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Fox gets a LOT of coverage over it's bombastic style, but one medium that gets completely ignored, especially over the last decade, is right wing radio.
People think of it as a 90's thing and to an extent they're correct, but it's absolutely got millions of listeners.
People think of it as a 90's thing and to an extent they're correct, but it's absolutely got millions of listeners.
I've listened to talk radio all my life. My parents used to put it on and make fun of it. Rush, Dr. Laura, Hannity, all of them. This is a thread about right wing authoritarianism on the radio. You may not have been listening, but it's literally flowing through you right now.
So let's start off with someone who was considered relatively 'centrist' from the 70s to the 00s.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is breaking the mold partly because she's not ACTUALLY a pundit. She ran a self-help call in show not dissimilar to Frasier. So why is she here?
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is breaking the mold partly because she's not ACTUALLY a pundit. She ran a self-help call in show not dissimilar to Frasier. So why is she here?
During the 00's Dr. Laura REALLY began engaging in the culture wars through her show. She was always conservative, but all of a sudden she started really focusing on race issues. Then Obama won the election, and Dr. Laura jumped off the cliff of 'normal' conservatism.
It's 8/10/10, the tea party is churning. A woman calls in saying that her white husband keeps making too many racist jokes in front of company and she doesn't like it as a black woman.
So Dr. Laura's response: Learn to take a joke and don't marry outside your race if you can't handle racist jokes.
Oh yeah, she also says the N-Word 11 times at her on live radio.
Oh yeah, she also says the N-Word 11 times at her on live radio.
Dr. Laura quits, lays low for a while, and then returns to radio but goes to XM instead of terrestrial where she works to this day: https://www.drlaura.com/
Her rant makes the news, and people freak the fuck out. A lot of people used to listen to her decades ago and wonder how the fuck this could happen. The answer is pretty obvious imo. A black man tried to run for president and more than that, he won.
The right wing radio had been fomenting for years, even while GWB had full power. Obama announcing his run for the presidency caused a LOT of them to take their masks off.
We saw bubbles of this prior. Less than six weeks after Obama announced he was running, Don Imus called a women's basketball team "Nappy headed hoes".
Obama announcing with the media not only loving him but broadcasting that he had a real shot unlike prior attempts hit a lot of older americans in a VERY specific way. The key position of power in the country was racialized over night.
Neal Boortz is a self described libertarian who focuses on 'reasonableness' and openly talks about the NAP in the mid 00s. He's been in radio for 30 years by the time the tea party kicks into high gear and he loves everything about it.
Boortz spends Obama's administration positing insane conspiracy theories and telling the people of atlanta to arm themselves.
One day in 2011, he lays all his cards out.
Neal tells his listeners that they need to "Litter the landscape with Dead thugs"
One day in 2011, he lays all his cards out.
Neal tells his listeners that they need to "Litter the landscape with Dead thugs"
Here's a transcript:
Now as I go, I'm going to explain the 'why' on this bit by bit.
This thread is because many younger people have never heard any conservative talk radio and don't realize how wildly popular it is with right wing office workers and just how insanely radical it is.
This thread is because many younger people have never heard any conservative talk radio and don't realize how wildly popular it is with right wing office workers and just how insanely radical it is.
Here's one such human as notated by @CHAPOTRAPHOUSE 's Matt Christman:
There are millions of Neil's in the world:
Now lets start with the biggest name: Rush Limbaugh
Rush is what most people think of when they think of right wing radio, and for good reason. He is an exceptionally talented host and has the best grasp of negative space in broadcast out there. He is a master of the long pause.
Rush is what most people think of when they think of right wing radio, and for good reason. He is an exceptionally talented host and has the best grasp of negative space in broadcast out there. He is a master of the long pause.
If you've ever wanted to really know what Rush was like in the 90's, I'd highly recommend Franken's book on him, it's gold. In the 00's things changed. I'm of the belief that Rush was always just a capitalist who found rubes that turned into a true believer over time.
There's a clip lost to the sands of time as my youtube link broke, but in an old old interview with Rush, he explains to a tv host that Republicans are the easiest marks for selling snake oil and bullshit too in very open terms.
He says in no uncertain terms that if he were to make a radio program he'd target conservatives because it's easy money and they're uncritical.
