More on "The Savage Nation"

Since I savaged Michael Savage's The Savage Nation in my last post, without giving much in the way of specifics, I thought I should come back for another post and explain a bit more and give some examples. I also should say that the way I read this book probably wasn't the most conducive to reading for comprehension.

My commute home, the way I normally go, takes me through 15 stop lights (or, if you prefer, go lights). The first nine of those are in Bentonville, the last six in Bella Vista. To slightly engage my brain during the drive home, to further multitask in addition to the driving and the radio, I keep track of how many stop lights I have to stop at. That gets old, however. Eight one day, nine the next, six the next (a good commute), ten the next (a lousy commute). I needed a different multitasking activity. Some of those lights are long ones, and the wait is long due to Bentonville traffic, and counting is at best intermittent.

So I put The Savage Nation in the pick-up and read it during time sitting at stop lights. I found this was a way to make the commute go faster. If I picked the book up as soon as I stopped after the light turned read, it would turn green quickly. If I forgot to pick it up, distracted by something, the light would stay red forever. Then I'd think, oh, I'm missing an opportunity to read, pick up the book, and immediately the light would change. So I picked up the book often.

Admittedly, this is not the best way to read for comprehension, nor for enjoyment. I was disliking the book so much I decided I needed to give it a better chance, so I took it into my office and read it in longer chunks on noon hours or breaks. Unfortunately, it was any better reading in bigger chunks. Here's a sample from it.

Listen to what this lunatic is saying. She and her human-hating buddies clucked over how we process chickens, but they show little concern for the flight attendants who had their throats cut by Arab and Middle Eastern hijackers. No such sanctimony came from the mouths of those psycho nutcases with green hair and nipple rings. No. They're only concerned about a chicken having its throat cut.

Even without the full context of what Savage is talking about, I think you can see that this is not a passage designed to inform. It is designed to inflame. But it's not well enough written even to inflame. This is poor stuff from a man with a PhD. Let's try one more example.

Women are afraid of angry men. Particularly in this homosexualized, feminized America. An angry man frightens a woman. If a boyfriend can't be like a girlfriend (with the exception of a male appendage), she doesn't want him. If a boyfriend can't be like a sister putting on nails with her, she's offended by him. If a boyfriend doesn't look like an emaciated model on heroin, she's afraid of him.

Just as Savage, on his radio show, runs between very good and ridiculous statements, this book of his sprints between the reasonable and the absurd. I have a feeling much of the book if probably pretty good, but getting through the junk is impossible for me. So, as I said in the previous post, I'm not going to finish it, nor will it take up 5/8 inch on my valuable bookshelf space. No, it's going in the garage sale pile. I'll give it two sales. If I can't recoup half my investment, it's going to recycling.
Generalization. Sensationalization. Ranting. It's like that through the book.