The Rush Is Over

February 17, 2021 10:31 AM

Rush Limbaugh dead of lung cancer at age 70.
posted by dances_with_sneetches (333 comments total)

“I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.” - Clarence Darrow
posted by Pendragon at 10:32 AM on February 17, 2021 [259 favorites]

*
posted by dgeiser13 at 10:32 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I chose USA Today to avoid NYT and Washington Post paywalls.

Perhaps this is the sign of the end of an era. In that case, I give him a punctuation: .
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:33 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

*
posted by EatTheWeek at 10:33 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

*
posted by The_Auditor at 10:34 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Sorry in advance, for grave dancing. A very recent Rush bit:

"On his Thursday radio program, right-wing political personality Rush Limbaugh compared the insurrectionists who raided the U.S. Capitol to overturn the election with heroes in the American Revolution.

"There's a lot of people calling for the end of violence," Limbaugh said. "There's a lot of conservatives, social media, who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable. Regardless of the circumstances. I'm glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual tea party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn't feel that way."

In his statement, Limbaugh compared Wednesday's insurrectionists who broke into the U.S. Capitol and ransacked senators' offices to overturn the election in favor of President Donald Trump with the people who helped start the American Revolutionary War and participated in the first military battle against British forces at Lexington and Concord."
posted by uraniumwilly at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2021 [27 favorites]

It warms my heart knowing that, in recognition of how much respect and care he provided to the most marginalized people in America and around the world, his grave will forever be a gender-neutral bathroom.

Inspiring.
posted by Ouverture at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2021 [213 favorites]

donald_glover_good.gif

@JessicaValenti: Rush Limbaugh had a segment called “AIDS update” set to music where he mocked dying gay people so I don't really want hear about ‘speaking ill of the dead’ today
posted by Going To Maine at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2021 [135 favorites]

About 30 years too late, but I'll take it
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:36 AM on February 17, 2021 [25 favorites]

He never had children.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2021 [25 favorites]

OH_NO_ANYWAY.JPG
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

May he get the reward that he deserves.

*
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

He was unrepentantly awful to the end. His vitriol was poison in the ears of my parents for decades when I was young and nearly took me with it. The world is better without him.
posted by jedicus at 10:37 AM on February 17, 2021 [96 favorites]

I try not to take glee in another human being's death, not because there aren't some people who the world would be better off without, but because I don't think it's consonant with being the type of person I think I ought to be.

But Rush is definitely on a relatively short list of individuals who severely test my adherence to that principle.
posted by firechicago at 10:38 AM on February 17, 2021 [29 favorites]

Ding Dong
posted by supermedusa at 10:38 AM on February 17, 2021 [18 favorites]

Just a terrible, terrible person. An encyclopedia of atrocity has been closed with him. I wonder how he felt about it all at the end. I suspect he didn’t believe any of it. His voice echoing perpetually from the car windows of the legions of hateful bullies and theiR parents in my hometown growing up (and now) are a soundtrack to manifold horrors.
posted by n9 at 10:38 AM on February 17, 2021 [16 favorites]

[DOT WITHHELD]





also, this is a nice place, and the contempt I am want to spew would not be appropriate for you good folk.
posted by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas at 10:39 AM on February 17, 2021 [14 favorites]

I only say good things about the dead.

He's dead?
Good.
posted by miguelcervantes at 10:39 AM on February 17, 2021 [92 favorites]

Won’t anyone think of the dittoheads.
posted by bixfrankonis at 10:39 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

What is there to say? His life's work was, unfortunately, a success. The world he leaves is closer to his vision of it than the world he was born into. He was evil and the world is a worse place for him having lived. It doesn't matter much that he has died. No punctuation for him. The last five years of headlines are memorial enough.
posted by saturday_morning at 10:40 AM on February 17, 2021 [52 favorites]

I brought cupcakes to the office.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:40 AM on February 17, 2021 [26 favorites]

Across the Styx. And none too soon that.
posted by mce at 10:40 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

@woodmuffin on Twitter: The rule is: if someone who would have celebrated your death dies first, you are allowed to celebrate theirs.

The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas: I like that idea and am going to steal it!

[DOT WITHHELD]
posted by May Kasahara at 10:41 AM on February 17, 2021 [66 favorites]

💩
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 10:41 AM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

My husband said that he hadn’t heard me scream like that since Scalia kicked it. So...
posted by Bacon Bit at 10:41 AM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

Limbaugh was a towering talent who's affect on American society can not be understated. The man was very good at what he did, no question.

That said, he regularly uttered completely noxious bullshit that I firmly disagree with, so I don't mind that he can no longer do that.

If you feel like celebrating, I'd recommend contributing a dollar to any one of a number of charities.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:41 AM on February 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

Is there a list of all the awful poison he has dripped into the ears of multiple generations of Americans? The Wikipedia list is woefully incomplete.
posted by Ouverture at 10:43 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.
posted by acb at 10:44 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Good riddance to his toxic bilge - few people have spread so much vitriol to such a big audience. We're all better off without him.
posted by leslies at 10:44 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

🚽
posted by Omon Ra at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

💩
posted by fimbulvetr at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'm gonna celebrate with some illegal painkillers, Viagra, and a sex tourist trip to the Dominican Republic.
posted by Nelson at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2021 [38 favorites]

Nothing decent to say about his cult.

Nothing decent to say about the sham accolades he was given by other terrible people.

Nothing decent to say about someone who revelled in being and bringing out the worst of us.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:46 AM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

I'm happy that he's gone, but sad that he's not still suffering while billions of people suffer because of his power.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 10:46 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

This man played a large part in the radicalization of my father, and has very directly lead to deep rifts between us.

May he have no peace in death, and may he be remembered as the villain he was and for the harm he has caused.
posted by furnace.heart at 10:47 AM on February 17, 2021 [89 favorites]

I assumed the asteriskes instead of dots was reference to Vonnegut on the asterisk.

I'm leaving one in that spirit.

*
posted by deadaluspark at 10:49 AM on February 17, 2021 [21 favorites]

Jamelle Bouie: "the most i’ll say about rush limbaugh is that he used his talents to make the world a worse place"
posted by dismas at 10:49 AM on February 17, 2021 [19 favorites]

Schoolchildren stay at home / And all the banks will close

There's no nil nisi bonum here, there's nil nisi malum. He created the cratered political landscape we live in today. He introduced fascism and sedition to millions of parents who would go on to disown their horrified children for being "Demonrats." Today, he was not as influential, but only because the politicians and pundits who burst from his eggsac are busy doing his work. The best thing you can say about him is that he was successful; he was successful in nearly destroying this nation. Probably his death was agonizing; if it was, it was the only punishment he ever faced. I care only that it is final.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:49 AM on February 17, 2021 [39 favorites]

If metastatic cancer could be personified, it would have been Limbaugh. The country is a better place today because he is gone and I will be celebrating that fact.
posted by longdaysjourney at 10:49 AM on February 17, 2021 [19 favorites]

I remember listening to him in his earlier days go on and on about how the government should encourage smoking because that would reduce the burden on Social Security.

That makes one time you walked the talk, huh Rush?
posted by jamjam at 10:51 AM on February 17, 2021 [44 favorites]

They say that after someone dies, you should not speak ill of them.

I guess that’s me never talking about him again.
posted by mephron at 10:51 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I remember the talk radio station in my hometown used to have billboards saying "Punch Rush!" (aka listen to our station cause we have Rush). But boy if there was ever someone who deserved a smack in the face it was him. My dad used to pick me up from school listening to him during the Clinton years and the first thing I would do was change the station. Even as a child I recognized him to be nothing but a loud-mouthed blowhard. Fuck cancer but the world is a better place today.
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:51 AM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

If anyone asks a Democratic politician to comment, they should just say "Who?"
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 10:51 AM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

Feminazis, libtards, I credit him with popularizing modern hate speech.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:52 AM on February 17, 2021 [38 favorites]

When I first heard Tool's Eulogy long after its release, I thought it might be about Rush. Alas.

Yeah, no way, yeah, to recall
What it was that you had said to me
Like I care at all
But it was so loud
And you sure could yell
You took a stand on every little thing
And it was so loud
posted by SunSnork at 10:52 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

*
posted by Token Meme at 10:52 AM on February 17, 2021

I wonder how he felt about it all at the end. I suspect he didn’t believe any of it.

While I'm sure he believed at least some of it*, I suspect he was mostly just an amoral, narcissistic hedonist who had no compunctions destroying society as long as it kept him in illegal opiates and sex tourism. The way in which his followers ignored or even celebrated his hypocrisy (and that of his political contemporary Newt Gingrich) was no doubt a stepping stone to the right's embrace of Donald Trump.

* I'm sure he 100% believed in ever-shrinking taxes for the rich, for example.
posted by jedicus at 10:53 AM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I will dance on his grave with glee, and not feel a moment's moral qualm about doing so.

The world is a better place without Rush in it. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile he ever contributed to it that wasn't massively offset by the evil he participated in increasing. The responsibility for that is not his alone, there were people behind him who contributed as much or more, but he enthusiastically threw in with them, and in so doing lost whatever humanity he might once have had. Maybe there's a moment of silence appropriate for when he crossed *that* line, but it was decades ago. Today the humanity that he foreswore only gains.
posted by wildblueyonder at 10:53 AM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

And he sowed the seeds that prevented a well-qualified candidate from being the first woman president.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:54 AM on February 17, 2021 [22 favorites]

very well, cancer, I'll give you this one.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:56 AM on February 17, 2021 [84 favorites]

my response to those who said " he doesn't take himself seriously " is: " once upon a time there was a funny little man with a ridiculous charlie Chaplin mustache who no one took seriously either"

also "dittohead" implies that one is incapable of thinking for themselves.

millennial women grew up hearing their loved male elders saying feminazi


it's a direct line from rush to trump's election and his maggots still ensconced in congress
posted by brujita at 10:56 AM on February 17, 2021 [27 favorites]

Here's a Rush quote I actually agree with:

"You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element. Do you know what it is? Consent. If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it's perfectly fine. Whatever it is."
posted by theodolite at 10:56 AM on February 17, 2021 [20 favorites]

“He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.” H.H.Munro.
* with a Maraschino cherry on top.
posted by aeshnid at 10:56 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Back in 2015 he said he deserved a medal for smoking cigars.

So, you know, here’s your fucking medal. 🏅
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2021 [27 favorites]

I don't believe in an afterlife, but sometimes I wish I did, because I would love to believe that someone as vile as Rush Limbaugh is suffering for all the harm he's done.

*
posted by SansPoint at 10:57 AM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

The day Cobain killed himself I distinctly remember Rush saying he was a "worthless piece of human trash" or something to that effect. That has always stuck in my craw.
posted by drstrangelove at 10:58 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Fox News will blame this on the cancel culture.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:58 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones."
posted by the Real Dan at 10:59 AM on February 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

Bye.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:00 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

> The day Cobain killed himself I distinctly remember Rush saying he was a "worthless piece of human trash" or something to that effect.

I recall him saying, "He has achieved room temperature," while laughing.
posted by at by at 11:03 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I refuse to dignify the guy with a moment of silence, but some other punctuation could do. So here's a colon

:
posted by at by at 11:06 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Ta ta, Rush. You poisoned the minds of my grandmother, parents, uncle and countless others. You’ve left the world a worse place by many measures. And our society is so sick, you were rewarded for that with fame, money and a medal from the *President.

