[Update The verdict is in: Not guilty on all counts.
And the verdict is in on Limbaugh as well: Not right about anything, as usual. But then he offered the best appraisal of himself last November:]
With the fate of George Zimmerman now in the hands of the jury, many on the right are openly speculating as to whether African-Americans have enough self-control to keep from turning into hostile animals. It is an obvious insult to the dignity of people who have been insulted by right-wingers for decades.
At the head of the classless, of course, is Rush Limbaugh. On his radio program today he opened with an offensive presumption that people disappointed with a potential Zimmerman acquittal were already preparing to engage in organized riots.
Limbaugh: They’d rather have the verdict on Monday so they can use the whole week to trash the country. Plus the riots are scheduled for Monday. They probably don’t have the rioters ready to go today. […] I think the DOJ’s probably already done the organizational aspect of the riots.
There is no support for this sort of vile speculation. There are no rallies being planned. There are no protest groups forming. There has never been any threat of violence associated with the outcome of this trial. No authoritative person in the civil rights community ever prejudged Zimmerman’s guilt. The only point of contention was that law enforcement had initially declined to conduct a proper investigation or make a serious effort to ascertain liability.
Nevertheless, Limbaugh went on to make repulsive assertions that advocates for justice were plotting indiscriminate violence. He even said that they would “trash” their hotels when they arrived in Florida to embark on this imaginary rampage. The rant that Limbaugh delivered could not have been more disgusting and filled with blatant racism and hatred for people he apparently considers to be less than human.
And if that weren’t enough, Limbaugh’s tirade barely made sense. In one passage he sought to portray the non-existent protesters, who include the media and the White House, as “totally invested in a guilty verdict.” But his argument in support of that opinion was absurd:
Limbaugh: The media is desperate for a guilty verdict so that they can once again proceed on the assumption that this is a racist, biased, unfair country that refuses to allow blacks to have the slightest chance to get ahead. The civil rights movement wants much the same thing. The White House wants a guilty verdict.
That’s just asinine. If the civil rights movement, the media, the White House, et al, were looking to affirm society’s racism, they would not want a guilty verdict as Limbaugh says. A conviction, after all, would demonstrate that justice was fair and colorblind. How would that achieve the goal that Limbaugh asserts? What’s more, Limbaugh is contradicting his whole premise. From the outset of his program he insisted that there was a constituency that was preparing to riot following the acquittal they anticipated. But now Limbaugh says that they actually want a conviction, after which there would be no reason to riot and all their planning would have been for naught.
The truth is that it doesn’t matter whether Limbaugh has any idea what he’s talking about or not, so long as he says it with a deep animosity for liberals, minorities, and any other of his perceived enemies. And as for his new found aversion to rioting, here is a reminder of what he was saying a few years ago when he openly advocated such behavior by his dittoheads at the Democratic National Convention:
Rush Limbaugh: Screw the World! Riot in Denver!
I’m dreaming of riots in Denver. Remember 1968? […] I mean, if people say what’s your exit strategery, the dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention and that we have a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that. That’s the objective here.
That’s the objective here. He could not have been more explicit in his desire for violence and destruction. And now this scumbag thinks he can characterize others as having the sub-human traits that he harbors himself. Psychiatrists call this “projection.” I’ll just call it hypocritical bullshit.
