RUSH: Florida school shooting survivors to head to Tallahassee, Florida, state capital, to press lawmakers on gun control. But it’s not political, you see. It isn’t political, but they’re going up there to the state capital. It isn’t political. The students, They’re not political. They’re the ones that were shot at. That means they’re the only ones we should listen to. And they’re on their way to the state capital to talk to lawmen, lawmakers, but it isn’t political. You see, this is exactly how it happens.
Greetings, my friends. Great to have you here, Rush Limbaugh raring and loaded, the EIB Network.
This is how it happens. I don’t care what the issue, you have the left-wing and their agenda, and the Drive-By Media propping it up and saying it isn’t political. These are victims. They’re not interested in politics. They just want the killing to stop. And therefore, the liberal position is presented as the one that is not political and is therefore designed to, shall we say, seduce low-information voters and others into joining that position.
And the only political position, of course, would be that held by the conservative or Republicans or whatever. This is exactly how it happens. Students in their interviews and so forth have talked how politicians of both parties need to put their politics aside and come together and solve this issue. Politics isn’t the answer. And the media hypes that, but the way the students want to do it is by going after the Second Amendment, the NRA, gun control, but it automatically becomes not political, you see. It’s great trick, my friends.
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RUSH: I want to get started on the phones. Pocatello, Idaho. This is Margaret. Glad you called, and welcome.
CALLER: Hello. Thank you for having me.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: So these poor kids, you know, that were on Chris Wallace’s show before you were on —
CALLER: — I just think that, you know, the school system is just brainwashing these poor kids with, you know, socialistic liberal views, and uh… uh… I totally just lost my train of thought. Anyway, my next point, too, though, is I think that feminism, modern-day feminism is the main problem, and I think that —
RUSH: Wait a minute. How so? How is feminism at the root of this brain washing? I happen to agree with you about it. I would phrase it a bit differently, but I agree. How is feminism at the root?
CALLER: Well, I think that women turning their back on God and Christian values and expecting schools or day cares to raise their children — and I think that feminism is what’s wrong with our economy. I think that, you know, the way kids are being raised these days. I think that feminism is the ultimate problem that we’re facing today.
RUSH: You mean as in the instance of the chickification of our culture, the demasculinization of men?
CALLER: Oh, yeah, that too. I really think that all problems stem from modern-day feminism.
RUSH: Well, it’s a concentrated brand of liberalism, so within those confines I would say you have a point. About the students, folks, hang on. I did some research, university academic research on the teenage brain that I want to share with you. It’s from the University of Rochester, and I will share that with you as the program unfolds.
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RUSH: USA Today’s story. Just to give you the upshot of this, it’s absurd, but I think it makes the point that our previous caller was making. Call it the chickification of much of our culture or feminism and its attempts here at righting a bunch of societal cultural wrongs against them that they think are born of discrimination. I think basically feminism is a bunch of people unhappy with human nature. They don’t like their assigned roles — by human nature.
The USA Today headline: “Are Boys ‘Broken’?” The full headline: “Another Mass Shooting Renews Debate on Toxic Masculinity,” and of course they have been broken. But not by masculinity. We’ve had masculinity for eons. We’re probably in the least masculine times in our lifetime. If I had to honestly assess this, the attack on masculinity has been prolonged, and it’s been intense, since the modern era of feminism began — and I trace that back to ’69, ’68, 1970, in that period of time. The attack on men just for being men began intensely at that time.
Men became predators. Men became brutes, uncontrollable beasts who punished and abused. And it’s just mushroomed from there. And I think we’re actually living in a culture which has beaten masculinity out of a lot of guys. Remember, men… I get in a lot of trouble for saying this because people don’t understand what I’m saying. Men will do whatever they think they have to to get women, to get relationships. They’ll do whatever they think they have to.
It’s what makes the world go ’round. There’s nothing obscene about it. There’s nothing filthy about it. But it has become that with this intensification of modern feminism. But if boys are “broken,” it’s not because of masculinity. We’ve had masculinity for eons! Masculinity gave us movie icons and heroes that everybody loved. Boys are in trouble because they’re being demasculated, if you ask me. Now, from this USA Today article:
“[C]omedian Michael Ian Black started a thread on Twitter that sparked a vitriolic debate about the role of gender in gun violence. It began with the tweet, ‘Deeper even than the gun problem is this: boys are broken.’ … In an interview with NPR on Sunday, he elaborated. ‘I think it means that there is something going on with American men that is giving them the permission and space to commit violence,’ he said. ‘And one of the main things we focus on correctly is guns and mental health, but I think deeper than that is a problem, a crisis in masculinity.'”