The feeling I have is grief. Not his death but his life.
posted by glaucon at 11:06 AM on February 17, 2021 [30 favorites]

May the tide rise to carry his bloated carcass out to sea.
posted by deezil at 11:06 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

In the 90s I was performing stand-up comedy along Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. (Lincoln Road is shut-off from traffic, a pedestrian walkway)
One of my pieces was Mush Wombat (really subtle): you are listening to Mush. I had Mush describe walking into a bathroom and finding no urinals, only sit-down toilets. Soon a woman enters and tells him that he is in the wrong bathroom.
Mush says, "Oh, yeah, blame it on me. Don't blame it on Hillary and her feminazis." And the dissembling went on.
A policeman approached, pulled out a pad and started writing. I continued performing, certain that I was in for a ticket for performing without a license. After I finished I discovered he was writing down the jokes.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:08 AM on February 17, 2021 [36 favorites]

Saw his death mentioned on a Discord server and immediately came here to see the line of asterisks.

*
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:09 AM on February 17, 2021

If you feel like celebrating, I'd recommend contributing a dollar to any one of a number of charities.
I just donated to Planned Parenthood in his memory.
posted by Hutch at 11:11 AM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

*

The world is suddenly a kinder place. I wonder if the worms will even find him digestible.
posted by OHenryPacey at 11:12 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

He was a bad person, and it's good that he isn't around anymore. That it fell on our constant companion, death, to shut him up is, well, is what it is. Most importantly he is silent.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:15 AM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

“I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.” - Clarence Darrow

You may enjoy this one.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:15 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

SansPoint I was raised Catholic and ultimately over a long road became a complete atheist. recent years have brought me to the point of almost wishing the religious were correct. because I want there to be a Hell, a biblical awful Hell, in which people such a Limbaugh would burn in an ETERNITY of suffering and agony. sorry not sorry.
posted by supermedusa at 11:16 AM on February 17, 2021 [22 favorites]

if he were given an enema he'd be buried in a matchbox
posted by adept256 at 11:16 AM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

Saw his death mentioned on a Discord server and immediately came here to see the line of asterisks.

Dumb question: is asterick for asshole?
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:16 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

....They say celebrity deaths come in threes.

(eyes Rupert Murdoch and the 45th President)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:16 AM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

Rest in piss. It won't undo any of the damage he caused, but it makes me feel a bit better to know he's gone. I wish him the worst kind of Hell amalgamated from all the shittiest versions of hell from all the world's religions- a "TurboHell" or a "super hell," if you will, and I hope that it happens to him ASAP. The world is only better for his absence and the only sadness I can express related to him is the disgrace and tragedy at the fact of his birth in the first place. May he not pollute the groundwater as he rots. In life, he expelled poison with the same frequency as carbon dioxide and if anyone can be said to have deserved cancer, it would be him.
posted by Krazor at 11:17 AM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

supermeduse: Nor should you be.
posted by SansPoint at 11:17 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ditto.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Shame abortion wasn't legal yet seventy years ago.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:18 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

💩
posted by nikoniko at 11:22 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

“Satan” is trending on Twitter, and that feels right.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:22 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

“ You should never say anything bad about
the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead.
Good. “ - Bette Davis on the death of Joan Crawford

Agreed. Good.
posted by Splunge at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

jenfullmoon, you got it!

Limbaugh certainly tested the principle that every human has inherent worth and dignity. His behavior was so reprehensible that it made an airtight case against any value in his continued existence.
posted by rikschell at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I'm not a spit on your grave type. Hate just never did me much good. Yet I do get it and would never dismiss the need/desire to do it. So in the spirit of that, here's a nifty dirge from an old-fashioned drum + sax outfit known as Blurt:

Gravespit
posted by philip-random at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2021

"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones."

Well, he'll be able to save on the size of the burial plot, won't he?
posted by Frowner at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I wonder what this will do for the larger far-right talk radio media landscape. He was unquestionably the most successful person ever to do the thing (a thing that I find abhorrent and would prefer no one did at all), and nobody else is even that close (okay, Hannity's close, but having the Fox News show to boost the radio show is kinda playing on easy mode).

After Limbaugh and Hannity, though, the next most-listened-to shows aren't Glenn Beck or Hugh Hewitt or Larry Elder or even Dave Ramsey--they're Marketplace and All Things Considered.
posted by box at 11:23 AM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

Is the cancer OK?
posted by banshee at 11:25 AM on February 17, 2021 [82 favorites]

I am sad, only because Rush Limbaugh outlasted the band Rush. In a just world, the opposite would occur.
posted by stannate at 11:26 AM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

🎉
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:26 AM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

For those of us with conservative families, this man did real and lasting damage. It's decades of bifurcated relationships.

If he wasn't there we would have created him, maybe it's true. But I'm resentful all the same.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:27 AM on February 17, 2021 [31 favorites]

I see someone beat me to the punch on the "enema" quip (which I heard that Christopher Hitchens said about Jerry Fallwell, and applies here, too).

So instead I'll just quote a different guy: "Just another dead doper"
posted by dlanznar at 11:27 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I remember the celebrity deaths of 2016 that presaged the downward dive: Prince, Bowie, Abe Vigoda. Maybe this will foretell a better world.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:30 AM on February 17, 2021 [13 favorites]

*
posted by JohnFromGR at 11:32 AM on February 17, 2021

:)
posted by zaelic at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

In sort of the same vein as what Brandon Blatcher said above:

Limbaugh was a towering talent whose affect on American society can not be understated. The man was very good at what he did, no question.

That said, I agreed with him on some things, but he sometimes uttered crap that I firmly disagree with.

Whether you loved him, hated him, or fell more in the middle, why not contribute a few dollars to any one of a number of charities?
posted by davidmsc at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2021

That'll do, pig.
posted by vverse23 at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Good riddance.
posted by exolstice at 11:33 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I did a slow clap.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:34 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

My dad is a big Rush Limbaugh fan who goes on about feminazis.

I sighed with relief when I saw the announcement of Limbaugh's death trending on Twitter (along with the phrase "rest in piss"). He will at least never actively hurt anyone again, though what he sowed we're all going to go on reaping.
posted by orange swan at 11:35 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Following suit:

[DOT WITHHELD]

Limbaugh made entertainment out of demonizing the opposite political side. As others have said, he used an undeniable talent to do real harm to the country that he claimed to love.
posted by Gelatin at 11:36 AM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

V
Ⓕ

Presidential Medal of F
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:36 AM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

The New York Times: In the Limbaugh lexicon, advocates for the homeless were “compassion fascists,” women who favored abortion were “feminazis,” environmentalists were “tree-hugging wackos.” He delivered “AIDS updates” with a Dionne Warwick song, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” ridiculed Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease symptoms, and called global warming a hoax.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:37 AM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

But by celebrating his death, how can we condemn our enemies for celebrating the death of people we respect? The answer is “easily”
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:38 AM on February 17, 2021 [22 favorites]

Buh-bye.

Now, if his illegitimate child Tucker would kick off, this would be an exceptional day.
posted by sudogeek at 11:39 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Bill Hicks didn't like Rush back in the 90s. (Very NSFW.)
posted by Catblack at 11:39 AM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

> Dumb question: is asterick for asshole?

First: fsck cancer
Second: I thought of a sphincter too.

*
posted by farlukar at 11:46 AM on February 17, 2021

The last time I celebrated this kind of thing you all ended up with a psychotic Supreme Court, so I think I’m gonna be quiet this time ‘round lest I rouse something worse.
posted by aramaic at 11:47 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

The epitome of loathsome.
posted by y2karl at 11:49 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

and in addition to the man's many other crimes, he soiled the good name of poppers and a canadian power trio.
posted by a Rrose by any other name at 11:49 AM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Rush entranced my mom and countless others with 3 hours of seductively entertaining poison, lies, and hate every afternoon for the last 30+ years.

How it started: my mom was a Jesus Freak who preached an uplifting message of love, forgiveness and redemption

How it’s going: my mom is a spiteful, frightened person whose hateful brand of Christianity has lost any real connection with the teachings of Christ.

And for that I blame Rush, a real life Grima Wormtongue.

I’m no longer a believer, but Rush is the closest thing I’ve seen to the Biblical anti-Christ. A true wolf in sheep’s clothing, ravaging the flock from the inside out.
posted by lumpy at 11:52 AM on February 17, 2021 [71 favorites]

*raspberry*
posted by Gray Duck at 11:53 AM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Rush is the closest thing I’ve seen to the Biblical anti-Christ

Personally I think Trump is closer and, after today, is substantially more likely to follow through
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:55 AM on February 17, 2021 [13 favorites]

Sarah Shook:

I’d like to take a moment to publicly forgive Rush Limbaugh for personally making it unsafe for me as a child and well into my teens to come out to my family. You radicalized my parents against homosexuality but jokes on u they realized what a crock of hateful shit you peddled.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:58 AM on February 17, 2021 [24 favorites]

I’d like to say this is the end of an era, but Limbaugh marked the beginning of a gleeful decades-long celebration of cruelty and divisiveness. He ushered in a dangerous, bombastic media style wholly unencumbered by truth or regulation. And now there are hundreds of broadcasters, and now entire channels on TV and radio and the internet, that proliferate like mushrooms in dark places to continue Limbaugh’s work. And there are millions of people more fully impermeable to reason, compassion, and love.

His true legacy is making the world a lesser place.
posted by mochapickle at 12:00 PM on February 17, 2021 [24 favorites]

Rush got sick of this weather and decided to go some place warmer
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

sensible_chuckle.gif
posted by Cookiebastard at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

The sun literally came out where I am at the exact moment I read this news.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [27 favorites]

My mom, God rest her soul - Catholic school upbringing, trained as a nurse in public hospitals in Philadelphia and in the Army, who worked everything from ER to labor and delivery to ICU, who had the biggest, most enveloping heart you'd ever hope to know, whose whole ethic was mercy and charity - she spat his name as she would the bitter fruit of a cursed tree. Martina would give him no ".", and neither will I. To hell with him.
posted by Caxton1476 at 12:04 PM on February 17, 2021 [25 favorites]

I just donated $100 to Planned Parenthood in memory of Rushbo and sent a thank you card to his show's address in NYC.

*
posted by djeo at 12:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [45 favorites]

What a truly horrendous person. Fuck him and I'm glad he's gone.
posted by Uncle at 12:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'm very sad that he survived so long
posted by grandiloquiet at 12:06 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

as stated above

"I assumed the asteriskes instead of dots was reference to Vonnegut on the asterisk.

I'm leaving one in that spirit."

*
posted by djseafood at 12:06 PM on February 17, 2021

🍾🥳
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 12:06 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

Limbaugh dead is the best news I’ve woken up to since Scalia.

No, I won’t apologize for being happy to hear of his death. It’s hard to think of a person who has done more damage to the concept of America, who has done more to sow discord, promote hatred, and to gleefully spew racist, misogynistic, homophobic, classist (I’m probably missing some) rhetoric than Limbaugh. From gleefully reporting about people dying from AIDS, to being outright racist, to fine tuning dog whistles when outright racism was no longer profitable, to spending his final days urging insurrection and praising the attempted coup, Limbaugh was a poison.

Gleefully. His outright glee at spreading hatred is what I’ll remember. So much malice, and so much joy in pushing it out into the world. In a better place, he would never have made it past his first year, not because of censorship, but because of basic decency that would have caused people to respond with disgust to his poison. This is not a better place, though, and too many people, the ones who laughed along, who listened and let him stoke their absurdly unfounded rage, that gave voice to their shrieking absurdly over developed sense of persecution (while literally enjoying the spoils of being at the top of the food chain), they followed him, celebrated him, listened to his twisted, malicious hate and laughed along, saying “he tells it like it is.”

