A "legend," an "icon," these are words being used on radio "news" stations and elsewhere to describe the noxious, destructive purveyor of ignorant lies Rush Limbaugh, whose cigar smoking caught up with him at the age of 70, dead after "a battle with" lung cancer. (Susan Sontag demolished the obnoxious propaganda habit of describing people with diseases as "battling" the disease in her book "Illness As Metaphor.") (Most people don't read much except junk, so they won't be informed of how evil Limbaugh was.)
Why hail such a malign creature? Treating hard rightwing propagandists and its purveyors as respectable and legitimate gives them credence. The establishment power structure's propaganda system does this to indoctrinate the populace in reactionary ideology and lies that benefits the class interests of the rich and their corporate vehicles. This why even though "liberals" and "the liberal media" were constant targets of Limbaugh's mendacious vituperation, he was never honestly reported or commented on by those elements of the power structure.
You must understand that Limbaugh was part of a much larger phenomenon. Rich oligarchs who control several thousand radio stations in the U.S. decided to flood the airwaves with reactionary agit-propaganda spewed by demagogues into the ears of millions of people. Limbaugh was the most prominent of these- but not even the worst. [For example, Michael Weiner, who goes by the apt pseudonym "Michael Savage," is even worse.] [1]
Instead of sane, rational commentary, people's minds are assailed by neo-fascist rabble-rousing demagogues that the monopoly owners of U.S. radio stations have decided are fit fare to indoctrinate the American public with ultra-reactionary attitudes and warped versions of reality.
Why was Limbaugh so execrable? To prove the point would be like trying to succinctly explain what was so awful about Nixon. It takes at least a book to do the topic justice. And just citing a few examples looks like picking and choosing. But every day, for decades, Limbaugh spewed reactionary poison into the eardrums of idiots who lapped up his lies.
Like all privileged fascists, Limbaugh was an extreme hypocrite who was addicted to illegal drugs while frequently demanding that other people (especially blacks) who used outlawed drugs be given draconian prison terms or even be executed. (Limbaugh himself escaped punishment for his own lawbreaking of course.)
Limbaugh was a sexist, racist dog who specialized in character assassination. Just one example: In 2019 he falsely asserted that TV commentator Krystal Ball posed nude for photos at age 14.
Limbaugh spewed thousands of malicious lies during his "career," and it would be impossible to list them all here. So these are but a few of them.
Limbaugh helped kill many people by pooh-poohing the seriousness of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, which as of this writing has killed about half a million people in the U.S.
Limbaugh didn't just deny global warming, of course, he even denied the fact that CFC's destroy ozone in the upper atmosphere. Not even reactionary scientists deny this.
Limbaugh aided and abetted Trump's coup attempt by incessantly peddling the Big Lie that the Democrats "stole" the 2020 presidential election, a lie equivalent to the Nazi lie that Germany lost World War I because Jews stabbed Germany in the back. Equivalent in being a total fabrication and equivalent in being a malign political lie with terrible consequences.
It is a relief that Limbaugh in effect killed himself by his noxious habit of smoking cigars. He thought this anti-health practice was sticking it to the rest of us. Being anti-social is what reactionaries think is brave non-conformity. Being dead wrong is their idea of "independent thinking."
Good riddance to a destructive creature.
Sucking on symbolic phalluses did the gay-hating Limbaugh in. Ironic, yes?
1] Mark Crispin Miller offers some revelations about "Savage." See "Mark Crispin Miller's Revelations About Gay Homophobic Crypto-Nazi 'Michael Savage.'"
Limbaugh spent 30 years excreting anti-human agit-propaganda into the airwaves. If you want to sicken yourself by investigating some of his revolting neo-fascist record, you can start with:
"Rush Limbaugh, Bigoted King Of Talk Radio, Dies At 70," HuffPost, 2/17/21; "The Life and Death of a Woman-Hater," New York Times, 2/20/21 [nice to see some establishment media do some truth-telling about Limbaugh]; and "RIP RUSH LIMBAUGH, WHO SPENT HIS ENTIRE LIFE ON THE GOVERNMENT DOLE," The Intercept, 2/19/21.