So his point is that a bunch of guys who are really nobodies — they’re ignored, they’re laughed at and made fun of — decide they want to be big guys, and so they go out and grab guns and start shooting people. And I think it is the lack of masculinity that makes these outcasts become even more vulnerable. It isn’t masculinity itself. This is 180 degrees out of phase, in other words. But, again, keep in mind: All of this is not political, you see?
Yes, because we’re gonna listen to the students, and the students are telling us we’ve got to take this out of politics, and the media pounces. The media loves it. “Oh, yeah! We’re gonna get the politics out of it.” We’re not getting the politics out of anything. What we’re doing is converting mainstream liberalism into not being political. We are insulating the very political movement that is destroying so much of this country’s culture.
We’re removing it from politics so it’s unassailable. So the only politics remaining is that of the Republican Party or conservatives or what have you, and it’s a neat trick. It is a neat trick that these people do. They take mainstream liberalism, and they elevate it so that it isn’t political. And the students are perfect. “We want politicians of both parties to set their differences aside and work with us to save lives and go after the NRA and get rid of guns,” and immediately it’s “not political.” Except it is the epitome of political.
Now, I mentioned to you that I want to do some research on the teenage brain. Well, I will admit that the last couple of days talking about this, that I’m skating on the edge, because whenever we have a disaster like this, the victims are always given a voice. And their voice, the things they say, are often said by the media to be unassailable. “You can’t criticize. They’re hurting. They’re suffering. We must listen to them,” and listen? Yeah. And if you totally endorse and agree with what they are saying, then that is wonderful.
But if you disagree, you can’t. You can’t! That’s insensitivity. I mean, the left has been very successful at shutting out and turning off opposition debate by labeling it as mean-spirited or extremist or illegitimate or what have you. So now what we’re told is that we are to listen to what people 15, 16, and 17 think, that they hold the wisdom and that no one else does and that they need to be listened to. And if you doubt me, I have here a series of tweets. There was a post at the National Review blog, The Corner.
“Let the Kids Talk.” That’s not the advocacy of this post. It is a description of what they’re posting here, and it’s a series of tweets — mostly from celebrities — telling everybody else to shut up and listen to the kids. Chris Murphy (whoever he is), “I sincerely hope my colleagues listen to what these students have to say.” Hillary Clinton: “Now is the time to listen to the students, teachers, and parents demanding that we end this carnage once and for all with gun safety laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them.”
So see how this is not political?
That’s the beauty.
It’s not political!
Oliver Willis: “But if we have to talk about guns, the NRA/GOP wants the left to go full nerd. They want clinical descriptions of gun restriction measures…” Um, the printing didn’t get it. Half of the line on one page, half line the other. Let me forget that one. Let’s see. Will Bunch (whoever this is): “The ‘Youthquake’ is finally here! The tragedy in Florida revealed kids who fight for themselves because the ‘grown-ups’ won’t. Can a new generation bring a new Congress to end our insane gun laws — AND Trump’s presidency?”
See, it’s not political.
See how this works? It’s not political!
We should listen to the students and no one else.
John Oliver, noted British comedian on HBO. “This time felt slightly different because when the ‘now’s not the time’ argument came out, the kids from that school said, ‘You know what? Yes it f*cking is.’” Nate Silver: “So far, Parkland is not fading from the news the way the mass shootings usually do. The students speaking out makes a pretty big difference.”
See, it’s not political. We are to listen to the students. The left has been asking us to listen to the students for 50 years. The students in the ’60s had all the answers. The students in the ’70s, the malcontent students wherever they were have always been useful tools of the left because they’re able to position them as nonpolitical. They’re victims. Nobody is shooting at you. But they were shooting at the kids. We need to listen to the kids.
So the kids have this massive rally going up to Tallahassee today, state capital of Florida, and on March 24th a massive march on Washington, where George Clooney has donated half a million dollars. But it’s not political, you see. So I decided there had to be research on the teenager. It’s amazing, if you come up with the right search term on the internet, you can find what you’re looking for.
“Understanding the Teen Brain,” Health Encyclopedia, University of Rochester Medical Center. And here, let me read to you from some of that which has been published.
“It doesn’t matter how smart teens are or how well they scored on the SAT or ACT. Good judgment isn’t something they can excel in.” They haven’t lived long enough. Sixteen, 17, 18-year-olds cannot excel in good judgment. Not yet. “The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.”
