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You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / Late Night Open Thread: Concerning Rush Limbaugh

Late Night Open Thread: Concerning Rush Limbaugh

by Anne Laurie|  February 19, 20211:12 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment

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i think a lot of people in conservative media are realizing the internet is going to celebrate when they expire. that must be an awful feeling. never too late to be a better person.

— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) February 17, 2021

One thing that’s surprised me over the last 36 hours: Nobody seems to have mentioned that ‘Rusty’ Limbaugh, fortunate son, avoided serving in Vietnam because his doctor said he had a pilonidal cyst. Literally, a hair across his arse. I guess the Vietnam-war-at-home era really *is* over.

I just saw someone saying that Rush was playing a character, and I can’t see how that’s in any way exculpatory. Playing on peoples worst fears and hatred and racism cynically as a cash grab? That’s…even worse.

— Courtney Milan ?? (@courtneymilan) February 17, 2021

“You know how to stop abortion? Require that each one occur with a gun.” -Rush Limbaugh

People donating to Planned Parenthood in Rush Limbaugh’s memory via @quentquarantino’s IG page have raised over $30k so far. https://t.co/FCxALVsENM

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) February 18, 2021

I suspect they did and thought it was funny because they are also bad people. https://t.co/4iRJYJyPoc

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) February 17, 2021

Wish people could honor Osama bin Laden for transforming Lower Manhattan without being cruel https://t.co/StSKmBxfF9

— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) February 17, 2021

"Limbaugh was good in the beginning but then he sold out" pic.twitter.com/glI2NN5WKF

— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) February 18, 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.

— Paul Elliott Johnson (@RhetoricPJ) February 17, 2021

When it comes to powerful public figures de mortuis nihil nisi bonum is bullshit in any case, but it's PARTICULARLY ridiculous in this case. The Robin Williams reaction is particularly callous and revolting https://t.co/eFOb6Z70l5

— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) February 17, 2021

He spent his last few months on this planet spewing hate and misinformation and undermining our democracy. So basically continuing what he did for the entirety of his public existence. https://t.co/oywIuewyyz

— AdotSad (@AdotSad) February 17, 2021

Every conservative pundit praising Limbaugh as funny should have to tweet out their favorite Limbaugh joke so we can see what we're missing. C'mon guys, put it on Twitter.

— Aaron (@BobbyBigWheel) February 17, 2021

Are we allowed to appoint Limbaugh’s successor now or do we need to wait until the next election?

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 17, 2021

Because he never said anything new, over the last couple of decades…

“The Rush Limbaugh Show” will remain on the air, using archived segments and clips primarily featuring the late talk-radio host’s voice, the show’s distributor said https://t.co/vbmE4jMnwM

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 18, 2021

From a longer thread:

Rush Limbaugh will be remembered as one of the most consequential figures in the history of American conservatism, because he reflected and shaped the world view of the post-Reagan GOP base more than any other single person. https://t.co/R2TwS27lgj

— Seth Cotlar (@SethCotlar) February 17, 2021

Rush descended from a well-off and well-connected family in Missouri, but he played the role of “pissed off Joe Six Pack” really well. He’s a perfect example of “plutocratic populism.” https://t.co/eUSIiffk07

— Seth Cotlar (@SethCotlar) February 17, 2021

Limbaugh’s cruel bigotry and aura of aggrieved entitlement was a feature, not a bug. In an era of shifting social mores, Limbaugh gave his listeners permission to be a-holes and be proud about it. He perfected the schtick that would get Trump elected.

Limbaugh’s buffoonery actually shaped my politics in a significant way, though not in the way he intended. Between 1992 and 1997 I made several, 10-hour drives between Chicago (where I was in grad school) and central PA (where my family was). I listened to Rush each time.

Rush was still a fairly new figure in the political universe at that point, but he was becoming a big hit with a certain segment of the population with which I was experientially familiar, angry white people. I totally got why his bit resonated…and it wasn’t good…

Rush sounded exactly like all of the right wing lawyers, dentists, and real estate agents in my hometown who’d sit around at the Country Club bar and complain about black people and feminazis, and then climb in their Lincoln town cars and drive home drunk.

