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CALLER: No. So, okay, there\u2019s several things that I love about you, Rush. But the one that encourages me and inspires me the most is that you are an overcomer. May I take a moment to explain how I have arrived at this conclusion about you?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Sure. Absolutely.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Thank you. It will help me build to my question. So you have overcome poverty. You know what it\u2019s like to make $19,000 a year and probably less than that, and now you can spend $19,000 at the snap of fingers. You know what it\u2019s like to drive an old jalopy of a car, and now you carry around hundred-dollar bills to tip the valets. You\u2019ve overcome career lows. You know what it\u2019s like to be fired, and now you make a fine living doing what you love every day. You\u2019ve overcome disability. You have a hearing disability and you\u2019re the king of radio.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve overcome the misconceptions and the misunderstandings of your intellectual father. Your intellect didn\u2019t respond to the confines of the American academic structure, and now you write history books, and you\u2019re America\u2019s teacher. And last, you daily, for decades now, overcome slander and lying and deliberate misrepresentation. And President Trump might be the only other person I see subjected to, at the same level that you are, and you both overcome it with grace.<\/p>\n
So, my question, since you understand Trump so well, and since you are yourself, I wanted to ask your advice for those of us in your audience who are subjected to slander and lying and misrepresentation and false narratives the more and more that we stand up for what is true and what is right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You want to know how to deal with it? Is that the question?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yeah. I want your advice. How do you overcome it with such grace, and what advice do you have for us who, at a different level, are still subjected to it?<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay, first off. Let me ask you a question. Would you like to write my biography?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Sure. Let\u2019s do it!<\/p>\n
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RUSH: I\u2019m blown away by your — that was just one nice thing after another, and I can\u2019t tell you how much I appreciate that. That denotes an awareness on your part. You\u2019re extremely aware. You\u2019ve noticed things and you remember them. You should have seen my face as you\u2019re going through this and everybody else\u2019s. They were applauding you on the other side of the glass.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Awww. Well, I\u2019ve been listening to what you say for a very long time.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, it\u2019s obvious that you have. It kind of floors me, because I never hear anything like what you just said. I never, ever hear it, so it\u2019s a combination of appreciation and a little embarrassment. I don\u2019t quite know how to react to it other than to say thank you and to applaud your perception, \u2019cause you\u2019re right about practically all of it.<\/p>\n
Now, overcoming this or how to deal with what you call the defamation or the slander, I have an advantage, I\u2019ll have to tell you, and the advantage is this microphone and this show. And for all of the times, all the instances where I am lied about or misrepresented or whatever the other things are that you said, I can come here every day and disprove it on a mass basis to the people who matter, and that is the people like you, people in the audience.<\/p>\n
Outside of the audience, I mean, there\u2019s not much I can do to change what those people think, but I do have an opportunity to counter all that just by being myself. I get the chance to demonstrate how those allegations, the defamation, the slander as you call it, isn\u2019t true by simply coming here. That\u2019s something you don\u2019t have. What kind of defamation, slander are you talking about? By association, by being, say, a Trump supporter you go out to a Trump rally or any kind of a rally and the opponents come up and they start calling you names. Or, you get associated with Trump and you\u2019re nameless but they still accuse you of being all these reprobate things he is? Are you wondering how to deal with that, too, you mean?<\/p>\n
CALLER: No. I mean, Trump factors into it a little bit, but it\u2019s been going on for a long time just because I am a truth lover and I stand up for the truth.<\/p>\n
RUSH: And a conservative. As a conservative, you\u2019re institutionally attacked.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: Yes, true, but some of it\u2019s more personal; it\u2019s in your own family. I think that family members get threatened by the truth, so then they make up a false narrative, like, “Oh, she\u2019s just unstable.” Or they\u2019ll just come up with all kinds of mean things. One time actually I called into your show, and Mr. Snerdley put on an opposing view right after me, which I thought was great to do, and the woman\u2019s first words were, “Oh, wow, I\u2019d love to live in the mind of your last caller with Peter Pan and the Easter bunny.” So she didn\u2019t have an intelligent response to what I had presented, so she just went immediately for the attack —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Exactly.<\/p>\n
CALLER: — to basically say this person\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Look, I\u2019ve gotta take a break here. Can you hold on during the break?<\/p>\n
