Hush, Limbaugh.

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Rush Hudson Limbaugh III (1951–2021), a/k/a "Rash Libel", was an American conspiracy theorist, a liar, and a bigot with a vile sense of humor, who hosted The Rush Limbaugh Show (TRLS) from 1988 until 2021. Hatched from a slimy pit in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Limbaugh hit the big time after the Ronald Reagan administration revoked the Fairness Doctrine, and has been credited with reviving AM radio in the United States. He is widely viewed as the catalyst for the Republican Party's congressional victories in 1994. When high-ranking Republicans disagreed with him in public, they were required to kiss his ring and apologize.^[2]

Rush fans are known colloquially as "dittoheads", a label that his most loyal listeners wore like a badge of honor. They listened to TRLS because Rush told them things they wanted to hear and made them feel like they weren't crazy to have right-wing political leanings from the early 20th century. One of the most amazing things is that a cretin like Rush had found so much acceptance from the evangelical Christians; he gave them a platform and reinforced their religious angst.

In March 2012, while taking aim at the politicized birth control issue, Limbaugh seemed to have largely overstepped common decency, but somehow remained on the air and kept making as much money as ever.^[3] In honor of his major role in creating the exact sort of divisive, caustic political environment that would be necessary to get someone like Donald Trump elected as President, Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom in February 2020.^[4]

In January 2020, Rush Limbaugh had a confirmed diagnosis of advanced lung cancer, and underwent treatment in February.^[5] Limbaugh was a known tobacco smoker and denialist ("I would like a medal for smoking cigars"),^[6] so it should not have surprised anyone. In October 2020, he announced that he was finally going to shut up, as his cancer was terminal.^[7] On February 17, 2021, Rush Limbaugh emitted a death gurgle, and multiple outlets reported him dead at age 70. His death was confirmed on the same day by his wife at the start of his radio program.^{[8][note 1]}

Views[edit]

Limbaugh with President Donald Trump at the latter's golf club

Promotion of pseudoscience[edit]

Global warming[edit]

A caller inquires, "Your belief in God, how does that tell you that global warming is a hoax?" Rush explains how it ought to be: "I just intellectually cannot accept the fact that a loving God which has created all this beauty and has blessed this country — I cannot believe that a God like that — would punish the human being he created for progress, for improving the quality of his life [bla bla babble bla babble bla bla]".^[10]

God might punish some obscure African tribe with a miserable malaria infection, but only if they don't get it together, have their family learn a new language, and sell enough ten-cent wooden spoons to relocate to God's country. Asking us to give up a four-hour commute going 5 MPH in traffic, breathing automobile exhaust and plasticizers, with the AC fighting the solar oven effect — what kind of a cruel God would ask us to give up this prosperous lifestyle?

Creationism[edit]

Limbaugh did not speak regularly about his belief in evolution or creationism, but he occasionally blew off fossil findings and denounced evolution as more or less bullshit. He espoused explicit belief in creationism at one time or another.^[11][12] In Limbaugh's opinion, evolution could not possibly true because gorillas and other animals in zoos do not become human.^[13]

Others[edit]

Limbaugh entertained the idea of abiotic oil,^[15] because even Soviet crankery wasn't a bridge too far for him if it helped further his agenda.

Limbaugh fearmongered about the flu vaccine; his opposition to the vaccination, however, seemed to be mostly based on the fact that the government recommended it, and he didn't wanna!^[16]

"Phony soldiers"[edit]

A phony soldier, according to Limbaugh (who was not accepted for military service because of a big cyst on his ass),^[17] was any soldier who served in Iraq and then spoke out against the Iraq War. This definition was expanded by other chickenhawks to include decorated Vietnam War veterans such as Jack Murtha and John Kerry, who were also critical of that war.

