05.839
<v Speaker 2>wear and spend whatever he damn well wants, and say

0:44:05.880 --> 0:44:09.080
<v Speaker 2>whatever he damn well pleases. C Span highlighted him in

0:44:09.120 --> 0:44:11.719
<v Speaker 2>a fawning interview that helped turn him into a household name.

0:44:11.960 --> 0:44:14.239
<v Speaker 2>Within a year of that interview, he was carried by

0:44:14.280 --> 0:44:16.640
<v Speaker 2>five hundred and thirty stations and listened to by an

0:44:16.760 --> 0:44:20.160
<v Speaker 2>estimated twenty five million Americans. He started writing books with

0:44:20.200 --> 0:44:22.520
<v Speaker 2>titles like The Way Things Ought to Be, each of

0:44:22.560 --> 0:44:25.400
<v Speaker 2>which dutifully went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

0:44:25.800 --> 0:44:28.560
<v Speaker 2>For a man who built his career attacking the liberal media,

0:44:28.920 --> 0:44:32.799
<v Speaker 2>Rush never received anything but encouragement and financial support from

0:44:32.840 --> 0:44:36.880
<v Speaker 2>his so called enemies. The fundamental hypocrisies that undergirded his

0:44:36.960 --> 0:44:40.080
<v Speaker 2>career were seldom called out. Rush Limbaugh had not even

0:44:40.160 --> 0:44:42.839
<v Speaker 2>registered to vote until he was thirty five years old,

0:44:43.080 --> 0:44:46.680
<v Speaker 2>two years before his show became a nation nationwide success.

0:44:47.080 --> 0:44:49.720
<v Speaker 2>The repeated double standards in his work and his life

0:44:49.880 --> 0:44:53.320
<v Speaker 2>never hurt his poll with his audience. For example, rush

0:44:53.360 --> 0:44:56.439
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh repeatedly attacked Bill Clinton as a draft dodger, which

0:44:56.480 --> 0:44:59.439
<v Speaker 2>he was, but so was rush Limbaugh took the route

0:44:59.440 --> 0:45:01.920
<v Speaker 2>that most well the young Americans during Vietnam took and

0:45:01.960 --> 0:45:04.240
<v Speaker 2>found a doctor who would diagnose him with a bullshit

0:45:04.280 --> 0:45:06.839
<v Speaker 2>injuries that he couldn't be called up for service. When

0:45:06.880 --> 0:45:09.600
<v Speaker 2>he was eventually called on this by some journalists who

0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:12.960
<v Speaker 2>were doing their jobs, he responded, I had student deferments

0:45:13.000 --> 0:45:15.680
<v Speaker 2>in college, and upon taking a physical was discovered to

0:45:15.719 --> 0:45:18.560
<v Speaker 2>have a physical by the virtue of what the military says,

0:45:18.560 --> 0:45:21.080
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even know it existed, a physical deferment. And

0:45:21.120 --> 0:45:23.120
<v Speaker 2>then the lottery system came along when they chose your

0:45:23.120 --> 0:45:25.400
<v Speaker 2>a lot by birth date, and mine was high, and

0:45:25.480 --> 0:45:28.040
<v Speaker 2>I did not want to go, just as Governor Clinton didn't,

0:45:28.239 --> 0:45:31.560
<v Speaker 2>which on its own is a reasonable statement, except you

0:45:31.600 --> 0:45:34.880
<v Speaker 2>spent years attacking Clinton for being a draft dodge. Yeah,

0:45:35.120 --> 0:45:35.920
<v Speaker 2>huge draft.

0:45:35.680 --> 0:45:37.560
<v Speaker 1>Do funny and hypocritical.

0:45:38.760 --> 0:45:43.399
<v Speaker 3>To me, my favorite draft dodge explanation of all time

0:45:43.920 --> 0:45:46.560
<v Speaker 3>is still Dick Cheney. I had other priorities.

0:45:46.880 --> 0:45:50.640
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, I mean, that's just that's incredible.

0:45:50.400 --> 0:45:53.680
<v Speaker 2>And it's true. Both Cheney and George W. Bush did,

0:45:54.200 --> 0:45:57.040
<v Speaker 2>like Rush, like Clinton, everything they could to not actually

0:45:57.040 --> 0:45:58.840
<v Speaker 2>go and fight in Vietnam. One of the things that

0:45:58.880 --> 0:46:01.600
<v Speaker 2>will always be the most curiating thing, one of the

0:46:01.640 --> 0:46:03.880
<v Speaker 2>most inferiating things to happen in American politics to me,

0:46:04.320 --> 0:46:08.520
<v Speaker 2>is the way in which John Kerry, who is a

0:46:08.840 --> 0:46:12.520
<v Speaker 2>whatever else you can say about him, fought courageously went

0:46:12.640 --> 0:46:16.160
<v Speaker 2>to wint despite the considerable privilege he was born into,

0:46:16.640 --> 0:46:20.600
<v Speaker 2>did an incredibly dangerous job, was wounded multiple times, and

0:46:20.719 --> 0:46:23.359
<v Speaker 2>risked his life repeatedly for the lives of his men. Right,

0:46:23.440 --> 0:46:25.360
<v Speaker 2>Vietnam was a terrible war we never should have been in.

0:46:25.440 --> 0:46:28.279
<v Speaker 2>It was fundamentally a moral on a national scale, but

0:46:28.400 --> 0:46:31.799
<v Speaker 2>on a human level. John Kerrey did the right thing,

0:46:31.960 --> 0:46:35.560
<v Speaker 2>which is not use his privilege to get out of

0:46:35.560 --> 0:46:38.320
<v Speaker 2>fighting in a war that other people of his class

0:46:38.360 --> 0:46:42.800
<v Speaker 2>got us into. And he was portrayed during that campaign

0:46:43.280 --> 0:46:46.800
<v Speaker 2>as like a liar and a craven coward. Well, George Bush,

0:46:46.880 --> 0:46:49.640
<v Speaker 2>who did everything he could to not fight in Vietnam,

0:46:49.760 --> 0:46:54.160
<v Speaker 2>was seen as this brave warrior hero. It's it's still

0:46:54.280 --> 0:46:57.320
<v Speaker 2>very frustrating. I don't even like John Kerry, but my god,

0:46:57.400 --> 0:46:59.600
<v Speaker 2>the man did the thing all of you say is

0:46:59.600 --> 0:47:01.680
<v Speaker 2>what you're say supposed to do as a man. Yes,

0:47:01.760 --> 0:47:08.560
<v Speaker 2>it's infuriating. It's infuriating. The Dittoheads continued to listen to

0:47:08.600 --> 0:47:11.279
<v Speaker 2>their idol slam Clinton for being a draft dodger, even

0:47:11.320 --> 0:47:13.600
<v Speaker 2>while they celebrated a man who, by his own admission,

0:47:13.600 --> 0:47:16.520
<v Speaker 2>had done the exact same thing. Rush would eventually rack

0:47:16.600 --> 0:47:18.239
<v Speaker 2>up three to four and I should have stayed here.

0:47:18.560 --> 0:47:20.800
<v Speaker 2>It's not bad to be a draft dodger. The Vietnam

0:47:20.800 --> 0:47:23.719
<v Speaker 2>War was again, horribly a moral. It's perfectly. It's what

0:47:24.120 --> 0:47:27.279
<v Speaker 2>is immoral is dodging the draft and then going on

0:47:27.400 --> 0:47:30.759
<v Speaker 2>to encourage to do nothing but encourage more wars that

0:47:30.800 --> 0:47:34.279
<v Speaker 2>involve American servicemen. Right, that's immoral. It is not a

0:47:34.320 --> 0:47:37.080
<v Speaker 2>moral to dodge the draft and say, hey, this was

0:47:37.120 --> 0:47:40.680
<v Speaker 2>a bad war. We shouldn't get involved in stupid, pointless

0:47:40.719 --> 0:47:43.120
<v Speaker 2>wars that just kill people. For the profits of a

0:47:43.160 --> 0:47:45.640
<v Speaker 2>tiny number Like that's bad. I'm not going to do it,

0:47:45.640 --> 0:47:47.080
<v Speaker 2>and I'm not going to support it. That's fine.

0:47:47.360 --> 0:47:49.799
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's doubly a moral when you're well past the

0:47:49.840 --> 0:47:53.760
<v Speaker 3>age where it would affect you where it's you're now,

0:47:54.440 --> 0:47:57.600
<v Speaker 3>there's another there's a later generation of people that will

0:47:57.640 --> 0:48:02.680
<v Speaker 3>be affected by this very uh, you know, a hypocritical

0:48:02.719 --> 0:48:03.320
<v Speaker 3>line of attack.

0:48:04.040 --> 0:48:08.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's the moral inconsistency that's infuriating. John Kerry actually,

0:48:08.120 --> 0:48:10.120
<v Speaker 2>and John Kerry did not support the Vietnam War and

0:48:10.160 --> 0:48:13.480
<v Speaker 2>became after he got out a very very outspoken voice

0:48:13.520 --> 0:48:17.160
<v Speaker 2>against it. But it's the if if Limbaugh had served

0:48:17.160 --> 0:48:19.080
<v Speaker 2>in Vietnam and then gone on to be a warhawk,

0:48:19.160 --> 0:48:21.759
<v Speaker 2>then at least he would be ideologically consistent. You know,

0:48:22.200 --> 0:48:25.000
<v Speaker 2>at least I could say Rush Limbaugh believes in something.

0:48:25.040 --> 0:48:28.680
<v Speaker 2>It's like John McCain. At least he fucking believed in something.

0:48:28.719 --> 0:48:32.080
<v Speaker 2>You know, it was terrible and fundamentally toxic as well,

0:48:32.120 --> 0:48:35.279
<v Speaker 2>but it was not He's not like Limbaugh. You know,

0:48:35.400 --> 0:48:39.520
<v Speaker 2>he is a person who has beliefs. I don't know that.

0:48:39.560 --> 0:48:42.759
<v Speaker 2>It's not like that line from the Big Lebowski, right, like,

0:48:42.800 --> 0:48:45.239
<v Speaker 2>say what you will about the tenets of national socialism. Dude,

0:48:45.239 --> 0:48:52.680
<v Speaker 2>at least it's an ethos, you know. So, Rush Limbaugh

0:48:52.719 --> 0:48:55.160
<v Speaker 2>was not a man who I think believed in mush much.

0:48:55.200 --> 0:48:57.400
<v Speaker 2>Other than the fame and wealth of rush Limbaugh. He

0:48:57.440 --> 0:49:00.360
<v Speaker 2>would eventually rack up three divorces and four why he

0:49:00.440 --> 0:49:03.279
<v Speaker 2>never had any children. Despite this, tens of millions of

0:49:03.320 --> 0:49:06.680
<v Speaker 2>conservatives listened to him opining on family values and traditional

0:49:06.760 --> 0:49:10.920
<v Speaker 2>morality on a daily basis. Rush called it functional values,

0:49:10.960 --> 0:49:14.160
<v Speaker 2>and one key aspect of his functional value system was

0:49:14.280 --> 0:49:18.000
<v Speaker 2>rejecting illegal drugs. At one point on his TV show

0:49:18.120 --> 0:49:20.320
<v Speaker 2>at the height of the drug war, Rush told his audience,

0:49:20.480 --> 0:49:22.719
<v Speaker 2>if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they

0:49:22.760 --> 0:49:24.440
<v Speaker 2>ought to be accused, and they ought to be convicted,

0:49:24.480 --> 0:49:26.279
<v Speaker 2>and they ought to be sent up the river. He

0:49:26.360 --> 0:49:30.239
<v Speaker 2>repeatedly called addicts junkies up the river. Yeah, you go

0:49:30.280 --> 0:49:34.200
<v Speaker 2>to prison if you do illegal drugs. Scene. He repeatedly

0:49:34.280 --> 0:49:37.520
<v Speaker 2>called addicts junkies and suggested that drug dealers deserved death

0:49:37.560 --> 0:49:40.680
<v Speaker 2>for their crimes. While he enthusiastically supported the drug war

0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:42.719
<v Speaker 2>and the use of the Carcerral state to lock up

0:49:43.000 --> 0:49:46.440
<v Speaker 2>mostly black men for selling drugs, rush Limbaugh was actively

0:49:46.520 --> 0:49:50.840
<v Speaker 2>trafficking huge amounts of opiate painkillers. Rush used his housekeeper

0:49:50.880 --> 0:49:53.640
<v Speaker 2>as a hookup, handing her cigar boxes filled with cash

0:49:53.719 --> 0:49:56.800
<v Speaker 2>in exchange for thousands of pills of OxyContin, hydrocodone, and

0:49:56.840 --> 0:49:59.040
<v Speaker 2>the like. In two thousand and three, she went public

0:49:59.120 --> 0:50:01.480
<v Speaker 2>and knocked on him to the police. When the story broke,

0:50:01.560 --> 0:50:04.360
<v Speaker 2>he was charged for his crimes, and Florida Sheriff's deputies

0:50:04.440 --> 0:50:07.799
<v Speaker 2>opened an investigation into a drug trafficking ring. We don't

0:50:07.920 --> 0:50:11.480
<v Speaker 2>know exactly what rushes, if he was just a customer

0:50:11.560 --> 0:50:12.840
<v Speaker 2>or if he had some other role in it, but

0:50:12.920 --> 0:50:17.160
<v Speaker 2>he was buying huge amounts of painkillers. I'm talking about

0:50:17.200 --> 0:50:19.600
<v Speaker 2>a guy who was spending probably hundreds of thousands of

0:50:19.640 --> 0:50:20.600
<v Speaker 2>dollars on his addiction.