Rush, like those guys, was an elitist bully. He thought he was better than most other people, and he didn’t even have the integrity to even try to tell the truth to his “dittohead” fans. He was a mean-spirited huckster who built a politics that harmed his working class listeners…

Here’s an archive of 5700 of Rush’s shows from 2005 to 2017, in case anyone’s interested. https://archive.org/details/rush-l…

So for all of those “conservatives” out there saying how formative Rush was for them. This is what they’re referring to. THIS is what people loved about him.

He gave conservatives permission to take pleasure in hating their fellow Americans who weren’t like them, and then to call such behavior “the pinnacle of American patriotism.”

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64Comments

  1. 1.

    Jerzy Russian

    February 19, 2021 at 1:17 am

    Several thoughts come to mind:

     

    1.  Christ, what an asshole!
    2.   Anyone remember his brief stint on Monday Night Football?  Christ, what an asshole!
    3.  Fuck him and the horse that he rode in on.
    4.  Christ, what an asshole!
  2. 2.

    FelonyGovt

    February 19, 2021 at 1:20 am

    The world is much better off without him.

  3. 3.

    Jerzy Russian

    February 19, 2021 at 1:23 am

    I was just about to run that Matt Taibbi tweet through Google Translate, but then I said to myself, “Self, why bother?”.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    February 19, 2021 at 1:26 am

    FYI.

    Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 will be available for free on its YouTube channel for 48 hours, starting on Friday, February 19th, at 12AM PT….
    [snip]
    If you’re interested in seeing the movie but don’t have Netflix, it’ll be available on Netflix’s YouTube channel starting Friday. Source

  5. 5.

    Keith P.

    February 19, 2021 at 1:41 am

    Hopefully, he’s shoveling shit in hell.

  6. 6.

    Danielx

    February 19, 2021 at 1:44 am

    Honestly.

    Fuck that guy.

    Which should be a rotating tag line

    If it isn’t already.

  7. 7.

    patrick II

    February 19, 2021 at 1:48 am

    I just saw someone saying that Rush was playing a character, and I can’t see how that’s in any way exculpatory.

    Part of what Limbaugh did might have been for show, but the racism ran to the bone. He was fired from NFL Football broadcasting because he couldn’t stop himself from saying that Donavan McNabb was overrated because “the media has been very desirous that a Black quarterback do well.” He believed that.

  8. 8.

    piratedan

    February 19, 2021 at 1:51 am

    well Rush styled himself as an unapologetic irredeemable asshole who had a belief that white guys should be in charge because…. white guys had always been in charge and if you weren’t a white guy, well then fuck you.  If you were a woman, then you either better be putting out or making him a sammich, preferably both and if you were a POC, well you could do his yard work but don’t expect to be paid a lot.

    He peddled this shit relentlessly and could rarely be shamed or backed down from it because it would be “weak” and as such, there’s never been any compromise with his ilk and the GOP adopted this mindset as their reason for being.  Couple this with Uncle Rupert crafting their alternate truth paradise, we have a lot to unfuck.  Hope that we can find a way to topple the soapbox and start to reintroduce reality to these folks.  Gonna be a long hard slog restoring the old ethical substructure, being a grasshopper was a damn sight easier than being an ant.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    February 19, 2021 at 1:52 am

    He gave conservatives permission to take pleasure in hating their fellow Americans who weren’t like them, and then to call such behavior “the pinnacle of American patriotism.”

    Reagan, Gingrich, and Trump are all politicians of the same tradition.

    Not long after President Carter lost that election, he and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter were interviewed by Barbara Walters. She asked Mrs. Carter what she felt the election of President Reagan would do to the country. Mrs. Carter’s eerily prescient answer said more about us as a people than anything I had ever heard.
    “I think the President makes us comfortable with our prejudices,” she said.

  10. 10.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    February 19, 2021 at 1:57 am

    Asshole smoked to own the libs and got lung cancer – republicanism in a nutshell

  11. 11.

    the pollyanna from hell

    February 19, 2021 at 1:59 am

    I worked construction and other heavy labor jobs for twenty years or so, and I hated the workplaces ruled by talk radio, but I entertained myself by cheering on Rushbo’s creative contributions to the practice of Marxist analysis, which I explained to any co-worker who thought I had potential as a right-thinking ditto-head.

  12. 12.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    February 19, 2021 at 2:02 am

    So Taibbi has always been a sexually assaulting ass hole.

    Who could have known.

  13. 13.