Limbaugh made a fortune off of making the country a worse place. He profited from poisoning minds, and from sowing hatred. The world would have been a better place had he never been given a microphone, but we didn’t get that, and we’ll just have to make do from the improvement that is his silence. So much of the ugliness in America can be traced back to Limbaugh, to his cackling, malicious exhorting his listeners to give in to their most insidious feelings, to their basest urges. To the people who would feign outrage at this, to quote back to you, because either you’ve worn it, or gotten a good chuckle from seeing someone wearing it: Fuck Your Feelings.

Good fucking riddance, Rush, you goddamn monster. May you forever be an embarrassment.
posted by Ghidorah at 12:06 PM on February 17, 2021 [71 favorites]

So, about a month or so ago, I was reading Ken "Popehat" White's Twitter feed, and he had retweeted a scholar talking about the ways the Fairness Doctrine was abused by both sides, in a clear "you really don't want to bring it back, look at the harm it did" sort of message. And sure, we need to acknowledge those abuses, and if we ever revisit the Doctrine, those abuses need to be addressed.

But to me, to focus on those abuses while saying nothing about what happened when the Doctrine was repealed - how it enabled people like Rush to aim invective at the marginalized and abuse them, to demonize them, and in many cases to outright endanger them - was arguing in bad faith, was saying that hate, vitriol, and abuse are the price of free speech. With Rush gone, I'd like to think that we'd take a better look at ourselves as a society, and think about what it means that we allowed him to actively attack and harm some of the weakest among us openly.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:07 PM on February 17, 2021 [18 favorites]

Rush is the closest thing I’ve seen to the Biblical anti-Christ

Personally I think Trump is closer and, after today, is substantially more likely to follow through

making Limbaugh more the anti-John The Baptist
posted by philip-random at 12:07 PM on February 17, 2021 [26 favorites]

The HuffPost obit is extensive and angry: "When a Republican politician promoting racist and sexist policies could only use a dog whistle, Limbaugh provided a bull horn."
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:08 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Huh. 2021's looking better already.
posted by mrgoat at 12:09 PM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

Good.
posted by penduluum at 12:10 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've occasionally even heard other women (cis and trans) use the word "feminazi." Which is the most tragic, "pick-me" mating call I can imagine. I pray for them, because I hate to think what they caught with that kind of bait.

Today is Ash Wednesday. In a non-pandemic year I'd be in the choir at my parish, next to my best choir friend, who is a non-believing paid section leader. She would make some variation on this joke, and I would cherish it:

Remember that Rush was butt dust, and to butt-dust he has returned.
posted by armeowda at 12:11 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

The only downside to the construction jobs I had while in college was being too low in the pecking order to have any say in the radio station on site or in the truck.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 12:15 PM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

I wonder if the Bugle will consider him worthy of a fuckeulogy...
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 12:16 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

Limbaugh has been a marker for the corruption of conservatism for decades. One notable example is from the sourcebook of the 1993 role-playing game Underground. In this dystopian future (the year 2021!) Limbaugh was listed as a future U.S. Vice President under President Darryl Gates; they were in the fictional "Plutocrat Party" founded by Ross Perot. The game's slogan was "It's 2021, and the Dream is Dead."
posted by JDC8 at 12:17 PM on February 17, 2021 [13 favorites]

I hope he suffered.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:17 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I hope he's not buried in Florida, so that his grave may continue to be a gender-neutral restroom for many years to come.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:19 PM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

This has been mentioned a few times, but it's worth repeating: He was brilliant at what he did and was truly funny. As a teenager in the 80's, my conservative friends growing up in liberal households (think Alex P. Keaton) were huge fans. Teenagers want to rebel and break the rules: Rush was the best at gleeful, rude, funny rulebreaking. And by doing so he did as much as anyone to pave the way for the horrorshow of the past four years.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:20 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

"Where am I? What is this, some kind of swamp?" the shade of Rush Limbaugh cried out.
MOST PEOPLE CALL IT A DESERT. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU BELIEVE.
"But I didn't actually believe in any of the crap I told all those idiots!"
PRECISELY.
posted by Arson Lupine at 12:21 PM on February 17, 2021 [29 favorites]

Fuck it, I made a donation to the SPLC in his name too.

I wish I had a lot more to spread around. A Rushbo endowment would be amazing.
posted by djeo at 12:22 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Just spotted on Twitter - "Looks like the world gave up Rush Limbaugh for Lent this year."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:23 PM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

Good riddance and may we never see his like again.
posted by holborne at 12:24 PM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

*
posted by introp at 12:27 PM on February 17, 2021

the most tragic, "pick-me" mating call I can imagine

Back in the day, my job required me to advance often unpopular planning notions at public hearings in bright red rural localities. I used to listen to Rush while driving out in the hinterland to gain insight into the people who would be yelling at me about my dangerous commie ideas and socialist ways a few hours later. He was a master of his craft, I must say, repellent though he was. What I came to understand was how much of Limbaugh’s schtick revolves around complementing his audience, reassuring them about how intelligent they were and creating a little identity club of purported enlightenment. And the way the callers reacted, basking in the emotion while parroting his viewpoint, taught me a few things about how to spin my presentations to accommodate the combination of insecurity, ego and yearning for certainty he exploited and, more importantly, anticipate the objections. Sorry not sorry.

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by carmicha at 12:27 PM on February 17, 2021 [80 favorites]

Kill him again.
posted by Scattercat at 12:29 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

I thought that when the head vampire died, the rest of the vampire cohort died too. Yet there are hosts on Fox News and AM talk radio right now. That means the head vampire is still out there.

It has to be Murdoch, doesn't it?
posted by ensign_ricky at 12:29 PM on February 17, 2021 [21 favorites]

Kill him again.

There are plenty of other conservative talk personalities who would love nothing more than to be the next Rush Limbaugh. Focus your attention on them.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:31 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

The only Rush quotes worth remembering were all written by Neil Peart.

This asshole? The dustbin of history awaits. The sooner we forget him, the better we all will be.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:32 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

If I feel like this today, what's it going to be like when it's Mitch McConnell's turn?
posted by vers at 12:34 PM on February 17, 2021 [23 favorites]

.

I'll give him a dot for the thought that maybe someone, somewhere loved him and is sad that he's gone.

But I'll also agree that the world is better without him in it.
posted by cirhosis at 12:34 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

This has been mentioned a few times, but it's worth repeating: He was brilliant at what he did and was truly funny.

[citation needed]
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:37 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

He was brilliant at what he did and was truly funny.

Unmitigated horseshit. Bullying requires no intelligence, and throwing rhetorical turds at innocents requires no wit.
posted by Ipsifendus at 12:39 PM on February 17, 2021 [41 favorites]

I would hear his show in the background of my coworker's office (my coworker is an insecure manbaby who believes whatever the rightwing media has been saying for the previous month). Just the other week I heard a bit by sketch-impersonator-musician Paul Shanklin, a regular contributor to the show who created such hits as 'Barack the Magic Negro.' It was a minstrel sketch involving Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson arguing over expensive custom rims for their cars. Just, breathtakingly racist. It brought me to a standstill.

Limbaugh should have been hit by a bus, on the way to his first day on the job.
posted by panhopticon at 12:40 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

not soon enough but that's my only complaint
posted by taquito sunrise at 12:44 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Just the other week I heard a bit by sketch-impersonator-musician Paul Shanklin, a regular contributor to the show who created such hits as 'Barack the Magic Negro.' It was a minstrel sketch involving Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson arguing over expensive custom rims for their cars. Just, breathtakingly racist.

He also mocked Michael J. Fox's Parkinsons' symptoms and made fun of the physical appearance of then-teenage Chelsea Clinton.

He was a bully, plain and simple.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:44 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

Maybe someone, somewhere loved him and is sad that he's gone.

His (fourth) wife, 26 years his junior (neither endorsing nor disavowing, just adding for context), a former event planner who announced his death on his show, might be that person. He never had children, but he has a brother that's still alive and also very conservative--as far as I know, they got along.
posted by box at 12:47 PM on February 17, 2021

I'll give him a dot for the thought that maybe someone, somewhere loved him and is sad that he's gone.

Funny enough, we’re family friends with a family member. He’s genuinely lovely. When you mention Rush (there’s a remarkable physical resemblance) he just sighs and changes the subject as quickly as possible.
posted by mochapickle at 12:48 PM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

He was brilliant at what he did and was truly funny.

Nah. While humor can be very subjective, his schtick was devoid of actual comedy. I acknowledge that others may have tuned in for the laffs he invoked at the expense of the libs, but the punching was always in a downward direction. He was loquacious and barbed and skilled at filling three hours a day with septic content, but actual comedy requires some semblance of empathy and heart, neither of which dwelt anywhere in his diseased psyche.
posted by vverse23 at 12:51 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

is asterick for asshole?
posted by jenfullmoon

Yes, it is—it’s a reference to a Kurt Vonnegut illustration in his novel Breakfast of Champions.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:56 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

The new White House Press Secretary is very very good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrIljjC0NI
posted by runincircles at 1:01 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Clever isn't always funny. He was effective at manipulation, to be sure, but so without empathy as to damage an entire nation for decades.

It's Ash Wednesday and I am really trying here, so I will simply point toward the first new Haikubituary in a while:

Arrogant blowhard
Finally shuts the hell up
He had lung cancer

posted by wenestvedt at 1:02 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

I'm glad he's dead and I hope he burns in hell. He remains on my time machine kill list.
posted by whuppy at 1:10 PM on February 17, 2021 [17 favorites]

@classiclib3ral: "the left really showing you how tolerant they are today" I say to myself as I take a sip out of my leftist tears mug and put on my favorite clip of Rush Limbaugh making fun of gay people dying from aids
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:14 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

I'll indulge in one more negative pop-culture 1990's reference to Rush. In 1994, Babylon 5 aired an episode involving a labor strike by the station's spacedock workers ("By Any Means Necessary"). The EarthGov sends in a representative, who invokes the Rush Act to end the strike "by any means necessary." The episode's writer confirmed that it was a reference to Limbaugh.
posted by JDC8 at 1:16 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

1994 WashPost profile by David Remnick: Day of the Dittohead. "Just as he is about to come across as a charmless blowhard, Limbaugh undercuts himself with this sort of semi-irresistible bravado ... an ego so out-sized that it is a parody of ego, an endearment. Which is probably why nearly all the hype about Limbaugh winds up on the entertainment pages. And yet there is very little in the press accounts to suggest that he is, above all, a sophisticated propagandist, an avatar of the politics of meanness and envy."

Whether he was funny, de gustibus non est disputandum. Obviously his fans found him funny. I often found him funny despite being horrified at what he was saying (though that's based on a few dozen hours of total listening time). And I think that was a necessary part of appealing to a broad audience: He was always "joking," even as he was deadly serious - a technique someone else adopted.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:16 PM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

His "brilliance" was in taking a bunch of vague and unfocused prejudices burbling around in the subconscious of the middle-class straight white American male and refining them into a coherent and many-tentacled bigotry and then presenting that bigotry as "common sense" for hours every day for decades.

I suppose by those lights Goebbels was "brilliant", too.

