On Saturday, we looked at how insane and stupid the left-wing MSNBC host Ed Schultz was to charge a Republican U.S. senator with racism when there wasn’t a hint of it. Today, we look at how right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh is just as partisan and ignorant in a knee-jerk way.
Late last week, Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. troops into Uganda to train government troops in how to fight against a violent religious group calling itself the Lord’s Liberation Army. I’m strongly opposed to Obama’s move to involve the United States in any country’s affairs, but that doesn’t mean the rebel group isn’t vicious and savage — as evidenced by this example of the group’s typical punishment for people who don’t co-operate, which is cutting off lips, noses and ears.
However, since Obama is supporting the faction attacking the Lord’s Liberation Army, that was good enough for Rush Limbaugh to give his support to those barbarians in a knee-jerk way. On Friday, Limbaugh’s website featured a story with this headline: “Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians.” The copy seems to be a transcript from Limbaugh’s show, on which he said:
Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. … So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it. …
Lord’s Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty, and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the LRA ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.
These people are unlike any Christians I’d like to claim association with. They’re simply a political faction using murder, terror, rape and mutilation to achieve its objectives, but Limbaugh can’t be bothered to find that out, because his only agenda is attacking his political opponents and making the world seem simple for his listeners.
If you’d like to know the roots of the Uganda fighting — in a way that makes it clear that it’s a complicated story, not a simplistic one to frame in American political terms — take a look at this story. I think it’s pretty safe to say that Limbaugh and Co. won’t be worrying about the actual facts, because that doesn’t suit their agenda.
And that brings us to the real point. For people such as Rush Limbaugh and Ed Schultz, facts and people are just pawns to move around in order to support their pre-conceived beliefs about the world. Sometimes they’re right. Sometimes they’re wrong. But they don’t seem to care about that. They only care about agitating their supporters and scoring points against the people they don’t like. In Limbaugh’s case, he’s gotten rich doing it.
Don’t be taken in by people who are more interested in flash than in the truth. Don’t listen to people such as Limbaugh and Schultz. Get the facts for yourself. Don’t be one of the mindless automatons who simply repeats what an ignorant entertainer tells you.