I feel like having a
Rude Pundit moment. While what I'm about to say will likely fall nowhere near the Rude One in terms of the preciseness and sheer efficiency of his colorful take-downs, I've been sitting on these thoughts for as long as I've been blogging, probably longer. Also, while I realize that I'm likely serving up the
Bill Donohues and
Michelle Malkins of the world a knee-high, hanging curveball should I enter public service, what I'm about to say needs to be said. It could have been any right-of-sanity mouthpiece that set me off. It just so happened that it was the "
fatass drug addict" himself, Rush Limbaugh. The topic: The Academy Awards. The context: Al Gore. My response to Limbaugh and his coterie of right-wing shit-for-brains: Shut your fucking mouths.
My mistake, to be sure, was letting my attention drift as I changed radio stations Monday. When I landed on Limbaugh's broadcast, he was talking, predictably, about Sunday's Academy Awards, at which Gore's "
An Inconvenient Truth" took home two Oscars, one for Best Documentary and another for Best Original Song, Melissa Etheridge's brilliant "I Need To Wake Up". In discussing Etheridge's performance, Limbaugh sharply criticized the video playing behind the band, video that accompanied the song in the movie's final credits. For those who haven't seen the film, the footage comprises various tips anyone can use in their everyday lives - things as simple as changing your light bulbs, for instance - to make a difference in the fight against global warming. This, for whatever reason, set Limbaugh off. In discussing the "stupid" movie, Limbaugh exaggerated the video's tips and suggested that none of the celebrities in the house would heed the advice themselves. Specifically, Limbaugh asked, which celebrity would switch to public transportation? He also bristled at
Gore's use of the phrase "moral issue" to describe global warming, when he said, "My fellow Americans, people all over the world - we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue. It's a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible exception of the will to act. That's a renewable resource. Let's renew it."
Apparently, Gore's assertion that global warming is a crisis that will affect us all - regardless of political affiliation - and that fighting it is the moral thing to do rubbed Rush the wrong way. Curious, I think, that a man
detained for an illegal Viagra prescription and who
gleefully made fun of Michael J. Fox's appearance should be considered an authority on morality. That aside, Limbaugh's attacks Monday on Gore were only the latest in a litany of right-wing broadsides made against the climate crusader. In fact, anti-Gore punditry has become quite the specialization for the upwardly-mobile right-wing gasbag. Glenn Beck
compared "An Inconvenient Truth" to Hitler propaganda. He's
not the only one to make Nazi comparisons, either. Tucker Carlson
described Gore as a "bible-thumper" and a "wild-eyed religious nut" whose "religion is the environment". Ann Coulter, taking things even lower,
called Gore a "total fag". These attacks - the right's standard operating procedure - are only the beginning of the story.
Both in anticipation of "An Inconvenient Truth" and in the aftermath of its release, we've seen Big Oil mount a massive attack on Gore and global warming science. So desperate are these attempts, in fact, that the oil lobby, a recent report
revealed, offered potential global warming skeptics $10,000 each to criticize an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report speaking to the impact of human beings on climate change. Bribes aside, there is been another type of anti-Gore smear that has become a favorite of the right: Mock hypocrisy. In other words, the "what's wrong with this picture" outrage displayed by Sean Hannity. Hannity, during a recent episode of "Hannity's America",
attacked Gore's "global warming hypocrisy", painting Gore as a man who preaches against global warming, but who practices a jet-setting - and therefore polluting - lifestyle. Never mind, of course, the inconvenient truth ignored by Hannity, that Gore practices strict carbon neutrality. As explained by
Think Progress, "That means he tries to reduce his emissions as much as possible, and then purchases carbon offsets for the remaining emissions. In his private life, Gore tries to reduce his emissions as much as possible. He drives a hybrid, flies commercially whenever he can, and purchases green power. In the few instances where work has demanded that he travel privately, he purchases carbon offsets for the emissions." This line of attack, perfected in books like "
Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy", was the one echoed by Limbaugh Monday.
In other words, the Limbaughs and Hannitys of the world don't like having their damaging lifestyles criticized by prominent liberals (especially celebrities) that they believe don't practice what they preach. That said, in the absence of actual damning evidence, such crybaby temper tantrums predictably fall flat. And beg this response: Shut your fucking mouths. Is it just me, or has modern-day Republican punditry devolved to the point of pill-popping gasbags and dumb-as-a-sack-of-rocks talk-show hosts covering for their personal failings by lobbing baseless charges at their so-called opposition? Gore is using his prominence and expertise to bring about actual change, and the best the right can do in response is criticize his travel patterns? Don't insult our intelligence. Shit, you would think, when confronted with the reality of Gore's actions, that they'd applaud his keen sense of personal responsibility. That is, until you realize that the moral slugs with which we're confronted on a daily basis are
far more content to be a nuisance than do anything of worth, ever. Because it's much easier, remember, to be against something than for anything. And the only things these assholes have proven themselves to be for have been fellating their corporate masters, giving massive handouts to the rich, demonizing gays and legislating everyone who isn't a white male into second-class citizenship. And yet they wonder why Republicans had their asses handed to them last November?
If you're not willing to step up, as Gore and others have, and do your part, shut your fucking mouth and get out of the way. The time for petty bullshit like yours has long since passed. Save your pathetic,
panicked attacks for the Free Republic message boards, where they belong. Leave the progress for the adults. Who the hell are you to criticize Gore? What have you done to leave the world a better place than you found it? Who have you convinced that even the smallest effort matters? Only an asshole would sit back on their fat, lazy rear end and insult those actually doing their part. You know, the same assholes that argue that people like Gore are only doing what they're doing to make America look bad and make themselves look good. Does it get any more cynical than that? And who the hell are you - I'm talking to you,
Joe Scarborough and
Michael Medved - to tell outspoken celebrities to shut up and sing or act? Tell me, is there something about your line of work that disqualifies you from sharing your opinion? I'd much rather live in a world where actors, comedians or musicians who are right on a given issue are given credit (or at least not insulted) than in a world where so-called "experts" like Joe Lieberman and Bill Kristol can be so repeatedly wrong, so out-of-touch, and still have their views sought after time and time again.
Speaking of celebrities and the asshole right-wingers who insult them, let me ask this: Who are you to question anyone's motives for wanting to do good? What kind of gutless shithead looks at someone famous trying to make a difference and accuses them of only doing it to get headlines? Who the hell cares why anyone is doing something productive? Shouldn't it be enough that they're doing it? If it gets them positive press, so be it. Why when a celebrity does something good they do it for headlines, while when a politician does it they do it for all the right reasons? Name me a politician who enjoys glad-handing young people when the cameras aren't around and I'll point you to the next edition of NBC's "To Catch a Predator". One of the most troubling trends in recent political memory has been the likelihood that anytime anyone tries to change things for the better, they immediately come under attack by the fringe right wing. If the media, often complicit in the attacks, spent as much time asking why benevolence is a mortal sin to the right as they do piling on the scrum, the world would truly be a better place. As long as seemingly important people treat those doing their part as dirty fucking hippies, it should surprise no one that things don't markedly improve. Until these roadblocks to progress are shamed into the realization that inaction isn't a virtue, they can at least do the rest of us a favor and shut their fucking mouths.
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