*

And good fucking riddance.
posted by soundguy99 at 1:17 PM on February 17, 2021 [22 favorites]

It can't have been easy for an ambitious young metastatic growth to get the news they had a terminal case of Rush Limbaugh.
posted by scruss at 1:18 PM on February 17, 2021 [23 favorites]

*
posted by Leeway at 1:20 PM on February 17, 2021

%
posted by parmanparman at 1:26 PM on February 17, 2021

I suspect that very soon we're going to have a lot of immigration by those escaping from hell.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 1:27 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

>|<

I credit Rush Limbaugh with the demise of our nation.
posted by hypnogogue at 1:32 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

*
posted by bz at 1:34 PM on February 17, 2021

Vile. Repugnant. Not brilliant.
posted by jonathanhughes at 1:42 PM on February 17, 2021

Finally.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:43 PM on February 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

I can't help thinking that he didn't just make the world worse by punching down. Even in his well-deserved death, he has helped the rest of us debase ourselves by degrees, hating him, expressing that anger. I'm glad he's dead, he made a career from dehumanizing me and those like me, but even in dying I wonder if he still wins a small victory in dragging me down closer to his level — and somehow that just makes everything he's done just a little worse, in that way. Better left unforgotten, except that his minions will pick up the slack tomorrow and do their part to make the world more terrible.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:45 PM on February 17, 2021 [23 favorites]

Good.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:48 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

*
posted by kirkaracha at 1:48 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

My mom went through an inexplicable Rush Limbaugh phase when I was circa in middle school or so--never could figure out why, I guess that's what she had on for talk radio at work--and she bought me "The Way Things Ought To Be" and "See, I Told You So." Mostly they were very boring and all I remember was that he made a big deal out of playing vacuum noises for "caller abortions" when he hung up on someone. Okay.....? Thankfully she grew out of it and never took up preaching hate. I don't know if she even really listened to any of it, honestly, it doesn't seem to have turned her into a bigoted asshole (and she hates Trump, so yay).

This is where I kinda miss Al Franken because he did make fun ruthlessly of Rush and all that, saying that every time he listened to the show Rush had nothing to say except about his tie collection, and oh yeah, there was that pilonidal cyst....
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:53 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

"There's a lot of people calling for the end of violence," Limbaugh said. "There's a lot of conservatives, social media, who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable. Regardless of the circumstances. I'm glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual tea party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn't feel that way."

In his statement, Limbaugh compared Wednesday's insurrectionists who broke into the U.S. Capitol and ransacked senators' offices to overturn the election in favor of President Donald Trump with the people who helped start the American Revolutionary War and participated in the first military battle against British forces at Lexington and Concord."

Those stupid fucks are so fucking stupid they don't even realize they are the Tories.
posted by hypnogogue at 1:57 PM on February 17, 2021 [13 favorites]

As unfortunate as it may be, sometimes society progresses one funeral at a time.
posted by tclark at 1:58 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

#RIPBOZO
posted by dis_integration at 1:58 PM on February 17, 2021

A year or two ago I saw very old footage from a Sam Kinison concert, who I only knew of as the comedian from the 1980's who screamed a lot. He was obviously at the height of his popularity, the audience was rabid. I found it pretty revolting, but at the same time absolutely fascinating, in that his routine was very, very identifiably a proto-Limbaugh persona. Just spewing disgust and contempt for people who didn't meet his standards for what a man or woman should be. Anyway, helped me understand how his followers describe him as "just" entertainment, but not how that shtick doesn't get old after the first decade or so.

Anyway, sad what a normalizing effect on so many hateful ideas he was able to exert.
posted by skewed at 2:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Albert Burneko at Defector in Point/Counterpoint: Rush Limbaugh

He discovered that he could get rewarded by the people he did regard as human for lashing out, as viciously and with as much sneering, undisguised dishonesty as he could muster, at those he did not regard as human, and he did that for as long as anybody knew his name. Now he’s dead, not one moment too soon and many decades too late. He lives on in innumerable interchangeable worthless smirking morons and hustlers. The world will never miss him; he’s everywhere you look.

Spoiler, both point and counterpoint are people explaining how utterly without redeeming quality the man was. I hope the worms reject his body, it would only taint the earth.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

Unfortunately Rush Limbaugh's funeral plans have been thrown into chaos after the priest was arrested
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:05 PM on February 17, 2021

He was always "joking," even as he was deadly serious - a technique someone else adopted.

An old technique, indeed, as Sartre noted long ago:

Never  believe  that  anti‐ Semites  are  completely  unaware  of  the  absurdity  of  their  replies.  They know  that  their remarks are  frivolous, open  to  challenge.   But  they  are  amusing  themselves,  for  it  is  their  adversary  who  is  obliged  to  use  words  responsibly,  since he believes in words.  The anti-Semites have the right to play.  They even like to play with discourse for, by giving  ridiculous  reasons,  they  discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors.  They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate  and  disconcert. 

 
posted by kewb at 2:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [37 favorites]

⁑
posted by MrJM at 2:05 PM on February 17, 2021

Fox News will blame this on the cancel culture.

Actually, cancer culture, which is a pretty good description of his work.
posted by snofoam at 2:06 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

Side note: that sublime Sartre quote is from 1944. I'd call that "insightful".
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:10 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

*
posted by Ber at 2:11 PM on February 17, 2021

Conveniently, Hell has plenty of room.
posted by tommasz at 2:17 PM on February 17, 2021

One thing I’m seeing that is both disgusting and predictably wearying is, for the obituaries that bother to mention the things he was famous for, is them being labeled his “outrageous” comments.

At first, I thought, bullshit, outrageous is what we use to describe a comedian who pushing boundaries too far, and then I started to think a bit more, and yeah, outrageous has always been what we called comedians who are essentially celebrated for their hateful comments, as pointed out upthread with Andrew Dice Clay and Sam Kinison, and countless others. It’s a whole goddamn industry of white (mostly) men screaming all the things their audience wishes they could say out loud, until it became so normalized that the audience isn’t afraid to say it anymore.

It’s not like that kind of comedian is gone, they’re still out there, but so much less relevant now that their audience feels perfectly safe in spouting the same hatred they used to rely on the comedian for. There isn’t much distinction between what Kinison screamed and what Alex Jones is spewing, and I don’t doubt that Tucker Carlson felt inspired when he heard Clay for the first time. It was never funny, but it was presented as humor to make it acceptable. Now that it’s become, in large part, due to the efforts of people like Rush, they don’t have to pretend it’s a joke anymore.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:29 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

"I'm just joking" is asshole for "I'm not sorry"
posted by brujita at 2:31 PM on February 17, 2021 [28 favorites]

I hope he didn't get to see Barb and Star.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 2:34 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

skewed: I found it pretty revolting, but at the same time absolutely fascinating, in that his routine was very, very identifiably a proto-Limbaugh persona.

Sam Kinnison’s model was the fire and brimstone preachers of his youth, mimicking the cadence and beats, just pumping up the volume around the punchlines. Rush’s radio ancestor was fellow WWOR old-timer Bob Grant, who berated callers as animals and idiots, absolutely loathed the Clintons, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and anybody to the left of the John Birch society. I recall one of his longtime sponsors was a jeweler in the Empire State Building that touted “no switching in the back room” as the actual tag line of their live read commercial.

Why yes, AM talk radio was on a lot in my house growing up...
posted by dr_dank at 2:44 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

I'm glad he's dead and the only thing I'm sad about is that his mother didn't abort him in the womb.

There's nothing wrong with hating and despising a man who used his great privilege to reinforce the worst parts of American culture.
posted by wuwei at 2:53 PM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

Bury him at the crossroads and fill his mouth with communion wafers to be sure.
posted by benzenedream at 2:56 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

Rush Limbaugh was a big fat idiot.
posted by TedW at 2:58 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

How nice. Now Father Coughlin will have someone to whom he can relate.
posted by delfin at 3:01 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

He was an enthusiastic hammer driving a wedge into the end grain of American society. I hate celebrating anyone's death, but his life's work was to split the country in two, and he was all too successful at it. The evil he did continues to be worked by those who learned from him, but the world is nevertheless a slightly safer, kinder place without him in it. It is a relief that he is gone.
posted by biogeo at 3:01 PM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

So negative.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that as he was in tremendous pain which he knew would fill more and more of his days and from which death would be his only release, he at least got to see the House, then the presidency, then the Senate, all go to the Democratic Party?

I’m somehow reminded that it’s long been reported that John Wilkes Booth’s last words were, “Useless, useless...”
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [18 favorites]

ding dong the witch is dead

There are people who are evil, where I will still give them the benefit of the doubt, and also the polite gesture of not speaking badly of the dead. Rush Limbaugh is not among them. I agree with comments above who place his level of evil with the worst in humanity.
posted by mumimor at 3:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Remember the time he claimed there were more trees in America today than before Columbus arrived? Remember the time he claimed it's called COVID-19 because it's the 19th outbreak of it? His career is bookended by bullshit.
posted by biogeo at 3:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

My mom's from southeast Missouri, about an hour and a half from Cape Girardeau, which was the closest big town and is where he was from. So in addition to being a fan she's proud he's a home town boy made good. Me, not.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:06 PM on February 17, 2021

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that as he was in tremendous pain which he knew would fill more and more of his days and from which death would be his only release, he at least got to see the House, then the presidency, then the Senate, all go to the Democratic Party?

No - because the House, the Presidency, and the Senate all went to the Democratic Party by a SLIM MARGIN, instead of as a landslide, and he was directly responsible for turning the 74,222,958 people who voted to re-elect Trump into people who saw no problem with doing so.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:14 PM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

I’m somehow reminded that it’s long been reported that John Wilkes Booth’s last words were, “Useless, useless...”

Weird, since Booth accomplished his goals. He assassinated the leader of the Union and put a Southern-sympathizing weak president in his place. And set the stage for the failure of Reconstruction and the rise of the Old South.

There is a certain irony in Limbaugh dying in pain though, given his years-long addiction to painkillers. I'd have sympathy for even that except the man personally excoriated other addicts for a big part of his career, often with racist tropes. So fuck him.
posted by Nelson at 3:17 PM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

May a kinder, gentler human take his place on the earth.
posted by darkstar at 3:20 PM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

I should amend my previous statement to note that every volume on the shelf was also bullshit.
posted by biogeo at 3:22 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Aren't there any conservatives here with any sympathy? a brilliant man.


.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 3:24 PM on February 17, 2021

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that as he was in tremendous pain

I forgot about that. Now I wish he had lived longer.
posted by hypnogogue at 3:25 PM on February 17, 2021 [16 favorites]

a brilliant man.

I beg to differ. The ability to yell mean-spirited and scandalous things is not evidence of brilliance.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:28 PM on February 17, 2021 [22 favorites]

Aren't there any conservatives here with any sympathy? a brilliant man.

Once upon a time, the term conservative in the US could plausibly be connected to prudence, rational thinking, and evidence-based policy.

Rush Limbaugh is one of the primary reasons that's not the case anymore. Because of Limbaugh, what passes for "conservative" in the United States has finally excised itself of rational people and those who adhere to democratic principles win or lose, and has become nothing more than a howling, rabid cult of misogyny, racism, "blood and soil" reactionaries and retribution obsessives.

Used to be that there was a segment of the big tent of conservatism that believed, accurately or misguidedly, that all people could benefit from their policies. Those days are well and truly gone, and the Know-Nothings and Zero-Sum MAGA cultists, or, to use a Limbaugh-ism, "dittoheads" have completely taken over.

Now what was once a big tent is a fire-breathing, revanchist revival tent, with no place whatsoever for people who want to discern reality and judiciously -- conservatively -- apply policy to better everyone in the nation.

