Lard Boy At The White House, 2008
I don't think it's possible to be Caucasian and raised in some denomination of christianity, here or in Europe, without passively absorbing both racism and anti-semitism. If you're counted among that number, these things are contained in the images around you, in casual comments of family. You learn that other races and religions are, well, other. Not us; therefore not equal. Strange. Excluded.
And you accept these images, and words from trusted people around you, because that's what children do. They become a part of you, normal and natural, whether you recognize they're a set of unchallenged assumptions about the world or not.
Once you do figure out that they're part of your makeup, I don't suggest becoming overly sensitive and and present a knee-jerk guilt about historical racism or anti-semitism, or gay-bashing, or misogyny, or whatever. The best you can do is be aware of your own issues and don't be an idiot any more -- though I do feel it's a responsibility to call others who toss out even a casual remark that denigrates another race, or gender, or religion, or sexual choice, on their behavior. It's bullshit, and needs to be labeled as such the moment it appears.
(I wouldn't use it as an excuse to be morally self-righteous, however. You're in the same boat, except you're aware and trying to behave differently -- so acting as if you're superior you're won't wash.)
With all that as background, I offer this, from MediaMatters.org, in a slightly abbreviated form:
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From the January 20 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: If you have often wondered just out of, you know, a legitimately curious political sense -- if you have asked yourself why are so many Jewish people, liberal, what when it seemed so much of what liberals do would be anathema to Jewish people, particularly abortion, but any number of things -- taxes, tax increase. Look it -- you know something, folks?
There are a lot of people, when you say banker, people think Jewish. People who have prejudice, people who have, you know -- what's the best way to say -- a little prejudice about them. To some people, bankers -- code word for Jewish -- and guess who Obama's assaulting? He's assaulting bankers. He's assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there's starting to be some buyer's remorse there.
Anyway, if you've -- if you have often asked that question, if you've been puzzled by so many Jewish people vote liberal or vote Democrat, you -- give Norman's book a shot. It's called, Why Jews are Liberals. He's Jewish and he would know. And it's -- look, it's a good read. And Norman [Podhoretz] is a -- there's no other way to say it -- he's a profound intellectual but he's not an egghead elitist. And he's written this book with an effort to have anybody that reads it understand exactly what he is talking about.
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In short, what Limbaugh is saying is (1) The stereotypical view of Jew = Money / Banking is accurate and correct; otherwise, his statements wouldn't mean anything; and (2) Jews in America are frequently liberals, and since Jews are "money people", perhaps they are suffering "buyer's remorse" for supporting Obama -- since Jews are liberals? And Bankers? And Obama is attacking Bankers? Meaning, Jews?
Yeah; you got it.
Abraham Foxman, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League (which has been very reluctant to criticize right-wing commentators), also got it, and did comment on Limbaugh's remarks on January 21st, calling them "a new low", and "borderline anti-semitic".
Foxman, Left, With Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and Director
Of The Yad Vashem Memorial In Jerusalem, Avner Shalev
While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans... His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
However, Lard Boy wouldn't apologize. On his January 22nd program, he responded (again, via MediaMatters):
LIMBAUGH: ... I was referring to Jew-haters, and Mr. Foxman, this is what's been omitted from what you read that I said. I was alluding to what you know exists. You know that there are Jew-haters out there and I know there are Jew-haters out there and many of them are in the Obama administration or in his circle of friends.
And Mr. Foxman, if you really want to go after anti-Semitism, you should first start looking at it on the left and within the Obama administration and within his circle of friends because that's where you're going to find it. You're not going to find anti-Semitism on this radio show. You're going to find nothing but love and respect and admiration for the Jewish people and an unwavering support for Israel. That has not ever shaken. I was referring to the Jew-haters, the bigots. Twice I referred to prejudiced people.
My favorite part is where Limbaugh -- a white, male, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, lectures the head of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League about anti-semitism. And, historically, relations between the African-American and Jewish communities in the U.S. haven't been the best... so I'll just say it: Is Limbaugh suggesting that the Obama administration and the President's "circle of friends" are filled with anti-semitic blacks -- and that Jews (who he already suggests are liberals, with money) should stop supporting the President?
