Obviously not a Republican; I still have shame....

[osodecanela]

I have great difficulty even turning on Fox News. It’s never more than a minute or two before I want to hurl something right thru the TV screen. I know it’s important to actually be aware of the alleged news coverage those on the right are hearing, but the anger it provokes in me isn’t healthy either for my psyche or my blood pressure. Likewise, the right wing radio hosts like Michael Savage or the greasily bombastic Rush Limbaugh.

Can. Not. Listen. Calmly.

Limbaugh announced this morning he has advanced lung cancer. Under my breath, I murmured, “good”. A second later, a wave of shame for my response swept over me. I could feel my cheeks burning. I’m ashamed schadenfreude was my immediate response. No one should take pleasure in news of what’s often a terminal diagnosis.

Right?

Comments

[brian_bogue]

I agree with you in general, yet in some ways I feel it is just to feel that way, or at lest is karma. Remember that this was a man who mocked people dying of AIDS, who added to the level of fear and prejudice that people with AIDS experienced and spread falsehoods about gays in general and who encouraged people who were bigots and fearmongers by giving them a platform to reach more people. So no it was not the most positive response on your part but it is perfectly understandable

[osodecanela]

Thanks.

I despise the man’ s rhetoric. I’m looking forward to a point where no has to listen to it. There’s difference between losing his platform & losing his life.

[zipperbear]

In the grand scheme of things, when evil people die, the world is a better place, and when good people die, the world is a worse place. Even if you buy into the right-wing ideas (that sexual freedom is bad, that poor people deserve to stay poor, that non-white people should stay in their homelands or on reservations, etc.), you can still believe that hate-mongering to promote those ideas is evil or uncivil.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." (But, of course, justice and proper behavior are matters of personal conscience.)

[osodecanela]

I will shed no tears with his passing, nor will I celebrate it.

Simply put, having him off the air will be a relief, akin to the lancing of a boil.

[dr_tectonic]

Enh. In the abstract, suffering and death are bad, and no-one deserves either. But in the specific, it's a very good thing for someone who has contributed to much suffering and death to no longer be capable of inflicting more, and it is not shameful to be pleased at the news that such will soon be the case.

Would it be better for that to happen without suffering and death on the part of the perpetrator as well? Yes, of course. But that small added badness does not outweigh the imminent much larger reduction in badness.

[osodecanela]

My shame wasn’t that I want Limbaugh off of his hateful bully pulpit. It was that I could wish him ill, in which case, in that split second, I sank to his level. That’s no place I want to be.

[zipperbear]

The problem, of course, is that you and Rush Limbaugh consider each other evil, for different reasons. If Limbaugh believes that gay sex is immoral, for example, and that somehow your proud existence in a same-sex marriage is a corrupting influence, and holy books (which have been popular for millennia) seem to support his views, then you're unlikely to convince him or his followers that he's wrong.

Our split second of doubt, where we don't actually wish him ill, but only want his evil influence to end, is what convinces me that we are right and he is wrong. A properly moral society would not have a history of fire hoses and night sticks to suppress civil rights movements.

My biggest hope is that the fiscal conservatives will realize that economic and social terrorism (glass ceilings, gay bashing, driving-while-black, the war on drugs, etc.) can only drag down our economy and society. Free market competition seems to work better than totalitarian central planning, but only to the extent that we aren't overtaken by crime, corruption, and nepotism. Fair competition in a level playing field is no match for home invasion robberies, cyber-crime, and military juntas. The free market may also encourage nuisance lawsuits, sanctimonious excesses in the name of political correctness, and some of the nanny-state unintended consequences that enrage the conservatives and reactionaries. Capitalist democracy also seems poorly suited for handling issues like overpopulation and global warming, but perhaps outbreaks like measles and coronavirus will more effectively reduce the closed-minded population than HIV did.

The world is a complicated place, morally and politically and socially. We can only do our best, hoping that it's the right thing to do. With luck, the future will look back on us kindly, with sympathy for our ignorance and flaws.

[mrdreamjeans]

He has no problem with destroying other people's lives. The world will be a better place without him in it.

[osodecanela]

For sure!