One of the most poignant parts of the Apologia is Socrates’ unveiling of his real accusers. They were not those who had brought the accusations, they were far older. Socrates himself was an aged man, and his jury had heard all manner of slander regarding him since they could walk. He was not merely facing the accusations brought forward in that Athenian court, he was contending with the strawman image his enemies had manifested in the public opinion.

Rush Limbaugh is our modern day Socrates. Think about that. An intellect and talent superior to anyone in his industry slandered by enemies to such a ridiculous extent that it is jaw-dropping to hear what ordinarily rational people will say about him. Let me give you two examples.

There was a public speaking class, mandatory in college, which served one purpose, one message. Rush is evil, a joke, and his audience is a contemptable collection of sexist homophobic idiots. I think there was an hour devoted to Glenn Beck’s depravities, but then it was right back to bashing Limbaugh.

It was pathetic. The lecturer was incompetent in the very topic of the class he claimed to teach. He relied solely on long PowerPoints filled with tacky gifs, and would repeat the same worn out animations on every slide. Toward the end of the term there were these half minute breaks where the Wonder Woman theme song would play as a transition between slides. He would play them between EVERY SLIDE!

And this is how a lesson would go. An issue would be brought up regarding public speaking. Do you know who uses red-herrings? Rush Limbaugh uses them. Do you know who insults people? Rush. There is a guy with a blackboard, and Rush is evil.

The only educational part of this education was when this professor would play clips of Rush. For a few moments blessed reality would flood the room. The lies of the lecturer became so barefaced I could hardly stop myself from laughing at him. Rush came up with the word feminazi, which proves Rush hates feminism, feminism is women, and therefore Rush hates women.

So, let that sink in a moment, ruminate on it. If you want to get a college education in my state there is a mandatory class devoted to bashing a man, and ridiculing a set of ideas we might call conservatism. It is by such propaganda that our next example must have come.

The gym was empty, another hour before anyone should show up, and I had Rush’s show playing on my phone as I warmed up. In came a friend of mine and asked me who it was. She was excited because she thought she recognized the voice as so-and-so. I told her it was Rush Limbaugh.

You would have thought I had farted loudly in her face by the sour expression that came over it. We had a long conversation—keep in mind most people just put a social quarantine around me once they know I am a republican—which ended in an unbelievable statement. She told me, a moderately intelligent college educated young woman told me, that there were gangs going around the United States indiscriminately killing homosexuals because Rush commanded them to.

Socrates didn’t survive his monstrous strawman, but his wisdom did.