Once upon a time, bloviating right-wing talk show host and chickenhawk, fat-ass drug addict Rush Limbaugh caused a bit of stink when:
On his TV show, early in the Clinton administration, Limbaugh put up a picture of Socks, the White House cat, and asked, "Did you know there's a White House dog?" Then he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, who was 13 years old at the time and as far as I know had never done any harm to anyone.
Even Limbaugh's regular audience managed to rouse themselves from their collective stupor to suggest that maybe this was just a little cruel and over the top. But, really, it shouldn't have come as any surprise since it was a natural extension of Limbaugh's habit of (metaphorically) beating up on women.
Like many of the right-wing, male-run political blogs, Limbaugh knows his audience. That would be, for the most part, the angry white male contingent who is pissed off at just about everything and, frankly, gets a kick out of seeing women slapped around once in a while.
(When I refer to men who get their jollies from "slapping women around", I am, of course, speaking metaphorically. Well, OK, with the exception of this guy, of course. And ... um ... OK, this guy, too. And, well, sure, there's this guy, but we're sure that really was an aberration. Really.)
In any event, it would seem that the conservative male's disdain of women goes eerily beyond just ideological differences. It's one thing for someone like Limbaugh to criticize Hillary Clinton politically; it's quite another to see the year-after-year venomous attacks that seem completely out of proportion to simple political disagreements.
But let's admit it, Limbaugh knows his audience, and he knows what they want. They want to see those uppity women get their comeuppance, which goes a long way to explaining the obvious delight with which "Angry" has been trashing anti-war protestor Cindy Sheehan over here.
One doesn't visit Angry's site for a nuanced, thoughtful discussion of the issues regarding Sheehan. Rather, one visits Angry's site to see that treasonous, hypocritical bitch get her life torn apart and her family's life pried open for the pure entertainment value. Quite simply, one visits Angry's site to see Sheehan get slapped around.
And is it all about politics or viewpoints? Apparently not, as Angry's latest post brags about having (Oh, frabjous day! Calloo, callay!) bested Wil Wheaton in the war of the blogs. So, finally, this is what it was all about for Angry. Blog hits. Web site traffic. Gleefully trashing Sheehan day after day so he could point at the numbers and puff out his chest a little bit further.
Rush Limbaugh would be so proud. And one wonders, if Angry is male and married, whether his wife ever has to explain, in a quiet voice to the other members of her bridge club that, "Oh, it's nothing, I just fell down."
DISCLAIMER: Since there is no indication at Angry's site, I'm just assuming that Angry is, in fact, male. The thought that someone this misogynistic might be a woman is just a bit too creepy for me to handle at the moment.
2 comments:
i believe we can presume that angry is male, but he is certainly not a man.
How can they do this to a mother that lost her son. She is the person that lost a son, not Bush, Cheney, not Rush, not Angry.
perhaps these people shuld listen to her, they might save their own sons and duaghters and grandkids.
Should they ever be poor enough they can't evade a draft or army recruiter.
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