0:50:21.400 --> 0:50:23.920
<v Speaker 3>And did it come from Did he have some injury

0:50:24.000 --> 0:50:24.960
<v Speaker 3>that got him hooked on it.

0:50:25.120 --> 0:50:27.400
<v Speaker 2>Or yeah, he got it prescribed to him initially for

0:50:27.480 --> 0:50:30.520
<v Speaker 2>an injury and he got addicted like most people do. Hey,

0:50:30.960 --> 0:50:33.279
<v Speaker 2>this is this is not just with prescription painculls. Most

0:50:33.280 --> 0:50:36.239
<v Speaker 2>people who have a problematic addiction to a drug get

0:50:36.280 --> 0:50:39.640
<v Speaker 2>addicted because of something negative that happens in their life. Right, yes,

0:50:39.880 --> 0:50:44.080
<v Speaker 2>trauma or an injury or an emotional depression whatever. That's

0:50:44.239 --> 0:50:49.240
<v Speaker 2>most people who have a problematic addiction. Limbaugh said, anyone

0:50:49.280 --> 0:50:51.960
<v Speaker 2>who does that should go to prison. Then he did that,

0:50:52.239 --> 0:50:55.879
<v Speaker 2>you know, but he gets caught and he oh, yeah,

0:50:55.880 --> 0:50:58.560
<v Speaker 2>he gets pught. And when he gets caught, it is

0:50:58.640 --> 0:51:01.880
<v Speaker 2>a big story. In two thousand and three, his housekeeper

0:51:01.920 --> 0:51:04.960
<v Speaker 2>went public, wore a wire recorded him doing a drug

0:51:05.040 --> 0:51:07.759
<v Speaker 2>dealer deal, knocked on him to the police, and when

0:51:07.800 --> 0:51:10.719
<v Speaker 2>the story broke, he was charged for his crimes and

0:51:10.880 --> 0:51:14.200
<v Speaker 2>Florida Sheriff's deputies opened an investigation into that drug traffic

0:51:14.280 --> 0:51:17.960
<v Speaker 2>trafficking ring. His third wife left him. He checked himself

0:51:18.000 --> 0:51:20.760
<v Speaker 2>into rehab while his multimillion dollar a team of lawyers

0:51:20.800 --> 0:51:23.400
<v Speaker 2>went to work defending him in court. A legal battle

0:51:23.400 --> 0:51:25.719
<v Speaker 2>would go on for three years, during which time he

0:51:25.800 --> 0:51:29.320
<v Speaker 2>began doctor shopping to maintain his addiction. He was charged

0:51:29.320 --> 0:51:32.719
<v Speaker 2>again with fraud for concealing information to obtain prescriptions from

0:51:32.760 --> 0:51:36.000
<v Speaker 2>four different doctors who prescribed him roughly two thousand pain

0:51:36.080 --> 0:51:39.280
<v Speaker 2>pills during one six month period. The case would eventually

0:51:39.360 --> 0:51:41.760
<v Speaker 2>wrap up in two thousand and six when Limbaugh agreed

0:51:41.800 --> 0:51:44.160
<v Speaker 2>to a plea deal that allowed him to avoid prosecution

0:51:44.280 --> 0:51:48.759
<v Speaker 2>if he sought treatment and avoided other criminal activity. It's

0:51:49.000 --> 0:51:54.520
<v Speaker 2>very frustrating. Uh huh, oh, yeah, I actually didn't. I

0:51:54.680 --> 0:51:58.840
<v Speaker 2>didn't really, I wasn't really cognizant of all the legal

0:51:59.040 --> 0:52:02.560
<v Speaker 2>side of this. I just remember the hypocrisy of him

0:52:02.640 --> 0:52:07.920
<v Speaker 2>being you know, uh, just gobbling up yeah, shaming and

0:52:08.080 --> 0:52:09.640
<v Speaker 2>while he's gobbling down these pills.

0:52:09.960 --> 0:52:13.280
<v Speaker 3>But I had no idea. I guess I didn't. I didn't.

0:52:14.640 --> 0:52:17.120
<v Speaker 3>I didn't bother exploring that side.

0:52:16.920 --> 0:52:20.120
<v Speaker 1>Of it, right, And like he doesn't even it's not

0:52:20.200 --> 0:52:21.879
<v Speaker 1>even a slap on the risk. It's like a little

0:52:22.040 --> 0:52:24.120
<v Speaker 1>light tap on the wrist. It's not even a slap

0:52:24.160 --> 0:52:26.000
<v Speaker 1>on the wrists. So fucking upsetting.

0:52:26.800 --> 0:52:29.960
<v Speaker 2>And again, the immorality here is that he always advocated

0:52:30.000 --> 0:52:32.799
<v Speaker 2>criminal consequences for people who did exactly what he did,

0:52:32.920 --> 0:52:34.880
<v Speaker 2>and then he didn't go on to suffer them. And

0:52:34.960 --> 0:52:37.120
<v Speaker 2>that's what's It's not that, like, there's nothing morally wrong

0:52:37.239 --> 0:52:40.560
<v Speaker 2>with being addicted to painkillers. If it were legal, I

0:52:40.600 --> 0:52:46.560
<v Speaker 2>would absolutely be a painkiller addict. Seems it's it's the

0:52:46.760 --> 0:52:48.759
<v Speaker 2>But I'm also consistent about the fact that I don't

0:52:48.800 --> 0:52:52.160
<v Speaker 2>think doing or possession any subset should be exactly with

0:52:52.280 --> 0:52:56.640
<v Speaker 2>the exception of like, you know, some explosives, there's a

0:52:56.719 --> 0:52:58.320
<v Speaker 2>line to be drawn. I don't think people should have

0:52:58.480 --> 0:53:02.960
<v Speaker 2>certain aramis a lot. But Harold, speaking of Heroin, you

0:53:03.040 --> 0:53:08.200
<v Speaker 2>know who supports our podcast, Sophie, I don't know the

0:53:08.280 --> 0:53:18.279
<v Speaker 2>fine people at the Sina Loa cartel, So like right now, yes,

0:53:18.400 --> 0:53:21.480
<v Speaker 2>this is a cartel supported podcast, and I just want

0:53:21.520 --> 0:53:25.040
<v Speaker 2>to say, let's go to ads before I get us

0:53:25.080 --> 0:53:34.319
<v Speaker 2>in some trouble. Ah, we're back good times. So while

0:53:34.440 --> 0:53:36.600
<v Speaker 2>Rush was using his wealth and power to avoid the

0:53:36.680 --> 0:53:40.440
<v Speaker 2>legal consequences that he enthusiastically supported existing for the crimes

0:53:40.480 --> 0:53:42.759
<v Speaker 2>he committed, he continued to act as the voice of

0:53:42.800 --> 0:53:47.359
<v Speaker 2>America's conservative conscience. Mostly this meant being super racist. At

0:53:47.400 --> 0:53:49.760
<v Speaker 2>one point, on his TV show, he played video clips

0:53:49.800 --> 0:53:52.120
<v Speaker 2>of black men and boys standing in front of the TV,

0:53:52.600 --> 0:53:55.439
<v Speaker 2>and like, while he was playing these clips of black

0:53:55.520 --> 0:53:56.759
<v Speaker 2>men and boys, he would stand in front of the

0:53:56.800 --> 0:54:00.239
<v Speaker 2>TV and make gorilla noises and grunts, the apparent oak

0:54:00.280 --> 0:54:04.279
<v Speaker 2>being that black people were like monkeys, Like that's kind

0:54:04.320 --> 0:54:06.120
<v Speaker 2>of I don't know what else he could be saying.

0:54:07.560 --> 0:54:13.440
<v Speaker 6>Pretty satirical, very satire satirical, Like, yeah, I think he

0:54:13.560 --> 0:54:15.280
<v Speaker 6>got that from a New Yorker cartoon.

0:54:15.640 --> 0:54:18.880
<v Speaker 2>It would be like if Jonathan Swift actually murdered Irish

0:54:18.960 --> 0:54:20.680
<v Speaker 2>children and ate them and then was like, this is

0:54:20.719 --> 0:54:24.239
<v Speaker 2>a satire. Get it, you get it. The joke is

0:54:24.320 --> 0:54:31.160
<v Speaker 2>that their food rush repeatedly blamed corruption and violence in

0:54:31.320 --> 0:54:34.759
<v Speaker 2>African like the African nation national governments, as the fault

0:54:34.840 --> 0:54:37.879
<v Speaker 2>of black people getting rid of white colonial leaders, as

0:54:37.920 --> 0:54:41.680
<v Speaker 2>we see in this quote from two thousand and seven quote. Right,

0:54:41.840 --> 0:54:43.840
<v Speaker 2>so you go into Darfur, and you go into South Africa,

0:54:43.920 --> 0:54:45.560
<v Speaker 2>you get rid of the white government there, you put

0:54:45.600 --> 0:54:48.520
<v Speaker 2>sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela, who was

0:54:48.600 --> 0:54:51.200
<v Speaker 2>bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of

0:54:51.239 --> 0:54:54.120
<v Speaker 2>certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia, you do the

0:54:54.200 --> 0:54:54.680
<v Speaker 2>same thing.

0:54:55.080 --> 0:54:55.160
<v Speaker 3>Right.

0:54:55.239 --> 0:54:57.120
<v Speaker 2>He's saying that because the black people got rid of

0:54:57.120 --> 0:55:00.400
<v Speaker 2>their colonial oppressors, that's why Africa's in bad shape. Not

0:55:00.600 --> 0:55:03.319
<v Speaker 2>the decades of trauma those governments pushed. Not the fact

0:55:03.360 --> 0:55:06.200
<v Speaker 2>that when those governments gave up colonial control, they put

0:55:06.280 --> 0:55:08.560
<v Speaker 2>people like Idiot Mean, who had been a British military

0:55:08.600 --> 0:55:10.440
<v Speaker 2>sergeant in charge of the government and turned out that

0:55:10.480 --> 0:55:13.719
<v Speaker 2>he was a fucking monster. Not because these governments, like

0:55:14.200 --> 0:55:16.960
<v Speaker 2>colonial governments, continued to suck wealth out of these countries

0:55:17.360 --> 0:55:20.719
<v Speaker 2>and support kleptocratic dictatorships that allowed them to suck more

0:55:20.760 --> 0:55:24.319
<v Speaker 2>wealth out. That made the country dysfunctional, and that led

0:55:24.360 --> 0:55:28.040
<v Speaker 2>to consistent, like decades and decades of violence. Not that

0:55:28.080 --> 0:55:30.520
<v Speaker 2>they supported ethnic groups one over the other like they

0:55:30.520 --> 0:55:32.480
<v Speaker 2>did in Rwanda which led to their one and genocide,

0:55:32.600 --> 0:55:34.080
<v Speaker 2>none of that. It's because they got rid of the

0:55:34.120 --> 0:55:36.800
<v Speaker 2>white people, even the white people didn't actually leave. You know,

0:55:37.320 --> 0:55:38.719
<v Speaker 2>it's super fucked up.

0:55:39.320 --> 0:55:42.280
<v Speaker 3>I didn't know that he'd actually gone to the lengths

0:55:42.320 --> 0:55:45.040
<v Speaker 3>of trying to smear Nelson Mandela.

0:55:45.360 --> 0:55:50.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, communists, Jesus great. Uh, that's good stuff. I mean

0:55:50.560 --> 0:55:53.359
<v Speaker 2>in Nelson Mandela also was at one point some guy

0:55:53.600 --> 0:55:56.759
<v Speaker 2>somebody who supported like terrorism and stuff, which also is

0:55:56.840 --> 0:55:59.800
<v Speaker 2>totally justified. If your government is the apartheid government of

0:55:59.840 --> 0:56:02.719
<v Speaker 2>s South Africa. Terrorism is not necessarily the wrong thing

0:56:02.800 --> 0:56:02.960
<v Speaker 2>to do.

0:56:03.520 --> 0:56:05.240
<v Speaker 3>No, I would say, it's not off the table.

0:56:05.600 --> 0:56:09.359
<v Speaker 2>It's not off the table. Yeah, sometimes terrorists are right, Yes,

0:56:11.280 --> 0:56:13.560
<v Speaker 2>that is like you could argue that the founding fathers

0:56:13.600 --> 0:56:16.240
<v Speaker 2>of this nation, who despite their own bigotry and slave

0:56:16.400 --> 0:56:18.960
<v Speaker 2>like the government they were rebelling against also allowed slavery,

0:56:19.440 --> 0:56:21.360
<v Speaker 2>they were right to do terrorism to get rid of

0:56:21.400 --> 0:56:24.319
<v Speaker 2>having a king, because kings are bad, you know, Like, yeah,

0:56:24.480 --> 0:56:30.680
<v Speaker 2>terrorism is justified sometimes so. Rush was repeatedly critical of

0:56:30.800 --> 0:56:34.000
<v Speaker 2>professional sports for the presence of black athletes, as we

0:56:34.080 --> 0:56:37.000
<v Speaker 2>see in this two thousand and seven quote. Look, let

0:56:37.040 --> 0:56:39.360
<v Speaker 2>me put it to you this way. The NFL all

0:56:39.440 --> 0:56:41.560
<v Speaker 2>too often looks like a game between the bloods and

0:56:41.600 --> 0:56:44.239
<v Speaker 2>the crips without any weapons there. I said it.

