Conservative Yappers

I have this affection for talking heads and current events. I enjoy the news and all, with the one guy behind the desk. But I really like it when people get around a table and argue about stuff. I love watching The View's Hot Topic segment because it is "real people" (as in, not politicos trying to push an agenda) engaging in quasi-intelligent conversation...more often than not. Whoopi is awesome. Bill Maher's show is another round-table example. I have to download episodes because I don't get HBO. I also love the Sunday morning lineup. Meet The Press, Chris Matthews, George Stephanopoulos.

But lately I have been addicted to listening to another breed of political talk. Specifically, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on conservative talk radio. I don't know what is more entertaining, the fact that I hate everything they say...or that I hate the manner in which they do it. It gets me fired up and I am neglecting good music to hear them spew garbage.

What I have discovered by listening to them is just what their job is. Sure, we all know they are pundits for conservative republicans. But they have a more specific role to polarize everything into 2 sides. They have to keep their listeners thinking inside the box. Us against them. Conservative against Liberal. Republican against Democrat. Pro-Business against Populist.

Even more fascinating is that this must be achieved using sophomoric means. This is quite the effective technique when you have an easily influenced audience. When you listen to callers, it is obvious that these are people that can't think out of a black-and-white, 2-sided box. So calling people names, finger pointing, and drumming the same soundbytes into their heads over and over and over...does the trick pretty well.

One of my favorites is the demonization of Al Gore. By polarizing Al Gore down to a leading liberal figure (the bad guys), conservatives (the good guys) must hate everything he stands for. The most glaring use of Al Gore is making him the embodiment of Global Warming. Here is an example of their sophomoric techniques... Sean Hannity always rips Al Gore for riding around in a private jet, while mocking him for telling people to ride bikes to work. Here are their accomplished goals, in the listeners minds, by saying this:
-Al Gore looks like a stupid hypocrite,
-by attempting to discredit Al Gore, they discredit global warming
-Environmentalists are impractical zealots for thinking you should keep your gas-sucking SUV in the garage every now and then,
-easily-influenced listeners get a pro-business, pro-oil, anti-environment message, and leaves them open to criticize anything Al Gore does...which now includes his Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously, they made fun of him all day today for getting a Nobel Peace Prize.

Does anyone stop to think why they are told to hate environmentalists and global warming? Just as a person living on this earth, what sense does it make? These people aren't the thinking type.

NEWS FLASH: Pro-environment people don't worship Al Gore. The environment was precious long before Al Gore came around. Al Gore is to the environment, as Bono is to AIDS in Africa. You don't have to be a U2 fan to want AIDS to end.