    Jager

    February 19, 2021 at 2:04 am

    @Keith P.:

    There’s an old Norwegian joke, the Old Norski arrives in hell, the devil takes him to a field of waist-deep shit. Thousands of people are standing around drinking coffee. The Norski thinks, “this isn’t too bad.” Then the whistle blows and Satan says, ‘Coffee break is over, back on your heads!”

  14. 14.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    February 19, 2021 at 2:06 am

    Btwn Dump, Rush, and Newt they had 10 wives.

    Party of multiple family values.

  15. 15.

    Anotherlurker

    February 19, 2021 at 2:06 am

    I have been celebrating the death of limbaugh since yesterday. I actually tried listening to rush once. I immediately found him and his schtick repellent. Since Regan I have tried to understand “conservatism” . I read the 1980 republican platform. I read up on trickledown economics. I tried to debate republicans.

    All I got out of these outreach attempts were condescending brush-offs telling me that I “just didn’t understand” basic economics and that my liberal views were counter to the American Way.  These arguments deteriorate to out and out hostility to my views. Further, these views evolved to hatred for all liberals.

    It took me almost 30 years to finally say “fuck conservatives” and view the entire GQP as Nazis.

    Every conservative death makes the world a better place.

  16. 16.

    West of the Rockies

    February 19, 2021 at 2:06 am

    Limbaugh on MNF was terrible, but so was the other rightwinger Dennis Miller.  Why did MNF insist on having a rightwing color commentator anyway (to go with yee-haa singer Hank William’s Jr.)?

  17. 17.

    Jay

    February 19, 2021 at 2:10 am

    Holy smokes.Our Texas relief mobilization has already raised $325k for food, housing, elder care & direct relief straight to vulnerable Texans.This might be a little crazy… but can we raise $1M by midnight?💯% goes to Feeding Texas, ECHO & more: https://t.co/TTIiNimja7 https://t.co/OO57AoLmR9— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2021

  18. 18.

    Hungry Joe

    February 19, 2021 at 2:16 am

    One thing Limbaugh never did, once he became established, was engage in any kind of debate in a public forum, or even agree to be interviewed by anyone who could challenge him. I suspect it goes back to a 1993 appearance on the Letterman show. Near the end of a long interview Letterman pounced: “Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and ask yourself, ‘Am I just a bag of hot gas?’ “ Limbaugh was stunned; he blinked, blinked again … and that was the last time I can remember seeing him in anything but a friendly, controlled environment.

  19. 19.

    Ruckus

    February 19, 2021 at 2:18 am

    Someone on twitter was giving me a hard time because I said I was glad he was gone. They took umbrage because he died of cancer. We did several times back and forth about it and said that I hadn’t mentioned how he died, only that he was dead and that I’m glad about that. He not only made the world a worse place he took delight in it. I’d like someone to tell me that if religion is about being better people why do so many that have a religious bent, hate so much of humanity? 60 yrs since I read the bible and I’m still trying to figure that out.

  20. 20.

    The Dangerman

    February 19, 2021 at 2:20 am

    @Jerzy Russian: Hmmm. Worse MNF hire, Rush or Dennis Miller? Imma gonna go with DM. Mainly because I don’t remember RL other than he had a bug up his ass about McNabb. I wonder why. Hmmm.

    Miller was just painful to listen to during those games.

  21. 21.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 19, 2021 at 2:21 am

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Asshole smoked to own the libs and got lung cancer – republicanism in a nutshell

    So it was an ironic death; the blow hard poisoned himself just to be a brat and choked to death as his lungs died. Also, that would be a slow and painful death, even better.

  22. 22.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    February 19, 2021 at 2:24 am

    Limbaugh was a maggot. Now he’s multiple maggots.

  23. 23.

    Jay

    February 19, 2021 at 2:28 am

    The 5th Circuit grants qualified immunity to Texas cops who ignited a suicidal man drenched in gasoline by shooting him with Tasers. https://t.co/p1KgknnknS— Jacob Sullum (@jacobsullum) February 18, 2021

  24. 24.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 19, 2021 at 2:28 am

    @West of the Rockies: Limbaugh on MNF was terrible, but so was the other rightwinger Dennis Miller.

    Ah yes, Dennis Miller, the alleged conservative comedian.  The big Miller moment for me was one time he was on the Daily Show to promote some show of Miller’s and was utterly horrified at out much more enthusiastic Jon Steward’s crowd was in compared to Miller’s.

