I respect him, but I think this petition campaign to get Congress to dump Rush from Armed Forces Radio is dead-wrong. Go ahead and sign it, if you think it's the correct action. However...
Free Speech is Free Speech, no matter where it comes from. The antidote to Bad Speech (which Rush certainly is) is NOT to censor it, but to publicly criticize it.
I know this goes against the George Lakoff approach, which says that ridicule is ineffective with Those People, but I still maintain that making it clear that Rush is an unacceptable boob is more effective, in the long run, than purging him from the airwaves (which makes him a martyr).
Just finished reading a wonderful biography of George Orwell, and then read 'Animal Farm', for the first time in 40 years (just takes a couple of hours). Great writing - relentless in its portrayal of the arrogance of power and privilege.
Time to make coffee and get to work. John Dean is on Air America in one hour.
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I agree. There was a time when I wanted to see Rush, Bill O'Reilly, and the rest of the rightwing insanity peddlers off the air.
But now I'm thinking that it is good to let them keep showing what ridiculous morons they are. The stupid things they say is really the best way to help folks realize how idiotic the position of the ultra right wingnuts really is.
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