What Rush Limbaugh did to us:

[Qutzupalotl]

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2021, 05:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet

What Rush Limbaugh did to us:
1. Made opponents into true enemies
2. Revived overt and dog whistle racism
3. Stifled attempts to revive the Fairness Doctrine
4. Showed Roger Ailes the formula for right-wing broadcast success
5. Offered ignorance as "common sense" thinking
6. Created an army of listeners with little knowledge and skills in civics or critical thinking into believing themselves political experts
7. Stifled dialogue and said it was OK to talk politics without debate (rarely took calls from those who disagreed)
8. Made partisan propaganda into a consumable product with tremendous market value.
9. Made hatred and violent rhetoric commonplace and "acceptable"
10. In sum, laid the groundwork for the triumph of MAGA and Trumpism, a reality we will deal with for decades to come.

[euphorb]

1. Numbers 6 and 7 can be seen by going to the original tweet

6. Created an army of listeners with little knowledge and skills in civics or critical thinking into believing themselves political experts
7. Stifled dialogue and said it was OK to talk politics without debate (rarely took calls from those who disagreed)

[Qutzupalotl]

10. Thanks, fixed.

[Mike 03]

2. I was trying to imagine how to explain why there are so many threads about this

person Rush Limbaugh to the few people who don't understand or don't want to see them.

All I could think is that it might be like when someone who has abused you for 30 years--or cost you friendships, or cost you to lose respect for people who were really important parts of your life--dies, you actually do feel the need to say something, to take stock of the damage that person did to you and your country.

He was on the air for something like THIRTY YEARS. And if you were a person that enjoyed local talk radio, or even serious talk radio, he was the bleeding edge of the movement that totally destroyed talk radio in this country.

So I think that is why people feel a need to speak out. There are a lot of pent up feelings about this person that have not been expressed, and now seems a good time to express them.

[lunatica]

9. It's more than talk radio he destroyed

He is considered by most of us, myself included, to be the father of the Tea Party and the ascension of Trump to the presidency and the MAGA warmongering which includes murderous racism, cultural and societal extremism. He churned out hate like it was an assembly line product in a factory. He took hate and vitriol to heights even he didn’t know about.

The only good thing is that no one can replace him. Truly evil people with the fame and influence of Limbaugh, Trump and his close operatives can never be replaced. Their avid and rabid followers really fixate on the person and that kind of following doesn’t switch over to anyone else.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Tea Party!

[Upthevibe]

4. Qutzupalotl....

The damage this man did can NEVER be overstated. He was an evil monster.....

[Mike 03]

5. His "anti-feminism" verged on misogyny.

Also, after Rush Limbaugh you could no longer trust that a "Newstalk" radio station had anything to do with "News."

It usually had a lineup like this:

Rush Limbaugh
Michael Savage
Dennis Prager
Hugh Hewitt
Mark Levine

etc...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_conservative_talk_radio_hosts

[Evolve Dammit]

12. Don't forget Mike Pence, who filled in for Ingraham.

[Danmel]

6. Called women who dared to speak "feminazis"

A term so offensive on so many levels it defies belief.

[Mike 03]

7. Thank you!

And women in favor of health care covering the cost of contraception, in Limbaugh's world, were "sluts."

[Brainfodder]

8. Someone get that patriot a medal!

FOR NOT 100% LYING ABOUT DYING! & making the world a better place with his absence immediately!



I ate a chicken sandwich for lunch in his honor.



Were his last words: JUST KIDDING FOLKS?

[Escurumbele]

15. I don't doubt he thought those last words..."JUST KIDDING FOLKS"

I rarely believe that these people truly believe the things they say and do, it is a niche for them, it brings them a lot of money. Same with politicians, they used to be civil, even some evil republicans, but now they have found out that their base loves crazy MFrs, so they go all out with hate.

I have to think that their families must be ashamed of them, but the comfort most of them live in makes them condone their behaviour.

I don't believe in any of these horrible people, I think they are actors and it becomes easy for them to act that way because they lack principles.

Maybe after doing it for too long they end up believing their lies, maybe they do...although the criminal mind acts very different than the rest.

[WillowRalph]

11. Let's not forget....

...all the people/entities that profited *directly* from his being on the air as well as those that profited indirectly.

Who could have possibly predicted that hate would be so profitable? /s

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Very good point. Welcome to DU!

[Escurumbele]

14. The one thing Rush did today, which I don't think he ever thought he could was

He made a lot of people smile and laugh today...just today...