Why does anyone listen to Rush or Coulter? I mean really?

[FormerRepublican]

It's like tuning into the KKK, and I just don't get it. Is there some secret human need to indulge in hatred, like seeking some illicit thing late at night when no one can catch you? What is it that drives someone to listen to people like Rush and Coulter? One might say these people are insane - except they're not. They function in society just like everyone else except for their disgusting little indulgence for an hour or two of Coulter or Rush. So what's up with them?

[sandrakae]

1. Because cable news keeps ramming them down our throats.

It just gulls me when I see Ann Coulter on TV. I can't figure out why they feel their viewers should be subjected to her. Rush doesn't bother me. He is a drug addict and has lost all credibility.

[tool_of_the_people]

10. Let me be the first....

to say "ditto!"

[madeline_con]

2. Functionally insane, then. n/t

[varkam]

3. I tried a thought experiment once...

I tuned into Rush one day and tried to imagine what the appeal was. I tried to imagine what it was that made people feel rewarded when they heard his voice. I tried to imagine....but then things just started getting cold...and dark. The next thing I can remember I was naked, curled on the floor, crying. I haven't thought about it much since.

Actually, just kidding. Short answer - no effing idea.

[Zen Democrat]

4. Never.

[mtnsnake]

5. I always ask anyone who listens to Rush or Hannity the same question:

"Why can't you think for yourself?"

After I ask them that, they usually come up with some stupid reply which doesn't make sense as to why they listen to that garbage, and then I repsond by telling them they're truly brainwashed.

I think a lot of people who get turned on by rightwing hate radio are people who spend hours alone in their vehicles on the job and don't really like music, so they flip the talk radio dial and inadvertantly come up with a hate station, since there are so damn many of them it seems.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. I actually like listening to talk. I used to listen to very small doses

of RW hate radio, just because it was about the only kind of talk around, until the era of AAR.

What steamed me was that even in some of the most liberal parts of the country, there was still only RW hate radio.

Don't tell me that they are giving us what the audience wants, when I'm driving around towns that say "nuclear free zone" in Sonoma County, CA and all I can get is RW crap on my rental car radio.

[mtnsnake]

13. Yeah, the same thing steamed me

"even in some of the most liberal parts of the country, there was still only RW hate radio."

It was so frustrating that rightwing hate radio was just about the ONLY option of political talk radio for so so long. Thank goodness for AAR. It at least offers a good alternative to the other shit. It just took way too long in getting here.

[Erika]

6. They know they are the odd man out

and pathetically reach to be the "in crowd." Rushbo is the biggest example. He never fit in but then he saw their were alot of of other misfits, and he found his place, and milked his followers for all he could get.

It is sad and amusing that the misfits who follow him glory in being called "dittoheads." You talk about a spousal abuse syndrome. They are proud of being called ditto heads? Sick.

[benddem]

7. look at the research

that has been published recently about the personalities of republicans...or conservatives. Rush and Coulter say the things that they want to hear to back up their identity. Republicans by and large fit the strict parent image. They think everyone is bad and need strict control. Anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. Period. But I agree I don't think either of them have anything worthwhile to say...but unfortunately a bunch of people do. They make lot of money.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. EXACTLY. People want to be told that the way they think is OK.

[Erika]

17. Republicans are weak

and want the mommy/daddy government to protect and soothe them. Idiots.

[DeadManInc]

8. Maybe they have never seen

a talking rectum before.

[clu]

12. they like the humor

cuz it sure ain't news

[LiberalAndProud]

14. Background noise.

That's what my hubby tells me. "I rarely listen to anything that's said on the radio."

He knows enough to turn it off when I'm in his car though. I seriously would prefer to jump out of a moving vehicle rather than listen to the never-ending stream of lies.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

15. So would he listen to AAR as "background noise"? Or only Rush?

[LiberalAndProud]

25. I don't know.

I think he would listen to AAR if it was an option. But I don't know. He's doesn't stream it. He's listened to Mike Malloy in the late evening while I stream, and was put off by the foul language. It offends him.

... I know, I know... Malloy offends and Rush is background noise?

I don't get it either.

:shrug:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

26. So is he a Bush voter?

[LiberalAndProud]

27. No. He didn't vote for Bush.

He knows that Bush is a disaster. Mostly, he's an apolitical Democrat. (Don't you know it's impolite to discuss politics and religion? That is the CREDO in this state ... unless you're on the radio.)

When Rush hammers Libruls, my husband isn't offended because he doesn't consider himself a Librul ... and he says he's not listening--it's background noise.

[upi402]

16. Certifiably assholian

[Digit]

18. I was fired from a job....

Fortune 500 Company...I had to endure listening to Rush from one employee's radio.
After the 2004 election, some of these co-workers put the joke about flushing two johns on my computer and I complained. I also had articles about John Edwards' mole and Spongebob Squarepants placed on my desk.
I got fired...supposedly for leaving early one day, which with their firewall and the way we clocked in on the computer would have been easily provable.
To answer your question....assholes listen to these programs. Malicious assholes.

[Flabbergasted]

19. EGO. Everyone likes being right.

[Cleita]

20. I often wondered the same. What was especially disturbing

was that they hung on every word and had withdrawals when the cable or radio at times lost the signal. You would think JC, himself was passing on the Word of God from Heaven.

But I finally figured out is that what these right wing pundits and talk show hosts are appealing to the bigotry and fear in the people who listen to them. They are telling them what they want to hear.

That's why it doesn't make sense to sane people like you and me who live in the real world.

[mcctatas]

21. Because there aren't alot of good dominatrixes in the middle of nowhere?

You have to get your pain somehow.:evilgrin:

[farmbo]

22. Its like rubbernecking at a car wreck...

...they espouse audacious lies to hurt people--liberals-- and we can't quite get our minds around why someone could be so hateful... so we stop and stare.

But please...from now on...You soil DU by posting your Rush/ Coulter horror stories.

Quit listening! Please.

[tularetom]

23. Most of 'em have fucked up their own lives

and are dying to be told it ain't their fault. They followed all the rules and now they are retired and broke and pissed off. They need someone to blame for how fucked up they are because it can't be that they were stupid drones who lacked the incentive or imagination to separate themselves from the herd. Asswipes like limpballs reinforce their fingerpointing by providing them a target - blacks, hispanics, gays, "liberals", the "elite" etc. Anybody but them is to blame.

Coulter I have no explanation for. Maybe people are curious to see a botched sex change operation on live TV.

[Jade Fox]

24. They give their listeners permission...

to feel good about being creeps. To let their ids run wild without any superego around tut-tuting them into trying to control their lesser instincts.

I think we Liberals are seen as always telling people they need to improve themselves--you know--"Deal with your racism/sexism etc!". Limbaugh on the other hand says, "oh, just be the pig you are. Your beautiful! (and you're really BETTER than those smug, do-gooding Liberals!). His listeners look at him and see a man whose gotten wealthy and famous being a pig, and it leaves an impression.

This is good:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts75.html

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

28. I occasionally listen....

...to them just to imagine the large amounts of drugs they've consumed over the years while they bluster away.

[Kickin_Donkey]

29. They're KKK wannabees.

[leftofthedial]

30. because they are stupid, ignorant, hateful

and degenerate


and did I mention toothless and genetically defective?

[area51]

31. My guess

People who listen to psychos Rusty Limpdick, Anthrax Coulter, Sean Insanity, et al are losers who enjoy their egos being massaged, & they want to feel superior to others.