RUSH: Gary in Roseville, California. Welcome. It’s just right up the road from Sacramento. Hello.

CALLER: Good morning, Rush. Thanks for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet, sir.

CALLER: Hey, I recall a couple of occasions earlier in the year when you had pointed out that actors that studied for a role in a movie for weeks or months and then end up appearing in front of congressional committees preaching about [it] as if they’re experts on the subject, and I just wanted to put out two cautions if I could to you in that regard. One is that I’m afraid I may be on the verge of doing that with this Ebola thing since there aren’t really any experts out there yet, I don’t think, in the lay world that are qualified to kind of give the opinions that you’ve been giving, and I’m kind of afraid —

RUSH: This is very helpful. What —

CALLER: I’m kind of afraid — and I can give an example — that your coverage of the Ebola thing may be going from being informational in a good way, to be kind of fearmongering in a bad way.

RUSH: Can you give me an example of how I am acting as an expert in this? This is very helpful. ‘Cause if I am engaging in this behavior, I would like to know. I do not believe I’m an expert on Ebola. I’ve never had it. I don’t know anybody who’s got it. I’m relying on what’s in the news media and what the experts at the CDC are saying. What have I said to fearmonger it?

CALLER: Well, as far as the fearmongering goes, that’s the easiest example, and that would be the young lady that called — the young mother of three kids that called — last week. She sounded on the verge of terrified about Ebola, and I got the impression it was because of what she’d been hearing from not just you, but including you, about the subject. As far as you seeming to be discussing the subject as if you are more of an expert than any of us really can claim to be.

RUSH: Well, give me an example of that.

CALLER: Well, I’ve heard you criticizing when the medicine was to go overseas. I’ve heard you criticizing bringing back patients from overseas. I’ve heard you saying that —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute. That’s not acting as an expert on the disease. You’re claiming I’m spreading false information about the disease, that I don’t know it. That was a comment on whether or not it was wise to bring back this patient. But that has nothing to do with experts.

CALLER: I don’t know that any of us laypeople are qualified to make those judgments, and I heard the other day you said that —

RUSH: You know, this is the problem, Gary. A lot of us had better start speaking up about things or we’re gonna get snowballed and we’re gonna end up losing our freedom, Gary. I don’t know where this, “Well, we must leave it to the experts; we are not qualified to make these comments” comes from. We most certainly the hell are when it comes to using intelligence guided by experience!

So far you can’t give me one example where I have stated something medically about Ebola that isn’t true or that I have acted as an expert in the spread of the disease, acquiring the disease, eradicating it. I haven’t talked about that. I have simply weighed in on what I think may be some haphazard behavior by officials in the way we’re dealing with it. I don’t like this idea that laypeople are unqualified.

I’ve been hearing this my whole career. It started, you know, when I was a big proponent of a very healthy and well-funded defense department. People like you would call, “Well, did you ever serve in the military?” “No.” “Well, then you’re not qualified! You have no right, you have no business talking about the defense budget.” Really? Where does that come from?

Where is it written that citizens have to be mute idiots in this country in order to be reasonable and understanding and so forth? Gary, I really think we have a big problem in this country and that is too many people are afraid to say what they really think because of all the hell that descends on ’em when they do. I think there are a lot of people in this country who are scared to death about a lot of things going on who are afraid to say so because they see what happens to others who speak up.

Then that leads to beliefs like yours, that it’s more reasonable and simple to leave it to the experts. “Experts” defined how? Is Obama an expert in the Constitution ’cause he taught it, ostensibly, in Chicago? In my view, he’s not an expert. He’s an expert on why he doesn’t like it and would like to transform it, make end runs around it, or get rid of it. But it doesn’t mean I should shut up because I wasn’t there when it was written. That’s absurd!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Tell me, who are the smart people? Politicians? Elected politicians? Elected Democrats? Are they the only experts around qualified to speak? Are they the ones we must stop everything we’re doing and listen to? We are too stupid to have reasonable, intelligent opinions ourselves? We’re too stupid to function on our own? Too many people are not speaking out. Too many people are not saying what they really think.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I’ll tell you what, folks. There’s another problem that we have in this country, and that is there’s way too much dependence on experts presented to us in the media. I’ll give you the greatest example of experts who never get it right. Economists! Every month when the unemployment number comes out, I don’t care what the number is, experts are surprised.

