My report: Rush is Wrong -- Using Sarcasm as a Weapon isn't Right

Rush was being interviewed by a school girl, and he had this to say:

RUSH... It's part of life. Now, what can you do about kids who think that being liberal is cool? What can you do to combat it? Laugh at them. Mock them. Make fun of them.

CALLER: (chuckles)

RUSH: Ridicule is the single greatest rapier. Ridicule is the single best way to embarrass somebody and get other people laughing at them. Whatever you do, do not be defensive. Don't let them set the agenda. Don't let them let you always be reacting or responding to what they do. Be on offense. Be assertive. Be confident. If they say something you disagree with, laugh at them, tell 'em you feel sorry for them.

Now this advice is so wrong. First off, verbal abuse, in this case sarcasm and ridiculing people, is endemic in schools. The "cool" kids just love to bully and ridicule the other kids, and they certainly don't need any encouragement.

Secondly, doesn't the left make fun of and ridicule Sarah Palin all the time? According to Rush, that just proves they're afraid of her. So if this kid ridicules Liberals in her school, isn't she just proving to them that she's afraid of them and their policies?

Finally...ridiculing another person accomplishes absolutely nothing at all, except perhaps to make the person being ridiculed angry and less willing to listen to reason. What Rush should have said was --- "Learn the facts about being a conservative. Learn all the facts so that when your Liberal classmates ask you a question, you can answer them calmly and intelligently. Have a debate based on ideas, not on insults. If someone insults you, point out they are being very childish. Anything else, engaging in insult-slanging matches, is beneath you."

I wish Rush had said that, and I wish he'd follow that philosophy. I know he won't, referring to Dingy Harry Reid and Lurch John Kerry and so on, is part of his schtick. But it's one of a couple of things I don't like about Limbaugh.