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The old saw "liberal talk doesn't sell' is a half truth.
Neocon-hate-radio sells precisely because it is evil and evil appeals to the basest of instincts. Look at what sells: "Reality"(scumbag) TV, MTV (junior porno, drugs and dumbed down rock and rap), tabloid type stories about sex, rape, murder, scandal and of course then there's right wing shock-jock radio: Rush Limbaugh-style and pure right wing slander and hatred of anything he calls :"liberal".
It isn't because the right wing message is true and noble that reactionary radio draws ratings like something unmentionable draws flies.. It is for the very opposite reason of good quality program that this kind of "talk" show appeals to the lowest common denominator on the political spectrum. Shows like Hannity, Billo the Clown O'Reilly, Michael Savage, etc are coarse and base and easily appeal to the lowest type of mind. It is precisely because they are evil that they titillate the low IQ and low education segment of our public: the ignoramuses who refuse to think for themselves or can’t, but who would rather be fed whipped up thrills and cheap shocking sensationalism. All that appeals to their base instincts which predominate in their lack of taste, absence of thinking and poor socialization. .
Progressives tend to deal more likely with facts, things that require education to think about them, curiosity of intellect and innovative research. The American public in its majority has been anti-intellectual for centuries, as evidenced by the quote from H.L. Menken, “nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public” And that is why books such as "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hostettler have been written. It is a longstanding, documented phenomenon that stupidity sells and intellectual pursuits are more limited to better educated, more intelligent seekers. So liberals tend to be better educated, more intellectually honest and investigative, and have a greater sense of compassion and social justice (fairness). .
Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to be reactionary and bound up with rigid traditions. Hence they tend to be authoritarian, wanting to dictate to others or have a polarizing leader dictate to them, what is moral, who the country’s enemies are and what social policies they should accept or reject. They want to be told what to believe by alpha-reactionaries. Conservatives also tend to be much less intellectual in their personal beliefs, tastes and politics. They tend to hate intellectuals and imply they are either seditious or effeminate. Conservatives, rather than social fairness or personal compassion, tend to look down their noses at people they consider to be inferior to their ideal of selfish profit taking, arrogant mean spiritiedness, reactionary patriot baiting, politically disingenuous sloganeering and elitist, anti-poor put down of the lower classes as somehow lazy and taking money away from people who ‘work hard’ (which of course is the opposite of the truth). Conservatives opt for emotionalism, selfish pursuit of money for its own sake, anti-minority elitism and hatred of anyone who doesn’t share their prejudices. They tend to be characterized by moralizing and are often blind to their own guilt, thus also engaging in rank hypocrisy and smug self-righteousness. These emotions and defects tend to prevail among conservatives. And that is why Rush Limbaugh and people like him have such a rich field to mine. There is plenty they can do to whip up such sentiments. It takes no intellect, no fairness, no integrity and no truth to appeal to a right winger.
That's why talk radio 'sells'. It sells precisely because such base evil appeals to low IQ, mean-spirited, self-righteous, ignorant morons. There is a large number of such poorly educated and poorly socialized people filled with resentment over their own feelings of being trapped in a job or a situation they can’t control. It provides them an outlet for their anger, hate and self-righteous narcissism to categorize people who aren’t like them as ‘unpatriotic’ or ‘lazy’ or ‘parasitical’. They of course have no problem when such characteristics are displayed by the rich, because like biblical Pharisees, they worship money and are always right in their own eyes. That is why
”talk” (hate) radio sells.
by JOHN LORENZ (17 articles, 89 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 200 comments) on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 10:57:06 AM
