Leroy N. Soetoro
2019-12-19 02:07:08 UTC
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-rush-limbaugh-great-
thunberg-autism-aspergers-trump-huppke-20191216-
y4vuvv34cbel7fmqbfmfekdl44-story.html
It is wise, if you value basic human decency, to ignore Rush Limbaugh.
The ever-outraged right-wing talk radio host has gurgled angrily for
decades now, like an aggrieved and sulfurous geyser. His cruelty gives his
fans a rush of adrenaline they presumably cant find elsewhere.
For people like me, Limbaugh is white noise in the whitest sense of the
word, a patriarchal old man who puts people like himself atop the power
structure and wont allow anyone different a woman, a person of color, a
person with a disability, an LGBT person inconvenience him in the least.
Its Limbaughs world, you see. Its a world of white, male dominance, a
world where people like him dont have to think about the words they use
or whether something they say might offend someone.
And as much as he should be ignored, the size of his audience and the
power he still wields in conservative circles makes it important to
occasionally look in and understand the vile sauce many Americans marinate
in.
So consider what Limbaugh said on his Friday show about Greta Thunberg,
the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who was recently named Time
magazines Person of the Year.
Limbaugh was responding to critics of President Donald Trump who were
rightfully appalled that the president mocked Thunberg on Twitter and
suggested she work on her Anger Management problem.
Limbaugh said:
The first thing to notice about Greta Thunberg is that she's 16 years
old. She claims she has Ansperger's type Ausperger's or autism
Asperger's some kind of problem in that area.
And so she is made the Person of the Year by Time magazine, which is
what? A political news magazine. Greta Thunberg has been introduced into
the political arena by the worldwide left, including the Democrat Party.
They have made her a political figure. They do this on purpose.
So shes out tweeting and politicizing, and she is free to lie and say
whatever she wants to say about climate change and whos responsible for
it. And nobody is permitted to question her, you see, because she has
what did they call it? She is in the autism spectrum, so you cant
disagree, you cant question, because shes not well.
Shes not well. Thats what set me off. While you can pick and choose the
offensive aspects of those comments, the casual remark that Thunberg is
not well highlights Limbaughs reckless disregard for anyone who isnt
just like him.
Thunberg has Aspergers syndrome, which means shes on the autism
spectrum. Autism is not a disease. And Thunberg is clearly well.
Earlier this year, she tweeted: Im not public about my diagnosis to
hide behind it, but because I know many ignorant people still see it as
an illness, or something negative.
Enter Rush Limbaugh, precisely proving the 16-year-olds point.
To suggest that a person with autism is not well is demeaning and
dehumanizing to anyone on the autism spectrum. It is both factually
incorrect and a fundamentally awful thing to say.
The response to that from Limbaugh and his followers will undoubtedly be
something along the lines of, I dont give a damn about political
correctness!
In fact, Limbaugh basically went there as he continued his Friday rant:
This is a tactic that the Democrats use. They will go out and purposely
find disabled people, they will make of them prominent political figures,
and when they do that, I'm sorry, if they're going to put disabled people
or any other kind of person in the political arena, they are converting
them into a political figure.
They have put speech codes, they have enforced speech codes and
behavioral codes on all of us. They have been slowly but surely taking
away as much freedom as they can from the way we speak, from the way we
behave, and even from the way we think. And they have gotten away with it
because a lot of people are afraid to object to any of it.
So they go out and they find disabled people theyve used Michael J.
Fox this way. They had him out there cutting television commercials for
Democrat Senate candidates. Cant respond, cant react, cant criticize,
because he has Parkinsons, its not fair, its mean-spirited. Sorry, it
doesnt shut me up. Im willing to pay the price for what they do. But
its a time-honored trick that they use.
Look, if the goal of people like me has long been to shut up people like
Limbaugh, it has been a catastrophic failure, because hes still filth-
babbling for hours each day.
And the suggestion that Democrats are out rounding up people with
disabilities to act as ideological human shields is volcanically offensive
to people with disabilities, not to mention transparently untrue.
The THEYRE TRYING TO SILENCE US! hustle is as stale as the idea that
political correctness is some great evil. Nobodys trying to silence
anybody. All anyone is doing is asking that the Limbaughs of the world
treat other people with a measure of respect.
People on the autism spectrum dont want to be described as sick or not
well. Because theyre not sick. And theyre not not well. Theyre
people. Period.
If you want to disagree with Thunbergs views on climate change, fine. If
the attention she has received bothers you, fine. If you feel the need to
criticize her a teenager for the role she has taken on as a voice for
climate advocacy, thats between you and your soul.
But to go after her in a way that brings down people with autism, to
belittle people with disabilities by suggesting they would let themselves
be used as political pawns, is villainous.
Thunberg and Limbaugh exist on different moral planes.
Shes doing what she believes will make the world a better place for
everyone.
Hes doing what he thinks will make it better only for himself.
