I wonder if Taibbi has any inkling of how many El Rushbo fans also follow him. What do you say Matt? What's your guess. Rush is, was, and always will be be the first of the anti-establishment.
I just saw Rush as a great radio satirist. He was right about the Feminazis - and I say that as a woman who had to deal with Feminazis. He was also a helluva lot better satirist than Stephen Colbert ever. I will argue that the best, funniest satirists are conservatives, not lefties. Leftist satirists are so boringly predictable. Hey, Orange Man bad! I see Rush's satire the way I do South Park or Tom Wolfe or Scott Adams or Moliere or Thackery or Babylon Bee. It's not about being politically incisive, it's about being deeply cynical about vain,greedy, power-hungry human self-righteousness that calls itself “liberal.”
Taibbi is mistaken. Rush didn't have a racist bone in his body. People that obsess about race can't conceive of how a mind works that is not obsessed with race.
This is all so appalling, I’m so disgusted by the hate being spewed over the death of this break through pioneer..without Rush, the conservatives in this country would NEVER have any platform to represent us. He paved the way for the half of the Country, that was completely ignored, to have an alternative place to listen. Rush Limbaugh is a hero, and I’m so grateful for his legacy that brought us so many alternatives to the ridiculous, elitist, racist, intolerant, cancel driven left!
I listened to him a few times and didn’t like him so I didn’t listen anymore. I had that choice because I live in the US. Hate destroys. And it will inevitably destroy the person who hates
This is a disappointment, Matt - no insight, nothing new. I was never a Limbaugh fan - only listened to him when a coworker had him on in the office. But to simply dismiss him as some kind of con-man comes across as the typical liberal resentment that the great unwashed don't recognize their betters. Which is the viewpoint you're, generally, very good at stepping outside of.
Frankly, this reads like Reagan-era Hunter S. Thompson - he had no clue what was going on by that time, and so his over the top rhetorical flourishes that treated Reagan like Nixon 2.0 were embarrassing because they so obviously missed the point.
I'm still not sure what the appeal of Limbaugh was to so many folks - and this article gets me no closer. I imagine, though, that the way to find out would be to actually talk to some Limbaugh fans instead of just dismissing them as corn-pone hicks sitting on their front porch drooling all over their overalls.
Sadly, you’ve utterly shit the bed on this take, Matt......Rush was THE most positively influential voice of Conservatism in our modern history. What he did with AM talk radio was nothing short of astonishing. He believed in EVERYONE, he believed in America with no exceptions....
Not a fan of Limbaugh's limberger utterances, but he worked his butt off, filled a void, and might have died with a half a billion in the bank. Criticism is fine, but it has to be measured against his accomplishments. He's dead. Let it go.
For a guy who spent his entire career being a worthless, shitty prick to most of the country, I hope he'd consider this a tribute to his ethos: Fuck you Rush. Everyone I know is glad you're dead.
Agreed. Rush was a horrible, selfish, mean, pandering hypocritical grifter and I never liked him or his show. He was a shitty person and people who cannot see that are also shitty people. I would be lying if I said I feel bad for him dying of cancer. I know I'm not supposed to think or say that. And certainly, he was never sorry anyone with whom he disagreed ever died of cancer or any other thing - and I don't want to be like Rush. But enough with the polite BS. Rush was an asshole that the world really would have been better off without. Next.
Maybe I just didn’t realize the ideological variety in Matt’s audience, but I’m floored by some of the comments here. Rush was an absolute cancer to political discourse in this country and Matt is right to call him out for that, even in death. How you can look at the sum total of his life and see anything but a net negative is beyond me.
Normally I’d be sympathetic to the argument that someone’s death is the wrong time to take potshots at them, but this is measured cultural analysis of a massively influential figure, not just dancing on their grave. Also, you’d be hard pressed to find someone this prominent who was so openly disdainful of other human beings that didn’t agree with him. This piece by Matt is charitable when you consider how he treated his opponents.
He was the the unrestrained id of the American right whose dark and entirely manufactured “worldview” was given legitimacy by his mass audience.
A lot of people are tastelessly saying "good riddance" to Limbaugh. Matt is merely making the uncontroversial point that Rush should not have become a hate monger.
If you're upset by this column, then maybe you need to stop being so sensitive.
