Obama, Antichrist, Rush Limbaugh, and Socialism
The wonderful thing about Google is that everyone in the world dumps their souls into it without realizing that their searches can be analyzed. We unwittingly query what we care about. Google Insights allows us to take a peek into the demographics and the insanity of the political environment, without bias. The only bias is that this data only applies to people who have a computer and use Google. The following is an example of how this tool can be used to analyze political movements.
I decided to see if I could calculate, based on the sentiment I see in the public discourse today, what people might have been googling during the election. I created a Google Insight on the search terms Socialism, Rush Limbaugh, and Antichrist during the election period. Here are the results:
Google Insight: Rush, Socialism, and Antichrist
There is an obvious spike in the number of people googling these search terms, and the volume of searches is almost the same for all three searches. Let’s take a look at some demographics. Here’s the map for those searching antichrist:
Antichrist Search Volume
First, the obvious thing should be that the bible belt, the dark blue region in the middle of the United States, has been searching antichrist at a greater volume during the elections than any other region of the United States. But we need a deeper understanding of why this region is searching antichrist. Here is a list of the top related searches for this Google Insight which exposes the fundamentalist Christians’ fears, hatred, and biases:
Google Antichrist Search Terms
In almost every case Obama is included in their searches for antichrist. This should cause every rational, educated citizen to be concerned that such a sentiment exists in a civilized modern nation. What we see here is a fear-based reaction to a political environment. Fear is at the heart of these searches. This is where political commentators like Rush Limbaugh thrive; they find the fear, insert political causes, and reap the reward. Conservatism today is riding a wave of fear.
 Tea Party Riots 2009 |
 Rush Limbaugh |
Conclusion
The irrational behavior seen in the town hall meetings and the Tea Party protests can be attributed to fear-based religious fanaticism, which their searching habits expose. I’m not criticizing these people, but I’m deeply concerned by the data. We see evidence of this fear-based mentality in Glenn Beck naming his movement “The 9/12 Project”, referencing the day after September 11. The search volumes above expose this deep-seated apocalyptic fear as an uneducated understanding of religion, which is being exploited by college drop-out conservatives like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. The right needs to adjust their rhetoric to target thinking listeners, while the left needs to recognize that they need to adjust their own rhetoric in order to make the moral voters realize that their politics of compassion are more in line with the Christianity taught by Jesus than the right’s “survival of the fittest” Darwinian economic policies.
Google Insights can be created at: http://www.google.com/insights/search/
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