Guest post: Pondering Limbaugh
A friend wrote on Facebook:
I’ve been pondering Rush Limbaugh all day. I’ve read many postings from my friends and many tweets from strangers. I don’t have any sort of hate for Rush (although I honestly did, some years ago). There are some things that I’d like to say about him, however.
We should note that Rush Limbaugh, about whose death many honestly good people (and some not-so-good) are admonishing others not to celebrate, for various good (and some not-so-good) reasons: Rush Limbaugh said, upon hearing of the death of Jerry Garcia of “Grateful Dead” musical fame (who although certainly not an angel did spend his life mostly bringing happiness to a lot of people): “Just another dead doper. And a dirt bag.”. And of Kurt Cobain: “Kurt Cobain was, ladies and gentlemen, a worthless shred of human debris.” In the 1980’s, during the height of the AIDs epidemic, he would read off the names of people on-air who’d died of HIV, while playing Dionne Warwick’s “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and Johnny Lee’s “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” Regarding Eric Garner, who was choked to death by police after being arrested for selling cigarettes without a tax stamp (not exactly a violent crime), and whose last words were “I can’t breathe”, Rush had this to say: “I CAN breathe because I follow the law” (conveniently overlooking the many times that he did not follow the law, of course, either literally or morally–prescription hopping in the former case, to feed his opioid addiction, and sex tourism in the latter). And perhaps the worst, Rush was a covid-19 denier and anti-masker, and a vocal one with a wide-reaching platform at that, who likely did his part and more to get some of those hundreds of thousands of sufferers killed. On twitter, Rush wrote:
“The coronavirus is the common cold, folks”
“The coronavirus is an effort to get Trump”
“You can’t believe the virus numbers”
“They’re using the mask as a symbol of fear”
So, say what you will about Limbaugh’s life and whatever good choices that he made, he spread hate towards people who could no longer reply, was eager to celebrate their deaths, and in some cases he probably actively got some easily-led people killed by encouraging them to indulge in risky behaviors. I think that’s what irks many people now, when they are told that they must not say ill of the dead.
We do reap what we sow.
We’ve all spread waves of at least distaste and disdain about ourselves as we’ve navigated through life, and we need to remember that there are people out there who will not remember us kindly. And, you know, accept that. Let people vent their anger. Soon enough the memory of Rush Limbaugh will fade and be nothing more than a few lines in a textbook about the political climate of the late 20th century.
What is the difference between The Hindenburg & Rush Limbaugh?
One is a flaming Nazi gasbag & the other one is a zeppelin.
“You must not speak ill of the dead.” There’s a good reason for this: it’s cruel to compound the suffering of mourners with insults. Telling your cousin Bo at Aunt Irma’s funeral that she was a gossip and a busybody just isn’t nice, even if it’s true. So if you happen to see Rush’s wife, give her your condolences and leave it at that.
The rest of us will be over here, out of earshot, talking about what a horrible person he was and all the damage he did.
WaM, I actually think it’s important with a public figure to speak truth even after they’re dead. I mean, who holds that maxim true with Hitler? The thing is, if we’re not realistic, we end up repeating the cycle with someone else, or not recognizing others who come along…we need honest analysis of his impact. But yeah, if I run into Mrs. Limbaugh on the street, I will certainly not say how horrible he was.
I heard the same thing when Reagan died. Okay, Reagan seemed pleasant enough, but the damage he did was legion…and it is my opinion that the Reagan cult of personality led in a more or less straight line to Trump. And now I read that some historians…even liberal ones…are moving him into the great presidents category! Why? What did he do that was great? According to the one I read, he “united the country” because he was such a nice guy. That isn’t how I remember the 80s at all, and the furloughs, lay offs, and RIFs that were a direct result of supply side economics should not be forgotten, but all I read now is how economically prosperous and how happy we were.
That sort of blindness is what comes from not speaking ill of the dead.
My only response to hearing of his passing while eating dinner was, “Could you please pass the pepper.”
iknklast,
I’ve mentioned this before. We live within walking distance of the airport that the Republicans insisted on naming after Reagan, even though the feds had promised our state that it would never be renamed, and even though one of Reagan’s first power plays was destroying PATCO. Most people around here still refer to the airport as National. So anyway, I agree with everything you wrote (though I do give Reagan credit for recognizing that Gorbachev was a legitimate negotiating partner; other than that, bleccchh.).
Maybe it’s my biased perception, but over the decades I’d occasionally listen to Limbaugh, and it seems to me there was a stretch where, while he was clearly a person of the Right, he was interesting, insightful, and humorous. Provocative, yes, but not in a nasty way as he’d apparently been in his early shock-jock years and for much of the Bill Clinton era. Then he seemed to get mean again, with some vile comments about Hillary Clinton and Obama. The whole Sandra Fluke incident was appalling, and he only seemed to get worse from there, culminating in his support for Trump.
So unfortunately the nastiness was probably the real Rush. I won’t miss that being part of the national conversation.
Yeah. I just wish he hadn’t left so many followers doing the same thing…some of them even nastier. He was in on the ground for of alt-right nastiness; he helped create the demand. Now there are so many doing it…his legacy.
The conceit of Limbaugh’s radio show was that it was just Rush, a helper in the booth, and people who just happen to call up. Rush taking on all comers in a battle of ideas. A fight Rush never lost.
One of the lesser known aspects of Limbaugh-style talk-radio is just how controlled the environment really was. Hosts try to keep it all sounding spontaneous even as shows are usually very tightly controlled.
Seemingly spontaneous callers are often scheduled in advance. Known friendly callers are frequently scheduled or prompted to call. Often they are given talking points or scripts that set up whatever the host wants to talk about or supporting of the host’s point. Limbaugh was documented as using paid voice actors reading scripts. For a few favored voice actors it wa a regular gig. The script could present them as Rush supporters or straw-man opponents.
Of course Rush always won the arguments. It wasn’t difficult when any opposition is poorly stated using the weakest possible arguments. Being dominant and owning the libs was the point. Rush had an entire tool kit to slant the playing field.
Most talk shows incorporate a substantial time delay. It’s most benign use is to bleep out words that might get you an FCC fine. Often only a minute it can be stretched by simply adding advertising or stopping the recording. Almost none of the Limbaugh’s show was in real-time. Depending on how much time they care to spend on a segment recordings can be chopped up, edited or reordered to make people sound very smart or profoundly stupid. If a guest asks a difficult question the resulting silence or blundered reply can simply be edited out. Snappy responses can be inserted after the fact. Weak assertions can be reinforced by having supporters call in backing up Limbaugh’s lies. Or the subject is quickly changed.
Point here is that it was Limbaugh’s playground and because honesty and fairness were never a concern he won all the contests by cheating.