Rush to B.S.

I listened to a little Rush Limbaugh today (I know, a little goes a long way) trash-talking Obama (I know) about income inequality.  But he didn't talk much about in-equality.  He yells and screams about "equality" (as if anybody ever mentions that any more) and how it's not possible, never happens, "sameness isn't possible," blah, blah blah, blowhard.  This is what is known in logic -- something Rush avoids whenever possible (but he does try to appear to use it) -- as a straw dog.  It means Rush decided it was more fun to talk about something else and just appear to be talking about the same thing.

BTW, Obama never talks about economic "equality" and probably doesn't believe in it, -- and definitely doesn't support it.  What he and other Democrats sometimes talk about is how much inequality we have in the USA.  What most USAns believe, including Republicans, is that we have too much.  So you really don't have to be a "socialist" -- which Obama is not -- to want to rein it in.

But here's one interesting point while we're on the subject.  Rush claims in his rant that:

1. the USA has the highest living standard in the world (untrue - see my previous post),
2. the USA has the most economic freedom (untrue - also see my previous post), and
3. no government program since the beginning of time has ever increased the living standards of a nation (STRRRRIIIIKE THREEEEE!  see Social Security, a very successful anti-poverty program for almost 80 years now).

Anyway, the straw-dog-meister then starts yelling about what "really pisses [him] off" (doesn't everything?).  And it's how the rich are "being demonized" -- you just can't make this stuff up!  On and on he shouts about people citing the rich getting richer.  And then he confirms it, reading a bunch of (conservative) data about the top income brackets increasing their income by 60% then 50% (a lot of money if you're already at the top) by smaller and smaller percentages as he drops the income ladder (never mentioning of course that even the same percentage on a lower income is a lot lower, much less a smaller and smaller and smaller percentage).

But this is all part and parcel of what Limbo does best.  He loves to take a part of an argument, without the parts that make it make sense (out of context), and ridicule the whole based on the part.  It's like holding up a spark plug and yelling, "This thing can't carry people around!  They must think we're stupid!"   Actually, it's Limbo who thinks we're stupid.