It has only been a few days since Americans learned of the tragic death of Robin Williams -- but that hasn't stopped right-wing radio creep Rush Limbaugh from trying to besmirch William's good name to attack those on the left, and promote his own vicious and hateful views. He has once again shown his depravity by saying the following on the public airways:Now, what is the left’s worldview in general? What is it? If you had to attach not a philosophy but an attitude to a leftist worldview, it’s one of pessimism and darkness, sadness.
They’re never happy, are they? They’re always angry about something. No matter what they get, they’re always angry.
They are animated in large part by the false promises of America, because the promises of America are not for everyone, as we see each and every day. I mean, right herethere’s a story Fox News website. Do you know, it says right here, that the real reasons that Robin Williams killed himself are he was embarrassed at having to take television roles after a sterling movie career.
He had to take movie roles that were beneath him, sequels and so forth, and he finally had to do television just to get a paycheck because he was in so much financial distress.He’d had some divorces that ripped up his net worth, and he had a big ranch in Napa that he couldn’t afford any longer and had to put up for sale, and a house in Tiburon that he couldn’t afford anymore. This is all what’s in the Fox News story.
He had it all, but he had nothing. He made everybody else laugh but was miserable inside. I mean, it fits a certain picture, or a certain image that the left has.Talk about low expectations and general unhappiness and so forth.
Limbaugh has been losing advertisers and listeners for a while now, and has been taken off several big radio stations because they just can't make a profit by playing his hateful show. I have to believe he didn't do himself any good with this attack on Robin Williams.
The truth is that while Limbaugh's popularity is dropping like a rock, Robin Williams was a beloved entertainer. As the chart below shows, a whopping 86% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Robin Williams (and 52% of them had a very favorable opinion), while only 8% say they had an unfavorable opinion. Limbaugh couldn't come close to those kind of numbers even at the height of his popularity (and his mean-spirited remarks may well contain a tinge of jealousy). At any rate, his remarks will only be appreciated by a tiny percentage of Americans -- and could well accelerate his loss of advertisers and listeners. I think Lewis Black probably gave the best reply to Limbaugh when he said:
FUCK YOU Rush Limbaugh. Your statements were beyond cruel and stupid. They were intolerable. Enough is enough from you. You are an idiot. Don't you ever demean the death of another human being. He was my friend. You disgust me.
That pretty much sums up my feelings too -- and I suspect a huge majority of Americans would agree. Limbaugh's remarks were beyond the pale, and should be rejected by decent people of all political persuasions.
The chart above was made from information contained in a new Rasmussen Poll. The survey was done on August 13th and 14th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 3 points.
(The caricature of Rush Limbaugh above is by the one and only DonkeyHotey.)
