Where are the fact-checkers when you need them? Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has delivered some intellectually inept zingers over the years. In 2010, commenting on the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Limbaugh said:
“The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It’s natural. It’s as natural as the ocean water is.”
That factually challenged comment looks positively Nobel-worthy compared to one of Limbaugh’s recent official Facebook posts. In a flailing and misguided effort to attract Millennial voters, Rush Limbaugh wrote:
“Solar panels are not sustainable, Millennials. May sound good, yes. But what do you do when the sun’s down at night?”
There’s a general rule in politics. When you’re targeting a specific demographic and trying to attract their vote, it’s best not to insult the intelligence of that demographic. Millennials, the largest and most diverse group in the U.S. population, grew up with the Internet.
They understand modern technology and are fluent in the ways it affects the world. In other words, chances are they know how solar energy works when the sun goes down. If Rush Limbaugh had a team of fact-checkers and research specialists, he too would understand that solar battery banks store energy throughout the day in order to be used as electricity at night.
Of course, Rush Limbaugh doesn’t believe in fact-checkers, either. In his opinion, fact-checkers are just another cog in the liberal propaganda machine. Still, renewable solar energy isn’t politics; it’s science. Millennials know that. Why doesn’t Limbaugh?