Conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh has died and, well, there are many people on the left side of the political spectrum who are certainly happy about it.
Limbaugh was certainly a divisive figure, as anybody who’s heard of him is probably aware. Limbaugh is well known for championing far-right causes and spreading misinformation.
In January, he joined the chorus of conservative talking heads who acted like the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was not really that big of a deal, and he pushed the false conspiracy theory that actually “Antifa” — which is not an organization — had infiltrated that crowd of Trump supporters and instigated the riot at the behest of the Democrat establishment.
After Joe Biden won the presidential election in November, Limbaugh also got on board the #StopTheSteal train, falsely claiming over and over that Donald Trump had actually won the election. He was heavily into fake conspiracies about voting machine companies — at one point he even very falsely claimed that Hugo Chavez had founded Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion threatened Limbaugh with a lawsuit over it).
Limbaugh also downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic last year, repeating multiple times the common conservative refrain that the virus, which has killed nearly 500,000 Americans so far, is basically just a cold.
Below you can find a sampling of the reactions to Rush Limbaugh’s death from the folks who weren’t big fans of his work.
the most i’ll say about rush limbaugh is that he used his talents to make the world a worse place
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh was a coward and white supremacist. He aggressively and cynically exploited divisions in our country by weaponizing hatred and bigotry for his own personal gain. He was in service to his own greed, prejudice, and hypocrisy, and that is how history will remember him.
— Charlotte Clymer ?️⚧️?? (@cmclymer) February 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/andizeisler/status/1362094123545550848
It's easy to make fun of Rush Limbaugh right now, but it's important to remember that he also brought a lot of people a lot of joy by dying
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) February 17, 2021
Hey now everybody–Rush Limbaugh's death is upsetting! He could have been dead for years now! ?
— Akilah Hughes (@AkilahObviously) February 17, 2021
I know it's tempting to lash out, but try to treat Rush Limbaugh with the same dignity, respect, and humanity as he showed to rape victims, Michael J. Fox, Sandra Fluke, Iraq War veterans, refugees, and the victims of mosque shootings.
— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) February 17, 2021
There isn’t one good quality about Rush Limbaugh. Not one. Fuck him. Wherever he is.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) February 17, 2021
I believe in a God who is very tenderly explaining some things to Rush Limbaugh right now. Limbaugh I assume is very quiet and taking it all in.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) February 17, 2021
However you feel about Rush Limbaugh, you’ve gotta admit that he’s dead
— Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely) February 17, 2021
look, rush limbaugh wasn’t a good dude but we should still be respectful and mourn the fact that he didn’t die a second time in an even worse way
— kylie brakeman (@deadeyebrakeman) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh spent decades advancing his career by opportunistically spreading vicious lies that got a lot of bad people elected, whose corrupt policies in turn got a lot of Americans killed. Now he's dead. So be it. There's a reason "Rest in Piss" is trending right now.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) February 17, 2021
With hate-peddling and conspiracy theories, Rush did more harm to the US than just about anybody. Sorry, but anybody who sees him as a heroic figure lives in the Upside Down. While we shouldn’t wish death upon anybody, it’s important to correct dangerous revisionist history.
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh, one of the most vile, sinister, racist, sexist, xenophobic, bigoted, hateful propagandists in US history, has died.
— Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) February 17, 2021
“Rest in Piss” is trending because Rush Limbaugh died.
I don’t know who the first person to write this was, but how dare you. How dare you come up with the perfect joke before the rest of us could.
It’s downright rude.
— Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh has passed on, but worry not- his memory lives on through bigots everywhere
— Cam Kasky (@cameron_kasky) February 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/WendyMolyneux/status/1362094081061445632
Limbaugh’s history of pushing far-right or otherwise talking points extends beyond the past year. For example, when Robin Williams died back in 2014, Limbaugh said he committed suicide because people on the left “are never happy.”
Limbaugh also had a long history of homophobic talking points. One time he made a particularly strange claim about Ronald Reagan and the AIDS crisis — he suggested, very falsely, that liberals were pushing a crazy conspiracy about Reagan’s part in allowing that illness to spread.
“They actually wanted us to believe that Reagan had the disease, was sneaking into gay people’s houses at night, and impregnating them with the disease and running out,” Limbaugh said.
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