There are no conservatives here with any sympathy because conservatism as a legitimate political paradigm in the United States is dead. Conservatism as a cult of death and blood is the beast Limbaugh wrought, and that's all that's left now.
posted by tclark at 3:38 PM on February 17, 2021 [97 favorites]

A bad man. Good riddance
posted by yueliang at 3:38 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Stolen joke:

Go celebrate something great today. But hey, don't feel you have to do so right away. No Rush.
posted by clawsoon at 3:39 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

The rash lintbomb be blown away. Oh sweet rush to judgement.
posted by Twang at 3:39 PM on February 17, 2021

@DaveWeigel: Gonna get dragged but in the universe Limbaugh worked in (and basically invented) he was by far the funniest. Flip the dial between him and a dour Glenn Beck type and it was night and… I guess a different, funnier time of night.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:40 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Hooray!!! Now if only Rush's death would restore my Dad to the person he was before he started listening to Rush and his toxic, brainwash bullsh**.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 3:40 PM on February 17, 2021 [16 favorites]

70 years too late.
posted by Space Kitty at 3:40 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

A take from the usually-pretty-good Discourse Blog:

Rush Limbaugh’s Greatest Act Was Dying Early, Jack Crosbie
posted by box at 3:41 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

A variant on a common refrain I saw screenshotted from somewhere and especially enjoyed:

Be careful lest you become the thing you hated most.

For example, lots of people become the parents that they hated.

And Rush Limbaugh? He hated gender neutral bathrooms.
posted by supercres at 3:44 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Aren’t there any conservatives here with any sympathy? a brilliant man.

I beg to differ. The ability to yell mean-spirited and scandalous things is not evidence of brilliance.

Rush Limbaugh was a genius, a man who created the modern talk radio format, and one of them -like Gingrich- who can really be pointed at as reshaping the party into his own image. That conservatives see the loss of this racist, sexist, crude, multiple-divorcee monster man as the loss of a sympathetic ally seems to suggest that they have an immense sty in their eye about what their beliefs actually mean. It’s a real dang problem for “conservatives” if they can be easily classed as “people who mourned Rush Limbaugh”, and I hope that they recognize it soon.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:47 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

Nation grateful Rush Limbaugh lived long enough to see Trump lose
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:47 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Aren't there any conservatives here with any sympathy? a brilliant man

I have a feeling you might be in the wrong place. He was a hateful bigot, and was personably responsible for an enormous amount of pain for BIPOC, gay people, trans people, and so much more. He did irredeemable, irreparable damage to not just American society, but society around the world. He was a fucking monster. He was personably responsible for giving rise to the modern fascist wing of conservatism, the only wing left of the republican party. He was a horrible blight on the world. There was never anything in him that professed love or care for other people. He was the worst of soulless shit to walk the earth. The only thing he was ever brilliant at was being the worst of humanity.

His grave should be marked like a nuclear waste site. Not a place of honor, nothing of value is buried there. Nothing of value lies there. What is there was dangerous and repulsive.
posted by mrgoat at 3:49 PM on February 17, 2021 [46 favorites]

Rush Limbaugh is one of the primary reasons that's not the case anymore. Because of Limbaugh, what passes for "conservative" in the United States has finally excised itself of rational people and those who adhere to democratic principles win or lose, and has become nothing more than a howling, rabid cult of misogyny, racism, "blood and soil" reactionaries and retribution obsessives.

There's like this direct line of white supremacy through the whole thing.

* Black people are technically equal in law now.
* But white people own all the money and power.
* To keep money and power we need to stop redistribution of wealth at all costs.
* Taxes and government spending are the most effective methods of redistributing wealth in the US.
* Kill taxes, kill government spending.
* Anything that makes people's lives better through government action and and spending is someone trying to dethrone white supremacy and needs to be fought at all costs in this losing war.

Like Atwater said:

So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.…

The problem is, poor whites never got the memo (or more likely, didn't want to believe) that the white people holding the hegemony were never about racial solidarity. They just wanted the fucking money whether it be from a white or black person. Each pocket was to be picked equally.

Rush was an enforcer of that system duping the rubes for decades and he was paid a king's ransom for it.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:50 PM on February 17, 2021 [16 favorites]

Once upon a time, the term conservative in the US could plausibly be connected to prudence, rational thinking, and evidence-based policy.

Which time was this? I do not think the awfulness of Rush and Trump and the rest of the modern monsters should erase the historical record of conservative politics as being one wholly centered on the preservation of white supremacist capital and empire, even if it was more polite and collegial a few decades ago.
posted by Ouverture at 3:52 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mod note: I want to remind folks to keep in mind that Rush Limbaugh is not here and is not gonna hear your jokes about cancer, but there are folks here who are NOT tremendous shitpiles who are suffering from cancer or supporting family and friends who are. Good riddance to that ugly-minded asshole, but check your aim so you aren't hitting the wrong people when you express that.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:53 PM on February 17, 2021 [46 favorites]

I guess he was good at what he did....but what he did was just horrible.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:54 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

Rush Limbaugh was a genius, a man who created the modern talk radio format, and one of them -like Gingrich- who can really be pointed at as reshaping the party into his own image.

I'm not as convinced that he had an active role in the creation of the talk radio format - I note from his bio on Wikipedia that in one of his earlier gigs, he was hired as a replacement for Morton Downey Jr., who had a similar format, and another earlier boss compared him to Don Imus (who also used a similar format). At best he might have been in the right place at the right time and got heard by the right people who offered him up to people as "the new face of talk radio" and he hung on and pretended it was a plan.

You see genius in that path; however, I only see dumb luck and an utter lack of shame that would allow him to say outrageous and guaranteed attention-grabbing things.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:55 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

But, we are all going to die, (most likely). Let's hope mefites will make the world a better place, rather than this garbage pile.

Regardless of celebrating someone's death
posted by Windopaene at 3:58 PM on February 17, 2021

Yay, finally some good news.
posted by winesong at 3:58 PM on February 17, 2021

NO DOT FOR YOU
posted by lapolla at 4:21 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Rot in Hell.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:26 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I'll see you in Hell, Rush.
Save me a seat by the fire.
posted by mule98J at 4:33 PM on February 17, 2021

3 people in my life have cancer. If cancer wants to take out Rush I say go for it, it's still far less than necessary to even the scales of justice considering the propaganda Rush pushed that vilified those who want a clean environment.

I will never apologize for cheering on the death of a war crime apologist, a rape apologist a man who gloats over the death of people with AIDS. I will never apologize for cheering on this hypocritical bigot who dared to call himself a Christian while spewing racial hatred and mocking the poor and disabled.

Good riddance. I am glad Twitter's all about that grave-pissing, too. In terms of spite-joy this is probably up there with Falwell, Reagan, Thatcher and such.
posted by symbioid at 4:34 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

He was brilliant at what he did and was truly funny.

Beg to differ. Never found him funny, ever. Didn't really seem to have a sense of humor per se, either.

What he did have, in spades, was a sadist streak. Which he dressed up from time to time in a folksy, salt-of-the-earth shell. That's what his fans keyed in to. That's why he was so successful.
posted by ishmael at 4:38 PM on February 17, 2021 [26 favorites]

Protip: Being an asshole to the oppressed isn't what makes you "funny" or "edgy" it makes you an asshole who defers to the white power structure. He's not funny, never was, and claiming he's "funnier than Beck" (as the previously linked Weigel tweet) is pretty much Minnesota Nice Damning with Faint Praise.

If the apex of your humor is degrading the poor, disabled, women and anyone who isn't a rich white guy, well, then sure, Rush is just fucking hilarious.

He's not a genius, not even close. Even when I was conservative, I thought his schtick was pretty pathetic.
posted by symbioid at 4:40 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

He was brilliant at what he did and was truly funny.

I'm going to need anyone taking this position to please also type out their favorite Rush Limbaugh joke and explain to me, beat for beat, just what you found so funny about it.
posted by EatTheWeek at 4:48 PM on February 17, 2021 [55 favorites]

Just like Coulter, I doubt he believed his own bullshit, which makes what he did even worse.
posted by Beholder at 4:48 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that as he was in tremendous pain which he knew would fill more and more of his days and from which death would be his only release, he at least got to see the House, then the presidency, then the Senate, all go to the Democratic Party?

No - because the House, the Presidency, and the Senate all went to the Democratic Party by a SLIM MARGIN, instead of as a landslide, and he was directly responsible for turning the 74,222,958 people who voted to re-elect Trump into people who saw no problem with doing so.

Yup. And he won't be doing that any more.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:52 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Rush Limbaugh had a regular radio segment where he would read off the names of gay people who died of AIDS and celebrate it and play horns and bells and stuff.

Fuck Rush Limbaugh. Dying alone on a toilet was too good for him.
posted by loquacious at 4:55 PM on February 17, 2021 [13 favorites]

It’s my birthday today, and my brother texted me: “Happy birthday!! I got you one (1) dead Rush Limbaugh.” Please take this day to thank my brother, a genuine force for good in this world.
posted by ActionPopulated at 4:56 PM on February 17, 2021 [47 favorites]

To be fair, his career always struck me as exactly what you'd expect from someone whose name sounded like an order for prompt delivery of the canonical vile-smelling cheese, much as his most prominent fanboi's every utterance is exactly what you'd expect from somebody whose name is just another word for fart.

Putredo in excrementum omnes vos.
posted by flabdablet at 5:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

You see genius in that path; however, I only see dumb luck and an utter lack of shame that would allow him to say outrageous and guaranteed attention-grabbing things.

To wit!

Philip Bump in ye Washingtonne Poste:

What Limbaugh understood was that the accepted boundaries of appropriate conversation were often simply norms that could be ignored. Ignore them and you could reach a lot more people. His unapologetic toxicity was often amusing to his supporters and generally reviled by his opponents, a polarization that helped fuel attention and popularity.

posted by Going To Maine at 5:12 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

> Fox News will blame this on the cancel culture.

If only cancel culture were that powerful.

Years ago, around the time Al Franken's book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" came out, my social circle included Rush fans. My non-confrontational talking point was, "People keep mistaking him for a news analyst, when he's just another insult comic."

Then one day, a dittohead jumped on it, saying, "I know, right? He's really funny!" excitedly repeating one "joke" of his after another:

Punching down.
Meaner punching down.
Meaner, more scatological punching down.

It was sickening, though in retrospect it would've been useful afterward to mentally note who was enjoying it, and who turned and left the room.

Never said it again.
posted by panglos at 5:41 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

He was the single person who contributed more to the death of reasonable political discourse between two face to face individuals than any other single person. This is his lasting legacy to the country and makes him one of the most awful people this nation has ever produced. I considered Andrew Jackson, Joseph McCarthy, and Jeffrey Dahmer when making that assessment.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 5:43 PM on February 17, 2021 [19 favorites]

Andrew Jackson, Joseph McCarthy, and Jeffrey Dahmer

I would watch that sitcom.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:54 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

Good riddance to bad trash.

Death does not bestow dignity.

May we forever piss on his grave.
posted by Max Power at 5:57 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

Best thing I saw on Twitter today:

"If Rush Limbaugh is so pro-life how come he’s dead?"
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:58 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

"Oh... I'm sorry.."

"Don't be sorry, He was mean to my mom and I'm glad that he's dead."
posted by ovvl at 6:08 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

*

and maybe . in the sense that the ceaseless yammering and hate-mongering might be replaced by blissful silence. Or maybe somebody can take his syndicated slot and use their powers for good?