General stupidity[edit]

The Rush Limbaugh Show logo

• Limbaugh accused Michael J. Fox of faking symptoms of Parkinson's disease.^[18]
• Limbaugh doesn't like environmentalists. He believes they were ultimately responsible for the 2010 BP oil spill.^[19] He's also under impression that most of them are a bunch of secular atheists, of course, since if they don't worship God, they must think nature instead has a deity characteristic!^{[20][better source needed]}
• Limbaugh thought political correctness and ACORN caused the banking crisis.^[21]
• Limbaugh made an incredibly racist imitation of Chinese president, which consisted of him saying "Chin chau gon don gong kao song" for almost five minutes. He was forced to apologize by the Asian community.^[22]
• According to Limbaugh, if one receives taxpayer-paid birth control, their acts should be posted online for everyone (presumably him) to see.^[23]
• Defended the brutal Christian terrorist group, the Lord's Resistance Army, when Obama announced he was sending military advisors to help fight them.^[24]
• Decided that a hidden lesson of the Boston Marathon bombing was that white people are horribly oppressed while dark-skinned people are not, mainly because a white suspect would've been more readily identified and his background information revealed.^[25]

"Family Values"[edit]

Limbaugh with a man who's cheated on all three of his wives

• Limbaugh spent years railing against drug users and addicts, calling for harsh penalties for them.^[27] When it came out in 2003 that he was an OxyContin addict,^[28] he considered it somehow different when he was the one abusing drugs rather than other people, to the point of acting flippantly dismissive when caught with a Viagra bottle that was not prescribed to him three years later.^[29]
• Limbaugh was married four times. His third marriage ceremony, in 1994, was officiated by kiss-arse Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and held at Thomas' house.^[30] His fourth marriage involved a performance by his token gay friend Elton John, at the cost of $1 million.^[31] (Ironically, given Rush Limbaugh's history of using AIDS to make racist and homophobic "jokes",^[32] all earnings from Elton John's private concerts go to his charity, the Elton John AIDS Foundation.^[33])
• He never had any children of his own.^{[note 2]}

Status as a conservative[edit]

Limbaugh at CPAC, 2009

Rush claimed to be the "prestigious Attila the Hun chair" of the "Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies". Or perhaps he was sitting in it. In 1995 Limbaugh touted the Zogby Poll as the most accurate because Zogby did not show President Bill Clinton's approval ratings as high as other mainstream news organizations did. Limbaugh became responsible for the little-known pollster's growing success, so much so that by 2016 Zogby was among a handful of Democratic superdelegates backing insurgent Bernie Sanders. Heckofajob, Rush!

Rush, political boss[edit]

By the spring of 2009, Limbaugh began to be seen as the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Following a controversial on-air statement to his own party about "wanting Obama to fail", Limbaugh demanded the balls apologies of prominent Republicans Eric Cantor and Michael Steele for saying his comments were unacceptable;^[35] both promptly apologized.^[2] White House spokesman Robert Gibbs challenged Republicans to come out and say "Limbaugh is wrong, we do not want this country or the President to fail". To date, no Republican has publicly said Limbaugh was wrong, implying who really ran the GOP.

Political action[edit]

None, other than the failed "Operation Chaos" attempt to destroy the Democratic Party in the United States, so move along.

The Sandra Fluke catastrophic meltdown[edit]

Sandra Fluke on the cover of Ms. Magazine

Background[edit]

On February 29, 2012, after literal decades of misogynist tirades,^[36] chants of "liberal feminazi",^[37] and attempts to degrade any woman in power (not to mention equally ugly treatment of lesbians, gays, liberals, thinkers, scientists he disagreed with, etc.), Rush finally crossed the line with language so offensive that even his own party questioned his stance.

