Word has hit the internets that Rush Limbaugh has apologized for indecent conduct aimed at a courageous 20 something year old grad student. Slut-gate - Limbaugh's assault on women who have used birth control pills either as contraception or for health reasons - was a bridge too far for several advertisers who dropped their sponsorship of El Dimbo after his vile remarks, which are so vile that they cannot be repeated on this blog.
How does Limbaugh's indecency play on the wingnet one may ask. Are the wingers defending indecency? Will they defend this assault on women?
Kinda no and Kinda yes:
Part of what’s so poisonous about our culture is that we reward people more, the more vicious and cruel and thuggish they get (then, of course, we turn around and complain about the coarseness and ugliness of our politics and media). I disapprove vehemently of Limbaugh’s personal slurs against that young woman, because I thought they were nasty and misogynistic. What he said was wrong. What he said in his apology — “I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices” — was right.
So in this case, I want to reward him for doing what’s right. After condemning what he said that was wrong, and endorsing what he said that he was right, I think we should — to coin a phrase — “move on.” To continue the controversy at this point would be merely to pursue the vendetta against Limbaugh in exactly the way that has landed us in the mess our culture’s in. In short: If people don’t let this go at this point, they shouldn’t complain the next time somebody engages in insults, refuses to apologize, and makes our culture even coarser. If you reward something, you tend to get more of it. Let’s try rewarding decency for a change, and see what happens.
Yes - further criticism of Limbaugh will turn poor El Dimbo into a victim. This is truly beautiful when you think about it. In the future, applying the Potemra Doctrine, can be a ratings booster for Limbaugh. All he would have to do is to apologize after every indecent remarks he says. Or better yet, he could just end the show like: "if I've offended anybody during the show, then I am sorry that you were offended. Truly I am sorry and deeply apologize."
This way he could say the craziest, meanest most indecent shit he can think of and slap on an apology and be done with it. Then the Michael Potemra's of the world could tsk, tsk El Dimbo's indecency while assuring the rest of us that the right thing to do is to simply "move on."
Simply awesome.
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