The experts always say the news is unexpected, no matter what the news is. I don’t think they even write these pieces anymore. They’re a template and they just copy and paste it and they fill it in the first two paragraphs. “Expert economists said the results this month were unexpected, as experts were expecting” blah, blah, blah, and everybody depends on this. Experts on global warming, experts on economics.

We don’t have any experts on anything in this Regime. Obama’s not an expert on anything. He’s not qualified! Well, that’s not altogether true. For what he wants to do, he is qualified. He’s an agitator, he’s a community organizer, he doesn’t like the status quo and he wants to upend the country. He is qualified to do that. He’s not qualified as we traditionally examine people who want to everybody is as president.

We look at their qualifications. He hasn’t done anything. He has no track record, no resume. The only resume he’s got, college transcripts, nobody lets us see. So we don’t really know. We have to take the media’s word for it, and so we get people who are other experts, like New York Times columnist David Brooks telling us he’s qualified because the crease in his slacks. Everybody buys hook, line, and sinker what these experts say.

If they’re presented in the media, if they’re members of the administration, if they’re members of the political class — if the media says somebody’s an expert, if they’re a scientist, if they wear a white lab coat — they are experts, and their credibility is never questioned. We always assume that everybody’s smarter than we are. That’s another thing that is a real bugaboo of mine, and I’m gonna have trouble expressing this.

It may take me two or three times. Steve Jobs had this as a philosophy, too. I don’t remember exactly how he said it, but I do know that when I read the quote, it resonated with me. It’s understandable how it happens. It starts when we’re very young and we’re surrounded by people older than we are, and so it is natural to assume they know more than we do. Now, a lot of people never grow out of that attitude.

They’re always assuming somebody else is smarter. If they have more money, they’re smarter. If they have a bigger house, they’re smarter. It’s amazing how people willingly subordinate themselves in order to conform. I admit that it takes guts, gumption, or whatever to really believe in yourself. It takes a lot of effort to do that. Most people don’t. It’s Standard Human Nature 101.

But everybody, a lot of people fall prey to this notion that everybody is smarter than they are. I don’t care if it’s in the business they want to go into or if it is in politics or if it’s in science, global warming or whatever. All we’re dealing with here is people in politics at every level of it. We’re not dealing with experts except in politics. Science has been politicized. Everything’s been politicized now.

The NFL’s on its way to being politicized, for example. But the idea that people will so readily accept the testimony of a Hollywood actor as an expert because they played — they pretended to be — somebody in a movie? People have been asking me, and I haven’t addressed this, “Hey, Rush, did you see the knock-down, drag-out between Ben Affleck in Bill Maher on Friday night?”

“No. I’ve seen tape of it now, but I wasn’t watching.

“What do you think, Rush? What do you think? I mean, who was right?”

It’s a classic illustration. Just because it was on TV, somebody in that had to be right. Why do both of them have to be right or wong? Why can’t both of them be totally wrong? Why does one of them have to be right? Affleck clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, I don’t think ever. But he looks good, and people wish — women wish — they were married to him. So that’s covered.

Maher? Agitator, but in this case — if you want to know the truth — Bill Maher was closer to being right than Ben Affleck was. Ben Affleck literally is consumed with other needs or desires when expressing his opinion. He’s the kind of guy who tells you what he thinks because he’s really concerned what you think of him afterwards. A lot of people are that way. A lot of people will tell you what they think not because it’s really what they think.

It’s ’cause they think it’s what you want hear, or what they want to hear, or whatever it is that’ll make you seem what you think they demand. Either you’re nice or not be troublemaker or smart or agreeing with them or what have you. I just think a lot of assumptions exist and are made and are understandable and it’s unfortunate, and you can trace it. It all descends here from this notion that there are experts.

The media routinely gives us experts, and I would contend to you that they’re always wrong, by virtue of the reporting. The economic experts are always surprised at whatever the monthly unemployment number is or the economic growth. They’re always surprised. Well, an expert wouldn’t be surprised! An expert would be confirmed. But every month AP, Reuters, whoever — and they never name ’em.