0:56:45.719 --> 0:56:45.959
<v Speaker 3>Wow.

0:56:47.040 --> 0:56:50.279
<v Speaker 2>The inherent criminality of black people was a belief that

0:56:50.600 --> 0:56:54.200
<v Speaker 2>Rush held deeply, and he expressed it constantly. In nineteen

0:56:54.280 --> 0:56:58.120
<v Speaker 2>ninety three, he said the NAACP should have riot rehearsals.

0:56:58.239 --> 0:57:01.200
<v Speaker 2>They should get a liquor store and practice robberies. You're

0:57:01.200 --> 0:57:03.520
<v Speaker 2>saying this after the LA riots, you know, this is

0:57:03.600 --> 0:57:06.280
<v Speaker 2>like just this is what then? This is not people

0:57:06.440 --> 0:57:10.120
<v Speaker 2>reacting to horrible violence the only way that they can, right,

0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:12.480
<v Speaker 2>This is not a riot being the language of the unheard.

0:57:12.520 --> 0:57:14.320
<v Speaker 2>This is what the NAACP wants because.

0:57:14.080 --> 0:57:16.880
<v Speaker 1>They're all prim much to criticize athletes. I bet he

0:57:16.960 --> 0:57:18.760
<v Speaker 1>couldn't even do like a jog.

0:57:19.680 --> 0:57:21.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's pretty great.

0:57:21.920 --> 0:57:24.400
<v Speaker 3>The yeah, the talking point of like they just these

0:57:24.440 --> 0:57:26.480
<v Speaker 3>you know, these people they just love to riot.

0:57:26.880 --> 0:57:29.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they just loved her. Not these people are being

0:57:29.760 --> 0:57:33.680
<v Speaker 2>oppressed and murdered and finally, violence was the only thing

0:57:33.800 --> 0:57:35.840
<v Speaker 2>they could think to do because they were given no

0:57:36.000 --> 0:57:38.840
<v Speaker 2>other options, and they've reached the end of their human tether,

0:57:39.520 --> 0:57:42.400
<v Speaker 2>like the people I idolize who founded this nation.

0:57:42.760 --> 0:57:46.320
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, look, slavery is over. What more do you want?

0:57:46.920 --> 0:57:47.120
<v Speaker 3>I mean?

0:57:47.160 --> 0:57:48.760
<v Speaker 2>And when I say that, I don't mean to say

0:57:48.840 --> 0:57:51.560
<v Speaker 2>like that. Obviously, anyone rioting in Los Angeles in nineteen

0:57:51.600 --> 0:57:54.720
<v Speaker 2>ninety three was a thousand times more justified than George Washington.

0:57:54.800 --> 0:57:57.760
<v Speaker 2>And that said, I still think getting rid of a king,

0:57:57.880 --> 0:57:59.960
<v Speaker 2>all other things being equal, getting rid of a king

0:58:00.200 --> 0:58:02.520
<v Speaker 2>is a violid reason to do violence. Kings are bad.

0:58:02.880 --> 0:58:03.080
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:58:03.600 --> 0:58:07.400
<v Speaker 2>So Rush repeatedly argued that white people shouldn't be blamed

0:58:07.440 --> 0:58:10.960
<v Speaker 2>for slavery, saying it's preposterous that Caucasians are blamed for

0:58:11.040 --> 0:58:12.920
<v Speaker 2>slavery when they've done more to end it than any

0:58:12.960 --> 0:58:15.440
<v Speaker 2>other race. Any race of people should not have guilty.

0:58:15.480 --> 0:58:17.560
<v Speaker 2>If any race of people should not have guilt about slavery,

0:58:17.720 --> 0:58:22.920
<v Speaker 2>it's Caucasians. God, Rush, bitch, It's amazing how many Caucasians

0:58:22.960 --> 0:58:25.720
<v Speaker 2>fought to keep fought and died to keep slavery going.

0:58:25.880 --> 0:58:28.640
<v Speaker 3>Rush, is this just like at this point when you

0:58:28.760 --> 0:58:33.360
<v Speaker 3>say things like that, right, he is what do you

0:58:33.480 --> 0:58:37.240
<v Speaker 3>think the percentage is of uh? For in Russia's mind,

0:58:37.480 --> 0:58:40.800
<v Speaker 3>I actually believe this or what is the most to

0:58:41.000 --> 0:58:42.720
<v Speaker 3>what is the most outrageous thing that I could say?

0:58:43.320 --> 0:58:46.200
<v Speaker 2>I think he comes to believe it because these beliefs

0:58:46.360 --> 0:58:49.640
<v Speaker 2>become a well, I think what it is.

0:58:49.800 --> 0:58:50.240
<v Speaker 3>It starts.

0:58:50.320 --> 0:58:52.760
<v Speaker 2>He's not a political person, he doesn't care about politics.

0:58:53.280 --> 0:58:55.840
<v Speaker 2>He starts with a joke because he starts doing this

0:58:55.960 --> 0:58:59.840
<v Speaker 2>persona because it gets him listeners. But he's also a narcissist,

0:59:00.040 --> 0:59:04.760
<v Speaker 2>and these beliefs aren't political stances to him. They're aspects

0:59:04.800 --> 0:59:08.360
<v Speaker 2>of his personality. And his narcissism dictates that he comes

0:59:08.440 --> 0:59:11.160
<v Speaker 2>to believe it because believing it and defending these things

0:59:11.280 --> 0:59:13.160
<v Speaker 2>is the same as defending himself. And again, he's a

0:59:13.200 --> 0:59:15.840
<v Speaker 2>fucking narcissist. I think that's how it works.

0:59:16.080 --> 0:59:18.240
<v Speaker 3>I like the Trump thing where he starts out telling

0:59:18.320 --> 0:59:21.360
<v Speaker 3>a lie, but then he repeats the lie enough times

0:59:21.720 --> 0:59:24.760
<v Speaker 3>that it becomes true to him because he is saying.

0:59:25.160 --> 0:59:29.840
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that's exactly the case. So another repeated rush Limbaugh

0:59:29.880 --> 0:59:33.480
<v Speaker 2>Bitt was attacking the daughters of Democratic presidents for being ugly.

0:59:33.920 --> 0:59:36.760
<v Speaker 2>In nineteen eighty eight, he called Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy

0:59:37.000 --> 0:59:40.600
<v Speaker 2>the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country.

0:59:41.080 --> 0:59:43.800
<v Speaker 2>In the early nineteen nineties, he declared Chelsea Clinton to

0:59:43.880 --> 0:59:50.640
<v Speaker 2>be the White House dog, which is like just very vile.

0:59:51.320 --> 0:59:54.160
<v Speaker 2>I don't even think it's like the Trump boys and

0:59:54.200 --> 0:59:57.720
<v Speaker 2>Evanka made themselves political figures, perfectly fine to insult and

0:59:57.760 --> 0:59:59.920
<v Speaker 2>attack them. You're never gonna hear me saying anything bat

1:00:00.040 --> 1:00:03.640
<v Speaker 2>about like Tiffany or barn because they're they're children, you know, like,

1:00:04.480 --> 1:00:07.080
<v Speaker 2>don't fucking talk about them if they don't make themselves

1:00:07.160 --> 1:00:09.120
<v Speaker 2>into a major part of things.

1:00:09.200 --> 1:00:09.360
<v Speaker 3>You know.

1:00:10.160 --> 1:00:13.480
<v Speaker 2>Now, Chelsea Clinton's done has it put herself in the

1:00:13.520 --> 1:00:15.720
<v Speaker 2>public eye, and it's perfectly fair to criticize her for

1:00:15.800 --> 1:00:17.080
<v Speaker 2>the thing she does in the public eye.

1:00:17.160 --> 1:00:19.000
<v Speaker 3>But at that time when he was saying that shit,

1:00:19.080 --> 1:00:21.520
<v Speaker 3>she was but she was a child.

1:00:21.800 --> 1:00:25.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, And what you're what he said about her

1:00:26.000 --> 1:00:28.280
<v Speaker 2>is a kind You can't be a good person and

1:00:28.440 --> 1:00:31.160
<v Speaker 2>say that about a child to an audience millions.

1:00:32.320 --> 1:00:32.520
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

1:00:32.760 --> 1:00:33.000
<v Speaker 5>Yeah.

1:00:34.440 --> 1:00:37.520
<v Speaker 2>In twenty twelve, when Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke went

1:00:37.560 --> 1:00:40.200
<v Speaker 2>before Congress to argue that contraceptive should be covered by

1:00:40.240 --> 1:00:43.400
<v Speaker 2>the Affordable Care Act, Limbaugh called her a slut and

1:00:43.560 --> 1:00:47.880
<v Speaker 2>a prostitute. It's it's hard. You can't overstate how vile

1:00:47.960 --> 1:00:51.920
<v Speaker 2>he was. When the Marty from Back to the Future.

1:00:53.280 --> 1:00:55.200
<v Speaker 3>Uh, Michael J. Fox.

1:00:55.320 --> 1:00:58.160
<v Speaker 2>Michael J. Fox, Yeah, made some political statements that Limbaugh

1:00:58.240 --> 1:01:03.160
<v Speaker 2>disagreed with limbab mimic having Parkinson's disease, to mock him

1:01:03.280 --> 1:01:07.760
<v Speaker 2>on his show, like such a bad person to say that, to.

1:01:08.560 --> 1:01:11.960
<v Speaker 3>Imply that Michael J. Fox was playing it up for

1:01:12.120 --> 1:01:15.320
<v Speaker 3>the cameras. Yeah, when he went testified before Congress. I

1:01:15.440 --> 1:01:18.120
<v Speaker 3>remember this. I remember this so well because Michael J.

1:01:18.280 --> 1:01:21.840
<v Speaker 3>Fox deliberately did not take his medication and said that

1:01:22.320 --> 1:01:24.960
<v Speaker 3>and said, I want you to see this is what happens.

1:01:25.640 --> 1:01:29.040
<v Speaker 3>And Rush Limbaugh accused him of like playing it up

1:01:29.720 --> 1:01:32.400
<v Speaker 3>like it's not that bad, and he's he's jiggling all

1:01:32.560 --> 1:01:36.680
<v Speaker 3>around like that's like burned into my brain forever.

1:01:37.120 --> 1:01:39.960
<v Speaker 2>It's horrific. I mean, it's like and to say that

1:01:40.040 --> 1:01:42.160
<v Speaker 2>it would be it like, I think what he did

1:01:42.360 --> 1:01:44.600
<v Speaker 2>was perfectly reasonable. I'm not going to take my medicine

1:01:44.640 --> 1:01:46.680
<v Speaker 2>because you need to know what it is like for

1:01:46.800 --> 1:01:49.080
<v Speaker 2>people who don't have access to the medicine. I'm rich.

1:01:49.160 --> 1:01:51.240
<v Speaker 2>I have access to all the medicine I need here's

1:01:51.280 --> 1:01:53.000
<v Speaker 2>what it's like. If you don't, I want to make

1:01:53.040 --> 1:01:55.720
<v Speaker 2>this less abstract to you. Yeah, I had a friend.

1:01:55.880 --> 1:01:57.640
<v Speaker 2>One of the big things in terms of like me

1:01:59.360 --> 1:02:02.160
<v Speaker 2>changing my political attitudes, it started with like me changing

1:02:02.200 --> 1:02:05.040
<v Speaker 2>my attitudes on drugs, this conservative that like marijuana should

1:02:05.040 --> 1:02:06.360
<v Speaker 2>be illegal, that it was a moral. I had a

1:02:06.440 --> 1:02:08.480
<v Speaker 2>friend who's much older than I met on World of

1:02:08.520 --> 1:02:11.520
<v Speaker 2>Warcraft who had multiple sclerosis, and we were video chatting,

1:02:11.880 --> 1:02:15.520
<v Speaker 2>and she showed me how badly her hands shook before

1:02:15.640 --> 1:02:19.400
<v Speaker 2>she started smoking. Right, she showed me herself shaking, and

1:02:19.480 --> 1:02:21.800
<v Speaker 2>then she took a hit, which was difficult for her,

1:02:22.200 --> 1:02:25.000
<v Speaker 2>and I watched in real time how it affected her.

1:02:25.360 --> 1:02:29.520
<v Speaker 2>And I never again supported keeping that shit illegal, because

1:02:29.520 --> 1:02:32.080
<v Speaker 2>you can't when you see it, right, you can't. It's medicine,

1:02:32.480 --> 1:02:34.560
<v Speaker 2>not that most people use it use it medicinally, which

1:02:34.560 --> 1:02:37.120
<v Speaker 2>doesn't isn't wrong, like it's not wrong to use it recreationally,

1:02:37.200 --> 1:02:39.560
<v Speaker 2>But just the idea that what she was doing was

1:02:39.640 --> 1:02:42.240
<v Speaker 2>a crime made it clear to me how a moral

1:02:42.280 --> 1:02:45.280
<v Speaker 2>our drug laws were in a way that maybe if

1:02:45.320 --> 1:02:47.680
<v Speaker 2>I had like it would have taken longer otherwise, I

1:02:47.720 --> 1:02:53.000
<v Speaker 2>think clearly. So. Yeah, Anyway, Limba did occasionally face consequences

1:02:53.040 --> 1:02:55.560
<v Speaker 2>for his bald faced bigotry. In two thousand and three,

1:02:55.920 --> 1:03:00.720
<v Speaker 2>ESPN hired him as an on air commentator. Oh yeah, yeah,

1:03:01.080 --> 1:03:03.520
<v Speaker 2>And he was fired after like seven weeks because he

1:03:03.600 --> 1:03:07.720
<v Speaker 2>said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb didn't deserve any of

1:03:07.840 --> 1:03:12.400
<v Speaker 2>the praise he received. So he said Donovan, Yeah, he

1:03:12.480 --> 1:03:15.520
<v Speaker 2>said Donovan McNabb didn't deserve the praise that he received

1:03:15.560 --> 1:03:18.320
<v Speaker 2>because quote, I think the media has been very desirous

1:03:18.360 --> 1:03:21.040
<v Speaker 2>that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black

1:03:21.120 --> 1:03:23.640
<v Speaker 2>coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. I think that there's

1:03:23.680 --> 1:03:25.440
<v Speaker 2>a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a

1:03:25.480 --> 1:03:27.160
<v Speaker 2>lot of credit for the performance of his team that

1:03:27.200 --> 1:03:29.880
<v Speaker 2>he really didn't deserve. People just like this guy because

1:03:29.920 --> 1:03:32.440
<v Speaker 2>he's black, not because he's a good quarterback. The media

1:03:32.520 --> 1:03:34.600
<v Speaker 2>is invested in black men being good quarterbacks.