CALLER: Sure.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Because I\u2019m not quite sure yet what you\u2019re looking for and I want to find out \u2019cause I think I\u2019ve got an answer for you.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: We are back with Robbie in Sacramento who we interrupted here by the necessity of a commercial break. You\u2019ll have to excuse my asking this over and over again. It\u2019s my hearing. I want to make sure what you\u2019re asking me before I go into an answer that\u2019s maybe off tangent. Explain to me exactly what it is that you are asking me for advice on, if that\u2019s what it is or suggestions or what have you.<\/p>\n
‘Cause what I gather is that you are suffering defamation, slander, unreal lying, mean-spirited criticism in your family and other places, and you\u2019re wondering what\u2019s the best way to deal with it, how to survive it, how to counter it, how to overcome it, how to destroy people doing it? What is it that you want to know?<\/p>\n
CALLER: No, I think a lot of us experience this, I guess we could call it suffering, this type of suffering when we stand up for truth and when we stand up for what\u2019s right. And often what happens with the people that disagree with us is they just immediately come on the attack.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Right.<\/p>\n
CALLER: If they have to make up —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Okay.<\/p>\n
CALLER: — things about you, if they have to lie about you, make up a false narrative. Like at work some of the women don\u2019t like that I\u2019m successful at some of the work I do, so they just make up a false narrative, “She\u2019s incompetent.” It\u2019s not true, I know it\u2019s not true, but how do you respond, how do you overcome that with grace? Do you just like totally put the blinders on, block it out, don\u2019t pay attention?<\/p>\n
RUSH: That\u2019s what I do.<\/p>\n
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CALLER: What\u2019s your advice?<\/p>\n
RUSH: That\u2019s what I do. I just ignore it, totally. When it first started, this is one of the areas of this job that I was entirely unprepared for and totally ill-equipped for and nobody had an answer for me. Six months after I start this show, all of a sudden for the first time in my life I\u2019m a nationwide racist, sexist, I hate women, I hate African Americans, and I\u2019m wondering, “My gosh, if this sticks I\u2019m destroyed before I even start.”<\/p>\n
So I would run around asking people, “How do you deal with this?” And every person I asked had a different theory, which told me there\u2019s no universal answer to this. The most common answer I got that made sense was to ignore it, because the minute you react to it — and this is something I strongly disagree with President Trump on. I think he elevates the criticism he gets and I think he expands it and extends it by responding to it. I\u2019ve always tried to, in my own mind, be bigger than the critics or the criticism.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve tried to look at responding to them as the equivalent of punching down, which is something you never do. You never waste time on people beneath you. You never give them the time of day, what they say, what they think, who they are. If they\u2019re coming after you and they\u2019re gnats, if they\u2019re, you know, just vermin running around behind the wall, just ignore them.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a mistake to give them the pleasure of knowing they\u2019ve upset you. It\u2019s a mistake because then you\u2019re gonna elevate what they\u2019re saying and expand it to a whole bunch of people who will not hear what they say, who don\u2019t know what they say. Now, I know the objections that you have to this too. “Well, some people are gonna believe \u2019em.” Well, you can\u2019t control that, unless you —<\/p>\n
CALLER: Right.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Unless you want to try to make an appointment with everybody in your office that you don\u2019t know or wherever these people are uttering their criticism. If you want to have a personal meeting with everybody you think might believe this, you could do that, but all you\u2019re gonna end up getting is, “Man, this woman is really bothered by this. There must be something to it.”<\/p>\n
Responding to it I have found never is as effective as ignoring it. There are exceptions to that. It\u2019s seductive. Responding to it, nuking \u2019em, destroying \u2019em, in my case it\u2019s never worked. It has always prolonged it. What you\u2019re talking about also is a healthy mental attitude in the face of all this.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Yes.<\/p>\n
I mean, for six months — this was during a presidential or maybe a Senate, it was an election year, a big election year. And I was being used in campaign ads against a Republican candidate in the Senate. I was being lied about, tarred and feathered, and there were all kinds of efforts being made to get me off the air. You know what gets me through that?<\/p>\n
CALLER: What?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/00-Golden-Mic-Era-of-Limbaugh-b-1.jpg\")
RUSH: One thing. One thing only. And that is the full-fledged trust that all 22 million people in this audience know it\u2019s bogus. That all 22 million people in this audience knew what was happening. That none of them were gonna abandon me and, in fact, had my back and were never gonna go away, were never gonna fall for it, and they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Now, unless you got a radio show like this, you can\u2019t have that kind of imaginary support, but you do have people you know, and you do have people you love, and you do have people that care about you. And if you have total trust that they\u2019ve got your back when you\u2019re being maligned, when you\u2019re being impugned, that should count for a lot in terms of your mental health.<\/p>\n
