[HN Gopher] Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh has die...
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       Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh has died at age 70
        
       Author : Shivetya
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2021-02-17 19:50 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nbcnews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nbcnews.com)
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | It's very likely this comment thread space is going to get very
       | ugly. Having declared my bias: (I didn't like him, or his views),
       | the interesting question to me would be _was he a product of, or
       | one of the producers of our times?_
        
         | ternaryoperator wrote:
         | As the article states, he was one of the first of his type of
         | conservative DJs, so I think it's fair to put him at the front
         | of the parade, rather than just going along for the ride.
        
         | mg5150 wrote:
         | I'd say both. He took prevailing conservative groupthink of the
         | Lee Atwater school and weaponized it to become one of the OG
         | alt-reich trolls[1], to quote somebody who apparently plays too
         | many JRPGs.
         | 
         | > The man was a fucking demagogue. He made his fortune peddling
         | cryptofascist propaganda while calling himself a
         | "conservative". He helped set the stage for the resurgence of
         | right-wing authoritarianism, white supremacy, and neo-Nazism in
         | the United States. He was the OG alt-reich troll, and his grave
         | should have a pay toilet in place of a headstone.
         | 
         | [1]: https://demifiend.org/articles/good-riddance-rush-
         | limbaugh.h...
        
         | samizdis wrote:
         | He was certainly a producer of our times, in that he fanned
         | many flames and attracted a fanbase/cult whose actions/opinions
         | he informed. But he was also a product of our times, in that
         | people with a media platform/spotlight now have the tools to
         | make money by leading the masses, whereas such opportunity
         | wasn't available before the explosion of broadcast/cable media,
         | subsequently amplified by social media.
        
         | krapp wrote:
         | Both. Everyone is a product of their times, but Rush was also
         | unequivocally one of the primary influencers of American
         | conservative and Republican politics in his lifetime.
        
         | stevenhubertron wrote:
         | It will certainly be interesting how history plays out on the
         | last 20 years in America. So much has happened both good and
         | evil. I wonder who/what will make the cut in the history books.
        
           | samizdis wrote:
           | Interesting, certainly, but tricky: who gets to write the
           | history books?
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-17 21:02 UTC)