Then -- and I almost don't believe it -- Limbaugh went one step further: He used the "Some Of My Best Friends Are" defense; a classic:
I have to tell you, folks, one of my closest friends is Mark Levin. Everybody knows this. Mark Levin is Jewish. Mark Levin is disgusted with Abraham Foxman. What I've come to learn through this episode is how many Jewish people are disgusted with Abraham Foxman and have been for many years.
Shorter Rush: I can't be anti-semitic; I have a close friend who's one of them! And he doesn't like this other Jewish guy who criticized what I said -- so I have to be right!
Obligatory Cute Animal Photo For Comic Relief
(Somebody Named Mystic_Calipso Is Responsible)
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All this engendered a flurry of blog posting by even more politically conservative Jews than Foxman himself is, defending The Blimp's remarks and claiming the ADL Chairman was irrelevant and 'fetid', and how dare he criticize someone who is such a great friend to Israel as The Lard Boy.
And, strangely, a visit to ADL's website has a link to Foxman's statement criticizing Limbaugh on its home page ("Limbaugh Reaches Low With Remarks About Jews"). But, when you follow it, there's nothing but an HTTP/1.1 500 Server Error message. Perhaps Lard Boy can silence the ADL Chairman, just as he is able to force apologies from Republicans who publicly criticize him.
(Image: A Town Called Dobson © 2007)
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of some people claiming that racial, gender, sexual, or religious differences are so completely essential. It's clear that in a combat situation, fighting a forest fire, or dealing with a gunshot victim in an ER, nobody gives two hoots about that crap. If anyone can look at photographs of people in Haiti -- traumatized, starving, grieving, hurt -- and think ahh, they're black, then they have long way to go to join the human race.
The world is about to begin facing some very basic, hard choices about survival and quality of life -- and we can divide off into national, or racial, or tribal, or economic class groups. We can fight each other for food and energy and water and technology. Or, we recognize that compared with that probable future, our differences are trivial -- and emphasizing them is only a method of dividing people, manipulating us against each other, when we most need to be united and compassionate.
And, while I believe the term 'nazi' is very specific, and isn't just another verb to casually toss around, WNNX Radio in Atlanta, GA once broadcast a little tune they'd put together, splicing Blimpy's own words, and used as the audio portion of this video which Lard Boy has tried hard to suppress.
Limbaugh is a monumentally bigoted individual. It wouldn't matter -- except, he has a gigantic soapbox from which to broadcast a nearly unending river of vomit. He's shown he has serious influence in the Republican party, and with the American Right -- not because he's respected for wise and truthful counsel, or presenting practical solutions to the issues we face.
It's because he runs a daily radio show which taps, not into hopes and dreams, but encites anger, even hatred. He vomits over the air; his listeners lap it up and vomit it back when they call in. And, manipulating people's anger with half-truths is a cherished tactic of the Right (only they call it 'tapping into popular discontent'). So long as it elects GOP candidates, they're just fine with it.
Limbaugh appears to be untouchable. He can ridicule the sick, or children born with brain damage, and toss out a racial slur or two when he feels in the mood (that "Barack, The Magic Negro" clip wasn't racist?). He can abuse drugs... and nothing happens; this sack of shit is still on the air!. And, whether he understands it or not, when he starts going down a well-worn anti-semitic trail, no one should sit and be privately outraged.
And; WNNX called him a nazi? Yeah; for this? I'm fine with it.
UPDATE: The Onion, in it's usual gerkin-in-cheek style, has an Op-Ed piece written by Das Blimpy:
The irony is that, even if I did die, the hell I would surely be sent to could not possibly be any worse than the bottomless pool of excrement I already paddle around in like some demented, shit-covered walrus. In fact, every time I hear my voice coming through the headphones I nearly gag, and I think, "What the fuck am I doing?" Why would I say that Michael J. Fox is faking his Parkinson's symptoms? Why would I find it funny to play a song called "Barack the Magic Negro"? Why would I tell people not to give aid to Haiti?
Why, indeed?
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