Can dittoheads be "cured?"

[Cyrano]

No, I'm not talking about a vaccine. I'm talking about how brainwashed people can be deprogrammed.

I know that many who have been members of cults have undergone "deprogramming" treatments. But I have no idea as to the effectiveness or success of such programs.

Assuming that Rush Limbaugh were to vanish from the face of the earth today, how many of his mind slaves would realize that they are badly in need of deprogramming? My guess is that virtually none of them would even realize they need help and would just search for another "God" to worship.

So in answering my own question, I really don't believe they can be "cured."

What's your take on this?

[valerief]

1. Cyanide, maybe? nt

[mmonk]

2. Lobotomies might work.

[radfringe]

19. I'd rather

have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy....

[frebrd]

3. No, they'd go to any length necessary .....

to avoid actually having to think for themselves.

[bunkerbuster1]

4. You mean Happy Kamps?

Seriously, it has to come from within, and presumably for all the millions of listeners Rush has, there are plenty who

a) really do listen with a degree of skepticism, and see him as a bit of a laugh without taking him too seriously (not all that unlike, I must admit, my own exposure to KO at times)

b) get disgusted and drop him like a bad habit.

I do think there's probably a hardcore of about 5-10 million or so who'd follow him anywhere. While they're mostly old, stupid suckers who are relatively harmless, not all of them are.

[T Wolf]

5. No. Better to put them out of our misery. They are totally destructive and unredeemable.

Their gods of hate do exert influence and need to be removed from the scene, but the idiots would latch onto any voice spreading their particular brand of vitriol.

Reason does not work with the insane. Theirs is a faith-based ideology that cannot be reversed, only eliminated by eliminating the source and the receptacle.

They are a waste of flesh and a drain on society.

[Brewman_Jax]

6. No

they should be quarantined, like any other diseased individual.

[lilgayghostgirl]

7. YES!

I was one. I was a Rush-worshipping fundamentalist christian. About as conservative as you can get. I was also quite closeted and confused. That was years ago. It literally took years to come out of all that. It all started when I was a kid, raised in a family of whom 3/4 turned fundie when I was about 9. I literally had the hell scared out of me from a young age. I was dead-set on attending Bob Jones University, but my father, the only one of the family not to become a fundie and also very much a good anti-racist yankee, was against it.

I've lobbied for conservative organizations like New Yorkers For Constitutional Freedoms. I worked in Christian ministries. In 2000 I was offered a position with the American Family Association, which I ultimately turned down.

I've come a long way from all that. I'm now a very lefty activist, lobbyist at the state level, and chairwoman of a gay rights lobbying, activism and education organization.

It all started to come crashing down when I was divorced and I had good reason to question the Bible teaching that was used against me with that. Years later, I came to terms with my sexuality and that was that. I was pretty much booted out of the church but at that point I welcomed it. It still took me years to get over fear of hell, but OMFG! I am so thankful to be out of that. I am incredibly happy now. I was a pretty miserable person before.

So yes, there is hope. And as weird as it sounds some of it I attribute to meeting nice people on a certain message board (not this one) who were kind to me, answered my questions, and were also liberal and moderate. That actually all got started by posting on Sean Hannity's board and then from there getting invited to a private one.

As a fundamentalist I never would have dreamed of talking to such people. It was pretty much forbidden under the "be not unequally yoked" thing.

Yeah, crazy...

[Cyrano]

10. Thank you for telling us about your escape and self-enlightenment

May you live a long, happy and healthy life.

[burning rain]

26. Glad for you.

That was not an easy journey.

[ddeclue]

8. Yes - the best technique is to use their own rhetoric against them.

You have to really understand their rhetoric and then explain to them that a gov't that spies on people without a warrant is NOT small gov't or that Jesus was against school prayer (at least according to the Gospel of Matthew). You have to show them that their own spokespeople are playing them for fools and are not intellectually consistent or honest.

If you go after these people using the normal left-wing lines you won't get anywhere with them because they've been programmed to reject them. You have to attack them from within their own intellectual structures and show how flawed they are. They really have no defense mechanism for this and can't cope with it.

Doug D.

[rvablue]

9. My take: yes, definitely

Most of Pigboy's listeners are sheeple who think politics is like supporting the local high school football team.

Most of them (not all) live in areas and cultures where others are listening to and agreeing with Pigboy.

The solution: If they moved to another area where their neighbors, co-workers, kids' friends' parents and others did not listen to or agree with Pigboy, they would stop listening and agreeing, too.

They are followers. Joiners. Sheeple, basically. And if everyone is rooting for someone/something else they will, too.

