Why do people in the United States think Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity

[mmonk]

are geniuses and experts in economics, constitutional law, history, and such when they are high school graduates with no advanced degrees in anything? Shouldn't that be pointed out to the backwash of America?

[bunnies]

1. Because people are stupid. nt

[mmonk]

3. Yes, that seems obvious but how did this psychosis take hold?

[bunnies]

9. My guess?

Laziness. Its easier to just go along with what some "news" person tells you than it is to take the time to form an educated opinion. I know far too many people who believe just about anything a "news" person tells them. It blows my mind.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. I'm sure it has been pointed out, however...

the "backwash" of America typically doesn't have an advanced degree in those things either. Instead of understanding that it's okay not to know everything and that it doesn't make you less of a person, they take it as a personal affront to themselves. This is where the whole "elitist" bullshit stems from - the notion that being educated somehow makes one a superior human being, and implicitly, makes those that aren't inferior human beings.

[mmonk]

4. Maybe they should go to them for surgery or teatment for cancer.

Seems like they have no problem nor an irrational hatred towards doctors in such cases.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. Well, some of them don't go to doctors at all, actually...

http://friendlyatheist.com/2008/01/03/religion-based-medical-neglect/

[Johonny]

31. I agree

[tsuki]

5. Because they preach hate, and it is much easier to blame than

take responsibility.

[markbark]

6. You've answered your own question

high school graduates with no advanced degrees in anything
I would wager that the majority of Rush/Hannity followers don't even have that.
It's much easier to listen to someone tell you "It's not your fault you lost your job and can't find another one. Those eeeeevil immigrants/liberal/feminazis, with the help of the Democrat Party, are keeping a good man like yourself down!"

It beats facing the reality that you ARE an uneducated loser with absolutely no future and the person primarily responsible for this situation looks back from the bathroom mirror every morning.

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!

Heaven forbid that they exercise a little critical thinking and vote for someone who actually GIVES a shit about them, right?




--MAB

[Marrah_G]

14. Just for note:

I am a HS grad with no degree. My boss, who owns the business and makes a good amount of money also...no degree. Both of us are very liberal progressives.

My asst is going for her Masters, working here part time, thought McCain was a cute old guy like her grampa and really could care less about anything having to do with politics.

generalizations suck.

The Generalization that all repukes are uneducated hicks sucks as bad as the Generalization that all liberals are latte drinking elitists with doctorates.

And there you have my pre-coffee rant :)

[rrneck]

29. Hear hear. Get some coffee in you and we'll send you to Washington. nt

[Marrah_G]

39. Yikes- to many skeletons in my closet for that !

[markbark]

44. Have a cuppa on me

And there you have my pre-coffee rant :)

Have a cuppa on me :donut:

Generalizations DO suck, except when they're backed up by empirical data.
Rush listeners, in my experience, come in one of two flavours:
1. Intrepid folks keeping an eye on the opposition (these guys should get combat pay)
2. Knuckle dragging mouth breathers who actually BELIEVE the BS they're being fed.

(BTW, I'm a GED wielding, 40 something computer geek that'll pit my 25 years of experience against a CompSci masters ANY day!)
:toast:


--MAB

[harun]

7. Most of the people listening to these shows don't want to be educated by them

they want to be told what they want to hear. That their racism and greed are good. That excess and individualism are to be embraced. That sincere people who do know about economics, law and history should not be trusted and are the enemy.

[DrDan]

8. hannity admits to flunking out of NYU

he just continues to offer different reasons for doing so.

My favorite is that he was treated unfairly by the socialist faculty. They were all against him once they found out his conservative politics. He forgets he did not establish those conservative views until he discovered there was a radio market for his spin.

[mmonk]

13. Oh yes, the old reliabile anti-intellectual spin.

[TheCowsCameHome]

25. More likely Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

[DrDan]

30. I am sure there were plenty of nyu nyuk's if he were to offer his juvenile spin in a

political science paper

it is more worthy of a middle-school essay than a paper offered at a decent school.