But * for sure.
posted by adekllny at 6:10 PM on February 17, 2021

Rush Limbaugh had a regular radio segment where he would read off the names of gay people who died of AIDS and celebrate it and play horns and bells and stuff.

That tweet has been making the rounds and makes me mad every time I see it. But I'm wondering a little bit if it's true. He certainly was cruel to people with AIDS and said a lot of shitty things. But "a regular radio segment... play horns and bells and stuff"? Is there any documentation of that? I wouldn't be entirely surprised if it were, but I'm morbidly curious to hear it.
posted by Nelson at 6:19 PM on February 17, 2021

But "a regular radio segment... play horns and bells and stuff"? Is there any documentation of that?

Snopes found that the claim is true. They weren't able to dig up any of the segments themselves but they dug up some contemporaneous articles about it.
posted by mstokes650 at 6:28 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

Did Rush Limbaugh’s ‘AIDS Update’ Mock the Deaths of Gay People? (Snopes)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:29 PM on February 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

He certainly was cruel to people with AIDS and said a lot of shitty things. But "a regular radio segment... play horns and bells and stuff"? Is there any documentation of that?

From what I have read today it wasn't "horns and bells", it was a clip of Dionne Warwick's "We'll Never Love This Way Again".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:30 PM on February 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Aren't there any conservatives here with any sympathy?

Sorry, you only get one of those two things. All thanks to Rush.
posted by tzikeh at 6:30 PM on February 17, 2021 [16 favorites]

I refuse to consider terrible people like Rush Limbaugh "brilliant."
posted by wondermouse at 6:34 PM on February 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Rush Limbaugh personified his listeners. They suffered from negative parenting which took away their dignity. Now they attack any notion of nurturing government in a twisted attempt to regain their lost autonomy, under the banner of an undefined freedom and hatred of progress. They don't even know they need to recover because they want to forget. They won't listen to reason because that entails responsibility to decide for themselves, which requires the courage and honesty that was never taught of them. Instead, they draw on their childhood learning of threatening the weak, expecting traditional obedience from others towards themselves. All it takes to trigger their rage is to suggest not using a plastic straw, or politely asking them to wear a mask during a pandemic.
posted by Brian B. at 6:37 PM on February 17, 2021 [15 favorites]

My favorite tweet:

if rush limbaugh hated gender neutral bathrooms so much why is his grave going to be one?

@Soblin_, 12:38pm
posted by Anonymous at 6:39 PM on February 17, 2021

Snopes can't find recordings of his AIDS-death celebration bits. Does anyone have a link, horrifying though they may be? I have seen the point from a couple of conservative acquaintances that Snopes has no evidence, etc.
posted by Shotgun Shakespeare at 6:42 PM on February 17, 2021

How the fuck did Rush, a gay hater, get Elton John to perform at his last wedding? Also, why the fuck did Elton John agree to this?! (WaPo link)
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:43 PM on February 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

[chef's kiss emoji]
posted by lesser weasel at 6:43 PM on February 17, 2021

I have seen the point from a couple of conservative acquaintances that Snopes has no evidence, etc.

I wouldn't bother. Find a recording and they'll call it fabricated. Nothing that will make them wrong can ever be true, even when looking right at it. Another of Rush's legacies.
posted by EatTheWeek at 6:45 PM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

I have seen the point from a couple of conservative acquaintances that Snopes has no evidence, etc.

But Snopes does have links to news articles where Limbaugh admits to those segments. Are Limbaugh's own words not enough?
posted by Anonymous at 6:47 PM on February 17, 2021

Also, why...did Elton John agree to this?!

The truth? He gave Elton John one million... reasons.
posted by mochapickle at 6:48 PM on February 17, 2021 [9 favorites]

A twitter exchange that had me laughing harder than anything else that's ever involved Rush Limbaugh:

Jason Stanley:
Limbaugh exemplified the morality, the intellectual integrity, and the substance of the contemporary conservative movement in the US. He showed contemporary conservatives how to deal with ideas, and their discussions rarely get deeper than his contributions to public debate.

Simmon Rippon replied:
Before now I did not know that writing academic reference letters could be a transferable skill
posted by mstokes650 at 6:54 PM on February 17, 2021 [43 favorites]

Limbaugh exemplified the morality, the intellectual integrity, and the substance of the contemporary conservative movement in the US. He showed contemporary conservatives how to deal with ideas, and their discussions rarely get deeper than his contributions to public debate.

Well that's technically true, it's just not very flattering to conservatives.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 6:57 PM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

They weren't able to dig up any of the segments themselves

I have seen the point from a couple of conservative acquaintances that Snopes has no evidence

Yes, yes, yes. That's another thing Rush really mainstreamed in conservative media circles - the blatant lying denials that you said a thing that you really did say and the nitpicking over exact quotes. Because he was on for damn hours, on the radio, and especially in his earlier years there wasn't really the technology or interest or social culture of capturing this shit as proof of what he said.

So he would say something totally bigoted, and when he was accused of saying that thing, he or his dittoheads would go, "Prove it." And he got away with it for a long time, because of course this horrible thing was 5 minutes in the middle of fucking 20 or 30 hours of weekly material, and nobody could come up with a recording.

And then later he would just flip it around, like when he de facto called Chelsea Clinton a dog and there were recordings of that, only of course he did it in an indirect "jokey" way, so then he & his fans would argue, "Hey, the exact words "Chelsea is a dog" never came out of my mouth! I didn't do what you're saying I did!"

Rush really introduced the idea of bad faith arguments to a whole generation of conservatives.
posted by soundguy99 at 7:03 PM on February 17, 2021 [41 favorites]

Aren't there any conservatives here with any sympathy? A brilliant man.

Seekerofsplendor, could you expound on what exactly about him you enjoyed and found admirable? What specific arguments of his were attractive?
posted by Anonymous at 7:12 PM on February 17, 2021

A wonderful eulogy for this deceased hemorrhoid: The Gasbag of Fascism
posted by tonycpsu at 7:14 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Title is 100+ pts ((chef's kiss))

I would think Elton John would be the type of person to be so supportive of his culture, a Limbaugh wedding booking would somehow only enrich his work. If that makes sense - he would turn it into something better.

Or something.

His wiki is just ridiculous:
"Sir Elton John.. Presenting John with France's highest civilian award, the Legion d'honneur, in 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron called him a "melodic genius" and praised his work on behalf of the LGBT community."

Off topic, but EJ is essentially a palette cleanser. Points to people in this thread mentioning positive sentiments for someone's passing.
posted by firstdaffodils at 7:19 PM on February 17, 2021

Sentient ooze that lived too long. Good riddance.
posted by sacramental excrementum at 7:21 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

On top of all of the above, this maggot's arsehole managed to turn the instrumental part of Chrissie Hynde's brilliantly biting ode to her soulless hometown into an anthem of hate. Why the hell he couldn't have picked a fellow traveller like Ted Nugent or Toby Keith for his title tune is beyond my comprehension, or maybe just an unwitting acknowledgement that fash music sucks sewage effluent.

A wonderful eulogy for this deceased hemorrhoid: The Gasbag of Fascism

Which I thought was a reference to the joke in this 1994 Doonesbury strip:

What's the difference between Limbaugh and the "Hindenburg"?
One's a flaming Nazi gasbag; the other's just a dirigible.
posted by hangashore at 7:29 PM on February 17, 2021 [11 favorites]

I heard the news on the can. In both cases the shot was being disposed of.

Excellence in Bowel movements?
posted by notsnot at 7:32 PM on February 17, 2021

Also, why...did Elton John agree to this

Probably the same reason Bill and Hillary attended trump’s wedding: class solidarity.
posted by Atom Eyes at 7:35 PM on February 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Yeah fuck the charities bullshit. If I feel like celebrating, I'm gonna go ahead and do it here. Because this is wonderful news and will make people's lives that little bit better.
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:37 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

" But "a regular radio segment... play horns and bells and stuff"? Is there any documentation of that?

Snopes found that the claim is true. They weren't able to dig up any of the segments themselves but they dug up some contemporaneous articles about it.
posted by mstokes650 "

So, no.

I'm looking for recordings, etc. I get that he talked about doing it. No recordings were captured?
posted by Shotgun Shakespeare at 8:05 PM on February 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I am dancing due to completely unrelated reasons.
posted by neon909 at 8:10 PM on February 17, 2021

I'm looking for recordings, etc. I get that he talked about doing it. No recordings were captured?

Are you Just Asking Questions, or do you have a reason to believe the Snopes account is false?
posted by benzenedream at 9:01 PM on February 17, 2021 [25 favorites]

@leyawn
no matter your politics its disrespectful to joke about someone’s death. don’t say rush limbaugh died from getting his ass stuck in a wooden barrel and floated off a waterfall and his head hit a tree branch and an eagle swooped down and grabbed his dick. don’t say stuff like that
posted by Gorgik at 9:02 PM on February 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

FINALLY! It's about time. *
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:10 PM on February 17, 2021

He was a bloviating, lying, racist, misogynist homophobe, and the world is improved by his death.

Let him be vocally reviled and then swiftly forgotten.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 9:30 PM on February 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

I don't take glee in his death. I take glee in knowing that the awfulness in the world has been slightly reduced.
posted by Thella at 9:52 PM on February 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Big if true.

@debdrens
I am hearing that on his deathbed #RushLimbaugh received the light of Islam and unhesitatingly recited the Shahāda. Even now he looks down on the Ummah from the gardens of Jannah. Truly there is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet!
4:31 AM · Feb 18, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

posted by Joe in Australia at 10:25 PM on February 17, 2021 [10 favorites]

His grave should be marked like a nuclear waste site.

Can we still shit on it, though? Do hazmat suits come with those access hatches like union suits?
posted by kirkaracha at 10:30 PM on February 17, 2021

"He died the way he lived: horribly cancerous"
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:32 PM on February 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

And then later he would just flip it around, like when he de facto called Chelsea Clinton a dog and there were recordings of that, only of course he did it in an indirect "jokey" way, so then he & his fans would argue, "Hey, the exact words "Chelsea is a dog" never came out of my mouth! I didn't do what you're saying I did!"

His response was even worse than that. He blamed someone else, saying an unnamed staffer put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton when he asked if his audience had seen the new White House dog and he had no idea that was what was happening. Completely cowardly response to well justified criticism.
posted by TedW at 3:28 AM on February 18, 2021 [7 favorites]

I was surprised to see an article on his death by an AP writer that sounded every bit as damning to me as anything in the back page of the Economist, and realize that the writer was just stating facts. And then I reflected that I’ve never known a media world or a conservative movement without Limbaugh’s influence, and I think I never will. And I felt sad.

I don’t think the world automatically gets better when bad people die. I think we have to work to make it so. We have a lot of work to do.
posted by eirias at 3:53 AM on February 18, 2021 [22 favorites]

Now if only Rush's death would restore my Dad to the person he was before he started listening to Rush and his toxic, brainwash bullsh**.

I watched my father go from a cheerful, kindly, thoughtful and conscientious conservative in the early 1990s to a man who was buying guns because people like Rush convinced him that dark-skinned people would be breaking into his house. My dad has already passed away, so that damage is done and was permanent. Rush was a cancer on our society.
posted by drstrangelove at 4:13 AM on February 18, 2021 [27 favorites]

The Elton John thing reminds me of a virulent homophobe on a different forum to which I belong who likes to point out--- constantly--- that he gave a gay guy (who also happened to be on the forum) an Amazon gift card as a wedding gift. Far from being simply a kind gesture it was obvious that it was his "Trump card"--- whenever he was accused of homophobia (and he said some truly awful stuff to this guy on this forum) he could just trot out how he gave him a gift for his wedding.