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    February 19, 2021 at 2:34 am

    OT – I think the Zodiac killer is also a drug trafficker.

    “You know who does roundtrip to Mexico and back for less than 24 hours with a large suitcase? Drug traffickers and Ted Cruz.” – CSPAN caller.— YS (@NYinLA2121) February 18, 2021

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    February 19, 2021 at 2:36 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Smoked to own the libs, then lung cancer owned him.

  27. 27.

    Mary G

    February 19, 2021 at 2:43 am

    My mom moved into a 55+ coop when I went off to college and said that in the afternoons when she walked the ground all she heard coming out of people’s window was Rush. They had almost all been brainwashed and she one by one let them go. It was always the husband, but the wives went along.

    He is responsible for getting me involved in politics. In 1992 when Barbara Boxer was running for the Senate, she came to Orange County to give a speech and had to give up because a bunch of assholes stood in the audience shouting “Feminazi” at her. I made my first $5 contribution to her that day.

  28. 28.

    patrick II

    February 19, 2021 at 3:05 am

    @Hungry Joe:

    I remember that.  I also remember Limbaugh saying something negative about Hillary’s appearance and Letterman responding with (paraphrase) “how apt, coming from such a fine figure of a man”.  Rush was still at about 280 at the time.

  29. 29.

    Starboard Tack

    February 19, 2021 at 3:21 am

    There’s an old phrase that fits. Rush was “as funny as a crutch”.

  30. 30.

    tokyokie

    February 19, 2021 at 3:23 am

    On the day that the Florida secretary of state confirmed George W. Bush as the winner in 2000 election, Limbaugh did a special weekend edition of his show. I stopped by a convenience stores in a predominantly Black neighborhood that day, and the white clerk was playing Limbaugh’s show loudly, smirking at the customers who were giving him grief. I looked at the guy — overweight, unskilled, not especially bright, around 30 — and wondered which was worse: Playing Limbaugh’s show to piss off his customers (had I been his boss, I’d have fired him on the spot), or his thinking that Republican policies were actually going to materially help him.

  31. 31.

    tokyokie

    February 19, 2021 at 3:24 am

    @Starboard Tack:

    There’s an old phrase that fits. Rush was “as funny as a crutch”.

    The way I heard that one “as funny as a rubber crutch.”

  32. 32.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    February 19, 2021 at 3:28 am

    I wonder who will be the high bidder for the toilet paper concession at Limbaugh’s grave site.

    People are going to be taking dumps there all day long.

  33. 33.

    lgerard

    February 19, 2021 at 3:49 am

    @Hungry Joe:

    this too

    Limbaugh’s debut as a television host was not auspicious. It came in the waning days of “The Pat Sajak Show,” CBS’s pre-Letterman attempt at a late- night franchise. Various people were guest-hosting in Sajak’s place, auditioning for a new version of the show. Limbaugh tried out in December 1990. His hour on the air was fatally disrupted by a throng of act-up demonstrators protesting his constant resort to anti-gay remarks on his nationally syndicated radio show. The man who had once attacked homosexuality as “deadly, sickly behavior,” who filed a regular “Gerbil Update,” wilted before this on-air protest. “He came out full of bluster and left a very shaken man,” said a CBS executive. “I had never seen a man sweat so much in my life.”

    There was a small scandal a few years back when it was revealed that many of the iHeart radio shows used paid actors reading from scripts as “callers”

  34. 34.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    February 19, 2021 at 3:56 am

    @lgerard: ​
     

    That reminds me:

    Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (ISBN 0-385-31474-4) is a 1996 American book by Al Franken. It is satirically critical of 1990s right-wing political figures such as Pat Buchanan, Bob Dole, Phil Gramm, Newt Gingrich, and particularly radio host Rush Limbaugh. Franken often makes his points through humor, including the use of graphs with his handwriting superimposed over them.

    The book ranked #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List, February 25, 1996.[1]

    ***

    The audiobook version won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album.

  35. 35.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    February 19, 2021 at 4:08 am

    Let’s remember Limbaugh in his own words…

    “just another dead doper. and a dirt bag”.

  36. 36.

    LevelB

    February 19, 2021 at 4:10 am

    I used to travel extensively throughout the south for.my job, and the nature of my work was such that I had to drive everywhere. The government vehicles I drove did not even have AuX jacks, so we just listened to local radio stations.

