Synopsis: Michael Savage - The Savage Nation
Sep 3, 2003, 11:00a
Michael Savage - The Savage Nation
Chapter 3
* Characteristics of argument
- Excessive generalizations (illegalizing white paint)
- Us vs. Them (liberals)
- Very colloquial
- Very easy to hear (even w/ big words)
- Inciteful
- Couples questionable events w/ complete absurdities
- Name-calling
- Crazy Times! (whorled order)
- Memorable quotes (dyed in-the-dung)
- NOT ACADEMIC at all -> bestseller
* Both extreme conservatives and liberals complain about the same things:
-> media
-> thought control (Orwellian world)
-> loss of freedoms (social pressure vs. legal pressure)
-> party system
-> "found guilty until proven innocent"
-----> Everyone cares about the same things, but disagree on the causes
--------> each group blames the other!
-----> So something must be going on
* Threat/fear of extreme future to get people to believe/agree
* anti-feminism and anti-homosexuals?
* quotes the bible
* believes that racial profiling, gay and lesbian rights, racism and
feminism, abortion rights and animal rights and guns and the
environment are examples of decadence and fals causes (38)
* blames globalization on liberals
* thinks liberals wan an oppressive central government ruling the world
* lots of contradictions (e.g. animal rights)
* very sensasionalistic
* thinks that liberals will take away all rights groups if they succeed
* lots of word play and puns ("stupidvisor")
* against sex change
** likes pithy, deep statements
Chapter 4
* very much an American patriot
* recognizes everyone's right to be biased
* thinks CNN is too liberal
- values national solidarity over free reporting; this is
ridiculous, because even if it puts soldiers at risk (which I doubt),
free reporting is VERY relevant in exposing unjust wars and
attrocities (e.g. Vietnam)
* doesn't recognize that there may be a better way than repeating the
mistakes of civilizations of before, a way that is more supportive of
all civilizations and of humanity in general. Respecting humanity
more than any specific country's nationalism could help unify the
world and reduce human suffering worldwide.
* doesn't he realize the media during the time of war is very
regulated by intelligence given to them by the US armed forces?
* thinks that the FCC owns the airwaves, when in actuality the FCC
doesn't but rather grants others use as an agent of the people of the
US because the airwaves are a public commons
** uses quotes that aren't quotes to increase credibility
* difference in risks also result in difference in war reporting -
WWII was a much more serious war than Afghanistan or Iraq, and much
more justified
* no diversity in American troops because minorities don't feel
America is worth fighting for, specifically in the Afganistan war [me]
- again, an oversimplification by Savage
- poverty also drives people to enroll as a soldier, which is why
most soldiers will not be rich (conservative or liberal)
* WWII did not bring 50 years of peace [me]
* does not describe distinction between sedition and freedom of
speech, so being hypocritical in saying that people who speak out
against a war should be locked up
* he is anti-affirmative action
* equates liberalism with terrorism
* does he ever mention the source of American prosperity?
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