I wonder if Rush pulled that stunt after EJ performed at his wedding.
posted by drstrangelove at 4:19 AM on February 18, 2021 [6 favorites]

They say that the death of one person diminishes us all. I don't buy it. I don't feel that we're even slightly diminished. Limbaugh was a vile, evil man, and we're all better of for his death.

I am absolutely, 100%, celebrating his death.

The only real downside is that the death of Limbaugh is not the death of Limbaughism, he inspired a legion of people just as bad and now instead of just him we're dealing with a right wing hydra.
posted by sotonohito at 5:10 AM on February 18, 2021 [7 favorites]

He was directly responsible for outing Planned Parenthood employees some years ago, my Mom being one. That was a bad time for our family.
He gets nothing from me.
posted by james33 at 5:57 AM on February 18, 2021 [26 favorites]

From Garrett Bucks' substack 'The White Pages': Coming of Age in Rush Limbaugh's America; On the lessons you learn when everything is dumb and mean
posted by soundguy99 at 7:21 AM on February 18, 2021 [9 favorites]

You see genius in that path; however, I only see dumb luck and an utter lack of shame that would allow him to say outrageous and guaranteed attention-grabbing things.

Emphasis mine. I don't have cites, but I remember reading on a number of occasions that he would say soto voce to anyone in earshot, "You know I'm really not like that, right? I don't really believe all of those things I say on the air."

That just makes him worse for me. He saw what he was doing without believing in his own lies and saw the impact it had on the US (as well as the world, really), but said "Fuck it. I'm just doing it for a paycheck."

I'm not exactly celebrating his death (and definitely not negatively judging anyone who is), but damn sure not mourning his death. As other have mentioned above, his words on so many marginalized/oppressed/minority communities was reprehensible. The fact that he didn't believe his words is utterly egregious.

Alive or dead, Fuck that asshole.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:27 AM on February 18, 2021 [7 favorites]

He also radicalized my father. When I was little my dad used to play NPR in the car, and he taught me all about astrophysics and how to program and to recite Shakespeare. After Rush he stopped seeing me as a human being and instead saw me only as a radical liberal feminazi. Rush was the gateway drug to O'Reilly and Hannity, so he became a climate denier, stopped being able to discuss anything without turning it into an opportunity to spew talking points, and now he owns guns. I can't tell you if he became a Trump voter because we don't talk anymore.
posted by antinomia at 7:57 AM on February 18, 2021 [50 favorites]

Rot no dot
posted by chance at 9:05 AM on February 18, 2021 [6 favorites]

Wow, antinomia, my dad had a very similar trajectory from NPR to Trump. Although we are still on good terms and just don't talk about politics it pains me to think of what a scared, suspicious, limited person he has become as a direct result of listening to that shit day in and day out and I swear it was just because he liked to listen to talk radio on his long drives for work. Fuck Rush Limbaugh.
posted by Jess the Mess at 9:54 AM on February 18, 2021 [13 favorites]

I also lost a perfectly good parent to Limbaugh.* I half-seriously think there should be a support group. Maybe three-quarters-seriously.

* (Dad's still alive, and we still speak, just about an ever-diminishing number of things, to the point that conversing is both pointless and unnecessarily emotionally fraught. He has reportedly recently discovered Newsmax. Pray for me.)
posted by Spathe Cadet at 9:58 AM on February 18, 2021 [15 favorites]

Heather Cox Richardson's latest Letters from An American newsletter briefly charts Limbaugh's rise in popularity and power after the Fairness Doctrine was abolished on August 5, 1987 ["Constantly, he hammered on the idea that the federal government threatened the freedom of white men, and he did so in a style that his listeners found entertaining and liberating."]: According to [Limbaugh], minorities and feminists were too lazy to work, and instead expected a handout from the government, paid for by tax dollars levied from hardworking white men. This, he explained, was “socialism,” and it was destroying America. Limbaugh didn’t invent this theory; it was the driving principle behind Movement Conservatism, which rose in the 1950s to combat the New Deal government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure. But Movement Conservatives' efforts to get voters to reject the system that they credited for creating widespread prosperity had little success.

In 1971, Lewis Powell, an attorney for the tobacco industry, wrote a confidential memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce outlining how business interests could overturn the New Deal and retake control of America. Powell focused on putting like-minded scholars and speakers on college campuses, rewriting textbooks, stacking the courts, and pressuring politicians. He also called for “reaching the public generally” through television, newspapers, and radio. “[E]very available means should be employed to challenge and refute unfair attacks,” he wrote, “as well as to present the affirmative case through this media.” [...]

By the end of the 1980s, Limbaugh’s show was carried on more than 650 radio stations, and in 1992, he briefly branched out into television with a show produced by Roger Ailes, who had packaged Richard Nixon in 1968 and would go on to become the head of the Fox News Channel. Before the 1994 midterm elections, Limbaugh was so effective in pushing the Republicans’ “Contract With America” that when the party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1952, the Republican revolutionaries made him an honorary member of their group.[...] Limbaugh kept staff in Washington to make sure Republican positions got through to voters. At the same time, every congressman knew that taking a stand against Limbaugh would earn instant condemnation on radio channels across the country, and they acted accordingly. [emphasis mine]
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:01 AM on February 18, 2021 [20 favorites]

Don't celebrate Rush Limbaugh's death. Mourn his life.
-- Rachel McCartney
posted by louigi at 10:12 AM on February 18, 2021 [25 favorites]

*
If I were clever, I'd design a party game of "Guess where he goes in Malebolge?"
Place your bets, five, six, eight, or nine.....
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 10:15 AM on February 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

I distinctly recall my dad driving me to high school and telling me about this guy he'd just discovered on the radio. Once I had my own car, a classmate and I ate our lunches in that car and listened to an hour of Limbaugh. It wasn't until some time in college that I started breaking free of the reactionary mindset - and I'm as left as they come, now.

My parents, and the rest of my family, are still way over yonder in wingnut land. We...don't talk politics; the detente has lasted over 20 years. About ten years ago, my dad did say something about how he was ashamed that the "liberals had brainwashed" me.

My reply: "Aw, I thought you'd be proud, that I learned to think for myself!"

(that did not go over well.)
posted by notsnot at 11:15 AM on February 18, 2021 [22 favorites]

*
posted by Meatbomb at 12:42 PM on February 18, 2021

Good article that points out how Limbaugh set the stage for Trump: Thanks to Limbaugh, Trump saw, along with much of America, that he could be just as bigoted, sexist and cruel as he wanted without fear of losing supporters — even when you lose a presidential election. In fact, Trump knew from Limbaugh’s success that, to the contrary, it would delight millions.

posted by darkstar at 1:09 PM on February 18, 2021 [3 favorites]

Greatest man in America, everybody. (SYTL)

BJ, don't cry - we're stuck in the 90's again.

To the man who was an increasing satire of himself - I can not think of another remembrance.
posted by LD Feral at 2:07 PM on February 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

I wonder how he felt about it all at the end. I suspect he didn’t believe any of it.

Vonnegut: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

The best case scenario was Rush was born a monster. The worst case is he chose to be one for money and power. Either way, monster.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:56 PM on February 18, 2021 [10 favorites]

Vonnegut: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.


This is exactly the quote that occurred to me earlier, Joey Michaels.

It's no good saying "I was only a racist, sexist, homophobic demagogue who worked tirelessly to undermine the social fabric as my day job so I could make millions of dollars. In reality, I didn't really believe any of that."

Because your impact on the world and on other people is what you actually do, not what you may or may not have believed in seekrit.
posted by darkstar at 4:28 PM on February 18, 2021 [11 favorites]

It's no good saying "I was only a racist, sexist, homophobic demagogue who worked tirelessly to undermine the social fabric as my day job so I could make millions of dollars. In reality, I didn't really believe any of that."

To those he abused, it makes no difference what it innermost beliefs were. His actions and his impacts were clear.

A person who burns crosses 'just for the money' is just as much a racist as the guy who burns crosses because of his deepest beliefs, and is arguably more contemptible.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:42 PM on February 18, 2021 [13 favorites]

I marked the occasion with a nice shot of Maraskino. The man was horrible. Did you know that for years he took only cis - het male callers? Then women ‘had’ to send pictures of themselves. Many women sent him moon shots. Which made him likelier to take the call. The man ( and I use the term lightly..) was a master of propaganda and disinformation. I can’t understand how he ever found wives. I do understand why he failed to reproduce. That last failure is a great blessing. Glad he is gone. Very glad!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:27 PM on February 18, 2021 [3 favorites]

Is the * MeFi's happy .? Assuming so, for the record:

*

And for appropriate jubilation, ****************************************, etc.

So much of his lifetime effort to make the world less peaceful, less joyful, less just. I'm glad I don't believe in Hell. I'd be sore tempted to wish it for him.
posted by phrits at 7:27 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

I find there to be a certain sort of cosmic justice in the manner of his demise.

First, his ears refused to listen to any more hate. When he failed to learn that lesson, his lungs chose to deny his lies any more air.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 7:57 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Is the * MeFi's happy .?

No.
posted by flabdablet at 9:04 PM on February 18, 2021

Speaking of Vonnegut, a reread of Mother Night might be warranted by the death of a NazI broadcaster.
posted by benzenedream at 9:24 PM on February 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

There were few things back in the day as disappointing as meeting somebody new and finding they were a dittohead. Because they would not stop talking about him or their devotion to whatever vitriol dropped out of his drug-addled mouth. How blindly agreeing with a racist demagogue was a substitute for a personality escapes me, but back then we didn't have the ability to play Game Dev Story on our phones to pass the time...

No dot. To quote Exeter, in Henry V: "Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt."
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:49 PM on February 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you feel like celebrating, I'd recommend contributing a dollar to any one of a number of charities.

Especially to a charity he would have hated - maybe even in his name? #CharitableSchadenfreude
posted by milnews.ca at 4:13 AM on February 19, 2021

Speaking of donating to charity, apparently Chrissie Hynde chose to allow Rush to use her song but donated all the proceeds to PETA. (It's a little unclear, but possibly directly from Rush's org rather than going to Hynde first.)
posted by soundguy99 at 5:22 AM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

He died
As he lived
A cancer
.
posted by HyperBlue at 5:36 AM on February 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

Jacobin takes their time: Rush Limbaugh Was a Repulsive Demagogue
posted by box at 9:42 AM on February 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

The always-excellent Dave Zirin, author of A People's History of Sports in the United States: When Rush Limbaugh Was Too Racist for the NFL. Moments like this are why The Nation has a sports editor.

Rush didn’t dwell on his rejection by the NFL because it would have meant criticizing the rich, white billionaires to whom he had spent his career in slavish service. Rush still lived on to launch Donald Trump and put his permanent stamp on the Republican Party as one rooted in white grievance, bigotry, and incitement to violence.

posted by box at 11:19 AM on February 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

Baby Trump will honor Rush Limbaugh by lowering Florida flags
posted by photoslob at 2:37 PM on February 19, 2021

*
posted by detachd at 3:02 PM on February 19, 2021

JFC, Florida fly flags at half staff for Rush. It's like the USA is a speculative fiction country where two distinct societies are separated by an aether.
posted by Mitheral at 9:41 AM on February 20, 2021 [5 favorites]

Political commentator Jonathan Capehart's take on Limbaugh's death, from the PBS NewsHour:

"My relationship when it comes to Rush Limbaugh is more than complicated, as someone who was attacked by him many times when he was on the radio. I mourn for his family. I mourn for his family and the people who loved him.

