Time to stand up to bullies - Rush Limbaugh and Urban Outfitters insulting Irish products
By: Cahir O'Doherty | Published Thursday, March 8, 2012, 11:30 AM | Updated Thursday, March 8, 2012, 11:30 AM
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| Rush Limbaugh |
There are some insults that no grown man or women should ever speak or be subjected to. If you were to compile a list of truly foul insults to hurl at women, I imagine that “slut” and “prostitute” would come pretty near the top of anyone’s list.
And blaring those words, intending to wound and discredit, through a huge megaphone to tens of millions of your ardent listeners is even worse, of course.
Rush Limbaugh’s decision last week to call Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke both of those things because she had the courage to testify to Congress in favor of insurance coverage for birth control seems to have united most Democrats and Republicans in utter revulsion.
He wasn’t finished yet, though. In exchange for access to birth control Limbaugh requested that Fluke provide a sex tape for his listeners to enjoy.
As well as being outrageous, this comment underlined a enduring contradiction in conservative thinking -- they’re all for tax cuts for the massively rich, but they tell the less well off they will have to literally put out to avail of essential health services.
That got me thinking about power and powerlessness. How you act when you have one or the other probably says more about you than anything else you will ever do.
One cannot deny the humanity of another, without diminishing one’s own, wrote James Baldwin wisely.
Limbaugh let the mask slip this week when he showed the world what he really thinks about women who use contraception for any purpose.
He gives himself a pass of course. Recall that in 2006 he was detained at a Florida airport for a bottle of Viagra in his luggage that he did not have a prescription for. Limbaugh had just returned from a stag party vacation in Dominican Republic.
But instead of criticizing him for hypocrisy or his horrifying slurs, Republican Party presidential candidates sounded like they were shaking in their shoes. There’s a good reason for that, pundit George Will said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
“Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh,” he clarified.
America has a bullying problem. Everyone knows it, knows the staggering scale of it, but so few seem to want to tackle it head on.
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The words “slut” and “prostitute” and even worse are heard every day in the nation’s high school corridors. The damage they do to vulnerable students fill the nations headlines.
But still half the nation’s politicians oppose any measure whatsoever to address the situation or punish the bullies in question.
I’ve been thinking about bullying for the last two weeks since I spotted Urban Outfitters selling tables full of tried and trusted anti-Irish stereotyping for profit.
People who read my exclusive report in the Irish Voice two weeks ago were incensed, and I fielded multiple calls and emails from readers all over the nation and even from Ireland.
The one question they kept asking over and over is -- why do we stand for this?
So, why do we? I have no idea why people are reluctant to act in the face of hateful aggression from people who think they enjoy the advantage.
I don’t know why so many of us seem to think that silent acceptance is a wiser route than principled push back.
The Irish should know what a bully looks like, and by now they should know how to deal with one.
For centuries the Irish lived under a bullying oppressor that wasted no time characterizing them to the wider world as drunks, ingrates and incompetents.
For centuries we let literally other people tell our story, and we even surrendered our language to them.
What were we expecting? That justice would somehow magically prevail some day?
Yes, it was an unfair fight. But that’s exactly what attracts a bully in the first place.
Bullying challenges us to adopt creative strategies and outsmart those who would drive us down.
We’re better than this and we’re smarter than this, and when someone is being this brutally unfair is the prefect time to remind ourselves exactly how we are.
The worst thing you can do when you see yourself being bullied is to pretend that it isn’t happening.
You’ll just embolden your foe and diminish yourself.
So pop into Urban Outfitters this week, and if they have a display of anti-Irish goods on the shelves give them an earful. Or call into Rush Limbaugh and give him the riot act.
Just stop pretending it’s not happening. It is.
34 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Seanmor | Apr 11, 2012, 01:25 PM EDT
Limbough publicly apologized for the derogatory term he used to describe Sandra Fluke (who by her own admission before Congress needs ocontraceptives to protect herseld on account of her frequent sexual activity). But Limbaugh's detractors continue to severely condemn him. The trem "slud" used by Limbaugh is extremely offensive but the "C" word is so obscene that it is prohibited from being mentioned on the air. Yet when a leftist commedian applied that obscenity to a former state governor in one of his shows, no one seemed to be the least upset. Why the double standad?