Rush got hit with the same shockwave of electricity when it became clear that Obama actually had a shot and wasn't just a 'token' candidate. You may remember his "Barack the Magic Negroe" sketch that made cable news way back when.
Limbaugh loved the song and played it a few times.
The post election episode of Rush Limbaugh in 2008 was a thing of beauty. Rush is easily the most controlled guy on the radio, his emotions are very much in check even when it does not seem so. The one exception was 11/5/2008
The post election episode of Rush Limbaugh in 2008 was a thing of beauty. Rush is easily the most controlled guy on the radio, his emotions are very much in check even when it does not seem so. The one exception was 11/5/2008
Rush loses his shit the entire time and becomes indecipherable that day. He talks about a bus full of black kids beating a white kid until he had to be taken to the ER because of O. He does an impression of Obama that would have been rejected by the producer of Song of the South.
The episode is not on youtube however if you DM me I'll hook you up.
It's a treat.
It's a treat.
Here's another thing that might shock people: Until Trump ran, rush was not a big fan. I mean it makes sense, Trump's a dumber more spoiled version of him that sucks all the air out of the room.
However Trump's election REALLY got his rocks off.
However Trump's election REALLY got his rocks off.
During this time, Rush maintained his #1 spot, but Hannity and Beck really stepped up and began crushing it on the radio. The two of them are effectively splitting Rush in half. One of them caters to the audience who wants to feel smart, the other caters to the true believers.
And that leads me to Glenn Beck, the most interesting person I'm going to talk about. Glenn Beck was on track to be the new Stern and for good reason, he was skilled af. Unfortunately the late 80's high volume radio that created him also introduced him to his downfall: Cocaine.
A shock jock by nature, Beck's massive cocaine addiction was so bad that he'd be handed hundreds a day to get a hotel on road gigs and instead of staying onsite at conventions he'd get $20 motels outside of town and litter them with coke and whores.
Like, put yourself in the position here. It's 80's/early 90's radio, EVERYONE is on coke, but Beck's addiction is so bad that guys in powder blue blazers and dedicated coke necklaces were like "Whoa, this guy is taking it too far we can't rely on him".
So beck flames out and does what any person would do. He's picked up by a radical mormon sect, abandons his wife and his disabled daughter with cerebral palsy, and starts a brand new family.
(these details can be found in @Milbank 's wonderful book "Tears of a Clown" which is fantastic)
Now sporting his new apocalyptic mormon cult, Beck gets his own radio show again in 2000. 9/11 happens and his brand of constant biblical apocalypse around the corner matches the time period perfectly.
Fox news hires Beck in 2008, which you're probably much more familiar with, but I will say he started hitting an entirely new demographic. Remember, talk radio is really favored by people with office jobs, whereas nightly 'news' is often more liked by older people.
Beck very cleverly does something his counterpart Hannity never quite managed to do (because Hannity is legit dumb): He used radio as a platform to test out material and conspiracy theories and then refined them for his show later at night.
You can basically go to any of Beck's radio programming from 08 to his cancellation on Fox and it is the nuttiest fucking thing you've heard. Beck often cited that Democrats (including white democrats) want the eradication of whiteness to be a thing.
Beck posits that Obama wants to make America a 3rd world country and has organized a set up for a third world war to create a "THUGOCRACY". Seriously watch this whole thing
Seriously, just this screen cap:
If Rush is the rennaisance of right wing populism, Glenn Beck is baroque. He takes Rush's great verbal skills but engages in a new level of artifice, detail, and theatricality. Why speak TO your audience when you can pretend to be a teacher and have even less resistance?
His radio show was absolutely fucking wild and I actually heard it all the time. Every theory of Beck's was essentially a massive malthusian project to kill all Republicans and remove all white people from power.
Beck was also not nearly as afraid of risks as Limbaugh. He would read insane old person email forwards as if they were actual news. He'd cite newsmax, free republic posts, even defending James Von Brunn (the holocaust museum shooter) to some extent.
Rush's style was always to embed truth in his bullshit. His angle traditionally was broader, that Democrats are protecting their material interests and corrupt which is true to an extent. John Edwards, Rahm Emmanuel, etc.
Beck is an artist of conspiracy. Rush was there to help you reverse engineer the news so it didn't make R's look bad, but Beck was there to tell you a story and make sense of your own reality.