But I — I, quite honestly, do not, simply because of the corrosive nature of his radio programming and what he did with the power that he had, the corrosive nature that he had on American politics, on American political discourse.

And legacies can be good and legacies can be bad. And I think, for me, personally, Rush Limbaugh's legacy is one that has harmed the country."
posted by JDC8 at 6:22 PM on February 20, 2021

For all the nice, charitable parents whose minds were turned to hate and fear by Limbaugh:

.
posted by benzenedream at 6:43 PM on February 20, 2021 [3 favorites]

NYT gave Ben Shapiro a column to whitewash Rush Limbaugh.

Just cancel your NYT subscription if you still have one. This fucking paper just continually disappoints. Give fascists any platform they want, NYT you useless pieces of shit.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 6:59 PM on February 20, 2021 [12 favorites]

One may question whether this validates it - giving a bad actor a platform ain’t good- but the Shapiro op-ed was part of a package of four takes.
(NB: this comment is mostly about clearing all recent very long comments from my recent activity, a pony request that I think I shall take to MetaTalk.)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:08 AM on February 21, 2021 [3 favorites]

One may question whether this validates it - giving a bad actor a platform ain’t good- but the Shapiro op-ed was part of a package of four takes.

No, you don't give Shapiro a soapbox to whitewash a hateful bigot, not even if you have other people saying the opposite (which they definitely weren't - one of the other pieces literally asked if we needed to dance on Rush's grave. (Yes, of course.)) This is a massive problem with how our national discourse works - the media refuses to tell the side blatantly lying to fuck off, because that would mean a) work and b) harassment from that side.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:27 AM on February 22, 2021 [5 favorites]

I actually agree with Shapiro that modern conservatism dwells pretty much entirely inside the house that Rush built.

Where we part ways is that he says that like it's a good thing.
posted by flabdablet at 7:41 AM on February 22, 2021 [5 favorites]

That Ben Shapiro op-ed definitely spells things out.

"Before Rush Limbaugh, there was virtually no broadcast conservative media": Rush Limbaugh is what conservative media is. Insults, mockery, hate, fear, tribalism, stoking resentment. That - not a principled approach based on carefully considered economics and philosophy - is the conservative movement in America.

"conservatives appeared in broadcast media at the sufferance of liberal overlords": Just as I appear here today in the NY Times, like my friends Bret Stephens and Ross Douthat and Tom Cotton and far too many others before me. This is oppressive, which is why most op-ed sections of conservative newspapers do not regularly extend this kind of sufferance. The idea that media channels may be controlled by any motives other than spreading liberal ideology is inconvenient and won't be mentioned. The idea that my viewpoint may not actually be oppressed is inconvenient and won't be mentioned. Because you can't stoke resentment with a complicated narrative.

"the ill-advised and ridiculous fairness doctrine, which required those with a broadcast license to present controversial issues in a “balanced” way": When we extolled Fox News for being "fair and balanced", we really didn't mean it. It's okay to lie, because truth isn't what matters.

"Rush’s gleeful, oppositional defiance is what so angered the left": Only style and appearance matter; never content, which is inconvenient and won't be mentioned. Defiance and glee by people like Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Beto O'Rourke, AOC, and so on are also inconvenient and won't be considered. Defiance and glee belong only to the Right; that the Left might have legitimate issues with the real-life consequences of the Rush's policies, and that Rush's glee was aroused specifically by seeing hated people being forcibly 'put in their places', are irrelevant and will not be discussed. Content does not matter. Stoking resentment does.

"The left’s hatred of Rush was not merely the result of anything in particular he did or said, but rather the product of liberals’ generalized scorn for anyone who opposes them." This can be seen by the fact that the Democratic party is known for operating in lockstep, while the Republican party is an enormous, messy, diverse intellectual rainbow of debate and dissent. Certainly the Republican party never censures members who oppose their leader. It's okay if what I say is a lie that would be clear with a moment's thought, because truth isn't what matters. Stoking resentment is.

"The left’s reaction to Rush’s death — and here I include, just as Rush would have, the establishment media that masquerades as objective — helps explain just why Rush was such an important figure for so many conservatives." Rush became important not as the result of anything in particular that establishment media did or said, but rather as the product of conservatives' generalized hatred for anyone who opposes them! This is exactly what I'm accusing the Left of, but it's fine because style matters and content does not. And you cannot stoke resentment without a narrative of victimhood.

"If Rush had been less caustic, the left still would have popped the champagne upon his death, just as they would have if Sean Hannity had died this week, or Tucker Carlson, Mark Levin or any other prominent conservative the left didn’t perceive as an ally of convenience." Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Mark Levin aren't caustic at all! They're just what the conservative movement is! Also the Left is the enemy, because you can't stoke resentment without a narrative of enmity.

"Many in the media despise the kaleidoscopic political information environment that Rush helped foment. They say that if we all went back to the way things were B.R., we’d be able to agree again." This is why rightwing media is known for its diversity, and why Fox News has been able to make controversial points, like that perhaps Biden hadn't actually stolen the election, and that perhaps climate change does exist, without ever having to backpedal. It's okay if what I say is a patent lie; the truth isn't what matters.

"Rush’s life and work proved that conservatives deserved to hear from those who didn’t look down on them" The only example I've mentioned of conservatives being looked down on is of other conservative media figures ("Where Mr. Buckley wrote for those with graduate degrees, Rush talked to those with high school diplomas, without talking down to them.") but I'll position this as an argument against the liberal media anyway because content doesn't matter. Stoking resentment does.

" — and that there is a vast market for such perspectives." Because resentment is a hell of a cash cow.


I mean, I don't know why I bothered writing all this out (and sorry, Going To Maine, for the long comment!) I'm just so frustrated by these arguments I keep seeing in the "conservative" op-eds the NYT publishes. Because I actually do think it's important to bring in a wide range of viewpoints. But they need to be viewpoints with arguments that are actually capable of standing up, that aren't just ridiculously naked demagoguery. They should be viewpoints that enrich readers' understanding and bring in points that haven't been considered. Not flagrant lies, and logical leaps, and things that would be absolutely buried in [citation needed] tags on Wikipedia. Arguments that aren't honest, and op-eds that aren't informed by a real concern with truth, shouldn't be published, regardless of where on the political spectrum they lie. When Ross Douthat and Bret Stephens started writing NYT op-eds, I didn't know who they were. I learned their names because I so often found myself thinking "wait, this is ridiculously dishonest. Who the hell wrote this?" That's not okay.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote about how when, as a teenager, he read religious pamphlets against deism, the flimsiness of the arguments they offered made him think the deists were probably in the right. And there's an idea that publishing bankrupt arguments on a prominent stage like the NYT can expose their bankrupcy. But the evidence of the last two elections, if nothing else, shows that visibility and emotion really do sway people much more than content, and that way too many people are way too bad at recognizing demagoguery and lies. There has to be a better way than publishing this crap.

But whatever, this is preaching to the choir.
posted by trig at 8:20 AM on February 22, 2021 [9 favorites]

Ben Shapiro is cited as an inspiration for one murder spree and in the plans for another, considers a man who inspired actual Nazis to create an antifa kill list to be his ally, and has said that non-Orthodox and/or leftist Jews are traitors to the Jewish people and should be treated as such.

And that's just for starters.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 8:49 AM on February 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

After closely examining dogshit to find out exactly where the smell comes from, as you've done here, I recommend vigorous handwashing with soap for at least 30 seconds, followed by a long soak in a hot bath.

Thank you for your service.
posted by flabdablet at 3:15 PM on February 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

I haven't been a subscriber to the Times since I could get it essentially for free in college (a long, long time ago), but I've had a bookmark for the site that I would click on to get an idea of what things were happening in the world, if only because the Times paywall was less thorough than the Washington Post, and I could sometimes actually read an article. It's been there, a tab I click on, or a bookmark, for about twenty years, maybe four or five times a week.

Seeing Ben Shapiro given a platform in the Times, for anything other than ridicule, mockery, and thrown tomatoes was actually the final straw. I won't be reading the Times, checking their site, or having anything to do with that paper again. It's a damn shame how far they've fallen.
posted by Ghidorah at 8:15 PM on February 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

The New York Times opinion editors are many things (dishonest, craven, shameless, and poor at curation), but they're very good at one aspect of their jobs: getting ad views.

It's abundantly clear that the Times gives a platform to shitty people like Ben Shapiro because people sharing controversial, shitty takes on social media drives people to click, read, and see advertisements which makes more money for the Times—then they share the shitty take with their own commentary on social media, driving more clicks. The only way to stop this would be, of course, never link to the Times opinion section. In fact, don't even mention it. It does not exist. If page views on the opinion page, and the associated ad views, dropped to zero, the Times would stop. But that's not likely to happen, because so many of us are so willing to share other people's terrible takes when they're published by the Paper of Record.
posted by SansPoint at 6:58 AM on February 23, 2021

While obviously the NYTimes are trying to attract views, and also I have refrained on clicking the Shapiro link because he is a bag of slime, I do believe in the importance of seeing the other side's arguments on the opinion pages. You can't fight an enemy you don't know, and there is no way I will provide ad revenue to any of the real right-wing media.
It has made me better at meeting conservatives where they are, when I am doing the political part of my job. Basically I can tell them that I understand what their opinion is, but that we must fit it with these facts (whatever the facts are). Practically, it works better than saying all conservatives are fascists, even though I have felt for the last 20 years that all conservatives enable fascists.

The problematic thing the Times does is to both-side large swaths of their reporting, out of the journalistic misunderstanding that fair reporting means equal pagespace to both sides, even when one side is lying. This failure of integrity and balance is an important element of what has created our current malaise, although obviously talk-radio (with Limbaugh as the thought leader) and the Murdoch press are much bigger influences.
posted by mumimor at 7:36 AM on February 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

The idea of knowing your opposition's argument is obviously sound in a general sense. And I believe in it. What's striking about our discourse now is that Rush Limbaugh helped create an opposition that is completely uninterested in the arguments of the other side. Conservatives' entire idea of liberalism is a straw man. I have almost never seen them engage with the actual issues. It's always their whacked out nightmare scenario version that's designed to stoke resentment. They can't win the real argument, so they make up one that they can win.
posted by wabbittwax at 10:24 AM on February 23, 2021 [9 favorites]

Conservatives' entire idea of liberalism is a straw man. I have almost never seen them engage with the actual issues. It's always their whacked out nightmare scenario version that's designed to stoke resentment. They can't win the real argument, so they make up one that they can win.
True that. And I feel (haven't counted) that many people are backing out of conservatism because of that. I fear that the rabid base will need something serious to happen before they get out of the spell -- and it didn't just happen with Limbaugh and Fox News, they built on existing lies. I'm hoping a real DOJ crackdown on right-wing terrorism can do something, but who knows how insane they are?
posted by mumimor at 12:47 PM on February 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

It's abundantly clear that the Times gives a platform to shitty people like Ben Shapiro because people sharing controversial, shitty takes on social media drives people to click, read, and see advertisements which makes more money for the Times

Yet another instance of the moral hazard built into advertising as an enterprise, as if we needed any more. Surely this will be enough to convince the whole world never to browse without uBlock Origin running?
posted by flabdablet at 7:38 PM on February 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has what might be the last words from them on the subject: Limbaugh Helped Create the Conservative Movement--And Paved the Road for Trump
posted by box at 11:53 AM on February 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

*
posted by JoJoPotato at 2:45 PM on February 25, 2021