Meanolgrouch | Mar 19, 2012, 09:30 AM EDT
My usual postscript: You might say the newspaper editor/publisher did stand up for me remotely, and I should credit the police chief who refused to arrest me on such obvious lies. Then again I tend to read the riot act at town hall meetings when provoked beyond bearing, so even they walk with measured step near me now. And don't let Limbaugh worry you. The tide's turning ever so slowly against at least the worst of the lot. We'll have him selling pencils on the street soon enough. Are you aware that man also has, shall we say, irregular sexual taste for the very young? Wait until someone gets hold of THOSE tapes!
Meanolgrouch | Mar 19, 2012, 09:20 AM EDT
I'm sincerely impressed by what and how you write, Mr. O'Doherty. Do you ever give permission for credited reprint of an article? I'm a little old senior lady, a yellow dog Democrat who retired to a backwoods region that personifies brain drain (virulent, hypocritical teabaggers for the most part). So you can imagine the social atmosphere has been vicious. Nobody ever once stood up for me when I swiftly became the target of extreme intimidation from the regular riders of our only public transportation. The bus driver himself led and egged on the others, even filing an obviously false police report against me! Without the internet and a local weekly paper published by one of the few conservatives I ever met with any decent principles, I would've sunk for sure. But the man prints my letters without fail, no matter how much he might disagree, and I continued my war against the Neanderthals with determination. Most of the town bullies have learned not to provoke me beyond reason anymore because I do bite back fast and hard. It's the only thing they understand. So of course they cry out in wounded horror when they find out their so-called easy mark wasn't. But after 6 years of struggle, more of the decent folks around here are starting to realize I don't run. A few have even expressed their admiration. People are generally too scared to stand up for one another, which is too bad because as you say it only encourages the aggressors. I didn't earn my nickname by being a wallflower.
eiriamach | Mar 15, 2012, 07:44 AM EDT
As of today even non-profits have pulled their free announcements from Limbaugh's radio harangue. Goodwill Industries posted in response to petitions to stop supporting RL: "The Goodwill public service announcement that aired on WMAL or other stations affiliated with the Rush Limbaugh show aired without Goodwill’s knowledge or consent. No further Goodwill public service announcements will be aired without our permission." I wonder whether the GOP will rescind Limbaugh's ticket to the Convention in Tampa? If he does walk into the Convention hall, expect to see the women walk out.
warrenpoint00 | Mar 13, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT
This is an excellent piece of Irish journalism against the right wing extremism of those advocates of the nazi and stalin regimes. Well done reporter the truth shall prevail
eiriamach | Mar 10, 2012, 07:33 AM EST
"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words? Nah!" I suppose the Left has also gone too far in its freedom-of-speech taunts of the Right. But it's the lies, the deliberate distortions of facts, the skewing of reality to mollify the persecution complexes of those who have done less well in life than Ms. Fluke has done-- these do damage to civil discourse and politics. They fuel the assaults on women's rights. We will hold Limbaugh and crew responsible for the damage. He and his GOP pals have created an oppressive, hostile political environment that threatens women's achievements and equality. The one solace is that Obama will not back down from affordable health care for women. And the lessons have taken: women will oust the pigs from office in November. It will take years to restore the rights lost in the states, no time to waste, so with allies working on voting rights, immigration, job creation and financial regulation, we'll sweep the GOP bullies out the door, along with their church patrons, super PACS, and other detritus. It's what you do when the pigs have been trying to leave you powerless.
