Isaac Asimov once inadvertently summed up the essence of right-wing talk radio when he wrote about what he called “the cult of ignorance in the United States.” There is “a strain of anti-intellectualism” in our culture and politics that is “nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”
For the past few weeks, I have been out on the road in the morning, listening to crackpot radio, to which I am sadly addicted. The Host and his call-in listeners prove Asimov’s contention on a daily basis.
The Host is really good at what he does, which is mostly keeping the white folks in a constant state of rage. We don’t want Afghan refugees in Arizona! They’re an even darker shade of brown than the Mexicans!
Some lowlights from the past few weeks:
• So, this woman calls in and identifies herself only as someone who “works in the healthcare industry.” She’s railing against the school district and the school because her son had been exposed to someone who was COVID-positive and it was keeping him from participating in football practice.
She just kept on wailing, “Let the kids play!”
The Host tried to guide her to a strong finish by asking if her son was actually sick and she said, “Well, he’s had COVID. He has no sense of smell or taste, but he has no symptoms.”
Um…what?!
Here’s hoping that her position in the “healthcare industry” doesn’t go beyond cleaning out bed pans.
• For days on end, he ranted about how school districts were breaking the law by installing mask mandates. But after it was announced on the news segment of his own show that the courts had ruled that laws cannot be implemented retroactively, he continued to claim that districts were breaking the law, which was, you know, a big fat lie.
• The Host: “School districts are flaunting the law.”
People flout the law, they don’t flaunt it. We shouldn’t use big words if we don’t know what they mean.
• There was a situation at Walden Grove High School where parents were verbally abusive and threatening a school administrator, and police had to be called. So, The Host launches into this tirade about school officials, rants on and on, then finishes with, “And that Superintendent of the Vail District (John Carruth) is the worst. He’s just terrible.”
Well, he may be, but Walden Grove is in the Sahuarita District, not Vail.
• One morning, he spent an entire segment on how some clown in Israel claimed that Ivermectin could be used to treat and perhaps even cure COVID-19. This de-wormer is just the latest completely-fake “miracle” cure to sweep through the Moron-o-verse.
The next day, The Host starts off with, “Israel did a study on Ivermectin…”
No, Israel DID NOT do a study on Ivermectin. Some guy in Israel experimented on some people and then wrote a paper that has since been debunked because it’s fraudulent.
Sometimes he just engages in half-truths. After the completely-expected backlash against the Ivermectin/COVID hoax, he started saying things like “Ivermectin is completely safe for people to take…” or “The CDC recommends that people coming to the U.S. from the Middle East should take Ivermectin…” Both of those statements would be true if he finished the sentences with “…to treat head lice or scabies.”
• Quick question: Is it 3rd grade or 4th grade where people stop thinking that intentionally mispronouncing somebody’s name is funny? He wants people to take his rage seriously and then he does stupid stuff like that. And, big surprise, the names he intentionally mangles are those of women, not men.
Also, you can hate on Sharon Bronson all you want, but many of us remember that freak morning storm. Her almost drowning that day will NEVER be funny.
• Seeing as how I’m an American and an adult, I know that (even in these horribly fractured times where expectations of common decency have all but disappeared) there are two things that you never, EVER call somebody unless that person has been convicted of that offense in a court of law.
You don’t call somebody a child molester and you don’t call somebody a traitor. He thinks it’s cute to call elected officials who are sincerely trying to protect the health of kids “child abusers.” That’s a bitch move.
Now he has taken to calling the President of the United States a traitor. He even whines, “Why isn’t anybody else joining me in calling (Biden) a traitor?” Well, it’s probably because his listeners, no matter how bent out of shape they are on other matters, know that that’s crossing a line. If they were decent professionals, the people who run his station would suspend him and bar him from ever using that word again. But, in this case, they’re as gutless as he is vile.
• Finally, we’ve all suffered through 18 months of COVID, made exponentially worse by the previous administration’s unwillingness to accept COVID as fact and then to deal with COVID in a responsible manner. So, when the crappy August job report (made crappy by COVID) comes out, what does the anti-vaxxer, anti-mask cheerleader for Team Death recommend as a solution? More COVID!
He claims to be a critical thinker, but he acts like a critic of thinking.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2021.
1.Since, “We don’t want Afghan refugees in Arizona! They’re an even darker shade of brown than the Mexicans!” was NOT in quotes, as was much of your childish diatribe, this must be you speaking. Your white privelage is showing.
2. Are you incapable of reporting anything ‘political. without referring to the past administration?
3. Your bot,Biden, was directly responsible for the death of the only 13 service members killed in Afghanistan in the last 19 months. And the best he could was look at his watch.
A “bitch move” is a term that reinforces negative stereotypes about women. You have a rich vocabulary. Pick a different phrase.
Tucson ass…we were in a f-ing war. People die. Why didn’t I see you crying and whining for the other roughly 2500 US soldiers who died over the last 20 years? Guess how many US soldiers will die in Afghanistan since we pulled out? Zip, zero nada, none. Thanks President Biden for ending that stupid war.
In my entire life, I have only ever used the word “bitch” when referring to a male, but you’re right. I need to retire that word. Thanks.
Indictment was just handed to Clinton lawyer for lying about the Russia Russia Russia hoax. The sitting US president was impeached for that democracy destroying act. It is very similar to treason that Gen Milley performed for China.
We don’t want Afghan refugees in Arizona! They’re an even darker shade of brown than the Mexicans!
This is how the left thinks. They think they know every motive that doesn’t match theirs, and then they try to diminish others.
And therein lies the reason they never accomplish anything beyond hope. They keep repeating the same stupid actions.
Biden didn’t end the war he simply screwed up the ending of the war that Trump ended. We will probably have to go back. And you are correct, thank you Biden for leaving Americans behind.
The same idiot that complained about wasteful military spending. Then he pulls the military and hands defeat to those left to fend for themselves.
Every new democrat makes Jimmy Carter look smarter and smarter. I never thought that could happen.
You’ve been out on the road in the morning?
So that WAS you I saw saw delivering the Daily Star.
Maybe your wife will buy you a new Schwinn with a basket to hold your newspapers…
Larry A-Lock her up!
Wise-ass. Yeah O’Biden ran and left who knows how many Americans and friendlies behind to die along with the thirteen others he killed. This along with billions of dollars of advanced weapons. Our troops used to say that we owned the night. Now the Afghanistan terrorists have the night vision gear and the Chinese will be turning the stuff out like popcorn to equip every fourth-world ragtag band of terrorists in other shit hole countries.
Then he sends a drone over to kill an innocent guy and his children. And as par for the course, his administration lies about it. But as you say, people die; as long as it’s not terrorists, O’Biden is okay with it.
Sneering their false sense of intellectual superiority is the favorite occupation of liberals.
When you see people with snot all over their clothes, you know why.
They sneer at the people who put the floor under our feet, the roof over our head, the refrigerator in our kitchen, the electricity in our wires, the car in our garage, the street under our car.
They celebrate and revere the parasites who put 200,000 pages of regulations on our backs, who create governments who haven’t created a job in decades.
A two-fer comment!
1) Little Wuss, reread my comment below again but this time slower so you can possibly understand it.
2) J Huff-n-puff thinks liberals sneer at the working man which of course is ridiculous. We do tend to sneer at former cry-baby school superintendent racists though!
“…thinks liberals sneer at the working man…”
Oh, yes, liberals do sneer at the working man. That’s what this column is all about. When you sneer at the unvaccinated, you are sneering at Hispanics, Blacks and working men and women.