1:03:34.720 --> 1:03:37.320
<v Speaker 1>You know, I like that you went into your Shapiro

1:03:37.440 --> 1:03:38.240
<v Speaker 1>voice for that quote.

1:03:38.320 --> 1:03:42.439
<v Speaker 2>It's what the fuck man? You couldn't do what he's doing?

1:03:42.600 --> 1:03:46.640
<v Speaker 2>How dare you like? So this combat drew enough widespread

1:03:46.680 --> 1:03:49.760
<v Speaker 2>condemnation that Limbaugh was forced to resign from ESPN, but

1:03:49.840 --> 1:03:52.280
<v Speaker 2>obviously this had little to no impact on his bottom line.

1:03:52.360 --> 1:03:56.080
<v Speaker 2>Maybe it annoyed him personally, but it didn't hurt him financially.

1:03:56.520 --> 1:03:59.560
<v Speaker 2>By the early aughts, Rush was worth hundreds of millions

1:03:59.600 --> 1:04:02.080
<v Speaker 2>of dollars. He had a private jet, He had a

1:04:02.200 --> 1:04:05.720
<v Speaker 2>palatial mansion in Florida. He smoked cigars that cost more

1:04:05.760 --> 1:04:09.360
<v Speaker 2>than some people's cars. This is disgusting, but I think

1:04:09.440 --> 1:04:12.160
<v Speaker 2>any fair accounting of Limbaugh's career has to acknowledge how

1:04:12.200 --> 1:04:15.240
<v Speaker 2>impressive it was too. The early two thousand saw the

1:04:15.320 --> 1:04:17.760
<v Speaker 2>explosion of Fox News. This is the period where it

1:04:17.840 --> 1:04:20.560
<v Speaker 2>became the most watched news network in the country. A

1:04:20.680 --> 1:04:24.040
<v Speaker 2>slew of Limbaugh imitators rose up, men like Bill O'Reilly,

1:04:24.160 --> 1:04:27.080
<v Speaker 2>Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson, to name a few. While

1:04:27.160 --> 1:04:30.760
<v Speaker 2>these folks were all hugely successful and influential, none of

1:04:30.840 --> 1:04:34.000
<v Speaker 2>them ever eclipsed Rush. This is because, in addition to

1:04:34.080 --> 1:04:39.600
<v Speaker 2>wielding influence, Rush held actual, demonstrable political power. And I'm

1:04:39.600 --> 1:04:42.959
<v Speaker 2>going to quote the Rolling Stone again here. His sky

1:04:43.040 --> 1:04:45.520
<v Speaker 2>high ratings and the rabid fandom of his dittoheads, who

1:04:45.600 --> 1:04:47.720
<v Speaker 2>just happened to fit the profile of people who voted

1:04:47.800 --> 1:04:51.040
<v Speaker 2>frequently in Republican primaries, made it inevitable that the GOP

1:04:51.120 --> 1:04:54.200
<v Speaker 2>would come courting in nineteen ninety two, after he'd boosted

1:04:54.200 --> 1:04:57.360
<v Speaker 2>Pat Bmuchannon's pitchfork populist Make America First again challenged to

1:04:57.400 --> 1:04:59.919
<v Speaker 2>George Bush. The President became so hell bent on gaining

1:05:00.040 --> 1:05:02.600
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh's favor for the general election that he not only

1:05:02.640 --> 1:05:04.520
<v Speaker 2>invited the host to the White House but toted his

1:05:04.640 --> 1:05:08.160
<v Speaker 2>bags personally into the Lincoln Bedroom. Limbaugh had only praised

1:05:08.200 --> 1:05:10.080
<v Speaker 2>for Bush from that day forward, at least until he

1:05:10.160 --> 1:05:13.200
<v Speaker 2>lost to Bill Clinton in November. That set a pattern.

1:05:13.520 --> 1:05:16.520
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh might instinctively gravitate to the radicals, but he was

1:05:16.600 --> 1:05:19.960
<v Speaker 2>ultimately a team player, the national precinct captain of the

1:05:20.040 --> 1:05:23.080
<v Speaker 2>Republican Party, as Mother Jones described him two years later,

1:05:23.320 --> 1:05:26.680
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh basically co captain the Republican Revolution with House Leader

1:05:26.760 --> 1:05:29.600
<v Speaker 2>Knute Gingrich. When their efforts produced a landslide that brought

1:05:29.720 --> 1:05:32.840
<v Speaker 2>seventy three anti government zelots to Congress. The host was

1:05:32.880 --> 1:05:35.680
<v Speaker 2>made an honorary House freshman and feded at a GOP

1:05:35.840 --> 1:05:38.680
<v Speaker 2>orientation in December, where the new members wore Rush was

1:05:38.800 --> 1:05:41.480
<v Speaker 2>right buttons and listened to his marching orders. This is

1:05:41.520 --> 1:05:43.800
<v Speaker 2>not the time to get moderate, he said. This is

1:05:43.880 --> 1:05:47.000
<v Speaker 2>not the time to start trying to be liked. Ronald

1:05:47.040 --> 1:05:51.040
<v Speaker 2>Reagan himself declared Limbaugh the number one voice for conservatism

1:05:51.120 --> 1:05:54.800
<v Speaker 2>in our country. And Rush was always very clear suck

1:05:56.200 --> 1:05:59.280
<v Speaker 2>and Rush was always very clear about where he wanted

1:05:59.320 --> 1:06:04.600
<v Speaker 2>to see the part head. Smaller government, stronger, more powerful corporations.

1:06:04.840 --> 1:06:08.440
<v Speaker 2>He said all he said outright, I consider myself a

1:06:08.560 --> 1:06:17.680
<v Speaker 2>defender of corporate America. Yeah, it would not be wrong

1:06:17.840 --> 1:06:20.280
<v Speaker 2>to view Rush Limbaugh as something of a cult leader.

1:06:20.600 --> 1:06:24.520
<v Speaker 2>One of the strongest pieces of evidence supporting this conclusion is,

1:06:24.640 --> 1:06:29.120
<v Speaker 2>in my mind, Limbaugh's embrace of the irrational politics. For

1:06:29.200 --> 1:06:33.560
<v Speaker 2>Rush Limbaugh was never about concrete results or observable reality.

1:06:33.920 --> 1:06:37.440
<v Speaker 2>It was a fight between good his side and evil

1:06:37.760 --> 1:06:40.880
<v Speaker 2>anyone who disagreed with him. And since those were the stakes,

1:06:41.040 --> 1:06:43.840
<v Speaker 2>it didn't matter if he light or spread conspiracy theories,

1:06:44.080 --> 1:06:46.360
<v Speaker 2>because the essence of what he was saying, that the

1:06:46.400 --> 1:06:50.240
<v Speaker 2>Democrats were monsters, was true. Nowhere is this clearer than

1:06:50.280 --> 1:06:53.720
<v Speaker 2>in his hatred of the Clintons. It started when George H. W.

1:06:53.920 --> 1:06:56.280
<v Speaker 2>Bush lost to Bill robbing Rush of a president who

1:06:56.280 --> 1:06:58.880
<v Speaker 2>would directly, you know, take him into the White House.

1:06:58.960 --> 1:07:02.400
<v Speaker 2>Right from an early stage, Rush realized that lying about

1:07:02.440 --> 1:07:04.600
<v Speaker 2>the crimes committed by Bill and Hillary was a more

1:07:04.680 --> 1:07:08.080
<v Speaker 2>productive route than criticizing them on policy, and so in

1:07:08.200 --> 1:07:11.440
<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety four he announced Vince Foster was murdered in

1:07:11.480 --> 1:07:13.960
<v Speaker 2>an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton and the body was

1:07:14.000 --> 1:07:18.320
<v Speaker 2>taken to Fort Marcy Park, rolling Stone rights conspiracy theories

1:07:18.400 --> 1:07:21.040
<v Speaker 2>once the province of fringe right wingers, started to become

1:07:21.120 --> 1:07:24.520
<v Speaker 2>the mainstream Republican fair they are today during Clinton's two terms,

1:07:24.840 --> 1:07:27.760
<v Speaker 2>and Limbaugh was the great popularizer of the genre. Long

1:07:27.840 --> 1:07:31.520
<v Speaker 2>before Fox hosts began amplifying the fringier theories about American politics,

1:07:31.600 --> 1:07:35.520
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh was busy mainstreaming wingnut world. The conspiracy cranks, the

1:07:35.600 --> 1:07:39.440
<v Speaker 2>John Birchers, the Christian Zionists, the science deniers, the info warriors,

1:07:39.680 --> 1:07:42.680
<v Speaker 2>their wildest fantasies, fears, and paranoias all came out to

1:07:42.720 --> 1:07:45.480
<v Speaker 2>play in the national prime time on The Rush Limbaugh Show,

1:07:45.840 --> 1:07:48.240
<v Speaker 2>repackaged by the host into a palatable fare for the

1:07:48.280 --> 1:07:52.400
<v Speaker 2>Republican masses. And this is this is significant because Russia

1:07:52.440 --> 1:07:55.400
<v Speaker 2>is demonizing of the Clintons, who there's plenty of very

1:07:55.480 --> 1:07:57.520
<v Speaker 2>value valid things to critique them on, but at the

1:07:57.600 --> 1:08:01.280
<v Speaker 2>end of the day, pretty normal neo liberal politicians. It's

1:08:01.320 --> 1:08:03.320
<v Speaker 2>even spread on the left. This idea that Hillary Clinton

1:08:03.480 --> 1:08:06.960
<v Speaker 2>is somehow more of a warmonger than other liberals, right,

1:08:07.320 --> 1:08:10.840
<v Speaker 2>is somehow like exceptionally bad. When she's not. She's very

1:08:10.920 --> 1:08:13.960
<v Speaker 2>much in line with everyone else in the party and

1:08:14.080 --> 1:08:17.519
<v Speaker 2>everyone else who has held those positions and is not

1:08:17.640 --> 1:08:20.000
<v Speaker 2>as bad as some of them. Right, She's more hated

1:08:20.080 --> 1:08:21.280
<v Speaker 2>by certain people.

1:08:21.760 --> 1:08:22.479
<v Speaker 3>Even on the left.

1:08:22.520 --> 1:08:25.760
<v Speaker 2>You'll find people are who are more directly aggressive towards

1:08:25.800 --> 1:08:28.640
<v Speaker 2>her than they are a fucking kissinger. And it's not

1:08:28.760 --> 1:08:29.679
<v Speaker 2>that she's not bad.

1:08:30.000 --> 1:08:31.479
<v Speaker 3>She is, so is Bill.

1:08:31.720 --> 1:08:35.519
<v Speaker 2>They're greedy, Bill's a rapist. They have supported, you know,

1:08:35.960 --> 1:08:38.920
<v Speaker 2>initia of the Iraq War, a number of violent actions

1:08:39.000 --> 1:08:43.000
<v Speaker 2>overseas that were disasters, but there they did that as

1:08:43.080 --> 1:08:48.400
<v Speaker 2>part of as all like within a large group of people. Right,

1:08:48.600 --> 1:08:51.720
<v Speaker 2>there's nothing about them that is exceptionally bad for the

1:08:52.040 --> 1:08:57.240
<v Speaker 2>the the crew that they run with, but this absolute

1:08:57.360 --> 1:08:59.840
<v Speaker 2>demonizing of them that has a real impact by the

1:09:00.000 --> 1:09:01.760
<v Speaker 2>on the twenty sixteen election. That's a big part of

1:09:01.800 --> 1:09:05.040
<v Speaker 2>what we get Trump is something that Rush Limbaugh pioneers,

1:09:05.360 --> 1:09:08.400
<v Speaker 2>the Clintons are not like my parents hated Trump, hated

1:09:08.439 --> 1:09:11.200
<v Speaker 2>Trump when he was running and voted for him because

1:09:11.479 --> 1:09:16.559
<v Speaker 2>their hatred of Hillary Clinton was it's beyond rational. Yes,

1:09:16.800 --> 1:09:21.960
<v Speaker 2>it's and again a lot of super valid criticisms of

1:09:22.040 --> 1:09:24.599
<v Speaker 2>Hillary Clinton. I don't think she should have ever been president. Also,

1:09:24.920 --> 1:09:27.240
<v Speaker 2>hard to say she would have been worse than Trump.

