02 March 2012

Limbaugh and Fluke

Rush Limbaugh's latest revolting outburst has been well covered by bloggers such as Smartypants, Progressive Eruptions, Plutocrap, and Gothic Atheist. But I was especially struck by Limbaugh's subsequent remarks:

So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.

I really doubt a guy as rich as Limbaugh is at all hard up for sex videos of whatever genre he finds appealing. But he knows his audience. His suggestion is perfectly crafted to appeal to the dirty, smutty, sniggering, nudge-nudge wink-wink attitude about sexuality which is typical of the repressed prudes who listen to him, vote for Santorum, and otherwise feel at home on the modern sexophobic right wing. The fact that it was also a degrading and invasive slap at a woman who dared stand up to the prudish patriarchy made it all the more lip-smackingly salacious to that type. It doesn't matter that Fluke's testimony wasn't even about her own sexual history (not that most Limbaugh listeners probably even watched it) -- she was made a stand-in for the unapologetically sexual kind of modern women they find so threatening, and targeted as such.

But as a columnist cited by Progressive Eruptions notes, "If Limbaugh hasn’t gone too far this time, then 'too far' no longer exists." It's long past time for this bloated gasbag to meet his Hindenburg moment. President Obama himself called Fluke with thanks for speaking out -- well merited too, given the guts it takes to brave the vomitous cesspit that the right wing has become. Parsley's Pics has posted the names and contact info of companies that still buy advertising on Limbaugh's show, and I suspect they'll be hearing from plenty of people.

Limbaugh, at least, need not fear pay-back in kind. I can't imagine anyone wanting to see videos of whatever he gets up to down in Puerto Plata.

15 Comments:

Blogger Mary said...

Today he claimed it was joke, and that the left just doesn't have a sense of humor...I found nothing he said funny. I always say that the craziness of the right hurts my soul, but this crap has rocked me to my core. I am hoping that this country has not been so desensitized by the racist, misogynistic, homophobic right that Rush will go unpunished for this.

02 March, 2012 19:01  
Blogger Ahab said...

I for one am glad that Limbaugh is losing advertizers. Let him learn that hateful attacks have consequences.

02 March, 2012 20:20  
Blogger Leslie Parsley said...

Limbaugh is an abusive bullying drug addict and these comments were outrageous. But even more outrageous is the fact that Republicans have virtually kept silent. What condemnation they have offered up has been weak at best and, not surprisingly, they have blamed the victim and, of course, the Democrats.

Saintly Santorum said Rush's comments were "absurd" (WOW!) and then all but excused them because Rush is an "entertainer". WTF does that have to do with it?

03 March, 2012 08:16  
Blogger okjimm said...

oh, oh, now Bill O'really is jumping up and down....cause he didn't say it first. Course, I no longer watch much Fox (only football games, dammit, cause I ain't got a choice) and I will not listen to talk radio. I rather like to listen to talk people. more personal. the deal is.... I have had it with derisive, nasty, sarcastic drivel. Fuck Limbaugh...

03 March, 2012 08:31  
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...

Sure, Rush. It's a "joke" now that advertisers are pulling away from your toxic "humor."

Rush's heartless attacks on Ms. Fluke is nothing new in the universe of scared white men and their primal fear of women's sexuality.

Once women acquired the ability to prevent unwanted pregnancies, they were able to enjoy their sexuality as much as men, and we can see how this is really at the heart of religionists' fear and loathing of women.

03 March, 2012 08:56  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

MB: I think we all know it was a "joke" in the sense that he didn't literally expect Fluke to post a sex tape. It was an offensive joke. The right's concept of humor that we've seen over the past couple of years (White House with watermelons in the garden, the e-mail about Obama's father being a dog, etc. and now this) speaks volumes about how they see the world.

Ahab: Yep -- loss of revenue is the one consequence he'll really take to heart.

LP: They're too cowardly to risk alienating the Limbaugh-listening trogs who make up a big chunk of their voting base. So let him remain a millstone around their necks for a while longer.

Okjimm: I've never listened to Limbaugh myself. What I hear about him is quite enough.

SK: Birth control is a classic example of technology making a better and freer world for everyone. It's a mystery that anyone would long to go back to the more frightened and restricted world before, but these people clearly do. It's not only white men, either -- you can find such attitudes among traditionalists all over the planet.

Your link goes to the Wikipedia home page -- was that what you intended?

03 March, 2012 09:16  
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...

Thanks for the catch, Infidel.

Here's what I meant to link to.

03 March, 2012 10:15  
Blogger Jack Jodell said...

That Limbaugh is a filthy-tongued son of a bitch, and I work him over pretty good in my latest postv over at roundtree7 (http://www.roundtree7.com/). I note with great relish that 5 of his sponsors have already dropped himover his outrageous remarks about Ms. Gluke, and THE DAILY KOS has called for even more to dump him! This obnoxious bastard must pay dearly for his latest tirade, as he is a CONSTANT abuser of the privilege of free speech! DOWN WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH!!!

03 March, 2012 13:29  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

SK: Yep, the hypocrisy and abusiveness of the respectable goes back a long way. I've heard stuff about those Iranian mullahs you wouldn't believe. Elmer Gantry is probably a cross-cultural universal figure.

JJ: Limbaugh has quasi-apologized -- which I take to be a sign that the advertising withdrawals are starting to hurt. It's certainly not because of any sense of decency, or he wouldn't have said these things (or so many other things) in the first place. It just means we need to keep up the pressure.

03 March, 2012 16:54  
Blogger Murr Brewster said...

One real problem Mr. Limbaugh does clarify is the crying need for retroactive contraception.

04 March, 2012 00:09  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Ah, if only!

04 March, 2012 04:56  
Anonymous Jolly Roger said...

I want the fat dope addict to hang on, and on. I want him to be the ass-face of the Rushpubliscum Party. They have knelt before him this long.... let them continue to kneel.

04 March, 2012 15:50  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

There are certainly those among them who continue to kneel, willingly embracing the millstone as it drags them down.

04 March, 2012 16:18  
Blogger Zarathustra said...

Yes, Rush.... and I'd like to see a video of you in front of a firing squad....

05 March, 2012 15:37  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Heck, I'd even be willing to chip in some of my tax dollars for that:-)

05 March, 2012 18:15  

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