We human beings, all of us, are programmed early on to be concerned, and some people are even worse than that, about what other people think of us. And the simple fact is, you can\u2019t change what people who do not know you think about you. All you can do is take solace in the fact the people who do know you and the people you do love are not gonna fall for these attempts to impugn or destroy or whatever. So you\u2019re gonna have your own support group, whatever size it is, plus your own self-confidence that you are being true to what you believe in and true to the people you love, and that is probably the best thing that could sustain you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: You do. You have to trust them. You have to have confidence in them. And I tell you, I do. Whenever anything like that Michael J. Fox thing, any one, it doesn\u2019t matter. I have never quaked in fear here over any of these controversial things I\u2019ve been — why do you think — you probably know. You\u2019re shrewd. Why do you think I know full well that Donald Trump\u2019s audience, his voters, will never abandon him because of things other people say?<\/p>\n
Why do you think I know that the only way Trump can lose his voters is if he does something? The media cannot destroy him. They cannot destroy him with his base. The media cannot destroy the connection Trump supporters and voters have with him. Only Trump can do that.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, my supposition is that because you have experienced the same thing with your listeners and —<\/p>\n
RUSH: Exactly. Exactly. Despite everything — and I look at it, despite everything I\u2019ve put this audience through, they\u2019re there, and it\u2019s a larger number today than it\u2019s ever been. I have every reason in the world to trust the intelligence and awareness of people in this audience.<\/p>\n
They know when things about me being said are not true. They know when they are true. They know, and they\u2019re not affected by it. They don\u2019t split. They don\u2019t leave. I\u2019ve got 29 years of evidence of this. I can\u2019t tell you how sustaining that is. That\u2019s why I try to express my gratitude for the people in this audience as often as I do.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Well, it\u2019s certainly true of me. And clearly it\u2019s true of millions and millions of others.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Rush-Photos-SMALL-011.jpg\")
RUSH: Well, thank you, but you can make it true for yourself, too, if you\u2019re in a similar circumstance. ‘Cause what you\u2019re talking about is people lying about you. They\u2019re attacking you simply because you\u2019re standing for the truth. They don\u2019t want to hear it, whatever it makes them fear, and they\u2019re trying to damage you, and they\u2019re trying to do some kind of damage to you. And you have your own ability to withstand it with whatever group of people in your life you know know you and trust you and are able to learn very quickly when this criticism is bogus or when it\u2019s accurate.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re not going to abandon you because of it. And that is sustaining. It\u2019s comforting, and it can promote confidence as well. Where people get into trouble, Robbie, is when they start paying more attention and being more concerned about what the people they don\u2019t know think of \u2019em. That\u2019s a recipe for disaster. That\u2019s the first step toward somebody losing their identity. Basically what I\u2019ve learned, the greatest bit of advice that I would ever give people or be able to give is if I could convince everybody I met to not care what they say about you. Well, to not be destroyed by it, because it changes the definition of who you are.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re trying to make other people think positively of them. Everybody\u2019s doing the same thing in a giant circle. And you\u2019ll note the people who really succeed and stand out and go great guns are those who don\u2019t care what the people they don\u2019t know think about them. There are exceptions to this, of course, depending on what your business is. Like Michael Jordan, for example, he can\u2019t purposely antagonize Republicans because they buy tennis shoes, so he has to shut up.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not out there trying to make everybody love him, but he wants to make sure that he doesn\u2019t turn people off to him needlessly. So there are exceptions to everything that I\u2019m saying here. They\u2019re tailored to each person\u2019s specific life experience. But for mine, for me, it\u2019s been ignore them and don\u2019t care what people think, because they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
And look at what\u2019s happened to me today, Robbie, your call alone, the three to four minutes that you took at the beginning of the call explaining who I am and why you admire me, that will get me through another 10 years because that is evidence that my trust and faith in the audience, and that you know and understand, has been validated. That four minutes is enough to give me confidence to know that I\u2019ve made the right decisions and am doing the right things for who knows how many years. I mean, I can\u2019t tell you how valuable that really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RUSH: You'll note the people who really succeed and stand out and go great guns are those who don't care what the people they don't know think about them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n