In late February, congressional Republicans and Republican candidates for President began to call out then-President Obama on his mandatory inclusion of birth control in insurance plans offered by any employer ("It violates our religious freedom!" they claimed). In a House hearing on the whole thing, five men were invited to testify about why it was important to protect religious freedom and how providing birth control via insurance violates their freedoms. Sandra Fluke, a 30-year-old law student and otherwise private citizen, intended to testify before Congress about this contraception requirement and the Blunt Amendment, which would allow employers the ability to deny women contraception, or any other medical care, from their insurance plans based on their religious beliefs. She was denied her right to testify in front of the committee by the Republican Chair as being "unqualified". An uproar hit the political world, media and social networks. And for what it's worth, the testimony she was to give, which was later broadcast on national television (but not to the Committees), was about a friend who needed birth control to treat cysts in the ovaries, a part of polycystic ovarian syndrome (birth control is also used to treat the other aspects of PCOS, including irregular periods, unwanted body hair and acne) — a medication that the religious institution they attended would not pay for, due to "religious beliefs".

Backtalk[edit]

That's when Rush stepped into the fray total shitstorm. He called Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute", which alone would not have likely been a problem, but he carried on with similar language for three days, escalating the ugliness of his attacks each day. Limbaugh even suggested that if women such as Fluke expected the government (i.e., the American taxpayers) to pay for their birth control, then "we" (the American taxpayers) should be able to watch video of their sexual activities.^[38] All this against a young woman who didn't even mention sex, outside of a basic acknowledgment of what birth control is for, who was merely trying to explain her point of view which involved someone else's situation rather than hers. In addition, Limbaugh seemed to have forgotten that (since there is no public option) health insurance is necessarily private insurance, not paid for by taxpayers in the first place. So his own attack didn't even make sense on its own terms.

It should be noted that Limbaugh also appeared to have little room to attack anyone's sexual private life, since he was caught carrying Viagra back from a trip to the Dominican Republic despite being unmarried at the time. He described the trip to his audience: "I had a great time in the Dominican Republic. Wish I could tell you about it."^[39] The Dominican Republic is known as a vacation spot for "sex tourists".^[40]

As if his insults against Fluke and women in general weren't enough, later within the same week, referring to a woman with a Bachelor's degree, he actually asked: "What is it with all these young, single, white women? Overeducated doesn't mean intelligent,"^[41] which makes one wonder what the word "overeducated" could possibly mean.

Backlash[edit]

In the aftermath of the Fluke affair, Limbaugh's show lost over 50 advertisers,^[43] was dropped from two radio stations,^[44] and was even taken off the purchase list of one advertising agency.^[45] Also, the Canadian rock band Rush issued a cease-and-desist preventing their music from being played during Limbaugh's broadcasts.^[46] This led to a hilarious situation where there was five minutes of dead air on Limbaugh's show, since the time normally reserved for advertisements was either empty or filled with public service announcements.^[47] On March 9, 2012, even the public service announcements, which were running for free, pulled out.

On March 10, 98 companies, including Toyota, Ford and Allstate Insurance, informed Rush's network that they would no longer advertise on Rush's show... or any other offensive or controversial radio show, such as those hosted by Sean Hannity or Michael Savage.^[48] News site ThinkProgress managed to capture a memo from Premiere Networks^[49] before the original page was deleted; the memo listed 141 advertisers who had asked not to sponsor these programs, including some rather big ones that normally benefit from such conservative associations, such as American Express, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and the United States Army.^[50]

Even President Obama stepped into the discussion, calling Sandra Fluke personally, to say her parents "would be proud of her" despite Rush's ugly claim otherwise. He later said "[...] I thought about Malia and Sasha, and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about; even ones I may not agree with them on. [...] And I don't want them attacked or called horrible names because they're being good citizens."

Backpedal[edit]

Limbaugh issued what he called an "apology", while claiming that the discussion was about "personal sexual recreational activities" (which, if he gave two shits about the problem, PCOS isn't about) and feeling sorry for stooping down to the level and tactics of liberals. Apparently a three-day, nonstop attack against one woman in particular, and in general women all around the world who use birth control in contexts no one would consider "slutty", is wrong simply because he should have used different words. Classy, Rush.

