Monday, January 18, 2010

Greatness and Hateness

Some words from our country's foremost Prince of Hatemonger, Rush Limbaugh. Read them and then compare them to another famous American's words:

1. There is no conclusive proof that nicotine’s addictive... And the same thing with cigarettes causing emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease.

2. Columbus saved the Indians from themselves.

3. He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.

4. African Americans are twelve percent of the population. Who the hell cares?

5. Kurt Cobain was, ladies and gentlemen, a worthless shred of human debris.

6. Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.

7. We are a growing country and everybody needs energy! We’re not going to stay the United States if we start reducing energy usage. Conservation is not the answer.

8. To a black caller: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

9. On torture at Abu Ghraib: "This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation. And we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it, and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I’m talking about people having a good time, these people—you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some team off?"

10. Screw the world. Do you really think we ought to govern ourselves based on what the world thinks of us?


And then of course, his latest hate statement:

The Obama administration is only helping the Haitian people because "he needed to boost his credibility with the light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country."

Compare if you will this tripe with these quotes of Martin Luther King, which I got from Holte Ender's place, and tell me, which most inspires YOU? :

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

A lie cannot live.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

A right delayed is a right denied.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

26 comments:

Moko said...

It's funny how people shoot people who love and yearn for peace, but bags of shit like that shout their putrid hatred from rooftops forever.

Holte Ender said...

Nice job of comparing two exact opposites. Wish I had thought of it. Good one.

Lou said...

It astounds me that anyone can listen to such arrogance and such hate. I hope for everyone's sake that one day something happens to open his eyes.

PENolan said...

I doubt anything will change Rush - but I wish his listeners would open their eyes and stop paying him to spread shit.

Good job contrasting the worst of humanity with the best - but it still makes me want to head for a quiet corner in the hills to pass the time until Armageddon.

the walking man said...

Motherfucker made 35 million last year, he will never end his tripe and spew until he is dead and gone but then he is just one voice, with well trained bastards, also well paid in line to take his place.

He is the terrorist Ameicanus

mo.stoneskin said...

I had never heard of that Hatemonger prat before. Shows my ignorance.

Kulkuri said...

The stupidity of Rush doesn't surprise me, he's just catering to his base which is very base. What amazes me is that there are so many "DittoHeads" that will by calling themselves such, proudly declare to the world that they are too stupid to think for themselves!!!!!!!!!!

jadedj said...

Moko---It's easier to hate, I suppose. What makes him so odorous I think is that he is doing it for the money...he has only one principle...greed. I don't for a minute think he believes his own crap...although, with the recent talk of his influence over the Repubs, he may be taking himself much more seriously.

Holte---Well your post was the inspiration, so in a sense this is yours. I have been stewing over Limbaugh's recent remarks about Haiti for days, but it's so easy to blast his fat ass and call him names, as I have been doing for years. But somehow, that wasn't enough this time. Then when I read your tribute to MLK, it hit me. We are our words as much as our actions...good ones, or evil ones. So thanks for the inspiration.

Lou---In this case, that isn't going to happen. He's been doing this for twenty years...and he gets worse with each passing year.

PE---I know where you're coming from with the escape idea.

wm---He's as much a danger as any radical Muslim with a bomb...and you are correct, there are plenty out there to replace him if he drops dead.

mo.---A home grown American piece of fecal matter. I can't think of a British counterpart...and I hope you don't have one.

jadedj said...

Kulkuri---Sorry didn't mean to ignore your comment. I totally skipped over it.

You are right, it is amazing that in some circles it has become a badge of honor almost to be an ignorant spouter of someone else's rhetoric. I came from a blue collar background and spent a lot of years getting myself educated, so I don't understand this "New" ideal of the far right.

JenJen said...

Thanks for the personal response to my personal...um, email.
Lotsa personality goin on.

It seems less difficult to hate for some, because when they do, they fuel their need to feel justified and validated. I think it's pride.
Conversely, when you love, you do so from somewhere other than hate's house. It's more work to be selfless.

jadedj said...

Jen Jen---Well said :-)

jadedj said...

Jen Jen---I was going to comment on your PSA post, and isn't this interesting...it wouldn't pull up your comments. I realize this is not the same problem you had with mine...but...hello, we both have problems with the other's comments section. Spooky.

Stephen said...

& yet, he has a certain power & certain sway... because he always gets my attention & my outrage.

jadedj said...

Stephen---Exactly. Which is why I didn't want to resort to calling him names...only.

Tom Harper said...

Well, seeing the 2 sets of quotations laid out side by side (so to speak), this pretty well spells it out.

Rush Limbaugh is a redblooded patriotic American. Martin Luther King was a rabblerousing socialist who hated America.

< / satire >

jadedj said...

Tom---why do you hate redblood?

Doug said...

I don't wish Rush any harm, but I will smile if I get to read his obit.

jadedj said...

Doug---your comment gave me a smile...no, a guffaw.

Mr. Charleston said...

Good post JJ. And apropo on MLK day.

jadedj said...

C---Thank you. I thought you might like it.

Harlequin said...

Limbaugh is such an ass... a pompous, poisonous ass!

jadedj said...

Harlequin---Blowfish a.k.a. Puffer fish...and is also poisonous like...Limbaugh.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, as a painfully ironic punchline, we should remember that the advocate of love and peace was murdered, while the hatemonger lives happily in ever-growing prosperity and fame.

Some world we live in...

jadedj said...

Elizabeth---I just adore your way of succinctly cutting to the heart of it. Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. Makes one want to cry, doesn't it.

Anonymous said...

To return your (undeserved, in my case) adoration, I have to say that this is a fascinating post, JJ. So much so that I've come back to re-read it again -- and to marvel.

The sheer idea of putting together, or rather against each other, words of these two men is shocking. Literally -- as it induces a visceral reaction of revolting astonishment in me (and, judging by others' comments, I'm not alone in it). It's almost indecent to put MLK's words next to Rushbo's, but that's precisely what drives the point across.

And the point is that even though these two men are members of the same (our) species (OK, the jury may be out on Rushbo here ;), they may as well not be. They seem to inhabit different universes -- and for all purposes, they do (did). These universes are defined by very different sets of values -- so different, in fact, that there is seemingly no connection between them, no common points. How can it be, one wonders? (No need to answer -- I'm just continuing my marvelling.)

You did a simple thing here that has turned out to be (or lead to) an unsettling revelation. Not so much in showing the nature of those two men, whom we know relatively well, but in making the difference between them and all they represent so painfully stark. And/or starkly painful.

Brilliant and disturbing. In a good way. One of my favorite blog posts ever.

jadedj said...

Elizabeth---Wow. Almost speechless. Because of the respected source, I consider this the greatest of compliments. It is unfortunate that the thought is lost on those who need to consider it the most.