Well we're at 6 hours since press time and the comments are pushing 600. Matt hit a nerve with this one. I listened to Rush off and on for 25 years. Over a career everyone is going to make mistakes and Rush made his fair share. But what's not mentioned here alongside his gaffes is Rush's support of charitable causes (Tunnels To Towers is a recent example) and the evolution of his thinking over the last 10 years which argue against the Matt's caricature of a mouth-breathing, partisan antagonist. Rush despised the Left but he gave principled Liberals their due. He spoke highly of Glenn Greenwald, for example, and often cited Glenn's work. Rush spoke early on about the hypocrisy of corporate media and the dangers of an overly powerful Executive branch. I could go on but I won't. Your race is run, Rush. Rest In Peace.
As someone who grew up amidst the cornfields of Southern Indiana during the 1980s, it is important to remember just how many stations across the Midwest who had Limbaugh's show were born out of deregulation of the Telecom industry. You could not escape Paul Harvey or Rush Limbaugh if you tried any kind of station search, as Clear Channel Communications dominated the landscape. He was ubiquitous, loud, and was the country version of Howard Stern minus the sex, foul language.
In small town Southern Indiana, it is funny to reflect that two biggest personalities were two bullies leading the way in radio and basketball (not to mention Eli Lilly) - Rush Limbaugh and Robert Montgomery Knight.
"Telling it like it is" was often code for white men speaking freely without any surrounding consequences. Plain truth country spokesmen of the "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" club. When I look back upon this time in the conservative state of Indiana (and at that time ascendence of Dan Quayle), we cannot forget how deregulation birthed the next generation of the corporatist right moving even farther right. It is as if this strategy of saturation (Rush) was the experimental seedling that grew into a larger media profile of Fox news.
If and when the neoliberal turn is analyzed, I think we'll see the 1996 Telecom Act, and the investment in a monopolistic strategy to buy up radio stations across the country reinforced an entire generation of voters to move right (whether they wanted to or not). Rush was the carnival barker in the beginning of this history, and a sad one at that.
Thank you for the trip down memory lane - what a piece of work that guy was.
I wonder if Taibbi has any inkling of how many El Rushbo fans also follow him. What do you say Matt? What's your guess. Rush is, was, and always will be be the first of the anti-establishment.
I just saw Rush as a great radio satirist. He was right about the Feminazis - and I say that as a woman who had to deal with Feminazis. He was also a helluva lot better satirist than Stephen Colbert ever. I will argue that the best, funniest satirists are conservatives, not lefties. Leftist satirists are so boringly predictable. Hey, Orange Man bad! I see Rush's satire the way I do South Park or Tom Wolfe or Scott Adams or Moliere or Thackery or Babylon Bee. It's not about being politically incisive, it's about being deeply cynical about vain,greedy, power-hungry human self-righteousness that calls itself “liberal.”
Taibbi is mistaken. Rush didn't have a racist bone in his body. People that obsess about race can't conceive of how a mind works that is not obsessed with race.
This is all so appalling, I’m so disgusted by the hate being spewed over the death of this break through pioneer..without Rush, the conservatives in this country would NEVER have any platform to represent us. He paved the way for the half of the Country, that was completely ignored, to have an alternative place to listen. Rush Limbaugh is a hero, and I’m so grateful for his legacy that brought us so many alternatives to the ridiculous, elitist, racist, intolerant, cancel driven left!
I listened to him a few times and didn’t like him so I didn’t listen anymore. I had that choice because I live in the US. Hate destroys. And it will inevitably destroy the person who hates
That was a very predictable piece Herr Taibbi.
This is a disappointment, Matt - no insight, nothing new. I was never a Limbaugh fan - only listened to him when a coworker had him on in the office. But to simply dismiss him as some kind of con-man comes across as the typical liberal resentment that the great unwashed don't recognize their betters. Which is the viewpoint you're, generally, very good at stepping outside of.
Frankly, this reads like Reagan-era Hunter S. Thompson - he had no clue what was going on by that time, and so his over the top rhetorical flourishes that treated Reagan like Nixon 2.0 were embarrassing because they so obviously missed the point.
I'm still not sure what the appeal of Limbaugh was to so many folks - and this article gets me no closer. I imagine, though, that the way to find out would be to actually talk to some Limbaugh fans instead of just dismissing them as corn-pone hicks sitting on their front porch drooling all over their overalls.
