Over the last 15-20 years, we've seen a huge surge in right-wing demagogues, with names like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. In addition to hosting radio and TV shows, these people produce best seller after best seller. A friend of mine who prides herself as a conservative Christian has read almost all of these best sellers and brags endlessly about how well-read she is -- even though she never went to college and has never read anything else.
Take a look at the bestseller list today. Sarah Palin is there. Glenn Beck is there. Farther up the list you'll find Michelle Malkin and others. Yes, today you'll also see a book by Ted Kennedy, and a brand new one by Richard Dawkins. But by and large, the conservatives outweigh the liberals, especially on the radio. Why is this?
First, a note to myself: Buy the Dawkins book. But skip the Ted Kennedy book. Why skip the Kennedy book? Two reason: First, my time is severely limited, and I have to carefully choose which books I read. And second brings me to the point of this blog:
Liberals don't worship people the way conservatives do.
Yeah, yeah, you've heard it before: think for yourself. But there's something deeper going on here, something that sheds a little light on the Conservative mindset and why so often people like us call people like them "sheeple".
Look at my friend who has read all these bestselling Conservative books and who watches Glenn Beck daily (she doesn't have a day job, by the way -- she's a stay at home mom, having never gone to college, never had a career, or ever a single job at all for that matter outside of the home). She sits at home sucking up all the Conservative propaganda being pushed into her brain without question, something she learned how to do every Sunday morning growing up. But she actually thinks that we liberals do the same thing, that we have some source we go to for such information. (Where? CNN? I don't know.) And that's where there's a huge difference between "us" and "them".
I don't get my information the same way Conservatives do. I watch or read the news, and more times than not, go to the original source to get to the rest of the story and make an informed decision. I'm a skeptic by nature. I don't automatically believe what I hear and see on the news, because there's almost always more to the story than not, whether Liberal or conservative issues, as well as everything else.
And further, I'm not one to worship, and this is the biggest difference I see between us and them. My friend can easily list her "heroes". To date, I can only list a couple heroes -- my grandfather, and a few scientists who are long dead. That's it. Yes, I think Richard Dawkins has written some good books. But I don't worship him, or even agree completely with him. He's just a guy for goodness sake.
And no, I don't worship Obama. But the right-wingers were sure quick to accuse us liberals of worshiping Obama. We don't. He seems like a good guy, but he's far from perfect, and already I'm not totally happy with him, just the way I became disappointed with Bill Clinton for not being liberal enough.
Look at Al Gore today: It was HUGE news on Fox News this week (they show it at the gym I go to, grrr) that he apparently avoided a tough question about errors in his film about global warming.
So? Big deal. First, that doesn’t make the film 100% wrong. And second, I don’t care. I do not worship Al Gore. And further, if I want to find out about Global Warming, I don’t look to Al Gore for my information, contrary to what the right-wingers apparently think. Al Gore is a politician who happens to be forwarding a lot of causes that I agree with. But he’s not a guru, he’s not a god, and I do not worship him--or, for that matter, even pay much attention to him. (I haven't seen the film or read a single one of his books.)
Instead, if I want to find out about something scientific, I look to the scientific literature and actually read the published reports—you know, journals like Nature, with peer-reviewed articles written by scientists. That’s where I get my information. So no, I do not worship Obama, or Gore, or any of these people.
But it makes sense that the right wingers would accuse us as such--it's even natural for them to assume we worship various humans, because they do it all the time. They turn on the radio or TV, and their great gods of the airwaves give them the absolute truth. During the mid 90s when Rush Limbaugh's popularity was probably at its top, I clearly remember people suggesting that Limbaugh might be the return of Jesus! And I've heard LOTS of people insist that Limbaugh was always right, 100% of the time, that he was NEVER, EVER wrong. EVER. (Even when he was found to be a drug addict! He was suddenly a victim, while still "right" about the "other, real" drug addicts.)
Come on. Really? And how many of these people who worship Glenn Beck do the same thing? Often. Do they every question him? Never. My friend sure as hell doesn't. Even when I corner her with the facts, she'll twist his story and say such-and-such is what he "really" meant. Or she simply won't answer, as her brain is unable to comprehend that he might be wrong, much the same way her brain reacts to science that debunks the book of Genesis--science like the Big Bang and Evolution.
Finally, to wrap this up, let's consider the logical steps of when somebody really does question these people. Invariably if they take a moment to actually allow for the possibility that these guys might, on occasion, be wrong (heaven forbid), what do they do next? They might do a little digging. They might find a slight error. They might start to question this great person. They might find the truth. And they might become less Conservative and more Liberal. Sure. When Hell freezes over. Let's face it: They're bred since childhood to never question Absolute Truth. Such breeding takes place mostly in church, but partly in schools. Why should they change now? And why, god forbid, would they ever try to understand the way we think? They won't.