[Marrah_G]

11. Only some do

We forget sometimes, that just because we are involved in politics and it interests us, that the majority of Americans, even if they vote, could care less.

[HughBeaumont]

12. It's called LOW IQ.

These same people have no problem with a moron whackadoo nutbar like Sarah Palin running the country.

[Coexist]

15. never misunderestimate the gullibility of the American public

[Le Taz Hot]

16. People look for self-affirming

viewpoints because people attach their egos around those viewpoints. They perceive any foreign thought as threatening. Now, let's add political party to the mix wherein we're supposed to blame everything bad on the "other" party and regard everything "our" party does as sacrosanct and what you end up with is blind partisanship. (The political parties LIVE for this.)

It's not just Lumbaugh and Hannity. Look at how many, "If you ain't with us, yer agin' us" threads/posts we get on DU. People are defending Rahm Emmanuel for goddess sake! The good thing about DU is that there are always people around to challenge the partisans.

[fasttense]

17. They hear nothing else.

Republicons own ALL the radio stations, local TV stations and newspapers in most rural communities. They get no other contradictory information unless they are willing to pay for cable. Most don't even own a computer. So, day in and day out, they have nothing else to listen to except right wing neocons and religious leaders who reinforce the Republicon mantra.

If you want to change their opinions you need to provide them an alternative to the lies and propaganda. How are they suppose to get the truth, through psychic connections? All these liberal radio and TV shows are not offered in rural America.

[Bonhomme Richard]

18. It's the same 20% that would support Hitler or any other...

authoritarian figurehead.
Every nation has them and always will. The only difference is the way the MSM gives them credibility.

[Arkansas Granny]

19. They don't care. Rush and Sean tell them the things that they want to hear.

Those who listen to Rush and Sean are not interested in hearing facts, only the garbage that reinforces their own, often ignorant, perception of the world. When they listen to morons, they are in their comfort zone.

[qazplm]

20. anti-intellectualism

is a large part of it.

Some love the concept of the dumb smart person.

[safeinOhio]

27. When ant-intellectualism raises it's ugly head

It most likely will be over Alaska and be the face of a unlicensed plumber.

[spanone]

21. i don't know ANYBODY who thinks that.

[BirminghamExaminer]

36. I do

I know somebody who thinks Nixon was framed. I live in the deep south and while I know some liberals (my friends mostly), the majority of people get their news from Fox news and think Hannity is a hero.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. The few who think they are geniuses

are a tiny segment of a huge nation. That is the fact. A segment so small, that one could argue they are attracted to them for reasons of validation, and repelled by the voices that refer to them as 'the backwash of America'.

[burythehatchet]

23. Is that not the reason why people relate to them? Think about it.

[TheCowsCameHome]

24. Their audiences have nothing to think with.

Of course they need someone to do the heavy lifting.

[depakid]

26. Because there's no fairness doctrine or broadcast media accountability

[lpbk2713]

28. For the same reason so many people performed the same act of colossal stupidity.....

... TWICE

[rrneck]

32. The people who give them platform

are just a particular type of consumer in a country full of them. They are buying another political feel good product right along with the religious feel good product and the personal feel good products they mortgage their homes for.

Exploiting weakness, ignorance and fear pays. The real players know how to create more of it for the greatest profit.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. I've Been Telling Folks That For Years!

They know nothing except self-marketing. They may be really good at that part, but that doesn't mean their opinions are worth a thing.
GAC

[onenote]

34. yes, people who we refer to as "backwash" undoubtedly will be receptive to our message

Not.

Generalize away but there are plenty of educated people -- highly educated people -- who listen to Hannity and Limbaugh. My father-in-law is a highly educated doctor, well respected in his field. He is also a rushbot. He doesn't think rush is a genius; he listens to rush because he reinforces what my father in law already thinks -- which is that liberals want to take his money and give it to people who haven't earned it. We vehemently disagree on most things political, but I wouldn't ever dream of calling him "backwash".