If you think I'm exaggerating here, I'm not. A surge of right wing violence began bubbling in the Obama era with links directly to Beck. The Bundy government standoff, the sovereign citizens, tea partiers, birthers, all of them loved him. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/6-lunatics-inspired-by-fox-news-and-glenn-beck/
When someone tells me that Trump came out of nowhere, all I can think about is how Trump actually seemed to have been created from a breeding pit of fox news and clear channel that took a decade to incubate.
For years they were inundated with the idea that the rule of law was gone, and Democrats had become radicalized. They get told that MS-13 is around every corner. They're told vast conspiracy theories of a powerful coordinated left wing movement.
Beck routinely spoke about America breaking down and degrading, linking it to everything from Obama's desire to remove white power to president Woodrow Wilson.
Hell, you weren't even safe with Republicans! Glenn Beck was telling you Mitch fucking McConnell was too left!
If you know political history, McConnell is arguably the first but at least the 2nd most radical R in the last century irt Party discipline
If you know political history, McConnell is arguably the first but at least the 2nd most radical R in the last century irt Party discipline
"I'm being attacked because I'm white! I'm being attacked for having a 401k! Democrats want to remove my power! Even the Republicans are corrupt phonies."
"What I need is an outsider who can't be bribed because he's rich. I need someone who doesn't use dog whistles and is unashamed of being a proud white man. I need someone who represents us tea partiers and not 'go with the flow' RINOs who say they care but won't impeach Obama"
There's something engaging to the idea of being under siege. The actual process of being under siege and unsafe is actually horrifying, but there is an excitement to it. Right wing radio simulates that excitement. No one can stop the transmission. It is you and the resistance.
You are both a constant victim and a freedom fighter. You are humanities last hope at preserving the memories of dead white men against the diverse hordes. And you get to feel all this excitement and drama without ever actually having to take a risk.
And all this is a symbiotic system. Beck or Levin or Rush tell you that Democrats want to turn your kids gay by making it acceptable and that they want to end the white race or destroy the system. But that's okay, because they're also giving you the tools to fight it.
Dems control the bankers/soros or vice versa? You can't rely on their money. It's going to be useless in ten years anyway, just put your IRA in gold and silver. You can even buy a gold coin with Beck's face on it.
Dems want to unnaturally add estrogen to the food supply. But that's okay, when they collapse the federal agricultural system, you'll be fine because you have a quarter acre lot and a radio personality approved seed vault!
But this is where the turn comes unfortunately. Putting yourself through a constant siege mentality, even against phantasms, still appears real to you. The damage is done and make no mistake these boomers are coming out damaged.
We've all seen the posts, boomers proud that they're keeping their home secure and spreading the gospel even if it means their families are just outright refusing to be around them because they can't calm down even for a weekend.
They're alone on thanksgiving posting their lonely meals to each other in qanon threads.
They're talking about how no one is coming over for christmas this year but luckily their social security check covered the extra large hungryman dinner you like, with the brown gravy.
They're talking about how no one is coming over for christmas this year but luckily their social security check covered the extra large hungryman dinner you like, with the brown gravy.
It's a cycle of media consumption that is designed to extract wealth and time from people by damaging them and altering their reality over time.
It is a pipeline and it's a relatively efficient one. It takes you from Republican support and finds out which angle you like the most
It is a pipeline and it's a relatively efficient one. It takes you from Republican support and finds out which angle you like the most
Is white supremacist your type? We got a guy for that. Angry about the kids and their campus nonsense? Here's a former wunderkind that tells you kids suck. Pedophile conspiracies? We got that in this other silo, you can try our A/B testing to figure out what's better.
It's between 3p and 6p EST in America right now. You're reading this thread, but as you're doing it Sean Hannity's voice is being transmitted on radio waves all around you, and someone within a mile, half a mile, maybe even a few yards of you is listening.
You can always ignore the signal, but at the end of the day someone's picking it up and what is being pumped out matters.
That's all.
That's all.
Last change: Some wonderful soul found the Rush interview I was talking about.
It cuts out the 'republican' part I remember, but you can see him calling his own people rubes.
Enjoy.
It cuts out the 'republican' part I remember, but you can see him calling his own people rubes.
Enjoy.
