1 Boring Old Man

There are several reasons that I can’t abide listening to or watching Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, or Bill O’Reilly. Though their styles differ, they all have a contemptuous, self-righteous attitude that I find off-putting. They macerate logical argument [on purpose] and thrive in the domain of loose connections and forced logical fallacy. For example, in the video I posted below, Glenn Beck starts with the Art Deco images on the Rockerfeller Center in New York, and from those images ends up concluding that Obama, NBC, the Progressives, the Rockefellers, and the United Nations are fascists and communists – pseudologica fantastica. So I find myself feeling disgusted, and longing for the olden times when logic and its rules were the currency of political debate – the golden moments of ancient Greece when Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle walked the earth. But it didn’t always go so well for those champions of logic in Greek antiquity either. Socrates, the father of Philosophy, was executed for criticizing his contemporaries. His student Plato, known primarily through his writings, founded the Academy where he taught Aristotle, the great logician [among other things]. Aristotle ended his life in self imposed exile to escape his critics. So much for the idealized past.

Those guys on the top row play logic games and they live and breathe in the negative – attacking others, but never bothering to suggest alternative solutions to the problems on the table. But in all honesty, the main reason I don’t listen to them is that I don’t like their conclusions. And as much as I venerate logic and problem solving, I find myself guilty of making ad hominem attacks on these self-styled media pundits. Limbaugh is an obnoxious, college drop out, DJ who was and maybe still is a drug addict. Glenn Beck has a similar story, an alcoholic dropout who became a top 40 DJ. Hannity is another a college dropout who worked as a contractor and a bartender before getting into radio. O’Reilly is the only educated member of the team, having two Masters Level degrees from Harvard. But he’s vulnerable too, having settled a sexual harassment suit out of court reportedly costing him millions. O’Reilly and Limbaugh share another vulnerability. They’re both obnoxious bullies.

But discounting them because of their foibles is playing on their playing field, and missing the obvious point that they have a wide appeal. The question that needs answering is why – why would anyone listen to them as they make their forced and contemptuous arguments? I suppose the answers are simple. For one, their followers agree with their conclusions. These radio/tv types provide people a logic to go with their felt conclusions. For another, they effectively malign the motives of their victims. Obama isn’t spending to stabilize the economy. He’s spending to give away your stuff to people who don’t earn it. Obama isn’t trying to fix a broken health care system, he’s trying to get you to pay for the health care of ne’r do wells. Obama isn’t trying to help all Americans. He’s a racist trying to help only African-Americans. Obama’s not trying to keep kids in school. He’s trying to indoctrinate them. It just goes on and on. He’s a communist. He’s a socialist. He’s a fascist. He’s a Moslem. He wasn’t born in America. And by casting such a wide net, they tap into the prejudices and fears of a broad segment of people.

Is there anything that Obama [or his supporters] can do about all of this? That’s a preoccupying question for me. Decrying it among ourselves is comforting, but has little impact in the world of talking-point-radio/television. One thing we can do is continuously focus on the cataclysmic failures under the Bush Administration – the wars, the corruption, the debt, the deceit. These pundits talk as if there never was the eight year period of ineptness and deceit that almost destroyed us. Obama approaches it by avoiding the daily fray, treating it as misinformation, and trying to continually keep his messages in the play. Most of us wish he would be more combative, but it’s hard to argue with his intuition. He’s got a hell of a track record. He seems to believe that if he continues to treat his foes respectfully, he’ll hold the day.