    I can’t remember when I first heard Limbaugh, and really was unsure at first about what he really was.  I think the broadcast that clarified it for me was the one where he said young teenager Chelsea Clinton was dog ugly.

    That started my move to the left, which continues to this day, which is the kindest thing I could say about him.

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 19, 2021 at 4:37 am

    @lgerard: Figures the Rush was a coward.  I really don’t get guys like that, pick fights with people and then are horrified when they get into a fight.

  38. 38.

    Shalimar

    February 19, 2021 at 4:42 am

    @Jerzy Russian: Limbaugh was part of the Sunday pre-game on ESPN for a few weeks, not MNF.  I remember it, this was before the networks each had their own pre-game so ESPN was the only option if you wanted non-church before the games, but I hated Limbaugh too much to actually watch his appearances.  He made it through his first show but was fired after Week 2 or 3.

  39. 39.

    TriassicSands

    February 19, 2021 at 4:59 am

    Once, traveling in northern New Mexico, I turned on the car radio and typical of radio back then, all I could get was AM and on that it was either Limbaugh or some religious nutjob. Somehow, an environmental engineer had made it past Limbaugh’s screener and he proceeded to utterly destroy Limbaugh and his lies and distortions. He caught Limbaugh completely off guard, which may have explained why Limbaugh didn’t cut off the caller immediately, and the caller made a complete fool of Limbaugh. I wouldn’t be surprised if the screener was fired, because Limbaugh was defenseless when confronted with expertise and the truth.

    The world is a better place today.

  40. 40.

    Freemark

    February 19, 2021 at 5:06 am

    @Sm*t Cl*de:

    A piece of shit that big should at least be good fertilizer.

  41. 41.

    Freemark

    February 19, 2021 at 5:14 am

    @LevelB: ​

    @LevelB: ​
     
    I actually saw that bit on TV. As a young idiot I thought some of what he said made sense and was entertaining. Never watched it again after he called a 12-year-old girl a dog on national TV. The good news is I think that made me turn away from the dark side for good.

  42. 42.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    February 19, 2021 at 5:29 am

    @patrick II: 

    He actually managed to fuck up his dream job by making that statement shortly into the first broadcast – I remember it well because I was watching it and remember how awkward it was, particularly for the other guys on the crew.

  43. 43.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    February 19, 2021 at 5:34 am

    @The Dangerman:

    To Miller’s credit, he actually had multiple games. He managed to not get fired for his calls his first game.

  44. 44.

    lowtechcyclist

    February 19, 2021 at 5:51 am

    On January 7, Rush Limbaugh had this to say about the January 6 insurrectionists:

    ‘We’re supposed to be horrified by the protesters,’ Limbaugh said on his program on Thursday.

    ‘There’s a lot of people calling for the end of violence. There’s a lot of conservatives, social media, who say that any violence or aggression at all is unacceptable. Regardless of the circumstances,’ he said.

    ‘I’m glad Sam Adams, Thomas Paine, the actual tea party guys, the men at Lexington and Concord didn’t feel that way,’ he continued.

    So that was Rush, six weeks before he exited this life. It was no act; this was his belief set. He was pro-insurrection. A traitor, willing to cheer people tearing down this country because they were on the same political side he was on.

  45. 45.

    rollSound

    February 19, 2021 at 5:58 am

    @West of the Rockies: to be fair, Dennis Miller got the MNF job in 2000, and didn’t out himself as a rightwing fuckwad until after 9/11.

  46. 46.

    raven

    February 19, 2021 at 6:08 am

    He paved the way for wide swaths of aggrieved Nam vets to forget how much they hated “draft dodgers” to embrace fucking assholes like Newt, Trump and himself.

  47. 47.

    raven

    February 19, 2021 at 6:19 am

    @lowtechcyclist: Yea, cheer people on, not actually DO anything himself.

  48. 48.

    evodevo

    February 19, 2021 at 6:21 am

    @Ruckus: ​
      Well, as for Xtianity, it’s been there since the beginning…there were intra- and inter-religion massacres in the second century AD clear up to the present…but the hatred for anyone but their own has been revved up by right winger preachers/megachurches/culture war freaks to a high pitch over the last 30 years…the intersection of Newtonian political shit-stirring and evangelical nuttiness is unmistakable…

  49. 49.

    lowtechcyclist

    February 19, 2021 at 6:23 am

    Man, J.D. Vance:

    Wish people could honor a person who changed media forever without being cruel.

