U.S. profeminist Jackson Katz has written a FABULOUS piece on the Huffington Post:
Rush Limbaugh and the Mobilization of White Male Anger in the Health Care debate
"Rush Limbaugh's critics have long noted the factual errors and tortured
logic that are regular features of his radio program. Not surprisingly,
little has changed over the past few months as he has put his stamp on the
health care debate. But Limbaugh does not only distort arguments about
complex issues like health care through deliberate falsehoods and bad
reasoning. His persuasive power lies mostly in his emotional connection with
his audience.
"Any serious attempt to understand how Limbaugh has made himself into the
nation's most influential conservative, and why he has been so effective in
shaping the debate about health care, must account for this part of his
appeal - especially to those in his primary demographic: middle-aged and
older white men.
"One of Rush Limbaugh's greatest strengths as a rhetorical alchemist is the
way he turns fear into anger - especially men's fear. Limbaugh regularly
takes (white) men's sadness, disappointment and apprehension - about a range
of political and personal subjects -- and interprets it for them as anger.
This is effective, in part, because for so many men, anger is much less
treacherous emotional terrain than other emotions - and much more socially
acceptable." (...)
Read it in full here