zlacker

I believe Rush did become famous on television, but after the mid-90s it was really all about his radio program. So it might be to your point, fundamentally it isn't the internet, or TV, maybe it was radio.

I do believe that the Rush style radio talk show lays the foundation for Tucker Carlson and all of the conservative pundit TV programming. Which is the basis for the problems we see with Facebook / Fake News etc.

>>advant+(OP)
One can trace that lineage in conservative thought back to the John Birch Society.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society

>>derac+11
Why stop there? Why not Fr. Coughlin or William Jennings Bryan?

>>pyuser+sp
Why stop there Girolamo Savonarola was doing it in the 15th century, or Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus.

>>ch4s3+yr
> Savonarola

Love that the Catholic Church burned him at the stake for being too conservative. Really! Go Renaissance Popery!!

>>dr_dsh+Pt
Well, heresy and schism officially. But he was more of a populist than conservative and also weirdly sided with the invading French king which kind of pissed off the pope.

>>ch4s3+yr
How do the Gracchi fit in here? They were certainly populist, but decidedly not socially conservative.

>>Tainno+2q1
The comparison is that they're all fire breathing populists that stoked resentment, dabbled in conspiracy theories, and encouraged violence. My point is that these figures have always existed and aren't confined to the contemporary left/right binary. There's just something about people that makes these figures inevitable.

>>ch4s3+8C5
I mean the Gracchi were undoubtedly populist, and were interested in their own benefit most of all but it's not like the resentment against a corrupt oligarchy that deprived most citizens of land came from nothing.