    Find me such a person, J.D., and I’ll consider honoring him.But did Rush Limbaugh “change[] media forever without being cruel”? No, he changed media forever BY being cruel.But just for shits and giggles, I checked out Vance’s Twitter feed. I figured the author of Hillbilly Elegy was more conservative than me, but might have some nuance to it. No, he’s just another right-wing shitposter on Twitter, telling lies about Biden’s immigration proposal, boasting about being on Laura Ingraham by retweeting a Fox News attack ad, shit like that.Then he has this reaction to the Texas disaster:

    The Texas power/water outage story is just depressing. We’re the richest country in the world and one of our biggest states has gone days with major infrastructure gaps. Sometimes feels like we’re becoming a country where nothing works like it’s supposed to.

    That, you fucking idiot, is because everybody on your side of the political spectrum is just like you: no Republican, no conservative anymore, gives a damn about making things work, or understanding how things work. Really the only thing they’re capable of doing is getting people angry enough about bullshit that they can hold onto enough power to keep Democrats, who actually DO care about making things work, many of whom have spent their lifetimes trying to understand how to make things work better, from actually FIXING shit.

    It’s that simple.​

    ETA: Should also mention that it’s worth reading @onesarahjones’ takes on Hillbilly Elegy. She was born and raised in SW Virginia, and has done a pretty good job of dissecting both the book and the movie.​​​​

  50. 50.

    Geminid

    February 19, 2021 at 6:32 am

    @raven: John Bolton once explained his multiple draft deferments by saying, “I wasn’t going to fight for South Vietnam just to see Ted Kennedy turn it over to the North Vietnamese.” Classic post facto justification and scapegoating.

  51. 51.

    raven

    February 19, 2021 at 6:37 am

    @Geminid: And Newt said it was the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time him.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    February 19, 2021 at 6:44 am

    @Jerzy Russian:

    Matt liked the mysogyny.  He probably found it funny and made him feel better about his attitude towards women.

  53. 53.

    Kathleen

    February 19, 2021 at 7:03 am

    @Baud: I think the acceptance of Rush by many in the media (“He’s really a talented entertainer” or “listen to Rush to get the pulse of Real Heartland Americans”) was the beginning of injecting right wing hate into mainstream media, which is why I refer to “Mainslime Media”.

  54. 54.

    SFAW

    February 19, 2021 at 7:11 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    That, you fucking idiot, is because everybody on your side of the political spectrum is just like you: no Republican, no conservative anymore, gives a damn about making things work, or understanding how things work. Really the only thing they’re capable of doing is getting people angry enough about bullshit that they can hold onto enough power to keep Democrats, who actually DO care about making things work, many of whom have spent their lifetimes trying to understand how to make things work better, from actually FIXING shit.

    It’s that simple.​

    Should be a rotating … tag? Well, anyway, you’re absolutely spot-on

    ETA: And I’ve never read J.D. Vance (other than twitter), but … fuck him.

  55. 55.

    Booger

    February 19, 2021 at 7:41 am

    @lowtechcyclist: “Elegy is entirely true to Vance’s book, which is the worst thing I could say about it.”

     

    Burn.

  56. 56.

    Uncle Cosmo

    February 19, 2021 at 8:33 am

    @Geminid: Maybe The Walrus started to develop a distaste for the military life honestly even before he Walrusized. Bolton (a firefighter’s son raised in modest circumstances in SW Baltimore City) attended HS at the McDonogh School (class of 1966), which at the time was an all-boys military academy.

    Apparently he joined the MD Army National Guard on the 6-month/6-year plan after his 2-S student deferment at Yale ran out. Not any more “multiple deferments” than many of my (de)generation applied, and he did in fact serve.

    A very good friend who was a year behind him at McDonogh informs me that he was already a far-right whackaloon then. (Yup, Students for Goldwater usw.) You could look it up.​

  57. 57.

    Skepticat

    February 19, 2021 at 8:51 am

    He spent his last few months entire time on this planet spewing hate and misinformation and undermining our democracy.

    Now, let’s just stop talking about him and let him go into the void he deserves.

  58. 58.