[derby378]

11. Former Dittohead here...

Yes, we can be "cured." It happened to me.

I started listening to Rush Limbaugh back in 1993. I wasn't a fan of the Bush 41 administration, but I wasn't convinced that the Clinton administration could put America on the right track, either. I found Rush entertaining, humorous, and sometimes rather informative. He even used a news item that I faxed him about regional health care problems on his show. At least I think it was about health care.

But I had Democratic friends back then, too - one of whom is now my wife. She was able to point out some of Rush's more outlandish statements to me. I acknowledged that the context was correct, but I never agreed with anyone 100% of the time, so it was all good.

After the Republican takeover of Congress in November 1994, however, I noticed a change in Rush's demeanor, both on the radio and on his short-lived TV program. His frustration with Democrats who didn't "get it" was slowly turning into gloating, which didn't sit well with me. Rush also seemed less willing to deal with opposing voices on his show - I remember one really good conversation he had on the program with a Democratic activist back in 1994, but after that it seemed like his tolerance level for alternative viewpoints was heading south. So I started to listen to his radio program less and less while trying to give Democrats more of a chance, even though many of them still pissed me off at times.

So, here I am - one bona fide ex-Dittohead. Now I sometimes feel sorry for what Rush has become. He obviously has a talent for radio, but it's being wasted on a political road to nowhere.

[DCKit]

12. If Rush were to disappear off the face of the earth...

Half of them would form a new religion to hope for and celebrate his inevitable return. The other half would jump, en-masse, out of the closest window. Of course none would be hurt, as they all live in their mom's basement.

You can't deprogram stupid, intellectually lethargic or willfully ignorant.

[Cyrano]

13. Read posts #7 and #11. In some cases, there's hope.

[Posteritatis]

29. I'm curious as to what all the no-voting, perpetual-taint types think of them... (nt)

[JitterbugPerfume]

14. the true believers can't

but many can All they need is to hear the truth

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Reverse Limbaughtomies? Jackhammer and chisel required.

[backscatter712]

17. I thought you used an icepick... n/t

[WildEyedLiberal]

16. Depends on whether they're ideologically committed to Rushism, or if they're just sheep

Sheep can be woken up - they don't have any deep political convictions and can be swayed by a persuasive, charismatic ideologue. Talking heads like Rush prey on the few inherent beliefs these people do have - for example, most of them are probably Christian, and perhaps many have served in the military, or at least have great admiration for the military. They are not particularly political at all, but they hear Rush talking about how liberals hate Christians and want to pass all these anti-Christian laws, and how liberals hate the military and have contempt for our brave soldiers and want America to lose wars, and these people, who don't know enough to refute such outlandish claims, start to believe the hogwash. And a dittohead is born.

The answer to deprogramming such people is to address their actual beliefs respectfully and show how Rush-style Republicanism is actually *in conflict* with said beliefs. For example, nothing in the Republican platform is remotely Christian - they are the anti-poor, pro-greed, anti-life, pro-war party. And Republican contempt for the military is fairly obvious in the way our soldiers have been treated by the Bush administration, slashing veterans' benefits and sending the same soldiers on five or six tours to fight in a war that was invented out of whole cloth to justify Bush's cronies' greed.

I mean, sure the TRUE BELIEVERS are without hope, but I think at least 50% of Rush's audience falls into the savable category.

[Posteritatis]

18. Sure they can. What about dehumanizers? (nt)

[azul]

20. Cured of fear and hatred and ignorance? Yes, enlightenment when RL

is seeking employment as an entertainer and joins code pink to land a new job.

He will soon enough be in the breadlines (bad habits ate his savings) and will have to whistle up a new tune to make it in a peaceful world.

[liberal1973]

21. With respect to the "cured freeper".

No real cure.

So it's to the chair or Alaska.



:popcorn:

[dkofos]

22. Only with a bullet to the head.

I would have said brain, but you know they are brainless.

[rolltideroll]

23. Can Zombies?

The Ditto heads know only one thing, it is better to not think. (Zombie nut here)

[rolltideroll]

24. I am a cured freeper.

It just takes honest investigation and a good dose of cognitive dissonance.

[libodem]

25. A damn good water boarding

will make them confess the error of their ways.:sarcasm: (for god's sake in case anybody thinks I'm serious)

[madamesilverspurs]

27. I sure hope they can be cured.

I miss my brother.

[ColbertWatcher]

28. Getting people out of cults is very hard thing to do. n/t

[Kitty Herder]

30. They'd have to want to be cured. nt