IrelandNorth | Mar 09, 2012, 07:56 AM EST
There's a recognisable clinical condition known as post-colonial inferiority complex peculiar to all colonised peoples. I've said it before and I'll say it again. When you've been culturally colonised for 900 years, and spiritually sodomised for 1,800 it doesn't leave you in very good ethnic or spiritual shape. Funny how we can be the 'Fighting Irish' in the US and other Armies, but terribly meek and mild here at home. What attracts bullies is a passivity engendered by a religiously-inspired deference to illegitimate authority, be it religious or temporal. Ireland was granted by Rome to King Henry II of England to be 'Christianised' (sic). The rest is hysteria! Bullies bully others because they can. As soon as their tin-pot tyranny is challenged, they're despotism usually goes up in a puff of grey smoke.
jamthecat | Mar 08, 2012, 10:09 PM EST
You know the saddest part of this whole series of comments? How stupid so many people on the right wing reveal themselves to be. Poor grammar. Atrocious spelling. Deliberately ignoring facts in place of ideology. Misrepresenting what Ms. Fluke said and obviously not understanding how contraceptives actually work. We liberals have our problems, but you people are advancing backwards. Maybe Rick Santorum knows more about the current right wing preferences than we think, and is with them in hating the idea of actually being educated. That's probably why they like a hundred-million dollar man like Rush Limbaugh. He tells them what to think so they don't have to think for themselves. No wonder they protect him like rabid attack dogs; he's their god.
EphraimKibbey | Mar 08, 2012, 09:59 PM EST
@galway2001 - I certainly do not excuse anyone, Mr. Maher included, but the last part of your comment shows that you did not hear Ms. Fluke's actual testimony, only Rush's lies about it. You obviously failed to "google" the actual transcript before commenting. She testified about a friend who was perscribed birth control pills to prevent cysts from forming on her ovaries. Intercourse was not part of her testimony nor anything about Ms. Fluke's own situation. Georgetown's student health plan, that students have to pay for, did not cover it even for medical need. She could not afford the hundreds of dollars it cost and did not qualify for title ten poverty based coverage. She went without the medicine and developed a cyst. She lost the ovary and continues in poor health. Rush LIED about what Ms. Fluke's testimony contained in order to make the point he wished and fire up his ignorant listeners. I say "ignorant" as meaning uninformed because they trust what he says as gospel. Please check anything and everything said by anyone associated with the GOP as lying is what do. Many otherwise good people vote for GOP candidates every year because they ignorantly believe the GOP lies. As President Reagan said - "Trust but VERIFY!" Those who fail to verify end up voting against their own interests and against our country's best interests.
EphraimKibbey | Mar 08, 2012, 09:26 PM EST
I do not listen to radio very often and I have never listened to Rush except when he was being ridiculed on a news program but I understand that there were several periods of dead air on his show today. The rest of the commercial air time was filled with public service anouncements and GOP political ads. I understand that many of the public service organizations are now asking that their announcements not be aired during his show. At last count over 45 sponsors had dropped him. He did get one new sponsor - a dating website that encourages extramarital affairs. It seems like a perfect match. Maybe the GOP liers will finally learn that they must pay a price for their lies. Rush has set an example for their misbehavior for years. Hopefully he will now set an example for their punishment as voting group after voting group follow his sponsors fleeing the toxic reactionary right wing.
EphraimKibbey | Mar 08, 2012, 09:10 PM EST
Part I - Rush followed the GOP "M.O." by making up a lie about her testimony and then arguing about how horrible it was. It was similar to Santorum's saying that President Obama wanted everyone to go to college and saying "What a snob!" when Obama had really asked that everyone seek one year's training beyond high school because modern jobs required more skills. Rush's name calling is what children and ignorant adults do when they are angry but are unable to express a rational argument against the focus of their anger. Similarly the GOP calls the President a Kenyan and a socialist. When hurtful words are spoken in a moment of anger, a heartfelt apology often sooths the injured party. Rush's "apology" did not address the fact that he made up 3 days of lies about Ms. Fluke only the two most outrageous words that he used and he immediately started making excuses and blaming others for HIS attacks Then he tried to make himself the victim. His "apology" did not come until his sponsors started bailing on him like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
galway2001 | Mar 08, 2012, 08:48 PM EST
rush limbaugh is a pig but so is bill maher for calling sarah palin and her daughter vulgur names i did'nt hear the news media complain about that but a liberal who was put there we all know by whom and gets all the glory,, who are you kidding where was the media when bill creep maher did the name calling, if you want sex then pay for it,but not with my money you liberal fluzie
Seanmor | Mar 08, 2012, 08:16 PM EST
There is much more to the Fluke story than the article or the comments mention. In any case,Rush Limbaugh apologized for hid rotten comment. In view of the new morality, is it possible that Sandra Fluke's expectation of free contraceptives was in no way unreasonable? Besides, her activity partners were of the opposite gender.