“A wide swath of experts expressed shock and surprise over the unemployment numbers today.” I just don’t think there is enough — and I’m not talking about insubordination. I don’t think there’s enough questioning of whatever is said by people who are thought to be experts or smarter. I’m safe, I think, in saying that most people — not all, of course. Most people think everybody’s smarter than they are.

Therefore, they must conform or subordinate themselves to whoever they think is smarter than they are. It’s not necessarily the case. It’s not a conspiracy of anything. There’s nobody making this happen. This is human nature, and I just wish there were a way to spiral out of it. It all gets traced back to how much confidence in yourself you have. It all traces back how much you care, how much passion you have about something or anything.

But we’re being done in by experts, and we’re being done in by this notion that we have no right to challenge what the experts say, like this guy that called me. “We laypeople, we need to dial it back. We laypeople…” It’s a classic example of what I’m talking about. This guy was perfectly willing to assume that everybody knows more than he does, and what that leads to additionally is a feeling of illegitimacy about your own opinion, and illegitimacy about your own existence.

And then if that’s the case, then you’re always going to end up being subservient or subordinate to somebody. You’re always gonna end up granting somebody authority over you. Now, in your job, you have to; everybody has a boss. If you’re a lawyer, there’s the judge and so forth. But I’m talking about just in everyday life and the way people see themselves.

I think it’s directly relatable to how much subservience there is in our country and how much dependence there is on the government or other institutions for your wants and needs. I think a lot of people are selling themselves short; not meeting, realizing their full potential. In many cases, it’s because they think they’re exercising humility. You know, humility is taught, and it’s a good thing to be humble.

Humility is a very good, but it can also be deadly. Not deadly. It can be punitive. False humility, the unnecessarily putting yourself down in order to be seen as polite or whatever. That can hold you back. None of this is to say that people have to be mean or confrontational or whatever. That’s not what believing in yourself is. It’s a tough subject. As I told you, it may take me a couple of attempts here. (interruption)

Well, you know what I’ve found in my limited — ’cause I haven’t really spent a whole lot of time researching this. But as we all know, there are a few people out there who don’t like me. Not many, but there are a few. Now, I’m not one of these people obsessed with that. If I’m in a room and say, 95, people like me, I don’t care about the other five. Somebody like Bill Clinton will focus on the other five, or Obama, in order to switch ’em and make ’em friends or fans.

What I’ve found, if I’ve really dug deep, you know what they resent? Is that I’m so sure of myself. That intimidates ’em. Nobody’s that sure of themselves. And it leads them to think that I have a confrontational or pugnacious manner or behavioral pattern, and I’m nothing of the sort. Confidence can be assumed to be arrogance or conceit, ’cause nobody is supposed to be that sure of themselves. I can’t tell you number of people, “How do you know? How are you so sure?” And I say, “‘Cause to me it’s obvious.”

I don’t see the benefit in running around saying before everything I say, “Now, I could be wrong about this.” Sometimes I do that, depending on who I’m speaking to ’cause that’ll open them up. It’s a science. But the routine of putting yourself down to other people in order to not threaten ’em or to whatever, I just don’t think, in the long run, serves anybody, particularly the individual who’s engaged in that kind of behavior.

And, as such, it leads us to where we are now. We had a guy call, “Don’t speak. You have no business. We need to defer to the experts. We laypeople.” We don’t have enough people speaking up. I think the degree of anger, fright, outrage over what’s happening to this country is palpable. I think it’s almost incalculable. People are afraid. Even in the privacy of a ballot box people won’t vote what they really think for fear somebody’s gonna find out. People lie to pollsters for fear somebody’s gonna find out.

There’s a fear of being found out if your opinions don’t meet political correctness or whatever the order of the day is. It’s less confrontational that way. It doesn’t offend people and doesn’t hurt people’s feelings and all that. And I’ve always thought that’s their problem.

Anyway, I gotta take a break here, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look, folks, let me say it another way. I just happen to think that more people are much smarter than they think they are. It really isn’t any more complicated than that. And for whatever reasons they tell themselves they’re not. For whatever reasons they defer to others who they think are smarter, because of a whole bunch of different variables and reasons. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with believing in yourself. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with believing in your ideas. There’s more than one way to do things.