Customer Reviews

Confessions of a Former Dittohead

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Revealing his slow ascent up from the depths of Dittohead-dom, Jim garnered a huge and enthusiastic audience from his debut diary on the behemoth political blog, Daily Kos. We kept asking for more, Jim kept obliging us, and some smart reader pointed him out to IG Publishing.

He came out of the closet, so to speak, but that wasn't the real reason he got the response he did. He would have been welcomed, certainly, as many other recovering kool-aid drinkers have been, but there was something bigger at play.

This boy is funny. Plus he's smart. Sometimes he breaks your heart with his insight into his younger self, as in Chapter 3, Amy's Story, where his knee-jerk condemnation of abortion meets the straightforward biography of a friend. Sometimes he makes you choke with laughter, as in the chapter where his "coming out" to his father as an ex-Dittohead is inadvertantly accomplished on a radio show Jim was sure his Dad would never hear in a million years.

Sometimes you want to crack him over his thick skull when he confesses his difficulty in maintaining a college friendship with a gay friend who also blew a lot of stereotypes Jim had. (That's the other thing he has that's absolutely necessary for such a book. He's brutally honest with himself (hello, looking at you Mr. Million Little Pieces and Ms. Opal Mehta).

He's also honest, yet gentle in many ways, with those who are still in Rush's thrall.

The book is divided in two parts. The first chronicles the steps on his path out of the morally murky smog of Rush-think. The second is a primer in how to approach the Dittohead in your life.

The second half read more haltingly. I think in part that's because my own brain resisted identifying with the ins and outs of Rush-think. That's the same thing, of course, that makes it difficult for me to engage die-hard Rushies successfully. Which makes the second part of the book even more important than the first. Kind of like broccoli, but tastier.

Jim is now on a signing tour with the book. If he's coming to your town (or you're going to Yearlykos or DemocracyFest), go see him and buy a book.

I used to be a dittohead, and still am friends with many of them. These are good people who are so ill-informed that it is quit frankly, scary.

The danger of Rush is that he is entertaining and that he also makes the listener feel as if they actually know something about politics and that they are being informed. He is different than Howard Stern and Imus in that they do not pretend to know anything, in fact the humor of them is that they are so up front with their ignorance that they are not taken seriously.

Many of my friends ideas about politics come directly from Rush, I know because I used to spout the same stuff. What began to change me was Iraq, when what Maha Rushie was saying just was not matching up to what I was seeing in the "Liberal Media." It was at this point that I began to realize that their was no liberal media, but in fact their definitly was a Conservative media. My arc from Conservative to liberal was probably even more dramatic than the author's.

The Right Wing Media in this country is extremly powerful and dangerous. The best book on the subject is The Right Wing Noise Machine by David Brock. In his book Brock examines and describes the genesis and rise of the Right Wing Media in our country, which has culminated in Rush and now Fox News. I also recommend Outfoxed the DVD.

I sometimes ask people how they feel about certain issues, and the vast majority agree with me on issues, but will never vote democrat. I believe this is the Rush effect, because he spends all day demonizing democrats that the listener just assumes that these people are bad, without really even knowing the issue. This is not journalism, it is partisian politics at it's worst.Rush will go on and on about the "Liberal Media," but will make no attempt to appear fair, therefore, anyone to the left of Rush, is a leftist. Rush is a hypocrit, and I do not even care about his three marriages, draft dodgeing or his drug habit.

The future of our country is at stake here folks, and a little bit more than half of us do not seem to have the facts required to make informed decisions about it. If someone can articulate a position from gathered information, fine, but that is not what we are dealing with here.

In conclusion, this was an exellent read, and I highly recommend it.

As might be expected from the title, Confessions of a Former Dittohead sheds light on the Rush Limbaugh phenomena for those who already think he's an idiot. But the pleasant surprise is that it also presents some incisive arguments that could be used in a sincere attempt to convert those who think he's a hero. Should Rush fans actually read this friendly little book, its light and informal style might just make them think again. Derych is neither preachy nor condescending; mostly he's rather modest about his transformation. This isn't so much a tell-all confessional self-exposé as much as an honest mea culpa.