CelticLady51 | Mar 08, 2012, 07:58 PM EST
This man is a foul-mouthed, viagra taking sex-addict, Right Wing PIG!!!!!!
Jamesclinton | Mar 08, 2012, 06:27 PM EST
I think you dopey democrats can't see the biggest oppresser in America is Barrack unhuh Obama. What about-warrantless searches of cell phones, citizen imprisonment without habis corpus, government theft of our money through wilful inflation, unbelievable waste of taxpayer dollars, union thuggery through enforced dues to democratics. You obviously don't live in America.
seanomelb | Mar 08, 2012, 05:46 PM EST
It's difficult to understand the mind set of those vilifying Fluke for speaking her mind and sadly how posters below can justify backing Limbaugh for his hate attack on a young lady.It's harder still to comprehend why the right wing "intelligentsia" condone such a vile person as Limbaugh. Romney,Sanctorum,Gingrich,Hannity O'Reilly and the three stooges on the Fox morning show all went in to bat for Limbaugh.It was sadder still to hear the fox stable of women defend the misogynist Limbaugh.They will pay for this at the ballot box later this year.
PatriciaMarya | Mar 08, 2012, 04:29 PM EST
MegK311 - You seem to conveniently forget that every 4 years, it is the Conservative Right that trots out control of female genitalia and homosexual human rights as Big Deals. The attack on Planned Parenthood was not done by the Liberal Left, it was planned (excuse the pun)by the new Republican board member of the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Santorum is sounding more and more like the American representative of the Taliban and the Ayatollahs than anyone else and he was before Ms. Fluke, who is not a well-known political activist or else I would know of her. And her statement is not asking the U.S. taxpayer to underwrite this service, it is asking that this medication be included in the same PRIVATE insurance coverage as Viagra, Levitra and vasectomies. Taxpayers have nothing to fear here, so relax and get the facts straight. I will repeat it again: as the late, great Irish-American Daniel Moynihan put it so well, "You are welcome to your own opinion; you are not welcome to your own facts."
snakehips | Mar 08, 2012, 04:10 PM EST
Rush Limbaugh appeals to the, let me be kind, "the least of our brethren" i.e., the ignorant, the unsophisticated and disenfranchised of our society. In other words the LOSERS who believe that this buffon is the best deal for articulating their skewed and perverted views of life and society. Who made this idiot with his bizarre views on women and all things political an expert? He and his ilk are on the way out, as even the traditionally conservative factions of our society see him as base and disgusting.
RedBranch | Mar 08, 2012, 03:29 PM EST
Who will pay more taxes this Ap. 15, Rush or Cahir?
lokionline | Mar 08, 2012, 03:24 PM EST
It's amusing how many people have accepted Rush's caveat laden apology. I was under the impression that he had insulted and railed for hours on his national radio show about Ms. Fluke. She then is the only one who is in any position to accept the weasel worded apology that Limbaugh offered.
MegK311 | Mar 08, 2012, 02:43 PM EST
Enough is enough. Rush apologized and as far as I am concerned that is the end of the issue. What about all the nasty comments made about conservative women by the liberals. Sarah Palin has been called every nasty name in the book by liberals, did you jump to her defence? The young woman at the center of this is a well known political activist produced by the left to make birth control an issue during the election season. Obama doesn't have a record that he can run on so he has to make birth control a big issue. Most women couldn't care less about birth comtrol as an election issue. There are far more important problems that we need to talk about. Yes Rush put his foot in his mouth and he apologized so get over it. Cahir O'Dougherty, can't you find something more interesting to write about instead of this load of tripe.
