Rush Limbaugh in his studio (screen capture)
“Unlike most radio talkers, who affect a casual, intimate style, Limbaugh sounds like he’s on a soapbox. He is intoxicated by words, especially those flowing from his own lips. His vocabulary is extensive; his diction tends to the grandiosely formal, though overblown to the point of self-parody. His nervous energy plays out through hands that never stop moving. They rattle the papers, slap the desk, punch the console. Whap! Whap! Whump! This muted percussion is often heard on the air, a rhythmic accompaniment to Limbaugh’s voice.”
That listenership grew and flourished on a diet of racist, sexist and homophobic opinions expressed daily on his radio show. Any liberal-leaning thought or position was fair game for Limbaugh’s humiliation including mocking sexual consent, climate change, LGBTQ rights, people dying of AIDS, and more. From the New York Times:
In the Limbaugh lexicon, advocates for the homeless were “compassion fascists,” women who favored abortion were “feminazis,” environmentalists were “tree-hugging wackos.” He delivered “AIDS updates” with a Dionne Warwick song, “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” ridiculed Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease symptoms, and called global warming a hoax.
He was not above baldfaced lies. During the debate over Mr. Obama’s 2009 health care bill, he fed the rumor mills over its provisions to have Medicare and insurers pay for optional consultations with doctors on palliative and hospice care, saying they empowered “death panels” that would “euthanize” elderly Americans.
Just a few of the folks on Twitter remembering Limbaugh’s hideous “AIDS updates:”
Rush Limbaugh had a radio segment called “AIDS Update” where he’d read out the names of gay people who had died and celebrate with horns and bells. So the whole “don’t speak ill of the dead” thing doesn’t apply to this absolute fucking monster. Let him rot.
— Harry Cook (@HarryCook) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh used to give an “AIDS Update” on his show, celebrating the gay people who’d died of AIDS that day. So no… it’s not “liberal hypocrisy” to feel relieved that the world has one less homophobic bigot in it.#goodriddance
— Jake Lobin (@JakeLobin) February 17, 2021
on today’s AIDS Update, PrEP continues to keep community transmission of HIV low, and Rush Limbaugh continues to be dead
— lolo’s bizarre adventure (@vaginaspektor) February 17, 2021