Back assward[edit]

Limbaugh, with his head firmly planted where the sun doesn't shine, said he was not losing any money or sleep over it, and was in fact amused that the feminazis^{[note 3]} are showing they have no power because they can't make him leave the air. Rumor has it that he also stomped his foot, stuck his fingers in his ears, stuck out his tongue, and said, "LALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU!"^[51] However, Limbaugh's producers still scrubbed his website of the controversial comments.^[52] On March 8, 2012, only two intentionally paid advertisers ran ads during his show—no word on how well he slept that night.

Back pay[edit]

On March 12, 2012, Limbaugh took a much-needed day off, and his program was filled in by Mark Steyn. At the same time, Premiere Networks released an order asking affiliates to "[p]lease replace/re-traffic any Premiere barter spots immediately. Contractual requirements to run barter spots are being suspended for these two weeks only. Replace them with Lifelock and Lear Financial^{[note 4]} or a local spot of your choice."^[53]

Back to the megaphone[edit]

On March 14, 2012, Limbaugh returned to his show to assert that he was not anti-woman, just anti-feminism. To further prove that he loved women, he continued to label the National Organization of Women as "NAGs", made references to his three marriages, and asserted that being a judge for the Miss America beauty pageant should be sufficient evidence, despite his previous statements.^[54]

One of the saddest things we can take away is knowing that this won't end ugly attacks based on ignorance of the female reproductive system. After this entire incident, there had been another unrelated incident where Republican talking head Jason Lewis spouted similar vile remarks.^[55]

Other notable controversies[edit]

They so proudly wear this insignia.