1:09:28.280 --> 1:09:30.519
<v Speaker 2>And if you are saying like she would have, for example,

1:09:30.920 --> 1:09:33.720
<v Speaker 2>been more killed more people overseas than Trump, you're not

1:09:33.840 --> 1:09:37.000
<v Speaker 2>actually paying attention to the death toll as a result

1:09:37.080 --> 1:09:40.160
<v Speaker 2>of American air strikes and missile strikes and drone strikes

1:09:40.400 --> 1:09:43.200
<v Speaker 2>as it changed from the Obama administration where Clinton was

1:09:43.240 --> 1:09:46.240
<v Speaker 2>Secretary of State to the Trump administration, because there was

1:09:46.280 --> 1:09:48.439
<v Speaker 2>a massive escalation in death under that, in addition to

1:09:48.479 --> 1:09:50.439
<v Speaker 2>a repealing of the rule about any sort of reporting

1:09:50.479 --> 1:09:53.840
<v Speaker 2>about civilian casualties from US air strikes. Trump was worse

1:09:54.040 --> 1:09:56.880
<v Speaker 2>on this sort of stuff, but you'd never know it anyway.

1:09:56.920 --> 1:09:58.240
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to get into a rant on this,

1:09:58.400 --> 1:10:03.720
<v Speaker 2>but like you can't it. It's almost impossible to analyze

1:10:03.960 --> 1:10:07.439
<v Speaker 2>the Clintons, their impact, their crimes, and their and their

1:10:08.560 --> 1:10:12.680
<v Speaker 2>and their their behaviors, their policies with any sort of

1:10:12.760 --> 1:10:18.120
<v Speaker 2>rationality because this they've been turned into goblins. Right. Yes,

1:10:19.200 --> 1:10:23.639
<v Speaker 2>it's very frustrating. Yeah, and it makes it it makes

1:10:23.680 --> 1:10:25.479
<v Speaker 2>it so that if you try to say, like, well, actually,

1:10:25.600 --> 1:10:27.760
<v Speaker 2>this thing you're criticizing them on isn't a reasonable thing

1:10:27.800 --> 1:10:30.000
<v Speaker 2>to or at least the way you're criticizing them isn't reasonable.

1:10:30.080 --> 1:10:31.640
<v Speaker 2>Suddenly you're defending them, and it's like, no, that's not

1:10:31.680 --> 1:10:34.120
<v Speaker 2>what I'm it's very I hate it, I hate everything.

1:10:34.360 --> 1:10:38.800
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. Sorry, It gets that that sort of specific personality

1:10:38.920 --> 1:10:44.800
<v Speaker 3>demonization gets in the way of actually accomplishing uh uh uh,

1:10:45.520 --> 1:10:50.720
<v Speaker 3>you know discussions of policy and where and where we

1:10:50.840 --> 1:10:53.760
<v Speaker 3>are as a country and how we do things. Because yes,

1:10:53.880 --> 1:10:58.960
<v Speaker 3>absolutely they were completely typical of the people that occupy

1:10:59.120 --> 1:11:01.479
<v Speaker 3>the White House any given a year, you know what

1:11:01.560 --> 1:11:06.120
<v Speaker 3>I mean. Yeah, and and to and like you know Hillary, uh,

1:11:06.880 --> 1:11:11.200
<v Speaker 3>even if she had killed as many people overseas as

1:11:11.280 --> 1:11:16.439
<v Speaker 3>Trump did, probably fewer people domestically in terms of policy

1:11:17.240 --> 1:11:19.040
<v Speaker 3>if you're talking about the if you're gonna talk get

1:11:19.080 --> 1:11:21.920
<v Speaker 3>into the pandemic and stuff like that, if she had

1:11:21.960 --> 1:11:26.960
<v Speaker 3>been elected and and you know, anyway, yeah, I totally

1:11:27.000 --> 1:11:31.680
<v Speaker 3>agree that it's like it's a very weird uh thing

1:11:31.880 --> 1:11:36.760
<v Speaker 3>that uh uh, that's that that absolutely sprung out of

1:11:36.960 --> 1:11:38.000
<v Speaker 3>the Rush Limbaugh.

1:11:38.560 --> 1:11:38.680
<v Speaker 6>Uh.

1:11:39.600 --> 1:11:41.760
<v Speaker 3>Personal demon personal demonization.

1:11:42.000 --> 1:11:42.160
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

1:11:42.640 --> 1:11:45.400
<v Speaker 3>That that that then gets into you know, like the

1:11:45.560 --> 1:11:49.760
<v Speaker 3>fucking Alex Jones ship where he's a demon. There's fly,

1:11:50.000 --> 1:11:51.200
<v Speaker 3>there's a fly on her.

1:11:51.600 --> 1:11:55.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly. It's this, it's this turning people from like, Okay,

1:11:55.920 --> 1:11:59.000
<v Speaker 2>let's analyze what this person's actually done, how it's worked,

1:11:59.040 --> 1:12:01.519
<v Speaker 2>when it's been successful, when it's been unsuccessful, when it's

1:12:01.560 --> 1:12:03.680
<v Speaker 2>been moral, when it's been a moral and to no,

1:12:04.160 --> 1:12:06.680
<v Speaker 2>she's just a criminal. She's just a warmonger. And we

1:12:06.760 --> 1:12:09.200
<v Speaker 2>don't have to analyze what she actually did or anything.

1:12:09.240 --> 1:12:11.519
<v Speaker 2>We don't have to. We just have to condemn her.

1:12:12.200 --> 1:12:15.400
<v Speaker 2>And it's not that she doesn't deserve condemnation for a

1:12:15.439 --> 1:12:17.960
<v Speaker 2>lot of things, but like for one thing, I don't know,

1:12:18.680 --> 1:12:21.000
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to fucking get onto a defending because

1:12:21.000 --> 1:12:24.560
<v Speaker 2>I don't like Hillary Clinton. But she's also has it

1:12:24.680 --> 1:12:27.760
<v Speaker 2>like it's very frustrating. Yeah, it's very it's all just

1:12:27.880 --> 1:12:31.760
<v Speaker 2>very frustrating. And he's and he creates this culture and

1:12:31.800 --> 1:12:34.000
<v Speaker 2>it spreads. Now it's not just the Clinton's now now

1:12:34.080 --> 1:12:37.160
<v Speaker 2>it's it's everyone. Right, you don't have to analyze people

1:12:37.520 --> 1:12:39.840
<v Speaker 2>that you disagree with. You come up with a three

1:12:39.920 --> 1:12:43.080
<v Speaker 2>word thing about them, and you spread these like like

1:12:43.479 --> 1:12:47.120
<v Speaker 2>Bill Clinton has committed crimes, he's a fucking rapist. You

1:12:47.200 --> 1:12:48.880
<v Speaker 2>don't have to make up that he and his wife

1:12:48.880 --> 1:12:53.439
<v Speaker 2>are having people murdered. It like, yeah, yeactly, Like he's

1:12:53.439 --> 1:12:55.800
<v Speaker 2>a rapist. That's bad. But of course a lot of

1:12:55.880 --> 1:12:58.320
<v Speaker 2>people calling him a rapist or rapists themselves, and they

1:12:58.400 --> 1:13:00.400
<v Speaker 2>have to make it up that now, no, he's a murderer.

1:13:00.479 --> 1:13:04.479
<v Speaker 2>You know. It's it's fucking bullshit. It's very frustrating. So

1:13:04.760 --> 1:13:08.519
<v Speaker 2>Rush also led the charge on demonizing and denying global

1:13:08.560 --> 1:13:11.320
<v Speaker 2>warming and climate change. In his book See I Told

1:13:11.400 --> 1:13:14.040
<v Speaker 2>You So, He declared that quite a few scientists are

1:13:14.080 --> 1:13:16.960
<v Speaker 2>now backtracking on there once dire predictions of melting ice

1:13:17.040 --> 1:13:21.439
<v Speaker 2>caps and worldwide flooding cut to Texas being submerged in

1:13:21.520 --> 1:13:26.200
<v Speaker 2>a layer of snow that destroys civil society. Ye, or

1:13:26.280 --> 1:13:29.439
<v Speaker 2>the entire West Coast burning down last year. Anyway. He

1:13:29.600 --> 1:13:33.880
<v Speaker 2>lampooned al Gore and scientists who warned about climate change

1:13:33.960 --> 1:13:37.040
<v Speaker 2>as quote a few hardline doomsayers who are sticking to

1:13:37.080 --> 1:13:40.479
<v Speaker 2>their thermostats. Yeah, yep.

1:13:42.479 --> 1:13:46.360
<v Speaker 3>His conclusion was what you know and now it's it

1:13:46.520 --> 1:13:47.479
<v Speaker 3>never affected him.

1:13:47.439 --> 1:13:49.280
<v Speaker 2>And it never affected him now he's dead.

1:13:49.479 --> 1:13:55.840
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, as far as he knows, he was right

1:13:55.880 --> 1:13:56.240
<v Speaker 3>about this.

1:13:56.560 --> 1:14:01.479
<v Speaker 2>He was right about this. Limball was unquestionably the single

1:14:01.600 --> 1:14:04.920
<v Speaker 2>most influential American conservative from about nineteen eighty nine to

1:14:05.040 --> 1:14:07.920
<v Speaker 2>at least two thousand and eight. Now, his star did

1:14:08.080 --> 1:14:10.639
<v Speaker 2>start to fade by the end of George W. Bush's term,

1:14:10.680 --> 1:14:12.439
<v Speaker 2>and there are a couple of reasons for this. For one,

1:14:12.520 --> 1:14:14.960
<v Speaker 2>he'd been outed as an opiate addict, gone to rehab

1:14:15.080 --> 1:14:17.800
<v Speaker 2>three times, and through it all, had repeatedly defended an

1:14:17.800 --> 1:14:21.000
<v Speaker 2>administration that led the United States into two disastrous and

1:14:21.080 --> 1:14:24.639
<v Speaker 2>expensive failed wars. By the time Barack Obama was elected,

1:14:24.720 --> 1:14:27.400
<v Speaker 2>many of the more libertarian minded right wing were starting

1:14:27.479 --> 1:14:30.720
<v Speaker 2>to reject the neo conservative ideology that Russia's been eight

1:14:30.840 --> 1:14:34.280
<v Speaker 2>years hyping up. Now, the fact that Barack Obama was

1:14:34.320 --> 1:14:36.880
<v Speaker 2>the man who finally broke eight years of GOP power

1:14:37.200 --> 1:14:40.680
<v Speaker 2>wound up being the salvation of Limbaugh's influence. Yes, he'd

1:14:40.760 --> 1:14:43.200
<v Speaker 2>encouraged the nation to burn through its treasure and influence,

1:14:43.320 --> 1:14:46.000
<v Speaker 2>losing two wars, but now a black man was president,

1:14:46.360 --> 1:14:49.439
<v Speaker 2>the floodgates of right wing racism opened wide. In the

1:14:49.520 --> 1:14:52.000
<v Speaker 2>first four years of Obama's term, the number of hate

1:14:52.000 --> 1:14:54.600
<v Speaker 2>groups in the United States rose by seven hundred and

1:14:54.720 --> 1:14:58.599
<v Speaker 2>fifty five percent. This surge in public anti black races.

1:14:58.800 --> 1:15:01.000
<v Speaker 2>I know, it's pretty shocking when you actually look at

1:15:01.040 --> 1:15:01.400
<v Speaker 2>the number.

1:15:04.960 --> 1:15:08.360
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the idea, there's a black president, We're gonna need

1:15:08.479 --> 1:15:12.599
<v Speaker 3>more hate groups. Guys, there's the hate groups, the extant

1:15:12.640 --> 1:15:14.280
<v Speaker 3>hate groups that we're not going to get it done.

1:15:14.520 --> 1:15:15.920
<v Speaker 3>We need more hate groups.

1:15:16.400 --> 1:15:18.759
<v Speaker 2>There is a black president who in his actual policies

1:15:18.840 --> 1:15:22.040
<v Speaker 2>is not wildly different from George H. W. Bush. But like, yeah,

1:15:24.800 --> 1:15:27.920
<v Speaker 2>the fact that Barack Obama. Yeah, so this surge and

1:15:28.000 --> 1:15:31.600
<v Speaker 2>anti in public anti black racism was heralded, incited, and

1:15:31.800 --> 1:15:35.640
<v Speaker 2>led by Rush Limbaugh, the USA's most prominent bigot. There

1:15:35.720 --> 1:15:37.799
<v Speaker 2>are a lot of different clips that I could select

1:15:37.840 --> 1:15:40.600
<v Speaker 2>to make this point, Paul, but none is more appropriate

1:15:40.680 --> 1:15:43.960
<v Speaker 2>than this song that aired on Russia's program while Obama

1:15:44.160 --> 1:15:47.120
<v Speaker 2>was still on the campaign trail. Now, the context of

1:15:47.200 --> 1:15:49.680
<v Speaker 2>this is that Limba was talking about the fact that

1:15:51.000 --> 1:15:53.559
<v Speaker 2>Al Sharpton Barack Obama. Now, Sharpton had like a public

1:15:53.640 --> 1:15:56.240
<v Speaker 2>series of arguments, right, I think Sharpton was backing Hillary

1:15:56.320 --> 1:15:59.960
<v Speaker 2>at first. So this is this song that you're about

1:16:00.160 --> 1:16:03.000
<v Speaker 2>to hear. The singer is supposed to be Al Sharpton

1:16:03.120 --> 1:16:06.120
<v Speaker 2>singing about Barack Obama, and I'm just gonna let Sophie

1:16:06.160 --> 1:16:06.719
<v Speaker 2>play the clip.

