Dittoheads explained

With Rush coming back out - heaven's mercy having been exhausted - this is a timely article from Paul Ginnetty, a professor of psychology, describing how the simplistic sound bites of right-wing radio appeal to its audience.

Limbaugh's message is usually resoundingly and blessedly simple. (One should not assume that simplicity and truth are synonymous here.) His genius lies in reducing rather complex issues into deceptively straightforward terms. For example, the challenge of crafting environmental policies that balance legitimate economic considerations with a responsible awareness of the finitude of natural resources is dismissed as the neurotic hand wringing of tree hugging "environmentalist whackos."

...Limbaugh's listeners are only too glad to circle their electronic wagons, protected by unequivocal truths, insulated from pesky nuances and grayish shades of meaning. They've got it totally right.

They live in the right country whose perpetually pure motives and universally good intentions are obvious to everyone, except for a handful of "limousine-liberal" whiners. They are even righter than right if they happen to be the correct kind of American - Republican, Caucasian and preferably male.

But their certitude consigns them to what psychoanalyst Erik Erikson called the state of psychic foreclosure. Foreclosed persons are easily attracted to the beguilingly simple, one-size-fits-all belief systems of powerful others that they adopt as their own so as to avoid the sometimes lonely rigors of personal searching. The foreclosed are the ready disciples of demagogues in every age.

... Note that there are never any actual guests on the program; guests, even conservative ones, risk obscuring simple truths with inconvenient facts or alternative hypotheses.

There are seldom any real disagreements between the host and the already converted choir to which he bombastically preaches.

... Sadly, the tradeoff seems to be worth it for them. What they sacrifice in terms of individuality and intellectual integrity is seemingly more than offset by the potent narcotic of reassuring simplicity.

...[P]erhaps the most maddening, diabolically clever thing about his show [is] the faux populism that persuasively claims to be looking out for the little guy, all the while touting policies that tilt tax codes and regulatory policies further in favor of him and his kind [- the mega-rich and politically powerful].

To cite but one example, the privileged need not fear any thoughtful scrutiny of the conceivable wisdom of maintaining some kind of inheritance tax as long as Limbaugh can keep referring to it as an unnatural "death tax." With such an engaging apologist, the rich are home free. As Limbaugh is wont to say, "Now listen, you people, it's really quite simple."

Simple talk from simple minds.

Check out this clever animated video on Rush from Bushflash, if you didn't when I posted it before.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.