I just remembered a strange Rush Limbaugh story. It was in early 2012, when Sandra Fluke was lobbying for Obamacare to cover birth control, Rush Limbaugh was being criticized to Hell and back for having a take so extreme and so off base on so many levels that to call it wrong would be charitable, and yours truly was taking a course at Columbia College Chicago about the culture of the Weimar Republic.
At this point, we had recently watched The Blue Angel, which, for those of you who don’t know, is about an old reactionary of a professor named Rath (played by Emil Jannings) who ends up falling for exotic dancer Lola (played by Marlene Dietrich). This is despite his veering towards a very
Kinder, Küche, Kirche view of womanhood. He chews out her boss at the cabaret for the way he treats her, but his view of womanhood is still very limited and may not be much more fulfilling than that (as evidenced by the fact that she ends up still performing in a position that’s cushier than the one he has.)
Why do I focus on Rath’s retrograde and patronizing views towards women here? Because a couple lessons later, we were talking about the rise of Hitler, and at one point the professor talked about Hitler’s views towards women. I said he was a bit like Rath. His response was along the lines of “what, he called them sluts and prostitutes?” I responded “No, more like Rath from the Blue Angel. Not like Rush Limbaugh.” And then I got that sinking feeling after thinking about the repercussions of this: that, if this controversy with Rush Limbaugh was any indication, the Republican Party was finally getting to the point where they were actually more extreme than the Nazis.
At this point, we had recently watched The Blue Angel, which, for those of you who don’t know, is about an old reactionary of a professor named Rath (played by Emil Jannings) who ends up falling for exotic dancer Lola (played by Marlene Dietrich). This is despite his veering towards a very
Kinder, Küche, Kirche view of womanhood. He chews out her boss at the cabaret for the way he treats her, but his view of womanhood is still very limited and may not be much more fulfilling than that (as evidenced by the fact that she ends up still performing in a position that’s cushier than the one he has.)
Why do I focus on Rath’s retrograde and patronizing views towards women here? Because a couple lessons later, we were talking about the rise of Hitler, and at one point the professor talked about Hitler’s views towards women. I said he was a bit like Rath. His response was along the lines of “what, he called them sluts and prostitutes?” I responded “No, more like Rath from the Blue Angel. Not like Rush Limbaugh.” And then I got that sinking feeling after thinking about the repercussions of this: that, if this controversy with Rush Limbaugh was any indication, the Republican Party was finally getting to the point where they were actually more extreme than the Nazis.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
![[Image: harmlesskitchen.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/yxR97P23/harmlesskitchen.png)
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