1:16:06.800 --> 1:16:14.439
<v Speaker 5>Now, Barack the Magic need Grow lives in d C.

1:16:15.760 --> 1:16:17.280
<v Speaker 3>The LA Times.

1:16:17.400 --> 1:16:21.200
<v Speaker 5>They call him that because he's not authentic like me

1:16:22.320 --> 1:16:26.120
<v Speaker 5>in the gap from the LA Paper said him make

1:16:26.240 --> 1:16:28.080
<v Speaker 5>guilty Whitespiel good.

1:16:29.080 --> 1:16:33.040
<v Speaker 3>They'll vo for him and not for me because he's

1:16:33.240 --> 1:16:38.520
<v Speaker 3>not from the hood. See real black man like Snoop.

1:16:38.240 --> 1:16:41.559
<v Speaker 2>Dogg or me, Oh Farak.

1:16:42.479 --> 1:16:43.280
<v Speaker 3>Have talked to.

1:16:43.400 --> 1:16:47.880
<v Speaker 5>Talk and walk the walk, not come in late and one.

1:16:48.640 --> 1:16:56.479
<v Speaker 5>Oh Brock the Magic Niro lives in DC. The LA

1:16:56.840 --> 1:16:59.599
<v Speaker 5>Times they called him because he's.

1:16:59.600 --> 1:17:05.719
<v Speaker 2>Our I think that's enough of that. Yes, pretty bad.

1:17:07.520 --> 1:17:09.640
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I just I guess I just wish that

1:17:10.280 --> 1:17:12.280
<v Speaker 3>non comedy people would stay in their lane.

1:17:12.640 --> 1:17:13.800
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yeah, you know what I meaning?

1:17:14.000 --> 1:17:19.639
<v Speaker 3>Bro Yeah, that that like the the the meter was terrible.

1:17:20.000 --> 1:17:22.280
<v Speaker 3>It it's bad.

1:17:22.360 --> 1:17:25.200
<v Speaker 2>It's not it's not funny unless you're a bigot.

1:17:25.280 --> 1:17:27.479
<v Speaker 3>You know, yeah, exact, unless you're a bigot.

1:17:28.240 --> 1:17:31.720
<v Speaker 2>So Limball had other Obama zingers, saying at one point,

1:17:31.800 --> 1:17:34.439
<v Speaker 2>if he weren't black, he'd be a tour guide in Hawaii.

1:17:35.360 --> 1:17:37.439
<v Speaker 2>In two thousand and eight, he compared Obama to a

1:17:37.520 --> 1:17:42.360
<v Speaker 2>cartoon monkey. He repeatedly called Michelle moochell and why because

1:17:42.400 --> 1:17:44.439
<v Speaker 2>she's a cow, you know, and by the and all

1:17:44.479 --> 1:17:46.600
<v Speaker 2>the while he claimed that racism had nothing to do

1:17:46.720 --> 1:17:49.080
<v Speaker 2>with his hatred of Obama. Doesn't matter to me what

1:17:49.200 --> 1:17:52.360
<v Speaker 2>his races. He's liberal, that is what matters to me. Yeah, okay,

1:17:52.840 --> 1:17:56.960
<v Speaker 2>Barack the magic Negro guy. Yeah, I just I just

1:17:57.040 --> 1:17:59.439
<v Speaker 2>bring it up a ton, that's all. Yeah, I just

1:17:59.680 --> 1:18:01.760
<v Speaker 2>I can't can't talk about it enough. But I'm not

1:18:02.000 --> 1:18:02.519
<v Speaker 2>a big age.

1:18:02.560 --> 1:18:05.120
<v Speaker 3>It's just convenient that he's black. It's not a problem

1:18:05.200 --> 1:18:07.320
<v Speaker 3>that I have with him, but it's convenient for me

1:18:07.840 --> 1:18:08.880
<v Speaker 3>for my satire.

1:18:09.840 --> 1:18:10.800
<v Speaker 2>God, I hate this guy.

1:18:11.000 --> 1:18:12.960
<v Speaker 3>So is he even doing satire at this point? Like?

1:18:13.040 --> 1:18:16.240
<v Speaker 3>Has he pretend? Has he dropped that pretense? Yeah?

1:18:16.320 --> 1:18:19.080
<v Speaker 2>I mean I can play you songs that like, there's

1:18:19.120 --> 1:18:21.040
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of Nazis that will go through and like

1:18:21.200 --> 1:18:25.200
<v Speaker 2>rewrite Disney songs to be about hating the Jews and stuff,

1:18:25.320 --> 1:18:27.960
<v Speaker 2>or about race traders and whatnot, because it's the kind

1:18:27.960 --> 1:18:30.960
<v Speaker 2>of thing that's easy to spread. Right, You make a

1:18:31.120 --> 1:18:34.400
<v Speaker 2>racist song and people laugh and at first it's a joke,

1:18:34.439 --> 1:18:36.320
<v Speaker 2>and then it becomes less of a joke. It's the

1:18:36.360 --> 1:18:39.240
<v Speaker 2>whole story, right, Yeah, that's exactly what Limbad's doing. You know,

1:18:39.600 --> 1:18:42.920
<v Speaker 2>it's not even all that much less racist. He just

1:18:43.040 --> 1:18:48.240
<v Speaker 2>doesn't say the N word. When Canada Obama became president, Obama,

1:18:48.600 --> 1:18:52.800
<v Speaker 2>Rush said, I hope he fails, explaining that rooting for

1:18:52.960 --> 1:18:57.320
<v Speaker 2>liberalism to fail is rooting for America to succeed. Limba

1:18:57.400 --> 1:19:00.519
<v Speaker 2>declared that stopping Obama was quote what I was born

1:19:00.680 --> 1:19:03.559
<v Speaker 2>to do. One of his tactics to this end seemed

1:19:03.600 --> 1:19:06.759
<v Speaker 2>to be stoking fears that because Obama was anti white,

1:19:07.040 --> 1:19:09.240
<v Speaker 2>he was trying to gin up a race war. In

1:19:09.320 --> 1:19:12.439
<v Speaker 2>two thousand and nine, Rush declared, in Obama's America, the

1:19:12.600 --> 1:19:15.439
<v Speaker 2>white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering.

1:19:16.280 --> 1:19:18.080
<v Speaker 2>Clearly he would have preferred it when you know, I

1:19:18.120 --> 1:19:21.200
<v Speaker 2>don't know when white kids were burning down black kids'

1:19:21.200 --> 1:19:22.800
<v Speaker 2>schools in his hometown.

1:19:23.840 --> 1:19:25.280
<v Speaker 3>Those were the days.

1:19:25.760 --> 1:19:30.360
<v Speaker 2>Those were the days, my friend, he thought they'd never end. Yeah,

1:19:30.479 --> 1:19:34.200
<v Speaker 2>it's great. Limba was not the only person who stoked

1:19:34.200 --> 1:19:36.760
<v Speaker 2>white resentment and anti black bigotry in this period. He

1:19:36.880 --> 1:19:39.519
<v Speaker 2>was not close to the only person, but he was

1:19:39.680 --> 1:19:42.759
<v Speaker 2>the man who had created the blueprint and the cultural

1:19:42.960 --> 1:19:46.000
<v Speaker 2>space that all of those other right wing media figures

1:19:46.320 --> 1:19:49.320
<v Speaker 2>acted in. Ben Shapiro was very open about the fact

1:19:49.360 --> 1:19:53.200
<v Speaker 2>that Limba was his hero and idol. Alex Jones altered

1:19:53.280 --> 1:19:56.240
<v Speaker 2>the way he spoke and altered the acoustics setup of

1:19:56.320 --> 1:20:00.599
<v Speaker 2>his Info Wars studio in order to more closely Resembleush Limbaugh.

1:20:01.160 --> 1:20:04.760
<v Speaker 2>In twenty ten, Limbaugh was picked to address Seapack, the

1:20:04.840 --> 1:20:08.080
<v Speaker 2>Conservative Political Action Conference. He was the main event that

1:20:08.240 --> 1:20:10.439
<v Speaker 2>year and gave what he called his first Address to

1:20:10.520 --> 1:20:13.559
<v Speaker 2>the Nation. Limbaugh was so central to the Republican Party

1:20:13.600 --> 1:20:16.679
<v Speaker 2>at this point that RNC Chairman Michael Steele was asked

1:20:16.760 --> 1:20:20.519
<v Speaker 2>on CNN if Limbaugh was the effective party leader. When

1:20:20.560 --> 1:20:24.000
<v Speaker 2>Steele claimed that Rush was just an entertainer. This pissed

1:20:24.040 --> 1:20:27.680
<v Speaker 2>off Rush Limbaugh, who attacked Michael Steele on air and

1:20:27.840 --> 1:20:30.800
<v Speaker 2>caused such an outpouring of right wing rage against the

1:20:31.040 --> 1:20:34.280
<v Speaker 2>RNC chairman that Michael Steele was forced to make a

1:20:34.360 --> 1:20:37.720
<v Speaker 2>public apology to Rush Limbaugh, kind of proving that he

1:20:37.840 --> 1:20:39.800
<v Speaker 2>was effectively the leader of the Republican Party.

1:20:40.000 --> 1:20:41.920
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know, it puts me in mind of Howard

1:20:42.000 --> 1:20:47.200
<v Speaker 3>Stern coming into the Philadelphia market and forcing John Debella,

1:20:47.680 --> 1:20:50.040
<v Speaker 3>the host of The Morning Zoo, to apologize for being

1:20:50.120 --> 1:20:50.599
<v Speaker 3>on the radio.

1:20:51.280 --> 1:20:52.679
<v Speaker 2>Jesus, I didn't know that it happened.

1:20:52.960 --> 1:20:53.200
<v Speaker 1>It was.

1:20:54.720 --> 1:20:55.320
<v Speaker 3>Ridiculous.

1:20:56.840 --> 1:21:00.920
<v Speaker 2>So as leader of the Republican Party, Limbaugh spent the

1:21:01.000 --> 1:21:04.360
<v Speaker 2>Obama years repeatedly hammering home the idea that there could

1:21:04.479 --> 1:21:07.720
<v Speaker 2>not be peaceful coexistence between the right and left in

1:21:07.800 --> 1:21:11.840
<v Speaker 2>the United States. Quote from Rush, we live in two universes.

1:21:12.200 --> 1:21:15.639
<v Speaker 2>One universe is a lie. One universe is an entire lie.

1:21:16.000 --> 1:21:19.040
<v Speaker 2>Everything run dominated, controlled by the left here and around

1:21:19.080 --> 1:21:21.800
<v Speaker 2>the world is a lie. Every other universe where is

1:21:21.840 --> 1:21:24.720
<v Speaker 2>where we are, and that's where reality reigns supreme and

1:21:24.840 --> 1:21:28.679
<v Speaker 2>we deal with it again America, Yeah, the real America,

1:21:28.800 --> 1:21:30.400
<v Speaker 2>and there can be no coexistence.

1:21:30.600 --> 1:21:35.640
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, this now, now we're in the age of you know,

1:21:35.760 --> 1:21:39.519
<v Speaker 3>because Biden said, you know, he's looking for unity. Anytimes

1:21:39.520 --> 1:21:43.760
<v Speaker 3>somebody's looking for unity, and uh, there is a there's

1:21:43.800 --> 1:21:47.960
<v Speaker 3>a criticism of a famous monster like Rush Limbaugh. The

1:21:48.080 --> 1:21:50.559
<v Speaker 3>response from the right is always, oh, where's the famous

1:21:50.680 --> 1:21:54.599
<v Speaker 3>unity where? Well, I thought you wanted unity, And it's like, well,

1:21:54.720 --> 1:21:56.800
<v Speaker 3>do you care about unity? You don't give a shit

1:21:56.840 --> 1:21:59.840
<v Speaker 3>about it. You're already living in a world that says

1:22:00.720 --> 1:22:03.240
<v Speaker 3>if you don't, if you don't come to believe the

1:22:03.360 --> 1:22:08.559
<v Speaker 3>things that I believe, you are against America. And you are.

1:22:09.360 --> 1:22:12.880
<v Speaker 3>You're the real racist, You're the real misogynist, you are

1:22:13.160 --> 1:22:16.400
<v Speaker 3>the real hater of of all things that are decent.

1:22:17.000 --> 1:22:20.360
<v Speaker 3>So it's I don't know how we I don't know

1:22:20.439 --> 1:22:24.439
<v Speaker 3>how we unfuck ourselves from this, from this situation.

1:22:24.600 --> 1:22:29.200
<v Speaker 2>Right yeah, I don't know that we can. But the

1:22:29.960 --> 1:22:33.800
<v Speaker 2>way to do it is not to not to yield

1:22:34.080 --> 1:22:37.479
<v Speaker 2>to these people, right yeah, it's it's it's not to

1:22:37.720 --> 1:22:41.439
<v Speaker 2>just let them get what they want, because what they

1:22:41.560 --> 1:22:45.080
<v Speaker 2>want is the annihilation of the other and honestly the

1:22:45.120 --> 1:22:47.760
<v Speaker 2>annihilation of themselves, because it's a fucking death cult at

1:22:47.800 --> 1:22:51.240
<v Speaker 2>this point, Like they can't be allowed to win. And

1:22:51.920 --> 1:22:57.519
<v Speaker 2>like the people, and that's not to say that every

1:22:57.600 --> 1:23:01.920
<v Speaker 2>aspect of what has what a traditional conservative ideology is wrong.

