While many conservatives, politicians, pundits around the United States mourned the passing of broadcast legend Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday, issuing touching tributes to the talk radio host for his years of influential work, others took to social media to express their hatred and disdain for him.
Just minutes after the news of Limbaugh’s death broke, “Rest in Piss,” “Good Riddance,” and “Rot in Hell” all started trending on Twitter as multiple activists, journalists, professors, politicians, and others expressed their ill will towards him, offering his family nearly no time to mourn in peace.
“It’s easy to make fun of Rush Limbaugh right now, but it’s important to remember that he also brought a lot of people a lot of joy by dying,” TV writer Mike Drucker wrote.
https://twitter.com/tonyschwartz/status/1362185069574709252?s=20
“I wouldn’t say I was happy that Rush Limbaugh died,” one Yale professor wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “It’s more like euphoria.”
deleted, but internet is forever pic.twitter.com/kchIUDni28
— Kara Zupkus (@kara_kirsten) February 17, 2021
“So is Rush Limbaugh going to go down in history as the worst person to ever receive the presidential medal of freedom or is there someone else?” Former Democrat Rep. Katie Hill wrote. Hill left office after a sex scandal involving her staffer.
So is Rush Limbaugh going to go down in history as the worst person to ever receive the presidential medal of freedom or is there someone else?
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) February 17, 2021
Leftist journalists also weighed in after Limbaugh lost his battle with lung cancer to share their hostility towards him and his work.
“The idea that you say artificially nice things about people after they die is weird. I’ve never understood the logic of it. Rush Limbaugh was a terrible person while he was alive. He made a living by attacking the powerless. His death does not in anyway change or redeem that,” Young Turks Host Cenk Uygur said.
The idea that you say artifically nice things about people after they die is weird. I've never understood the logic of it. Rush Limbaugh was a terrible person while he was alive. He made a living by attacking the powerless. His death does not in anyway change or redeem that.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) February 17, 2021
God has canceled Rush Limbaugh
— Erin Ryan (@morninggloria) February 17, 2021
Goodness, he was a POS. Good riddance
— 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 (@exavierpope) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh spent decades advancing his career by opportunistically spreading vicious lies that got a lot of bad people elected, whose corrupt policies in turn got a lot of Americans killed. Now he's dead. So be it. There's a reason "Rest in Piss" is trending right now.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) February 17, 2021
For everyone about to tweet out a joke or otherwise revel in the death of Rush Limbaugh I just ask that you pause and ask yourself: am I going big enough? This man was a fucking demon don't hold back.
— maura quint (@behindyourback) February 17, 2021
Activists, some of who have bylines in corporate media papers and magazines such as The New York Times, also celebrated Limbaugh’s death, labeling him as a “white supremacist” and “conspiracy theorist.”
“Rush Limbaugh was a coward and white supremacist. He aggressively and cynically exploited divisions in our country by weaponizing hatred and bigotry for his own personal gain. He was in service to his own greed, prejudice, and hypocrisy, and that is how history will remember him,” one pro-abortion advocate wrote.
Rush Limbaugh was a coward and white supremacist. He aggressively and cynically exploited divisions in our country by weaponizing hatred and bigotry for his own personal gain. He was in service to his own greed, prejudice, and hypocrisy, and that is how history will remember him.
— charlotteclymer@mastodon.nz (@cmclymer) February 17, 2021
Obituary: A man unmournable, Limbaugh paved a way for the Alex Joneses of the world, allowing conspiracy theorists, bigots, racists and sexists to bloom freely and without consequence. He was a true coward masquerading as a provocateur, and will be remembered as nothing more. https://t.co/S8irGA5QN3
— Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) February 17, 2021
In the 1980s, Rush Limbaugh hosted a regular radio segment called 'AIDS Update', where he celebrated and mocked the deaths of gay and bisexual men.
May the hatred he spread in life be buried with him.
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh fertilized the seeds of hatred for decades that allowed bigoted trash like Trump to crawl out from under his rock, and begin a campaign with "Mexican rapists."
— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) February 17, 2021
Actors, songwriters, and other celebrities also used their well-followed accounts to communicate their extreme disdain for Limbaugh.
Feeling very sorry for the people of Hell who now have to deal with Rush Limbaugh for the rest of eternity
— FINNEAS (@finneas) February 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh had a radio segment called “AIDS Update” where he’d read out the names of gay people who had died and celebrate with horns and bells.
So the whole “don’t speak ill of the dead” thing doesn’t apply to this absolute fucking monster.
Let him rot.— Harry Cook (@HarryCook) February 17, 2021
A National Review writer joined in criticizing Limbaugh the day he died.
For millions of people, Rush Limbaugh was their political lifeline to conservatism. For millions of others – myself included-he was an enormous impediment to it. In a two party democracy, you will be joined to people that make you cringe. https://t.co/Kmq8QMxUzC
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) February 17, 2021
Despite gauche attempts to dance on Limbaugh’s grave on the day he passed, most conservatives celebrated his life and work, praising him for the influence he had on the conservative movement, media, and society.