***@chicagotribune.com
It's called free speech.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
thunberg-autism-aspergers-trump-huppke-20191216-
y4vuvv34cbel7fmqbfmfekdl44-story.html
It is wise, if you value basic human decency, to ignore Rush Limbaugh.
The ever-outraged right-wing talk radio host has gurgled angrily for
decades now, like an aggrieved and sulfurous geyser. His cruelty gives his
fans a rush of adrenaline they presumably cant find elsewhere.
For people like me, Limbaugh is white noise in the whitest sense of the
word, a patriarchal old man who puts people like himself atop the power
structure and wont allow anyone different a woman, a person of color, a
person with a disability, an LGBT person inconvenience him in the least.
Its Limbaughs world, you see. Its a world of white, male dominance, a
world where people like him dont have to think about the words they use
or whether something they say might offend someone.
And as much as he should be ignored, the size of his audience and the
power he still wields in conservative circles makes it important to
occasionally look in and understand the vile sauce many Americans marinate
in.
So consider what Limbaugh said on his Friday show about Greta Thunberg,
the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who was recently named Time
magazines Person of the Year.
Limbaugh was responding to critics of President Donald Trump who were
rightfully appalled that the president mocked Thunberg on Twitter and
suggested she work on her Anger Management problem.
Limbaugh said:
The first thing to notice about Greta Thunberg is that she's 16 years
old. She claims she has Ansperger's type Ausperger's or autism
Asperger's some kind of problem in that area.
And so she is made the Person of the Year by Time magazine, which is
what? A political news magazine. Greta Thunberg has been introduced into
the political arena by the worldwide left, including the Democrat Party.
They have made her a political figure. They do this on purpose.
So shes out tweeting and politicizing, and she is free to lie and say
whatever she wants to say about climate change and whos responsible for
it. And nobody is permitted to question her, you see, because she has
what did they call it? She is in the autism spectrum, so you cant
disagree, you cant question, because shes not well.
Shes not well. Thats what set me off. While you can pick and choose the
offensive aspects of those comments, the casual remark that Thunberg is
not well highlights Limbaughs reckless disregard for anyone who isnt
just like him.
Thunberg has Aspergers syndrome, which means shes on the autism
spectrum. Autism is not a disease. And Thunberg is clearly well.
Earlier this year, she tweeted: Im not public about my diagnosis to
hide behind it, but because I know many ignorant people still see it as
an illness, or something negative.
Enter Rush Limbaugh, precisely proving the 16-year-olds point.
To suggest that a person with autism is not well is demeaning and
dehumanizing to anyone on the autism spectrum. It is both factually
incorrect and a fundamentally awful thing to say.
The response to that from Limbaugh and his followers will undoubtedly be
something along the lines of, I dont give a damn about political
correctness!
In fact, Limbaugh basically went there as he continued his Friday rant:
This is a tactic that the Democrats use. They will go out and purposely
find disabled people, they will make of them prominent political figures,
and when they do that, I'm sorry, if they're going to put disabled people
or any other kind of person in the political arena, they are converting
them into a political figure.
They have put speech codes, they have enforced speech codes and
behavioral codes on all of us. They have been slowly but surely taking
away as much freedom as they can from the way we speak, from the way we
behave, and even from the way we think. And they have gotten away with it
because a lot of people are afraid to object to any of it.
So they go out and they find disabled people theyve used Michael J.
Fox this way. They had him out there cutting television commercials for
Democrat Senate candidates. Cant respond, cant react, cant criticize,
because he has Parkinsons, its not fair, its mean-spirited. Sorry, it
doesnt shut me up. Im willing to pay the price for what they do. But
its a time-honored trick that they use.
Look, if the goal of people like me has long been to shut up people like
Limbaugh, it has been a catastrophic failure, because hes still filth-
babbling for hours each day.
And the suggestion that Democrats are out rounding up people with
disabilities to act as ideological human shields is volcanically offensive
to people with disabilities, not to mention transparently untrue.
The THEYRE TRYING TO SILENCE US! hustle is as stale as the idea that
political correctness is some great evil. Nobodys trying to silence
anybody. All anyone is doing is asking that the Limbaughs of the world
treat other people with a measure of respect.
People on the autism spectrum dont want to be described as sick or not
well. Because theyre not sick. And theyre not not well. Theyre
people. Period.
If you want to disagree with Thunbergs views on climate change, fine. If
the attention she has received bothers you, fine. If you feel the need to
criticize her a teenager for the role she has taken on as a voice for
climate advocacy, thats between you and your soul.
But to go after her in a way that brings down people with autism, to
belittle people with disabilities by suggesting they would let themselves
be used as political pawns, is villainous.
Thunberg and Limbaugh exist on different moral planes.
Shes doing what she believes will make the world a better place for
everyone.
Hes doing what he thinks will make it better only for himself.
***@chicagotribune.com
It's called free speech.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.