Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer.

[Dill]

(02-03-2020, 07:33 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I'm sorry that you feel that way.  He's not the news, never claimed to be the news.  All he does is offer opinion and commentary on the news and political happenings.  To hate on a guy like Rush, you might as well hate on Thomas Paine and say that you wish that the sedition act of 1798 was still a thing, today.

Rush is the embodiment of free speech.  No need to hate on him, simply because he's good at it.

One question is whether Rush's "opinion and commentary" disinform and normalize uncivil speech.

Telling a caller to take the bone out of her nose, calling feminists "feminazis" or a George town student a "slut" because she thinks insurance should cover birth control pills--that is not being "good" at free speech.  

Don't be sorry that I think this language inappropriate in political commentary, and please understand that calling it inappropriate is still a long ways from accusing Rush of sedition or challenging his 1st Amendment right, just as principled disagreement with people does not automatically signal "hate"--or didn't until the debasement of public discourse alluded to in my previous post, and which is part of Rush's legacy.

 The question is also whether the disinformation creates political power which politicians can then use--even if Rush protests he is merely "entertaining."  The efforts of conservative politicians to court Rush make clear he exercises that power.

Thomas Paine took pains to construct rational, well supported arguments in the two essays I have read by him. I do recall that in Common Sense he called George III a "wretch" at one point (for his indifference to the Boston Massacre), and at another he called supporters of George "parasites," but that name calling is rare in his writing, and is not substituted for argument.  It would be difficult to admire the purpose, values and standards of Paine's writing AND the "commentaries" of Rush. They are antithetical.  

PS Sunset, I should add that I never see you using Rush or Hannity style abusive language.  Even though we may disagree about Rush, I do not at all see my criticisms of him as referencing you too, even obliquely.