Sadly, you’ve utterly shit the bed on this take, Matt......Rush was THE most positively influential voice of Conservatism in our modern history. What he did with AM talk radio was nothing short of astonishing. He believed in EVERYONE, he believed in America with no exceptions....
Not a fan of Limbaugh's limberger utterances, but he worked his butt off, filled a void, and might have died with a half a billion in the bank. Criticism is fine, but it has to be measured against his accomplishments. He's dead. Let it go.
For a guy who spent his entire career being a worthless, shitty prick to most of the country, I hope he'd consider this a tribute to his ethos: Fuck you Rush. Everyone I know is glad you're dead.
Agreed. Rush was a horrible, selfish, mean, pandering hypocritical grifter and I never liked him or his show. He was a shitty person and people who cannot see that are also shitty people. I would be lying if I said I feel bad for him dying of cancer. I know I'm not supposed to think or say that. And certainly, he was never sorry anyone with whom he disagreed ever died of cancer or any other thing - and I don't want to be like Rush. But enough with the polite BS. Rush was an asshole that the world really would have been better off without. Next.
Maybe I just didn’t realize the ideological variety in Matt’s audience, but I’m floored by some of the comments here. Rush was an absolute cancer to political discourse in this country and Matt is right to call him out for that, even in death. How you can look at the sum total of his life and see anything but a net negative is beyond me.
Normally I’d be sympathetic to the argument that someone’s death is the wrong time to take potshots at them, but this is measured cultural analysis of a massively influential figure, not just dancing on their grave. Also, you’d be hard pressed to find someone this prominent who was so openly disdainful of other human beings that didn’t agree with him. This piece by Matt is charitable when you consider how he treated his opponents.
He was the the unrestrained id of the American right whose dark and entirely manufactured “worldview” was given legitimacy by his mass audience.
A lot of people are tastelessly saying "good riddance" to Limbaugh. Matt is merely making the uncontroversial point that Rush should not have become a hate monger.
If you're upset by this column, then maybe you need to stop being so sensitive.
Sounds to me like you're a little bit jealous of Rush, Mr. Taibbi...
Well we're at 6 hours since press time and the comments are pushing 600. Matt hit a nerve with this one. I listened to Rush off and on for 25 years. Over a career everyone is going to make mistakes and Rush made his fair share. But what's not mentioned here alongside his gaffes is Rush's support of charitable causes (Tunnels To Towers is a recent example) and the evolution of his thinking over the last 10 years which argue against the Matt's caricature of a mouth-breathing, partisan antagonist. Rush despised the Left but he gave principled Liberals their due. He spoke highly of Glenn Greenwald, for example, and often cited Glenn's work. Rush spoke early on about the hypocrisy of corporate media and the dangers of an overly powerful Executive branch. I could go on but I won't. Your race is run, Rush. Rest In Peace.
Enjoyed this article.
As someone who grew up amidst the cornfields of Southern Indiana during the 1980s, it is important to remember just how many stations across the Midwest who had Limbaugh's show were born out of deregulation of the Telecom industry. You could not escape Paul Harvey or Rush Limbaugh if you tried any kind of station search, as Clear Channel Communications dominated the landscape. He was ubiquitous, loud, and was the country version of Howard Stern minus the sex, foul language.
In small town Southern Indiana, it is funny to reflect that two biggest personalities were two bullies leading the way in radio and basketball (not to mention Eli Lilly) - Rush Limbaugh and Robert Montgomery Knight.
"Telling it like it is" was often code for white men speaking freely without any surrounding consequences. Plain truth country spokesmen of the "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" club. When I look back upon this time in the conservative state of Indiana (and at that time ascendence of Dan Quayle), we cannot forget how deregulation birthed the next generation of the corporatist right moving even farther right. It is as if this strategy of saturation (Rush) was the experimental seedling that grew into a larger media profile of Fox news.
If and when the neoliberal turn is analyzed, I think we'll see the 1996 Telecom Act, and the investment in a monopolistic strategy to buy up radio stations across the country reinforced an entire generation of voters to move right (whether they wanted to or not). Rush was the carnival barker in the beginning of this history, and a sad one at that.
Thank you for the trip down memory lane - what a piece of work that guy was.