One of Rush Limbaugh's better traits was a certain wry self-awareness: in the 1980's he started calling his loyal fans "ditto heads" because of how many of them would call in just to say they agreed with him or with the previous callers.
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It's hard to remember in the hyper-fragmented media landscape we live in now, but one of the reasons for that reaction is that many of those listeners really didn't see their views represented in the media landscape of the day, in the big networks and newspapers.
Those establishment sources of news and opinion had a certain sense of gravity and responsibility as the go-to-sources for Americans of all walks of life, but they were indeed pretty reliably liberal, if not especially radical.
Then came talk radio, then cable, then the internet and then social media, and the old landscape was transformed. And now we all have access to our own finely-tailored cocoons of information and opinion.
We've all become ditto-heads in that sense.
We've all become ditto-heads in that sense.
There's plenty that's good about the new media landscape, but much of it panders to the worst prejudices of its audience.
Rush did his share of that (some of which he repented of).
And we're seeing some of the same echo-chamber nastiness in responses to his passing.
Rush did his share of that (some of which he repented of).
And we're seeing some of the same echo-chamber nastiness in responses to his passing.
Death ought to humble us with a recognition of our common humanity, and with how limited it is: "what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue," as Edmund Burke put it.
Respect for the dead is a recognition of that.
Respect for the dead is a recognition of that.
Partisanship is eroding that very humane and very civilized idea. That's just another way it's hurting us, and why we need an ethic of solidarity in this country.
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