1:23:02.040 --> 1:23:04.320
<v Speaker 2>They have some points. That's why it brings people in

1:23:04.400 --> 1:23:06.479
<v Speaker 2>the idea that like you should always be wary about

1:23:06.520 --> 1:23:09.479
<v Speaker 2>giving the government control of things, You fucking should, you know,

1:23:09.840 --> 1:23:13.240
<v Speaker 2>Like absolutely, there's a space, there is a space for

1:23:13.439 --> 1:23:18.439
<v Speaker 2>conservatism in society. That is not what Rush Limbaugh turned

1:23:18.439 --> 1:23:19.960
<v Speaker 2>it into. Which is not to say that it because

1:23:20.040 --> 1:23:23.320
<v Speaker 2>fucking Reagan was president before Limbaugh came onto the scene,

1:23:23.479 --> 1:23:27.000
<v Speaker 2>and he was terrible and very toxic, Not like toxicity

1:23:27.040 --> 1:23:30.599
<v Speaker 2>in the Republican Party goes back very far. But also

1:23:31.560 --> 1:23:34.240
<v Speaker 2>it's not for nothing that the Republicans used to be

1:23:34.400 --> 1:23:39.400
<v Speaker 2>the party of Abraham Lincoln. You know, it's not there.

1:23:39.560 --> 1:23:41.720
<v Speaker 2>There is a way to have a conservatism that is

1:23:41.800 --> 1:23:44.720
<v Speaker 2>influential in society that isn't a fucking death cult. And

1:23:44.840 --> 1:23:47.479
<v Speaker 2>we have to at very least get back to that

1:23:47.720 --> 1:23:49.600
<v Speaker 2>if we're going to continue to be a democracy that

1:23:49.680 --> 1:23:53.519
<v Speaker 2>doesn't spiral inevitably into civil war. You know, I have

1:23:53.840 --> 1:23:57.439
<v Speaker 2>I'm a pretty committed leftist, but I also do not

1:23:58.000 --> 1:24:01.000
<v Speaker 2>seek a society that forces my beliefs on other people.

1:24:01.600 --> 1:24:03.439
<v Speaker 2>But you can't.

1:24:04.880 --> 1:24:05.640
<v Speaker 3>You can't.

1:24:06.880 --> 1:24:10.479
<v Speaker 2>Give these people an inch because they'll take everything. That's

1:24:10.520 --> 1:24:13.679
<v Speaker 2>how they are, you know, That's what part what Rush

1:24:13.720 --> 1:24:17.360
<v Speaker 2>had a big impact in making them into. By twenty fifteen,

1:24:17.479 --> 1:24:20.160
<v Speaker 2>Rush Limbaugh had succeeded in leading a right word push

1:24:20.240 --> 1:24:23.759
<v Speaker 2>that finally prepared the Republican Party to nominate an obvious fascist,

1:24:24.040 --> 1:24:27.960
<v Speaker 2>Donald Trump. Limbaugh embraced Trump early on right wing radio

1:24:28.000 --> 1:24:30.519
<v Speaker 2>host and never trump er Joe Walsh, who is another

1:24:30.800 --> 1:24:36.240
<v Speaker 2>actually principled conservative, draws a direct line between Limbaugh and Trump. Quote,

1:24:36.760 --> 1:24:39.800
<v Speaker 2>the average Trump supporter loves Trump because he fights man.

1:24:39.960 --> 1:24:42.800
<v Speaker 2>He fights, not because of any policy or issue or

1:24:42.840 --> 1:24:45.920
<v Speaker 2>political philosophy. That's why they loved Rush before him. It

1:24:46.080 --> 1:24:49.320
<v Speaker 2>wasn't about conservatism. I still can't tell you after thirty

1:24:49.400 --> 1:24:51.519
<v Speaker 2>years what the fuck he believes in. But he knew

1:24:51.520 --> 1:24:54.200
<v Speaker 2>how to pray on audience's grievances and resentments, which is

1:24:54.240 --> 1:24:57.240
<v Speaker 2>what conservative talk radio does. Rush was the son of

1:24:57.280 --> 1:24:59.519
<v Speaker 2>a bitch. He'd lie about the dims and punch them

1:24:59.560 --> 1:25:01.400
<v Speaker 2>and make fun of them. That gave him a cult

1:25:01.520 --> 1:25:04.439
<v Speaker 2>like following from the beginning. Trump sort of inherited it,

1:25:05.280 --> 1:25:09.120
<v Speaker 2>and I Joe Walsh again not a grade I degree

1:25:09.240 --> 1:25:11.760
<v Speaker 2>agree with un much, but he's right on the money here.

1:25:12.160 --> 1:25:13.559
<v Speaker 2>He's analyzing it properly.

1:25:13.720 --> 1:25:16.519
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely, mm hmm. The thing I think the thing also

1:25:16.600 --> 1:25:20.160
<v Speaker 3>about Trump is like like Rush doesn't really have any

1:25:20.680 --> 1:25:24.880
<v Speaker 3>deeply held beliefs, right, like that, You couldn't say this guy,

1:25:25.400 --> 1:25:29.880
<v Speaker 3>even convincing himself, really cares that much about anything beyond

1:25:30.080 --> 1:25:32.280
<v Speaker 3>what's right in front of his fucking face that is

1:25:32.360 --> 1:25:32.920
<v Speaker 3>about him.

1:25:33.479 --> 1:25:35.920
<v Speaker 2>All he cares about is his own aggrandizement. Yeah, right,

1:25:36.520 --> 1:25:39.120
<v Speaker 2>it's narcissism. Trump and Limbaugh are very similar.

1:25:39.320 --> 1:25:39.840
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely.

1:25:39.960 --> 1:25:43.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Rush bent the knee to Trump, declaring him everything

1:25:43.240 --> 1:25:45.519
<v Speaker 2>but the Second Coming, and we will not labor long

1:25:45.600 --> 1:25:48.200
<v Speaker 2>on Rush during Trump's years, Because once he had helped

1:25:48.280 --> 1:25:52.080
<v Speaker 2>shepherd his massive audience into Trump's arms, his cultural influence faded.

1:25:52.160 --> 1:25:54.680
<v Speaker 2>It was watered down by the sheer mass of right

1:25:54.720 --> 1:25:58.639
<v Speaker 2>wing idolaw ideologues who flooded the Internet. It increasingly urged

1:25:58.640 --> 1:26:03.000
<v Speaker 2>their followers to embrace around rationality, conspiracy, and fascism. In

1:26:03.120 --> 1:26:06.120
<v Speaker 2>February of twenty twenty, Rush led the charge denying the

1:26:06.160 --> 1:26:09.280
<v Speaker 2>reality of COVID nineteen. He called it the common cold

1:26:09.360 --> 1:26:12.040
<v Speaker 2>and mocked even his old ally Matt Drudge for caring

1:26:12.040 --> 1:26:15.599
<v Speaker 2>about the burgeoning plague. He urged his listeners against mask wearing,

1:26:15.920 --> 1:26:18.639
<v Speaker 2>calling it a symbol of fear. Rush had long denied

1:26:18.640 --> 1:26:22.040
<v Speaker 2>the dangers of smoking, particularly secondhand smoke, but this was

1:26:22.080 --> 1:26:25.360
<v Speaker 2>a new level for him. When Trump lost reelection to Biden,

1:26:25.560 --> 1:26:28.600
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh immediately called the election a sham and joined the

1:26:28.680 --> 1:26:31.600
<v Speaker 2>chorus of voices claiming fraud. By this point, though he

1:26:31.800 --> 1:26:34.080
<v Speaker 2>was sick and the playing field was so flooded with

1:26:34.200 --> 1:26:37.000
<v Speaker 2>men who sounded like him, triggered the libs like him,

1:26:37.120 --> 1:26:39.680
<v Speaker 2>lied like him, that his voice hardly rose above the

1:26:39.800 --> 1:26:43.280
<v Speaker 2>din Rush had succeeded in building a right wing so

1:26:43.680 --> 1:26:46.479
<v Speaker 2>made in his own image that he no longer stood

1:26:46.600 --> 1:26:50.080
<v Speaker 2>out in it. His last show was February second. He

1:26:50.240 --> 1:26:52.960
<v Speaker 2>died less than two weeks later, killed by the lung

1:26:53.080 --> 1:26:55.599
<v Speaker 2>cancer he denied had anything to do with smoking, because

1:26:55.600 --> 1:27:00.679
<v Speaker 2>that was another thing Rush denied his entire career. Joe Walsh,

1:27:00.840 --> 1:27:04.559
<v Speaker 2>a former Limbaugh lover, found like when he was much younger,

1:27:04.640 --> 1:27:06.920
<v Speaker 2>he got into Talk Rady because of Limbaugh, eventually wound

1:27:07.000 --> 1:27:10.400
<v Speaker 2>up and to be fair before Trump rejecting Limbaugh in

1:27:10.479 --> 1:27:13.280
<v Speaker 2>a lot of ways, found the whole arc of Rush's

1:27:13.320 --> 1:27:16.680
<v Speaker 2>career to be terribly sad. Quote. I didn't think that

1:27:16.800 --> 1:27:18.479
<v Speaker 2>at the end of his life Brush would sell out

1:27:18.479 --> 1:27:20.920
<v Speaker 2>to Trump the way he has. He had every opportunity

1:27:21.000 --> 1:27:23.200
<v Speaker 2>this final year to come clean and be decent. I

1:27:23.280 --> 1:27:25.360
<v Speaker 2>mean he was still on this February lying about a

1:27:25.400 --> 1:27:28.400
<v Speaker 2>stolen election. He'll keep up this act till he dies,

1:27:28.680 --> 1:27:31.759
<v Speaker 2>and it's sad. When a writer from Rolling Stone asked

1:27:31.760 --> 1:27:34.080
<v Speaker 2>if maybe the reason he kept backing Trump was that

1:27:34.200 --> 1:27:37.240
<v Speaker 2>Limbaugh truly believed in what Trump said, Walsh countered with

1:27:37.320 --> 1:27:40.639
<v Speaker 2>a theory of his own quote, maybe knowing him, it's

1:27:40.720 --> 1:27:44.200
<v Speaker 2>one last big extended fuck you. Maybe it's Limbaugh saying

1:27:44.320 --> 1:27:46.760
<v Speaker 2>I'm not gonna bend to the Dims and anybody else,

1:27:47.040 --> 1:27:49.880
<v Speaker 2>no matter what, never to the end, I'm never gonna

1:27:49.960 --> 1:27:52.240
<v Speaker 2>do it. And at the end of this, I can't

1:27:52.280 --> 1:27:54.479
<v Speaker 2>help but think that there's something terribly meaningful in the

1:27:54.560 --> 1:27:57.400
<v Speaker 2>fact that Joe Walsh rejected Limbaugh in his later years,

1:27:57.439 --> 1:28:00.519
<v Speaker 2>and at his end Walsh gained prominence a voice of

1:28:00.560 --> 1:28:04.320
<v Speaker 2>the Rising Tea Party. He is very conservative, but his constant,

1:28:04.439 --> 1:28:07.000
<v Speaker 2>principled resistance to President Trump proves that he is not

1:28:07.160 --> 1:28:10.880
<v Speaker 2>a fascist. And it turns out what Limbaugh was really selling,

1:28:11.120 --> 1:28:13.799
<v Speaker 2>what he was preparing the American right for all along,

1:28:14.439 --> 1:28:17.920
<v Speaker 2>was fascism. If you want confirmation of this, you need

1:28:18.000 --> 1:28:21.360
<v Speaker 2>look no further than how America's most prominent neo Nazis

1:28:21.400 --> 1:28:25.720
<v Speaker 2>reacted to Limbaugh's death. Chris Cantwell was one of the

1:28:25.760 --> 1:28:28.559
<v Speaker 2>speakers and organizers of the deadly Unite the Right rally

1:28:28.600 --> 1:28:31.960
<v Speaker 2>in Charlottesville. He is a straight up Nazi. He assaulted

1:28:32.040 --> 1:28:34.519
<v Speaker 2>left wing counter protesters at the event, and when this

1:28:34.600 --> 1:28:38.040
<v Speaker 2>brought legal consequences on him, he filmed himself crying in fear,

1:28:38.360 --> 1:28:42.479
<v Speaker 2>earning the nickname the Crying Nazi. Can't Well gained prominence

1:28:42.520 --> 1:28:45.759
<v Speaker 2>among the alright as a podcaster with shows like Outlaw

1:28:45.880 --> 1:28:51.920
<v Speaker 2>Conservative and Chris Cantwell openly sees Rush Limbaugh as the

1:28:52.000 --> 1:28:54.680
<v Speaker 2>man who invented his style of content, who made his

1:28:54.800 --> 1:28:57.639
<v Speaker 2>career possible. He's in jail right now because he made

1:28:57.640 --> 1:28:59.840
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of illegal threats and stuff. But he was

1:28:59.920 --> 1:29:02.840
<v Speaker 2>interviewed for another fascist podcast by a guy named Jared

1:29:02.960 --> 1:29:06.519
<v Speaker 2>Howe on like right after Limbaugh's death, and in this

1:29:06.640 --> 1:29:10.000
<v Speaker 2>clip about to play the Crying Nazi, Chris can't Well

1:29:10.080 --> 1:29:13.840
<v Speaker 2>discusses his reaction to learning about Rush Limbaugh's death.

