Humor and the Far Right

[womzilla]

lefty_pugilist brought this to my notice:

Folks, these torture pictures with the women torturers, I mean Marv Albert looking at those pictures would say, "Hey, that doesn't look so bad." You know, if you really look at these pictures, I mean I don't know if it's just me but it looks like anything you'd see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe you can get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean this is something you can see at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City: the Movie. I mean, it's just me.

--Rush Limbaugh, 3 May 2004

The last time I linked to an appalling Limbaughism, I found forums where Rush's defenders said "You misunderstand. He was joking." Well, it's pretty clear he's joking now. But, you know, there's a name for those who take joy in the suffering of the tortured.

This may reflect some confusion about the nature of beauty, but it also suggests that Lang is on to something in locating the ultimate degree of wickedness in the way evil reaches its apotheosis as a genocidal art form. That and the laughter. Bin Laden's complacent grin, the self-satisfied chuckle while discussing the details of murdering thousands with "gas" ("the fire from the gas in the planes"). When I saw that, I couldn't help thinking of Hitler and his cronies sharing a silent laugh when they jested about the Final Solution's being just a "rumor." The final malignant twist of wickedness: turning the murder of innocents, turning public tragedy, into private comedy. It is in that shared laughter that Hitler and bin Laden shake hands.

--Ron Rosenbaum, "Degrees of Evil", February 2002

That name is demon.

"In closing, let me say: that each and every day,
I'm an evil, rotten, egotistical snob (evil, rotten).
I'm the capo de capo of a Joe McCarthy-like gestapo,
A right wing, foam-at-the-mouth, jackbooted slob."

--Rush Limbaugh in his own words

Comments

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite takes on this, believe it or not, was from Christopher Hitchens back in the 80s. (Back when he didn't suck.) Reagan just made that famous "joke" about nuking the Soviets. Hitchens said the problem wasn't that Reagan joked about Armageddon; he noted that Kubrick did the same thing and became "a liberal hero." The problem was Reagan "didn't take it seriously." That's Limbaugh's problem here, too.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

That's the sort of thing that makes feminists say, "That's not funny," and in this case they're right. It's simple mockery, with neither wit nor observational clarity.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Oh, for fuck's sake. I *am* one of those weird kinky people. I get off on humiliation and a certain amount of pain. If I saw a fictional fantasy or consensual role play that had many of these elements I might enjoy it very much. But this isn't fiction, and I am appalled.

How does he not see that it's not the same fucking thing when you didn't sign up for it? How does he not see that even the *exact same act* that you do with your lover or buy a ticket to watch would be a horrible trauma if it were done to you against your will? It's the difference between sex and rape. It's the difference betweeen taking a sleeping pill and being gassed. It's the difference between being robbed at gun point and giving the same amount of money to charity.

How does this become something to joke about?