richard cahill | Mar 08, 2012, 02:41 PM EST
As to Mr. Limbaugh, I've not heard him [Ballymote has been spared].However perhaps his need for pro conception aid betrays his attitude to contraceptive devices. As to bullying Here in Ireland we cannot preach to anyone about bullying - we might deprive ourselves of a national passtime - particularly as the threat of redundancy(getting fired!) is daily hanging over the country's employees [today 2,500 AIB Workers?
jflanagan | Mar 08, 2012, 12:57 PM EST
Sorry, I left out that Matt Taibbi was speaking of Michalle Malkin.
jflanagan | Mar 08, 2012, 12:56 PM EST
Rush is a fool with a giant ego and deserves disdain. I would also like to see as much attention brought to these men as well: Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi said that when he reads her stuff he imagines her narrating with a “big hairy set of balls in her mouth”. That no longer funny gynophobe Bill Maher called Palin a twat, the c word, and other women similar insults and the totally untalented Keith Olberman said a woman should have been aborted by her parents. There was some attention to these foolish remarks but not the uproar you saw for the "conservative" (conservative as much as I'm an Irish King) pundit. I guess it's okay to hate women if the woman isn't left wing.
Yankee724 | Mar 08, 2012, 12:11 PM EST
Rush Limbaugh apologized for his comment. I don't see ONE apology from the left for comments FAR worse than his. Limbaugh's commentary is normally 98% right on the money. TRUTH is TRUTH.
Yankee724 | Mar 08, 2012, 12:08 PM EST
Bullies, bullies, bullies, Is that all you lefty creeps know what to say? Obama has the biggest "bully pulpit"in the world and he attacks our American freedom every day. Why don't you comment on uberlib Bill Maher who contributed $1 million to the Obamathug and called Sarah Palin a "Cxxt" and a "right wing txxt". Fluke is a liberal activist plant--she CHOSE to attend CATHOLIC law school @$65/yr.,and WE should PAY for her drugs?. Ignorance is not bliss on Irish Central. Hypocrite!
KeyWestConch | Mar 08, 2012, 11:51 AM EST
torbreezy, yeah he's inspiring all right, he's inspired me not to listen to any station that broadcasts his show.
joanxis | Mar 08, 2012, 11:48 AM EST
Torbreezy - You may think he's "informative, insightful and inspirational." That's your right, even though I can't imagine listening to him - because he is also hurtful, demeaning, hateful, pompous, uncivil, very mean, a bully, inciteful, misleading..... But if you can listen to a man like him and not see these other things, then you must be a lot like him. You deserve each other.
torbreezy | Mar 08, 2012, 11:09 AM EST
Who among us is without clay feet? To err is human, to forgive . . . divine. In addition to being informative and insightful, Rush is inspirational and continues to hold the largest radio audience . . . because he is.
Kells46 | Mar 08, 2012, 11:06 AM EST
Limbaugh does not talk down to me. I do not listen to him period. I know him to be a very ignorant person with an equally ignorant following. All of whom are uneducated non-achievers, hence the very large chip on their shoulders and the only way they can deal with that is to bully. Limbaugh will self distruct as his type normally do.... so lets sit back, wait and watch. As for Urban Outfitters, garbage company selling garbage and once again targeting the uneducated, ignorant person.
wyalusingjohn | Mar 08, 2012, 11:05 AM EST
If you are going to be fair you should include Bill Mahar and other liberal commentators who have routinely referred to conservative women as C----ts and bags of meat. This type of language by anyone serve no useful purpose in any serious discussion.
Yerffac | Mar 08, 2012, 11:03 AM EST
Where are Rush's defenders? I expected to find them here!
jamieLM | Mar 08, 2012, 10:28 AM EST
Good one, McNamara31. Limbaugh "talks down" to people, as if ONLY HE has the right answers to everything. I've sat through enough lectures in college & grad. school. I don't need to be "lectured" by him. I find him to be incredibly pompous and mean-spirited and paranoid about his "enemies." I think he's a verbal bully.
McNamara31 | Mar 08, 2012, 09:45 AM EST
Cahir, It's inspirational to think ..a little "fluke" kicked the big powerful shark from the pond.