1:29:14.720 --> 1:29:17.120
<v Speaker 7>And when I heard, you know, when I heard Catherine's voice, like,

1:29:17.400 --> 1:29:19.160
<v Speaker 7>I choked up, and I said.

1:29:18.920 --> 1:29:22.280
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, he knew, you know, And I, yeah, I knew.

1:29:22.560 --> 1:29:24.759
<v Speaker 2>And what is Catherine Limbaugh?

1:29:25.680 --> 1:29:28.639
<v Speaker 7>I had actually, uh, she wrote a letter to Rush.

1:29:28.680 --> 1:29:30.640
<v Speaker 7>I because I kept hoping that, you know, I'd get

1:29:30.680 --> 1:29:32.040
<v Speaker 7>out of here in time that I could like call

1:29:32.080 --> 1:29:34.439
<v Speaker 7>into the show or drop an email. And I started realizing, like,

1:29:34.479 --> 1:29:37.000
<v Speaker 7>all right, he did filling host in two weeks. Uh,

1:29:37.200 --> 1:29:39.519
<v Speaker 7>if I'm going to contact this guy just I'm probably

1:29:39.520 --> 1:29:41.639
<v Speaker 7>gonna to do it by mail. And I was actually

1:29:41.680 --> 1:29:43.400
<v Speaker 7>gonna I forgot to do what I was gonna ask you,

1:29:43.479 --> 1:29:44.960
<v Speaker 7>to get me and see if there was an actress

1:29:44.960 --> 1:29:47.400
<v Speaker 7>that I could write to. And uh, it turns out

1:29:47.439 --> 1:29:48.120
<v Speaker 7>to a little late to this.

1:29:48.600 --> 1:29:51.840
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but you know when I when I heard.

1:29:51.720 --> 1:29:54.719
<v Speaker 7>Her voice, I choked up. I said, oh no, Shelly Arvey,

1:29:54.880 --> 1:29:57.559
<v Speaker 7>and he knew exactly was going to teletal much because

1:29:57.560 --> 1:30:01.880
<v Speaker 7>you had to be dead and h oh yeah I

1:30:02.000 --> 1:30:03.000
<v Speaker 7>heard it when it happened, and.

1:30:03.080 --> 1:30:08.120
<v Speaker 2>I was like you, so that's I mean, you know,

1:30:09.240 --> 1:30:13.719
<v Speaker 2>he's legitimately affected by this. He's mourning Rush Limbaugh, this Nazi,

1:30:14.000 --> 1:30:17.160
<v Speaker 2>and he's not the only Nazi mourning Rush Limbaugh. The

1:30:17.280 --> 1:30:20.719
<v Speaker 2>Daily Shoa is one of the most prominent Nazi podcasts

1:30:20.760 --> 1:30:24.000
<v Speaker 2>on the Internet. The word Shoa is the Hebrew term

1:30:24.120 --> 1:30:26.280
<v Speaker 2>it means I think it means calamity for the Holocaust.

1:30:26.360 --> 1:30:29.160
<v Speaker 2>So it's literally this is the Daily Holocaust and it

1:30:29.280 --> 1:30:32.960
<v Speaker 2>is maybe the most prominent Nazi podcast on the internet

1:30:33.320 --> 1:30:36.439
<v Speaker 2>now TDS, as its hosts call it has been on

1:30:36.479 --> 1:30:39.120
<v Speaker 2>the years for years at this point, since before Trump

1:30:39.400 --> 1:30:42.799
<v Speaker 2>was in office, and the hosts of The Daily Shoa

1:30:43.240 --> 1:30:46.120
<v Speaker 2>consider Limbaugh to be something of an idol. Now, these

1:30:46.160 --> 1:30:49.280
<v Speaker 2>guys are hardcore Nazis, so they consider Russia moderate and

1:30:49.320 --> 1:30:51.880
<v Speaker 2>they do demean him at times for that, but they

1:30:51.960 --> 1:30:55.800
<v Speaker 2>also recognize that he paved the way for their financial

1:30:55.920 --> 1:30:59.639
<v Speaker 2>success and cultural influence. And in this next audio clip

1:30:59.680 --> 1:31:02.720
<v Speaker 2>you can here several members of the Daily Show can't

1:31:02.760 --> 1:31:07.160
<v Speaker 2>emphasize that name enough. Learn live about Rush Limbaugh's death

1:31:07.439 --> 1:31:10.600
<v Speaker 2>and the emotional impact it has on them is undeniable.

1:31:11.040 --> 1:31:14.120
<v Speaker 2>News cucked on that. But that's what happened today.

1:31:14.520 --> 1:31:18.519
<v Speaker 3>Well, Svinn, that's bad news for you, buddy, Rush Limbaugh

1:31:18.760 --> 1:31:19.080
<v Speaker 3>is dead.

1:31:19.400 --> 1:31:22.200
<v Speaker 2>Oh I'm serious. Wow, I mean, well, I guess I

1:31:22.240 --> 1:31:24.040
<v Speaker 2>can't see what he's saying about tex I'm not gonna

1:31:24.080 --> 1:31:25.519
<v Speaker 2>I'm not gonna dance on his gravey.

1:31:25.800 --> 1:31:27.400
<v Speaker 3>He said a lot of really dumb things.

1:31:27.439 --> 1:31:29.240
<v Speaker 2>But I'm still so kind of sad about that. Like,

1:31:29.400 --> 1:31:31.400
<v Speaker 2>I'm very sad about that. I wouldn't be here. If not,

1:31:32.200 --> 1:31:35.160
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't be here, says host of The Daily Show.

1:31:35.680 --> 1:31:39.200
<v Speaker 2>Without Rush Limbaugh, I can't think of a more damning

1:31:39.400 --> 1:31:42.479
<v Speaker 2>thing to say in a man's passing but that he

1:31:42.760 --> 1:31:50.200
<v Speaker 2>was truly honestly mourned by Nazis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the

1:31:50.320 --> 1:31:52.679
<v Speaker 2>end of the day, that's what you can say about

1:31:52.760 --> 1:31:55.360
<v Speaker 2>Rush and that is the end of our episodes on

1:31:55.520 --> 1:31:58.360
<v Speaker 2>Rush Limbaugh. Wow you're doing, Paul, I'm good.

1:31:58.439 --> 1:32:01.320
<v Speaker 3>I mean, look, he said some dumb things and I'm

1:32:01.360 --> 1:32:02.320
<v Speaker 3>gonna dance on his grave.

1:32:02.880 --> 1:32:04.479
<v Speaker 2>I'm absolutely gonna dance that.

1:32:04.800 --> 1:32:07.120
<v Speaker 3>He sucked and I'm glad he's dead. He was a

1:32:07.160 --> 1:32:09.840
<v Speaker 3>bad person and I and I have to say on

1:32:10.040 --> 1:32:14.080
<v Speaker 3>social media when when the story broke people were talking

1:32:14.120 --> 1:32:17.200
<v Speaker 3>about it, there were a lot of people that wanted

1:32:17.240 --> 1:32:20.519
<v Speaker 3>to say, you know, you can you you know, you

1:32:20.560 --> 1:32:24.120
<v Speaker 3>can say whatever you want. But Rush was hugely successful,

1:32:24.200 --> 1:32:26.960
<v Speaker 3>more successful and you will ever be had more influence.

1:32:27.200 --> 1:32:30.960
<v Speaker 3>He was a millionaire. Guys take the w do you

1:32:31.000 --> 1:32:33.120
<v Speaker 3>know what I mean? Yeah, you can't. And this is

1:32:33.200 --> 1:32:35.439
<v Speaker 3>the problem with these guys, with Trump, with people like this,

1:32:35.680 --> 1:32:39.599
<v Speaker 3>is it's not enough for them to win. They need

1:32:39.760 --> 1:32:42.599
<v Speaker 3>people to lick the boots. They need people to say

1:32:43.160 --> 1:32:46.160
<v Speaker 3>you are the greatest. It is never enough for them.

1:32:46.520 --> 1:32:49.600
<v Speaker 3>It is never enough for them to be hated, to

1:32:49.720 --> 1:32:52.680
<v Speaker 3>be feared, to have all the marbles. They need you

1:32:52.800 --> 1:32:55.920
<v Speaker 3>to say I love you too. Yes, they need it.

1:32:56.560 --> 1:33:00.280
<v Speaker 3>And that is that is what the only solid us

1:33:00.280 --> 1:33:03.680
<v Speaker 3>I can take in a life like this is that

1:33:04.000 --> 1:33:07.920
<v Speaker 3>in the end, he didn't get the thing that he wanted,

1:33:07.960 --> 1:33:11.679
<v Speaker 3>which was everybody saying You're the greatest and I love

1:33:11.720 --> 1:33:12.600
<v Speaker 3>you and that.

1:33:14.560 --> 1:33:17.920
<v Speaker 2>Yeah it was and piss and a bunch of Nazis crying.

1:33:18.640 --> 1:33:20.519
<v Speaker 3>If you if you make if this is what you

1:33:20.680 --> 1:33:24.040
<v Speaker 3>make of your life. This is how This is what's

1:33:24.120 --> 1:33:26.080
<v Speaker 3>going to happen, is that you're gonna have people saying

1:33:26.120 --> 1:33:28.320
<v Speaker 3>rest and piss. You're gonna have people saying this and

1:33:28.439 --> 1:33:30.719
<v Speaker 3>it's and and sorry. You can have all the success

1:33:30.800 --> 1:33:33.120
<v Speaker 3>you want. You're never going to get that love. It's

1:33:33.240 --> 1:33:33.960
<v Speaker 3>not gonna happen.

1:33:34.200 --> 1:33:37.960
<v Speaker 2>And people are actively making plans to ship on your

1:33:38.080 --> 1:33:42.400
<v Speaker 2>grave because you materially harmed their lives, Yes.

1:33:42.720 --> 1:33:45.000
<v Speaker 3>And the lives of peace and the lives of people

1:33:45.040 --> 1:33:48.240
<v Speaker 3>that they loved. You have you have made life that

1:33:48.439 --> 1:33:51.160
<v Speaker 3>much harder for generations.

1:33:50.400 --> 1:33:53.120
<v Speaker 2>Of people that will come in of humans you have

1:33:53.560 --> 1:33:58.679
<v Speaker 2>Rush Limbaugh had a material, significant negative impact on billions

1:33:58.720 --> 1:34:03.320
<v Speaker 2>of people, many of whom are yet born. Yeah, anyway,

1:34:03.960 --> 1:34:06.160
<v Speaker 2>rest and piss brush. I wish this to cancer had

1:34:06.200 --> 1:34:10.720
<v Speaker 2>worked faster, you know. Yeah, anyway, Paul, you got some

1:34:10.760 --> 1:34:13.520
<v Speaker 2>pluggables to plug at the end of this episode.

1:34:13.760 --> 1:34:17.479
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm gonna be appearing on the Daily Show in

1:34:17.560 --> 1:34:18.360
<v Speaker 3>a couple of weeks.

1:34:20.320 --> 1:34:23.639
<v Speaker 2>BIGS Fan, By the way, I want to I want

1:34:23.680 --> 1:34:25.920
<v Speaker 2>to shout out and give thanks to Daniel Harper of

1:34:26.000 --> 1:34:29.200
<v Speaker 2>the wonderful podcast I Don't Speak German, which is the

1:34:29.280 --> 1:34:33.799
<v Speaker 2>deepest dives you're going to find on Nazi content creators.

1:34:33.800 --> 1:34:36.200
<v Speaker 2>I guess you go Nazi thought leaders in the United States.

1:34:36.640 --> 1:34:39.120
<v Speaker 2>Very important work, Daniel Harper, I don't speak German. He

1:34:39.200 --> 1:34:42.040
<v Speaker 2>provided those clips to me. Thank you, Daniel, Yeah, sorry,

1:34:42.120 --> 1:34:42.400
<v Speaker 2>thank you.

1:34:42.760 --> 1:34:45.280
<v Speaker 3>No, not at all. Uh. You can follow me at

1:34:45.760 --> 1:34:50.080
<v Speaker 3>p F Tompkins on Twitter and Instagram, and I have

1:34:50.360 --> 1:34:54.760
<v Speaker 3>a few podcasts that you can listen to, you know,

1:34:55.120 --> 1:34:57.120
<v Speaker 3>just all the usual stuff you can find out about

1:34:57.160 --> 1:34:58.479
<v Speaker 3>me on Paul Thompkins dot.

1:34:58.400 --> 1:35:03.000
<v Speaker 2>Com Amazing Tompkins dot com. Well that's going to do

1:35:03.080 --> 1:35:06.640
<v Speaker 2>it for us here at Behind the Bastards. So go

1:35:06.800 --> 1:35:09.360
<v Speaker 2>out into the world, tie one half of your brain

1:35:09.479 --> 1:35:12.960
<v Speaker 2>behind your back and then die because that would actually

1:35:13.120 --> 1:35:16.800
<v Speaker 2>kill you. That would immediately lead to your dot an

1:35:16.840 --> 1:35:20.519
<v Speaker 2>exposed brain. There's reason we have skulls people to keep

1:35:20.560 --> 1:35:25.440
<v Speaker 2>your brain inside of it. Yeah, anyway, by guys podcasts.

1:35:28.680 --> 1:35:31.360
<v Speaker 1>Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media.

1:35:31.720 --> 1:35:34.360
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1:35:34.439 --> 1:35:38.360
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