Okay, so this is clearly a bare-knuckles forum. And it's not my intention to piss all over a person who a lot of you clearly enjoy or even respect. But let me post a rather notorious quotation from Savage's television days (the quote that got him booted off MSNBC -- yeah, I know, they're a bunch of commies). His words were in response to a caller who identified himself as gay: "Oh, you're one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got nothing to do today, go eat a sausage and choke on it."
I don't know what the caller had said prior to Savage's response. I suspect it was insulting, perhaps very misrepresentative of Savage's true words. But I'd have much more respect for Savage had he taken apart the person's argument based on any lies or misinformation the person was "selling" rather than just venting his evident disdain for a chunk of the population.
I suppose I am one of those so-called "concern trolls" who is worried about the state of rhetoric/discourse in America. So many pundits (and anonymous posters) are intent on annihilating the opposition. Essentially, I see a lot of people as seeing their side (politically speaking) as all intelligent, hard working, honest, and honorable. The other side? They're all just lying, stupid, dishonest, lazy, and without any integrity. I think there are a cankerous abundance of assholes on both sides of the political aisle (and in the parties "in between" those aisles). There are those I respect as well on both sides.
I think members of both major political parties do it, but I think some people who are iconic radio and television stars are much more prone to such reductionist thinking because that's how they make money. By being "out there", over the top, pushing the envelope. Some of these people (Limbaugh, Sharpton, Beck, Olbermann, Coulter, et al) make tens of millions of dollars a year by appealing to our worst assumptions about "the other side". I think of Savage as being this type. I am no fan.