Rush Limbaugh is Dead

[dws1982]

I don't rejoice in anyone's death but I do mourn his life, especially when I think of what his life could have been. He was a man of immense talent, I just don't think there's any way of denying it, and in every way that mattered he used that talent to a dishonorable and damaging end. In perpetuating the unholy marriage of evangelical Christianity to Republican politics, he did as much damage to Christianity as Donald Trump and Jerry Falwell (and about as much as Dave Ramsey, although Ramsey's damage is farther-reaching but much less political). He probably did as much damage to this country, all tolled, as any single person in the past thirty years, Donald Trump included. (The rise of Trump was only made possible because there was a Limbaugh before him.) But he was able to do it for a reason--he was a very compelling host and knew how to draw in listeners. Because he was compelling it was easy for his listeners to go along with some of the truly cruel and hateful things he did and said on his show, with some of the dangerous conspiracy-mongering he indulged even within his last months. While it's true that things like podcasts, and certainly talk radio, would probably look very different without his influence, his lasting legacy will always be not his influence on the format of talk radio but how he used that format and how he cheapened and coarsened our political discourse. Political discourse is at all-time low, and a quick glance at Twitter will show that both sides are responsible for the level of discourse as it exists right now. But to get it to that point, you needed a Limbaugh, you needed a Mark Levin--who is Limbaugh with twice the anger but none of the qualities that made Limbaugh go down easy--you needed a Ben Shapiro--who hides a lot of Limbaugh's rhetoric behind a type of shallow intellectualism. (Limbaugh often bragged about how he dropped out of college, while Shapiro just as often brags about how he graduated from Harvard Law School.)

Had he chosen to use his talent to a different end--even if he had chosen to be 50% less hateful--his obituaries would've been very different.

For many people, his life and what he did with it should serve as a warning.

[Big Magilla]

I must be looking at the wrong websites because I never saw anyone rejoice over RBG's death and I'm not seeing anyone rejoicing over Limbaugh's.

The sanctimonious right-wing assholes rejoiced over the dirty tricks of McConnell in ramming through a right-wing replacement for her but not over her death. I saw many more left-wing know-it-alls second-guessing that she should have retired before Obama left office so that he could have replaced her but I think we know how that would have played out with McConnell in charge.

No one is jumping up and down because Limbaugh died. We're glad that we won't have to deal with his crap anymore.

I personally never listened to him. My only knowledge of him until ten years ago was an occasional reference to something he said in the news. Then I moved to New Jersey and and reconnected with relatives in the area I hadn't seen in over 30 years. Unlike my immediate family members, I have cousins, and as of last year, one remaining aunt, who are political conservatives and listen to this idiot. I have had many conversations with a nearby cousin, an 81-year-old woman who has a black grandson-in-law, two adopted Asian granddaughters and numerous Hispanics in her extended family that she is very close to. She is not prejudiced and has a deep hatred of Trump and everything he stands for, but she listened to Limbaugh for the conspiracy theories. I've had countless conversations with her where she asked me the most ridiculous things. I took the time to explain to her that such and such couldn't possibly be true for so many reasons. Then I would calmly ask her where she heard the stuff from. Inevitably, the answer would be "Rush."

[Sabin]

OscarGuy wrote
I don't think that's a fair comparison, Sabin, and neither do you. It's very easy to demonstrate the differences, not just in the person, but in the responses.

Sabin wrote
I'm seeing a lot of people online drawing comparisons to how people on the right reacted to the death of RBG to how we on the left are reacting to Limbaugh's death. I will admit to being horrified by the idea of anyone viewing the passing of Limbugh as being analogous or more worthy of mourning than Justice Ginsburg but certainly that's the era that we live in.

Yes, that's my point. Although, yes, if you want to split hairs, I don't see anyone crying in the streets over Rush Limbaugh's passing. But I am seeing plenty of people urging people on the left not to rejoice in Limbaugh's death because we didn't like it when they rejoiced when Ginsburg passed away. Which is part and parcel of what we've largely become as a country: cheering with the other side loses someone they care about. And that simple fact is depressing. But anyone who wants to rejoice in his death is free to do so. He was a piece of shit. I just find that fact depressing.

If you were to ask me to write up a list of people who brought nothing good into the world and only bad, Rush Limbaugh would be on that list. Sonic is right: nobody will replace him in the era of Talk Radio because Talk Radio is dead, replaced by Right-Wing YouTubers. He owned the 90s, drove up conspiracy theories over the Clintons, and re-fought war against the counterculture like he was Rambo going back for the last soldiers. In retrospect, the rise Trump shouldn't have been surprising. Donald had Rush's whole playbook. At least there's no disguising any of this crap anymore. The only thing left to debate about Rush Limbaugh is how much of his bile was fake or real.

[OscarGuy]

I don't think that's a fair comparison, Sabin, and neither do you. It's very easy to demonstrate the differences, not just in the person, but in the responses.

We're not talking about someone like Mitt Romney, who's an opportunist, sure, but not a repugnant human being. Limbaugh literally castigated anyone who wasn't straight, white, male, or Christian. His rhetoric emboldened his fans in such a way as to radicalize them. Trump did the same thing except he had the foundation Limbaugh had built for him.

I think there's a point where it is incumbent upon on us to speak ill of the dead when the dead are people who have caused or celebrated so much pain in the lives of others. We wouldn't let Joseph Goebbels die in peace, why should we let Limbaugh escape ill-thought? Do you really think that the man who continued to support Trump even after he literally incited a riot should have no ill spoken of him?

[Sonic Youth]

I'm sure a number of Fox "celebrities" will be more than happy to take over his job, especially since most of them are probably on the cusp of being ousted.

They could try, but they won't succeed. You'd be surprised how many Fox News hosts have tried their hand at talk radio. And they sucked, because they were poesers trying to replicate their TV successes with no background or training in radio, both of which Limbaugh had. Since most right-wing demagogues go to TV or start podcasts, Limbaugh really is the end of the era of talk radio... another reason to celebrate his passing.

[Sabin]

I'm seeing a lot of people online drawing comparisons to how people on the right reacted to the death of RBG to how we on the left are reacting to Limbaugh's death. I will admit to being horrified by the idea of anyone viewing the passing of Limbugh as being analogous or more worthy of mourning than Justice Ginsburg but certainly that's the era that we live in.

Anyway, I won't speak ill of the dead. But I will say that occasionally when I saw Rush Limbaugh smoking a cigar on a magazine cover (like a REAL MAN), I may have said to myself "Keep it up, motherfucker."

[OscarGuy]

I'm sure a number of Fox "celebrities" will be more than happy to take over his job, especially since most of them are probably on the cusp of being ousted.

[danfrank]

The guy was vile and did enormous damage. The world is better off without him.

[Big Magilla]

Good was the first word that came to mind when I saw this, but I suspect it won't be long before someone equally vile or worse will command his large radio audience with their bile.

[Mister Tee]

In the quote variously attributed to Clarence Darrow or Mark Twain: "I've never wished a man dead, but I've read some obituaries with great pleasure"

Or, Bette Davis on Joan Crawford: "You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”