    JML

    February 19, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @rollSound: Dennis Miller wasn’t actually a right-wing fucktard until after 9/11 in fact. It’s pretty clear that he was something of a confusing mix of vaguely leftish & libertarian beliefs marked primarily by an ethos of “I’m smarter than any of our politicians”. He’s a classic example of someone who got the shit scared out of him on 9/11 and sold out to a right-wing Republican party that he decided would keep him safe and became the horrible right-wing troll he is today…who is deeply unfunny.

    Rush was always the disgusting piece of filth he portrayed right up until his death. Taibbi seems to have completely missed the fact that having talent doesn’t mean you’re in any way an admirable person or that you should be given any respect for your use of those talents after your death. Yes, Rush was a skilled broadcaster who didn’t master the right-wing radio format: he basically invented it. It’s also one of the most destructive things to happen to our civil society in the modern era. (FoxNews is 100x worse) His “accomplishment” in the use of his talents was so harmful, so destructive that he deserves every bit of scorn heaped upon him in death.

    He was essentially Minister of Propaganda for a movement based on lies, hatred, division, and cruelty. His relevance was reduced in recent years, but the roots of the poison he sowed are so deep it will take generations for them to be dug out.

  59. 59.

    chopper

    February 19, 2021 at 10:58 am

    @Hungry Joe:

    i remember that interview. limbaugh was talking about how ugly he thought hillary clinton was and letterman said something like “have you ever looked at yourself?” and the audience cheered for like 5 minutes.

  60. 60.

    artem1s

    February 19, 2021 at 11:21 am

    The only good thing about Rush is he conveniently died so close to the event that was the pinnacle achievement of his life’s work.  We can see the straight line that led from his hateful rhetoric to the violence at the Capitol.  He, as much as Trump, caused the insurrection on January 6.  He planned for it and primed his audience for it every single day of his life.  It was his ideal of a perfect America in which know nothing white people would punish, terrorize, torture, and kill the ‘others’ that made Rush feel like such a small man.  On January 6 everyone in the country saw how ‘funny’ Rush and his supporters could be.  And the majority of America finally saw how dangerous it is to let bullies beg off taking responsibility for their their callous, indifferent and cruel behavior by claiming it is harmless, normal, patriotic, or ‘just a joke’.

    That is Rush’s legacy and exactly what he wanted.  His supporters are displaying exactly the same cowardice that every bully who is confronted with the truth displays when they try to cover up what he really was.  Obviously they understand very well the damage he did to this country and are ashamed of it. Pointing it out is not cruel.  It’s righteous and just.

  61. 61.

    artem1s

    February 19, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @JML:

    Dennis Miller wasn’t actually a right-wing fucktard until after 9/11

    I always got the idea he was jealous and pissed off about not getting the same attention other comedians who came out of SNL got. He never got the movie gigs and other big opportunities until he found a niche as a rightwing bigot.  I think he did it to make money.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I think all of them were primarily in it for the bucks.  They would have paraded around Central Park in pink tutus if they thought it would get them the same ad dollars.  In the end, none of them were very talented and couldn’t adjust to a world that was sick and tired of listening to their schtick. Instead of figuring out how to adjust to Obama and Hope and Change, they decided to double down on W’s cruelty and indifference and ride the wave of hate and ad buys as long as they can make a buck off it. If you pay attention to who they choose as their targets, you see a pattern.  Anything that might be competition for their brand and ad dollars gets scorched first.  Scorpions gotta sting.

  62. 62.

    JWR

    February 19, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    I saw a clip of Limbaugh on TV news saying that when he complained about The Libs tearing this country apart, he wasn’t talking about racism or misogyny, or sexism or any number of his many gripes, but Western Civilization itself!, meaning racism and misogyny and sexism and any number of his many other gripes.

    And the racist, misogynistic, sexist people ate that shit up. Like a former co-worker, who once told me that if I didn’t listen to Rush, I really didn’t know what was going on. Smart guy, too. A pilot, and a great toolmaker, to boot. Proving to me that once brainwashed, intelligence didn’t have nothin’ to do with it.

  63. 63.

    fuckwit

    February 19, 2021 at 7:02 pm

    Someone had to do it

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucj09t9ieeI

  64. 64.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    February 20, 2021 at 3:16 pm

    @lgerard: I have to wonder if a man who was so homophobic and misogynist wasn’t deeply closeted? Marrying women as a cover, in a “This proves I”m straight!” way? It could explain mush of the hatred. It’s irresponsible to not speculate.

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