As Derych slowly became disillusioned by a series of events that continued to offer an alternative reality--facts that he couldn't easily dismiss--he started to listen more carefully and question some of the premises. As he did so, he discovered the duplicity of the arguments. One by one, his core beliefs went by the wayside.

Derych describes this transformation in a easy-to-read style, allowing the reader a glimpse of what it takes to undergo such radical change about controversial issues: abortion, gay rights, religion, and fiscal policy, to name a few. Derych's candor allows you to enter the mindset and follow the logic (or illogic). For those who are already on the left, it's an interesting read with some practical advise on how to talk to a Rush fan and score points in the process. For those on the right, if you can get them to read the book, they may be able to empathize and identify with Derych enough to start to chisel away at the façade of what Derych tags "the right-wing reasoning chip."

Derych takes each issue, pulls apart the Rush logic and explains how to crack open the door. As a professional financial planner, Derych is particularly strong on making his case in fiscal matters, including taxes, government spending and Social Security. It seems like arguing with facts would be self-evident, but to the `dittiot' (Derych's term for those who have lost all sense of reason and follow blindly), it is not. Derych argues that dittoheads must be force-fed with truth and he cautions that it is not an easy task mostly because dittoheads have been brainwashed to believe that the "facts" fed by Rush are true - no proof required. There is no critical thinking going on in the brain of a dittohead.

There used to be Republicans who could defend their tenets without resorting to falsifying and distorting information; they may have had a different perspective, but they weren't dishonest and they didn't depend on bogus claims. One could disagree, but both sides were arguing from the same reality. In the last couple of decades that has changed. Derych has made a big contribution to showing how that divide may be narrowed. Like the early days of the Gingrich movement, one small step at a time on a personal level where each cut bleeds a little and needs fresh air to heal. Derych supplies some fresh air.

Derych tells us that he'd let Rush Limbaugh lie to him for 13 years - now he's repented and wants to vent. No longer believing in the infallibility of Rush, the Republican Party and Fox News, Derych now has the ability to accept facts that contradict their views.

"It was the complete abandonment of anything remotely resembling intellectual honesty that brought the change," according to the author. Much of the conservative view is based on ignorance; therefore, knowledge is the antidote. "Confessions of a Dittohead" follows Derych's experiences and thinking through abortion, gays in the military, Iraq, economic impact of Bush, Reagan and Clinton tax actions, and polls showing Bush supporters knowledge of Iraq fact much less than Kerry's.

Then we get a number of author insights. Derych suggests not calling Bush a liar (very difficult to prove, and brings about an immediate shutdown of any dittohead's senses), but instead simply a lousy boss (cronyism, "big-government" spender) - much more likely to reach agreement. Claims (by Rush, et al) that this country was founded by Christians are wrong - as evidence, he provides examples from the writings of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Ethan Allen, and Thomas Paine. Concluding that because Paul Ehrlich's 1968 "The Population Bomb" predictions didn't occur (yet), therefore global warming won't either (Rush) is stupid. As for the President's Social Security plan, the author's experience as a CFP suggests that most of us are poor investors and the freedom of choices offered would not serve us well.

Interesting and informative; also hopeful - if Derych (and I) can move from wrong (right) to right (left), so can most anyone else!

The author strikes a few funny notes amid a sea of generally flat prose. But overall, the reader is left with the impression of someone who's bragging about simply switching the people he lets define his views for him. I suggest a funnier title and more revealing approach to take (and I do mean this sincerely, if it's done well) is "Confessions of a Born Follower."

Condescending is too weak a word for this blog-become-book.

Boasting about no longer being a mindless idiot after 13 years is difficult. Crowing and patting yourself on the back at the same time is a real trick.

What the author is really revealing about himself is naked opportunism. There's no new insight or information here, just a desire to be applauded by his new political compatriots. It will not surprise if he suddenly, in another 13 years, discovers he's been duped again, and writes: "Confessions of a Former Kossack".

Read a couple of his bloviated blog entries to get your fill and save yourself 11 bucks. Or wait a couple of months and pick it up in the remainders bin.