The Culture Wars, Then and Now

The Big Takeaway

Rush Limbaugh’s “fans” are outraged that professors say mean things about him

The rank hypocrisy of Rush Limbaugh fans complaining on social media and elsewhere because a large segment of the public (including yours truly) tweeted some variant of “#BIH Rush” is a sight to behold—not that any of them would know, for none of them has ever looked in a mirror.

Rush Limbaugh was a polarizing figure—deliberately so. He was racist and sexist and bigoted and morally grotesque, and he was proud of it. He made a living from it. He made money and gained hearers precisely because he was intentionally offensive and pushed the norms of acceptable public discourse to the breaking point and beyond. That’s really what Rush Limbaugh stood for: the right to say cruel things without suffering any consequences.

Well, that’s not precisely what Rush Limbaugh stood for, nor is it what his fans stand for. Judging from my social media mentions and the outraged emails Dittoheads are sending to my employer, here’s what Rush Limbaugh fans stand for: their right to say cruel things without suffering any consequences.

What Rush Limbaugh championed was not “free speech” in the abstract; it was free speech for straight white conservatives, and for them alone.

Rush Limbaugh’s most adoring fans absorbed that lesson well. They have taken up the baton of “free speech for me but not for…