It's almost like a physical law of the universe: if you give someone a national live talk show, he or she will inevitably say something stupid and offensive. Surely during the course of a week we've all said something that would piss off most of the general public.
Most dumb quotes are told to dead air or people who don't care, so they get ignored and passed over. Rush Limbaugh, however, has made a living off enraging his critics with inflammatory comments. He's the real-world version of the Internet troll.
Limbaugh seemingly knew how to toe the line between crazy trash to get people exited and dangerously offensive. That is, until he made comments about a Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, who was testifying to congress about a national healthcare policy that would mandate birth control coverage.
Rather than attacking her views and belittling her in the normal fashion, Limbaugh struck below the belt. On his national radio show, he said Fluke was a "slut" and a "prostitute" for wanting to have so much sex that she "can't afford the contraception."
The typical rage from the left erupted from the Internet, and the normal tough guy "I won't back down" rhetoric spewed from Limbaugh's mouth. He even added insult to injury the first day by telling Georgetown students that he would buy every student an aspirin to put between their knees.
Then his wallet started to be hit. A campaign on twitter and social media to stop companies from advertising on his radio show was successful and advertisers began to pull funding.
Only then did he apologize.
Thing is, what Limbaugh said was just as much a reflection of the society we live in as an insight into the man. As an ad hominem attack, everyone agreed that calling a student voicing her opinion a slut was wrong, but the sentiment isn't uncommon.
There is a double standard in this world. Women who are open about their sexuality and don't prescribe to this archaic world view that sex is only for procreation are "sluts," but men are looked up to when they're hooking up with women left and right.
We've even seen it in our own paper. We run a sex column written by a woman that receives grand amounts of unfair flak. A man talking frankly and comically about sex is funny, but a woman doing it is offensive?
Maybe this is a sign of growing pains about sexuality. We can see now that trying to silence a woman because she's not an illogical image of chastity is starting to be viewed as wrong. The traditional system is being turned on its head.
Limbaugh won't lose his show. He'll continue to talk about things he doesn't understand like he's God's gift to the airwaves because of his fervent fan base, but his "slut" comments have proved something, once and for all.
The time is coming where the people of this nation won't stand for driving a wedge in the public discourse with hate and ignorance. We're fed up with this divisive garbage.
Hopefully we're coming upon a time when the voice of many drowns out the voice of the hateful.
Only time will tell.