• For some reason, ESPN concluded that Limbaugh was the voice of the average football fan and hired him to do "color commentary" during the 2003 NFL season (perhaps they confused it with John Madden, a reasonable mistake except that Madden already worked for Disney). This seemed to go well until Limbaugh said that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated and claimed that he was lionized because of his race rather than his talent (a reverse Isiah Thomas/Larry Bird incident). This cost Limbaugh his job, cementing his reputation, as he did constantly, as a "big, fat idiot."
• Played the racist song "Barack the Magic Negro" during the 2008 presidential campaign.^[57] The song drew from a provocative column in the Los Angeles Times^[58] by a black writer who criticized Obama as a "Magical Negro", a trope in film for a generic, magical African-American character who supports the white protagonists. Limbaugh, too busy being edgy, probably missed out on the meat of the critique from that column. An Obama aide, however, believed not many people have taken this "dumb thing" seriously. He also referred to Obama and actress Halle Berry as "Halfrican" Americans in a similar vein to Brian Sussman, another unhinged conservative radio host.^[59]
• In 1993, Limbaugh implied thirteen-year-old Chelsea Clinton was a dog.^[60]
• Limbaugh compared Barack Obama's style of governing to that of Adolf Hitler.^[61] (He was envious.)
• On July 2, 2010, he claimed that Obama created the Great Recession (which began before Obama was elected) as a payback for racism.^[62]
• Limbaugh promised to leave the country if the Obama-driven healthcare bill^{[note 5]} passed: "I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica for healthcare."^[63] Interestingly, Costa Rica has universal, nationalized health care. In addition, he decided to up the level of crazy when he Godwinned on the subject in March 2013. His belief is that the Affordable Care Act wasn't so much about expanding coverage to the under-insured or uninsured, as it was an effort by Obama to go all Hitler on us since "healthcare has always been, nationalized healthcare has always been one of the first objectives of any of the famous totalitarian regimes. Hitler, national socialism, first thing he did, nationwide healthcare."^[64] However, public health care laws existed in Germany since 1883, and one of the few changes introduced by the Nazi regime barred voluntary insurees from joining health care funds, thereby giving rise to private health insurance companies in Germany.^[65] Likewise, according to Limbaugh, "the socialists in the UK" also were for nationalized healthcare. However, he conveniently leaves out the fact that (a) Labour was part of the coalition government that directed British war efforts against Hitler, (b) won a large Parliamentary majority in a democratic election in 1945, against no less than the party of beloved war leader Winston Churchill, in which part of their program included a national health service, and (c) just as easily returned political power to the Conservatives after they beat them in another democratic election in 1951.^[66] So much for bullshit hyperbole. He also appeared to be profoundly ignorant of the fact that the National Health Service still exists to this day regardless of which political party is in power.
• Rush made a brief off-handed comment about lesbians in his episode "The Left Needs the Supreme Court to Rule in Favor of Gay Marriage Because the People Won't"^[67] (this has aged poorly; support for gay marriage in the United States is a majority, and even a small majority of Republicans support it).^[68] He was apparently under the impression (aided by questionable, unidentified studies, of course) that most lesbians are obese substance abusers. You see, if there's no men to please (as if nonsexual relationships don't exist), women will just not care about their weight, but since women will have to care about other women, they'll get drunk or something.
• In August 2014, in responding to a caller's complaint about the disproportionate media coverage surrounding Robin Williams' suicide, Limbaugh ranted a ton about how leftist ideology contributes to suicide.^[69] He then claimed that he was taken out of context.^{[note 6]}
• Limbaugh went under fire for his remarks during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, alleging that Obama was simply using Haiti to score political points. He also added that the U.S. shouldn't help Haiti, since the U.S. already pays them income tax. Or something. He only doubled down when called out.^[70]
• Limbaugh defended Donald Trump against accusations of sexual assault by asserting that the "leftists" attacking him were immoral because they primarily concern themselves with whether or not a sexual act is... consensual or not. And if these "leftists" ever discover a lack of consent, "then here come the rape police".^[71]
• Disappointed that people like Alex Jones were stealing some of his thunder, Limbaugh embraced some of the batshit insanity of the conspiracy crowd, calling both the Christchurch terrorist attacks and the terrorism at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally "false flag" operations.^[72][73] For the latter, he defended Trump's notoriously meek response to the terrorism with a healthy dose of whataboutism,^[74] even evoking the atypical right wing boogeyman of "Antifa" and "George Soros".^[75]
• Also disappointed that the QAnon movement had stolen some of his thunder, Limbaugh fully embraced deep state conspiracy theories, using the concept to dismiss both the Trump-Russia connection and the Trump-Ukraine scandal (and somehow blame Obama at the same time).^[76][77] And just before Hurricane Irma struck Florida in September 2017, he ranted flippantly about hurricane media coverage, referencing the "deep state" regarding those pesky meteorologists "who believe that man-made climate change is real," and speculated that the media was "all talking about this hurricane, Hurricane Irma, it's no doubt due to climate change."^[78] Limbaugh later had to evacuate his home in Palm Beach, Florida, due to Hurricane Irma.)^[79]

Stopped clock moment[edit]

On June 1, 2020, Limbaugh appeared on the radio talk show The Breakfast Club in response to the death of George Floyd, caused by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin keeping a knee on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds (well after the point of unresponsiveness). While he agreed on little else, Limbaugh unusually strongly criticized the police for this incident, saying that he was "sickened" and that Floyd "had his life taken away from him".^[80]

Ersatz Nobel Prize nomination[edit]

"Limbaugh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 by Landmark Legal Foundation, a conservative legal advocacy group, in response to Al Gore being nominated that year. The foundation does not now and did not then meet the criteria to be a nominator."^[81] Rush Limbaugh was not legitimately nominated to receive a Nobel Prize.

On wit da Show[edit]

"Snerdley"[edit]

Limbaugh nicknamed all his call screeners "Snerdley". Among the first names given them:

• Bo
• Chin Yang
• Mario
• Marvin
• Melva
• Melvin
• Mervin

Bo Snerdley is the nickname given to James Golden, the most recognized "Snerdley". Limbaugh's defenders often single out Golden, an African-American, as evidence that Limbaugh was not a racist. After all, as their simplistic logic goes, would a racist work so closely with an African-American?

