Rush Limbaugh Demographic...

[honkydonkey]

I'm looking around trying to find something that breaks down Rush Limbaugh's listeners according to race, sex, etc.. So far all I've found is many opinions about his audience mainly being fat, white, impotent, bald men but haven't found actual numbers. Any of you had success in finding this information?

[Catherine Vincent]

Two words: Republican sheep

No need to bring race into this.

[honkydonkey]

2. The reason

The reason why I am asking about race is due to the fact that his sheep love to talk about all of their African American listeners. I'm just wanting some hard evidence to back up what I'm already saying.

[LLStarks]

1. Rich, white, evangelicals.

[rrneck]

5. The rich ones probably

know the real score. It's the poor ones we need to worry about. I flog this book a lot:

It's a free ebook in .pdf.

The Authoritarians
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Don’t think for a minute this doesn’t concern you personally. Let me ask you, as we’re passing the time here, how many ordinary people do you think an evil authority would have to order to kill you before he found someone who would, unjustly, out of sheer obedience, just because the authority said to? What sort of person is most likely to follow such an order? What kind of official is most likely to give that order, if it suited his purposes? Look at what experiments tell us, as I did.

If, on the other hand, you’re way ahead of me, and believe the extreme right-wing elements in America are still working to take over the country despite the recent election--nay because of it--I think you can still get a lot from this book. The authoritarians aren’t going away.


The studies explain so much about these people. Yes, the research shows they are very aggressive, but why are they so hostile? Yes, experiments show they are almost totally uninfluenced by reasoning and evidence, but why are they so dogmatic? Yes, studies show the Religious Right has more than its fair share of hypocrites, from top to bottom; but why are they two-faced, and how come one face never notices the other? Yes, their leaders can give the flimsiest of excuses and even outright lies about things they’ve done wrong, but why do the rank-and-file believe them? What happens when authoritarian followers find the authoritarian leaders they crave and start marching together?

I think you’ll find this book “explains a lot.” Many scattered impressions about the enemies of freedom and equality become solidified by science and coherently connected here.

Welcome aboard! :hi:

[honkydonkey]

10. Exactly

I will check this out! Thanks for the suggestion! From my experience most of the ditto heads that I know are poor-middle class people who listen to him on their way to their blue collar job. They have drone mentalities and are happy to be drones. They defend the greedy,rich thugs who take away their retirements. They simply aren't capable of free thought. It's quite sad in many respects. Of course I know some republicans that continue to confuse me. I grew up with them, I know they aren't ignorant but they continue to follow the herd. At times it appears the common sense switch in their brains are simply turned off. It boggles the mind.

And thanks for the welcome. I've been on here for quite some time but avoid posting very much.

[get the red out]

15. Often not rich

Unfortunately Rush sucks in many people who like to believe that Democratic policies will simply tax them more yet would benefit them greatly because they are not rich. Rush had capitalized on many men's fears of "liberalism" and "affirmative action" and has them fearing that Democrats will destroy their way of life. There is also an undercurrent of resentment that the time for white males to make all the rules, whether it be in government or religion, is obviously coming to an end. These listeners are extremely rules based, and when people suggest that the "rules" might be wrong they react in fear and anger and instead of providing them with information they need to deal with changes in society Rush and others like him play on people's fears and influence them to only obtain information from them and Fox News. In this way they keep these people afraid and trapped. Pretty soon reality is just a conspiracy theory as far as they are concerned.

[YOY]

3. Colbert once pointed it out.

White, male, middle class, never married/divorced, no kids, 50-70...not always very religious either as one person mistakenly pointed out upstream.

If you think about it...someone who wants to be seen as a victim without being seen as a victim and has minimal input from others on a personal basis.

That's his hard core audience.

Of course plenty of liberals, moderates, and non-crazy conservatives in that demographic too.

[unpossibles]

6. I'm not sure about the divorce/kids thing

Of his listeners I know personally, most are divorced and many have kids.

[YOY]

7. It was something pointed out by Colbert.

Some kind of demographic poll on the scumbags own site. I'm going by memory.

[unpossibles]

4. I know this is not a scientific study

but all of the people I know who listen to him regularly are white, middle class, men who tend to see themselves as being victims of discrimination from minorities. Seriously. They all complain about women and about things like Affirmative Action and PETA as things which are somehow holding them back from their full potential or something.

More than a few of them are overweight, but not all, nor do I see that as anything signifying anything other than the unhealthiness of the diets of typical American men. I'd rather not bring weight into it, although there are some parallels they share.

I'm not sure you could even get an accurate accounting of his demographic though, other than to look at conservative guys who tend to be sexist and racist. Again, this is just from my observation and from hearing his show, and the things he says which appeal to his listeners, but may not be representative on the whole.

[honkydonkey]

11. Regarding fat, bald people, etc..

I commented on that because I read an interesting theory about who listens to his show. You can usually tell what the main demographic is by what they advertise. This guy pointed out the large majority of the advertisements are for weight loss, baldness, impotency, debt resolution, etc.. I think that says a lot about who their core audience is.

And I have encountered the same sort of people you describe. They believe they are oppressed and that minorities and hippies are taking away their rights, etc. They live in some weird alternate universe and there is no convincing them otherwise.

[unpossibles]

14. right on. Along the lines you mention - looking at advertising

Newsmax cracks me up for that exact reason. I have not been there in a while, but I remember the first time I looked at that site cracking up at how ALL of the ads were for not only impotence and hair loss fixes, but things like finding treasure, get rich at home, how to be a tough guy, and more than a few things which to me looked like they were scams preying on gullible fools.

Which I suppose is exactly their demographic.

[zbdent]

8. really, it's "guesstimates" ...

when you consider that he is on "news" (so they say ...) stations across the country, covering all the time zones which would apply to the "lunch" hour, and people get to listen to their car radios or radios on their lunch hour, then you get "the lunchtime crowd" ... trying to find out what's going on in the world ...

thus, the ratings can be inflated without a shred of proof ...

[montanto]

9. lots of working class whites too,

and not just evangelicals either. It never ceases to amaze me that working class whites would be attracted to the right, and this guy in particular, but many are. Rush is the "everyman" of many voiceless drudgers on that side. Its mainly a race issue, though not unlike the "oppressed christian" thing we hear about sometimes. They lament the passed golden age of white rule and bemoan the fate of society at the hands of black and brown people everywhere. The good news is that while they piss and moan about losing something they never had, listen to Rush talk his godlike talk about what they have lost and are losing, they lose. They lose. He's a self fulfilling prophecy for knee-jerk reactionary right wingers. God-speed Rush.

[struggle4progress]

12. Limbaugh Holds onto his Niche -- Conservative Men (Pew Feb 2009)

February 3, 2009
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1102/limbaugh-audience-conservative-men

Old uneducated conservative guys: 72% male, 80% conservative, 49% age 50+, 33% college grads

Here's the website info: http://www.quantcast.com/rushlimbaugh.com

white guys: 81% male, 98% white

[honkydonkey]

13. Thank you for that...

I hope one day I'll be better at research. :)