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kpete

(71,901 posts)
Wed Feb 17, 2021, 05:53 PM Feb 2021

Molly Ivins describes Rush: 'cruel & profoundly vulgar'

I object because he consistently targets dead people, little girls, and the homeless—none of whom are in a particularly good position to answer back. Satire is a weapon, and it can be quite cruel. It has historically been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful. When you use satire against powerless people, as Limbaugh does, it is not only cruel, it’s profoundly vulgar. It is like kicking a cripple.


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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1995/05/lyin-bully/
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Molly Ivins describes Rush: 'cruel & profoundly vulgar' (Original Post) kpete Feb 2021 OP
But there are so many Rush Limpballs wanna-be's all around us. riversedge Feb 2021 #1
I sure miss Molly Ivens. She is always spot on. We need more ladies like her. Her and Ann Richards. Vivienne235729 Feb 2021 #2
I agree Deuxcents Feb 2021 #3
Double yup......miss them terribly. a kennedy Feb 2021 #4
Ann Richards was one thing, but one target of Ms. Ivens criticism was Al Gore. NNadir Feb 2021 #6
I can see how that would be a craw in your side. She won't win over every democrat. Vivienne235729 Feb 2021 #7
Kick dalton99a Feb 2021 #5
"profoundly vulgar" Blue Owl Feb 2021 #8
"...gummed by a newt." dchill Feb 2021 #9

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
6. Ann Richards was one thing, but one target of Ms. Ivens criticism was Al Gore.
Wed Feb 17, 2021, 07:10 PM
Feb 2021

Ms. Ivens really had affection for Ralph Nader in 2000. Al Gore wasn't "good enough" for her.

A lot of Iraqi human beings died as a result of Al Gore not being "good enough" for people like Ms. Ivens.

This too, when Ms Ivens lived in Texas and had a better sense of who George W. Bush was.

Full Susan Sarandon, that.

Most people forget that, but I won't.

Vivienne235729

(3,373 posts)
7. I can see how that would be a craw in your side. She won't win over every democrat.
Wed Feb 17, 2021, 07:23 PM
Feb 2021

I think in hindsight, it is easy to see how third parties split the votes. Hell, we STILL have people who are purists and vote third party. But after 2016, I think those numbers are dwindling. We are learning. I respect Ivens for her voice during a time when there weren't that many. Not as witty and sharp as hers, anyways. I am willing to forgive her for that bc I think she would have grown after the trump nightmare. Despite everything, the light bulb is still off with Sarandon. It is remarkable, actually. But there were many other factors at hand and to blame the Iraqi war over her support of Nader doesn't ring true to me.

dalton99a

(81,070 posts)
5. Kick
Wed Feb 17, 2021, 07:06 PM
Feb 2021
I object because he consistently targets dead people, little girls, and the homeless—none of whom are in a particularly good position to answer back. Satire is a weapon, and it can be quite cruel. It has historically been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful. When you use satire against powerless people, as Limbaugh does, it is not only cruel, it’s profoundly vulgar. It is like kicking a cripple.

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.

When viewers objected, he claimed, in typical Limbaugh fashion, that the gag was an accident and that without his permission some technician had put up the picture of Chelsea—which I found as disgusting as his original attempt at humor.

On another occasion, Limbaugh put up a picture of Labor Secretary Robert Reich that showed him from the forehead up, as though that were all the camera could get. Reich is indeed a very short man as a result of a bone disease he had as a child. Somehow the effect of bone disease in children has never struck me as an appropriate topic for humor.

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