A caller once asked Limbaugh to explain the origin of "Snerdley". Limbaugh explained that when he was a disc jockey in his hometown, he developed mental blocks while talking on the air. "Snerdley" was a fictitious person inside Limbaugh's head whom he talked to (while still on the air) until the block cleared. Hmmm.

Annual Thanksgiving story[edit]

Of course, you can't be a major right-wing mouthpiece if you don't rewrite history to show that laissez-faire free market practices always succeed, while collectivism always fails. Such was the case with Limbaugh's annual telling of (or his version of) the first Thanksgiving.^[82][83] Limbaugh was so pleased with this story that he dedicated an entire chapter to it in his second book, See I Told You So.

It's doubtful that Limbaugh researched and wrote this piece himself. It probably came from the Heritage Foundation or some other righty think tank.

Dittoheads[edit]

"Dittohead" originally referred to an avid follower of Limbaugh, but over time he became synonymous with any person who blindly follows and agrees with conservative pundits, including media such as but not limited to Fox News and conservative talk radio.

On his talk show, Limbaugh encouraged the guests, callers and listeners who agreed with him to just say "ditto"^{[note 7]} instead of explaining why they might agree with him, presumably to reserve air time for additional opinion giving or friendly discourse with those that might disagree with him. Callers to his show began to label themselves willingly as "dittoheads", apparently blind to any sort of negative connotations that such a word might have.

Ignoring the possibility that people might look at a "dittohead" and think of other words that might sound similar (like "shithead"), the word itself has grown to mean anyone who gets their information from non-expert sources or those who believe the agenda-less have an agenda in political discourse, be it climate change, gun control or health care. Much like creationists, the average dittohead will be unable to be reasoned with or engage in rational thought.

Name calling[edit]

Limbaugh (and his substitute hosts) devoutly referred to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Party". If they encountered the words "Democratic Party" while reading aloud, they substituted "Democrat Party" on-the-fly (they probably have Post-it's on the wall.) This alone discredits everything they say.

Much like his idol Donald Trump, he used insulting names for anyone he didn't like.

On September 21, 2020, between her death and her funeral, Limbaugh again referred to Ruth Bader Ginsburg as "Ruth Buzzi Ginsburg" on his radio show.

Bibliography[edit]

Limbaugh published some books (crayons sold separately):

• available titles on Barnes & Noble
• The Way Things Ought to Be (1992); Pocket Books ISBN 067175145X (John Fund, collaborator)
• See, I Told You So (1993); Pocket Books ISBN 067187120X (Joseph Farah, collaborator)

There's an attempt at a humorous section in book two: a "politically correct" dictionary, which lists unicorns as an endangered species, as well as the Abominable Snowman. Both books were ego trips in which Limbaugh proclaimed himself to be the most intelligent person in the world.

Rushagrams[edit]

• I hurl gab mush
• Largish bum, uh?

See also[edit]

• Abiotic oil
• Chickenhawk
• Conservative talk radio
• Fractal wrongness
• Roger Ailes: Rushbo's influence peaked post-9/11. That's when Fox really became the brand of the party. Prior to the rise of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, Ailes was probably the most influential Republican.

External links[edit]

• Rush Limbaugh's radio show homepage
• Source of criticism for some of Limbaugh's claims
• Media Matters entry for Rush Limbaugh
• Limbaugh's admission of pain killer addiction
• Press release from Landmark Foundation announcing Limbaugh's nomination for Nobel Prize
• Rush Limbaugh Detained With Viagra, June 27, 2006, CBS News (Limbaugh's incident at airport)
• Links to pain killer lawsuit Limbaugh v. Florida

Humorous[edit]

• Deferment for anal pimple: (gone) Flight of the ChickenHawks
• (gone) Sacrificing goats for Limbaugh

Notes[edit]

References[edit]