Did you know that?
Well, you may have known it instinctively out of your experience, but clinically, this is University of Rochester Medical Center: “In fact, recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part.
“In teen’s brains, the connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making center are still developing — and not necessarily at the same rate. That’s why when teens experience overwhelming emotional input, they can’t explain later what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as they were feeling.”
You see now why the Democrats are so interested in pushing for lowering the voting age to 16? The party of science. Yes, the Democrat Party. Which is really the party of shameful manipulation and exploitation. The Democrats want you to think that they care about your kids. And they care about your kids about as much as they cared about keeping your insurance policy or doctor.
Let me ask you something, folks. This is the rational part of an adult brain asking a question. We’ve had how many mass shootings at schools in the last five years, 10 years, 15, 20, whatever timeframe you want to use. What have the Democrats come up with to change that? What have the Democrats offered to make our schools safer? Not a thing. Because after each one of these events the Democrats go beeline political. And they make tracks for the NRA, and they make tracks for the gun lobby.
There hasn’t been a meaningful change in policy involving safety in schools in 20 years. Unless you want to say making it illegal to have a gun anywhere near a school, which has just turned them into sitting-duck locations. A gun-free zone is an invitation to anybody who wants to enter with a gun. Haven’t done one thing.
But, boy, there’s been a lot of talk, and there’s been a lot of emotion, and there’s been a lot of caring, and there’s been a lot of compassion, and there have been a whole bunch of new foundations. And there have been a whole bunch of people asking you to send them money so that they can carry on the good work of getting guns out of the hands of bad guys.
How about the football coach who is being heralded as a great hero — and he is — for placing his body in the line of fire. He died. Imagine if he’d had a gun. Imagine if he’d have had some ability to stop this without dying himself. Imagine anybody.
There’s another story of another student who was shot five times trying to shield and protect others. What if somebody in this school had had the means to fire back and stop this? You mention that and you can’t believe the literal hell that is going to be visited upon you for daring to suggest that there be guns in schools. Nope. We have to remain above the political fray, folks. And we have to go right after the NRA and the gun lobby.
And we have to listen to the students. They have been shot at, and you haven’t, and so it’s time for you to shut up. It’s like saying you have no right to talk about Americans defense policy, you didn’t serve in Vietnam. You have no right to weigh in on the defense budget because you, you didn’t have the guts to face the commies in Vietnam or anywhere else, so you don’t have the right. And notice how the left comes along with these very clever ways to silence everybody who might have a persuasive way of illustrating how inept the left is at actually fixing this, solving this, or anything like this.
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RUSH: Oh, by the way, I left out one of the best tweets about how we should listen to the kids and ignore the adults. And it comes from none other than Laurence Tribe, the professor of law at Harvard. Now, Laurence Tribe is on TV somewhat. He’s not on TV as often as Professor Dershowitz. Laurence Tribe is the leftist law professor that the media cries about having not been named to the Supreme Court. The simply greatest, greatest leftist to have not been named to the court. And it’s almost an injustice.
So this guy, this law professor at Harvard tweeted this: “Teens between 14 and 18 have far better BS detectors on average than adults 18 and older. Wouldn’t it be great if the voting age were lowered to 16?” It’s exactly my point. Because it’s exactly wrong! Teens between 14 and 18, the part of the brain that reasons isn’t even fully developed ’til age 25. Of course he wants the voting age lowered to 16. That’s when they are the most emotionally impressionable.
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RUSH: Let me ask this. No, no. You know what? I’m not gonna ask. I’ve done enough here not even trying to stir the pot.
Well, see, here’s the thing. This is what I was gonna say. These students cannot support themselves. They just can’t. They’re students. They don’t have jobs to support themselves. The buses that they’re on to Tallahassee are brand-new. They are not school buses. They’re not little yellow buses. They are brand-new Greyhound, Trailways, whatever, state of the art buses.
So somebody’s buying it for them. Who’s organizing all this? “The students did it, Mr. Limbaugh, the students. Why can’t you admit that these people are totally capable and very committed and it’s entirely sensible.” Really? This looks exactly like your average left-wing Democrat Party protest march, movement, event, what have you. Because it is.
“But it’s not, Mr. Limbaugh. It’s not political. We have asked representatives of both parties to put their politics aside here. This is not political.” It’s just like Jennifer Lawrence taking a year off from acting to fix corruption and the government and stuff at Represent.Us.
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