[Tommy_Carcetti]

35. Because they think they will be consiered "smart" if...

....they are able to repeat someone who holds the same opinions as they do, someone with "authority". And what greater "authority" is there but someone on the mass media? The problem is, Limbaugh and Hannity rarely cite to actual facts or substantiate their statements with reliable authority. Rather, they simply spout their base and unsubstantiated opinions for three hours a day. Yet, if people repeat those opinions, they think they are actually citing fact, when really what they are doing is simply repeating uneducated opinions.

[happyslug]

37. Both Mark Twain and Hitler said, repeat something often enough it becomes fact

Mark Twain said it in reference to keep repeating a joke over and over and more and more people will laugh at it each time it is repeated (This was an observation Twain made after doing such repeats in several "lectures" he made on his world tour in the 1870s).

Hitler said the same thing, but on serious matters, repeat a lie often enough people will embrace it as the truth. Furthermore Madison Avenue knows this, thus why you see the same ad over and over again either in the form of the same ad or a different ad in the same ad campaign. The only way to avoid being influenced by such messages is NOT to see the message. TV and radio permit such messages to be repeated and repeated. In Radio, given you are "trapped" in your car, this can be done over and over again. With traffic increasing so that it no longer flows, people have shifted from music to talk radio (Where traffic does flow, music is preferred, thus the Rocky Mountain West is the last stronghold of most drivers listening to music instead of talk). Why the shift is unknown, I suspect because talk keeps the driver alert as oppose to music which tend to relax a driver. In area with low traffic being relaxed is more important then being alert, in areas with high traffic being alert is more important then being relaxed.

Anyway, with people shifting to talk Radio from music over the last 40 years, rush Limbaugh and his like have taken off. Rush is a master of making sure his message is popular with his listeners, so he is NOT turned off, but makes sure his message get through to them as he slowly converts the drivers to his way of thinking. This has been Rush Limbaugh's strength, his ability to get people to listen to him and stay listening to him. He does this better then anyone else. Yes he only has a high school diploma, but so did Hitler. Hitler was able to get people to listen to him AND support him, Limbaugh gets people to listen to him AND support his causes (This makes Limbaugh more like Goebbels then Hitler, but Limbaugh is something in between Goebbels and Hitler, he has Goebbels understanding of HOW to get people to do what he wants AND Hitler's native ability to do so, without Hitler's ability to get control of a political party, remember Limbaugh is a TOOL not the leadership of the GOP).

[Kansas Wyatt]

38. Same reason that people think that today's republican...

Is just like Eisenhower. They cannot grasp the concept that what they think is true, may not be true after all. They are followers, and cannot think independently.

[olegramps]

40. Rush Limbaugh is a great asset to the Democrats.

He is the most powerful voice of exclusion in today's America. His voice is the voice of hatred and blind ideology. He will always attract an audience since he panders to their fears and prejudices. His message of exclusion appeals to 20% of the population while alienating 80%.

Let him rant on and on. Nothing could be more effective in marginalizing the Republicans. He appeals to a cross-section of Americans, but I do believe that he appeals to a certain segment of our society that can be easily led to believe that their shortcomings are not of their own making. His tactic is as old as time. Just create a scapegoat and beat it to death.

I have to say that perhaps his lack of education is an important aspect of his lack of objectivity and his success as a bigoted ignoramus. If he had taken advantage of higher education he would not be preaching nonsense. Just another glib Pied Piper that is more than happy to exploit the lemmings.

[SalviaBlue]

41. There are no other choices on radio here in Central CA...

unless you pay for satellite or stream your radio on computer.

I think most people go along with whatever is easiest.

[havocmom]

42. becasue we short both education & mental health care in America

Hate has been rewarded too well in the past 8 years. Ignorance has been nurtured. Mental health care gets short shrift cuz the powers that run on hate have use for the ill.

[Arugula Latte]

43. A lot of these people think the world is 6,000 years old & Jesus is coming back any day to save 'em.

They'll believe anything.