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May 21, 2004
Ignore at your own peril
A Salon reporter attended a public appearance by the professional raving racist Michael Savage. In case you are thinking who cares about that lunatic, think again. Apparently, his is the third most popular radio program in the nation, with 6 million listeners. The enlightened ravings include gems like calling for nuking a randomly picked Arab country -any one will do it seems- sodomizing prisoners with dynamite *and* throwing them off planes -- and such fiscally wasteful suggestions. Yes, the third most popular radio show in the nation.
Las year, on the anniversary of 9-11, I gave a talk at an anti-war forum where I argued that the most important clash was not between civilizations but within this civilization. I think this man's popularity shows how grave the problem is. He is speaking to, and being listened approvingly by, millions of our neighbors.
Let me quote the reporter's account directly, this stuff is hard to paraphrase:
Just a few days before the Uncensored event, he'd been ranting on the radio about dropping fiery death on civilians throughout Iraq and the Middle East. "I don't give a damn if they hide behind their women's skirts," he foamed. "Wipe the women out with them! Because it's our women who got killed on 9/11! And it's our women who are gonna get killed tomorrow unless we get rid of the bugs who are destroying us!" Tonight, Savage continued to elaborate on this disturbing vision of how to win the war in Iraq. He said he fantasized of being woken up by the sound of B-1 and B-52 bombers flying over his house on their way to the Middle East. Imagining bombers overhead at 4 a.m., he gushed about these nocturnal missions, "It's better than an orgasm -- it is an orgasm!"
Here's what he had said on the air before:
I think there should be no mercy shown to these sub-humans. I believe that a thousand of them should be killed tomorrow. I think a thousand of them held in the Iraqi prison should be given 24 hour[s] -- a trial and executed.... Instead of putting joysticks, I would have liked to have seen dynamite put in their orifices and they should be dropped from airplanes.... They should put dynamite in their behinds and drop them from 35,000 feet, the whole pack of scum out of that jail."
He suggests that we nuke an Arab country, any Arab country:
"Right now, even people sitting on the fence would like George Bush to drop a nuclear weapon on an Arab country. They don't even care which one it would be. I can guarantee you -- I don't need to go to Mr. Schmuck [pollster John] Zogby and ask him his opinion ... The most -- I tell you right now -- the largest percentage of Americans would like to see a nuclear weapon dropped on a major Arab capital. They don't even care which one..."
The only salvation is to be converted to Savage's version of Christianity:
"I think these people need to be forcibly converted to Christianity ... It's the only thing that can probably turn them into human beings."
I can accept that ye have the raving racist lunatics with you always, but this is much more than that. This is the zeitgeist for millions of people in this country.
When Savage blurted out, "Does anyone in this crowd give a shit about the Iraqis?" he was answered with a deafening "NO!"
Posted by zeynep at May 21, 2004 02:19 AM
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Comments
A radio station in Rwanda was successfully prosecuted for committing and inciting genocide, war crimes, and persecution. Savage and his ilk should be likewise charged and held accountable.
For more info, see
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20031203-113817-3449r.htm
Posted by: Jean at May 21, 2004 11:26 AM
Is that the freedom of the USA? To be able to spread racism and imperialism on the radio? If so it makes much sense to why the scum "soldiers" of the US army behaves as it does.
Posted by: UU at May 23, 2004 11:08 AM
Isn't this freedom at its best! If this is the kind of attitude Americans have towards the Iraqis, why are they there under the pretext of providing them with 'liberty'. The liberty to be thrown off planes? and assaulted by dynamite? It's no wonder the Iraqis don't care much for the Americans, and if the Americans don't care much for the Iraqis why do they still continue to occupy that place risking casualties to their own side.
Posted by: Safia at May 23, 2004 12:05 PM
the popularity of Savage and his ilk is perhaps a reflection of the collective insecurity that dominates the american psyche ... note the national obsession with being the 'biggest' & the 'baddest' ... note the utterly predictable way in which america responds to the slightest criticism or pinprick to its ego with a wholly disproportionate bombast ... doesn't it remind you of an adolescent's struggle with an inchoate sense of self? of course, one could argue that america is merely drawing out a thread that is part & parcel of the make-up of western civilization ... after all, the concept of "otherness" (as a convenient repository for all that is bad in oneself, and therefore unmanageable in a philosophical scheme that has no place for messy dualisms)is as much a part of the West's greco-roman-judeo-christian legacy as aristotle or plato ... on another note, the sorry state of "freedom" in the "land of the free" can be inferred from the fact that the most 'famous' first-amendment victories belong to Larry Flint & Hustler magazine, and the Ku Klux Klan ... go figure!
Posted by: aswad at May 23, 2004 01:33 PM
Hmm, that really makes Rush Limbaugh sound like the voice of reason.
Posted by: Robin at June 10, 2004 06:42 PM