Rush Limbaugh’s coronavirus advice


Lie back and do what you need to do to get through this pandemic. No, not wear your mask and maintain social distancing…think cannibalism.

You’ve heard of the Donner Party? Maybe some of you haven’t. The Donner Party, the Donner family and a bunch of travelers trying to get to California over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. They made the mistake of trying to make the trip in the middle of winter. We’re talking the Lake Tahoe region. They get to the peak. It was so bad that they had to turn to cannibalism to survive. That’s what’s noteworthy about the Donner Party. If you read the diaries written by the leaders of the Donner Party, the only reference to how cold it was, was one sentence: “It was a particularly tough winter.”

It’s just what was. They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.

He even suggests that this should become one of the themes that the president adopts. The situation is so dire that we, the American public, should be contemplating cannibalism! Remember, you can’t eat your neighbor if you’re wearing a mask.

If we must, we must. Can we start with Rush cutlets?

Comments

  1. davidc1 says

    I did read somewhere they stuck little bits of the dead on thin metal rods and cooked them over the fire ,yes they were
    eating Donner Kebabs .
    Rush Cutlets ,a bit on the fatty side i expect .

  2. blf says

    Rush cutlets: Extremely fatty and soaked in rancid bile, no known method of safe preparation, is nuts. Does not go well with cheese, vin, or rationality; a good reason to nuke from orbit.

  3. cartomancer says

    Adapt? Sounds good. Maybe some kind of low-tech face-covering technology could be jerry-rigged from cloth to prevent the spread of droplets? Or a social technology could be pioneered whereby people stand further apart than usual? Or some sort of universal healthcare system could be put into practice? Or the economy could be radically restructured to serve the needs of everyone rather than funnelling money to the capitalist class at the top?

    I like this adaptation stuff.

  4. daved says

    Rush has Stage IV lung cancer — if he contracts coronavirus, he’s a goner. So I wish he’d hurry up.

  5. stroppy says

    Rush is a biohazard and should be handled with appropriate precautions.

    davidc1
    Good one!

  6. stroppy says

    So “Soylent Green” was in fact Rush’s vision of a utopian future? That dude is seriously bent.

  7. Artor says

    I have mixed feelings here. While I wish Rush’s cancer would hurry up and do it’s job, I also wish him a slow, painful death, wallowing in misery and unable to speak to relieve the pressure of bile building up inside him until he pops. What should I hope for more? I’m so confused…

  8. microraptor says

    Artor @7: Maybe it could spread to his vocal cords and leave him unable to speak.

    Of course, the thing to remember about the Donners was that the local Washoe tribe (I’m pretty sure it was the Washoes, anyway) knew they were there and knew it was a terrible place to spend the winter so they tried to help out by bringing gifts of food on two separate occasions. Both times the Donners drove them off with gunfire, so after the second time they decided to leave the stupid white people to starve.

  9. Bruce says

    Rather than “adapting” to the fact that it’s cold at the top of a mountain pass, they could have come down to a lower elevation where it’s warmer, and it’s California.
    Rather than entering California, Rush prefers to stay as far away from it as possible, in south Florida.

  10. raven says

    Limbaugh the idiot: There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.

    Cthulhu this is stupid.
    Limbaugh has always been stupid so, no surprise.

    Adapting is exactly what we are doing.
    Whoever heard of masks everyday, social distancing, the 6 foot or 2 meter rule, widespread PCR based testing, and avoiding crowds 6 months ago.
    What we are also doing is developing anti-Covid-19 drugs and vaccines as fast as possible in a major worldwide effort.

    Limbaugh, Trump, and the GOP are the ones not adapting.
    Their strategy is something that Orwell or an ostrich would come up with.
    Ignore the problem and hope it goes away!!!
    If it doesn’t go away, lie about it a lot.
    Deny that the Covid-19 virus pandemic even exists, i.e. a hoax.
    Hide the data on case numbers and viral spread as much as you can get away with.

  11. fossboxer says

    No, Rush, you stupid ass revisionist, they didn’t make the mistake of trying to cross the Sierra Nevada in winter. The leader of the group, James Reed, trusted Lansford Hastings that he found shortcut through Utah. Having no idea Hastings was actually just a slick charlatan, they ended up having to forge a new trail down the Wasatch Front, which ate up precious travel time. These people weren’t just a bunch of stupid-hick pilgrims with a notion to eat human flesh.

    I mean, if you’re gonna make shit up, you probably should avoid history anyone can learn for themselves.

  12. Dan Phelps says

    I like my meat rare, or at least somewhat pink inside. Will I have to settle on well-done in order to kill the virus?

  13. mrquotidian says

    It’s so hilarious how idiots like Rush always take the wrong lessons from history.

    The lesson of the Donner Party isn’t that “bad things just happen” and you just have to stop complaining… The real lesson is never follow a huckster trying to sell an untested bill of goods, especially when everyone is telling you it’s a bad idea…

    The Donner party were completely inexperienced in back-country survival and yet followed an asshole named Hastings on a “shortcut” route that he had never actually taken before… across the Salt lake desert and then over the giant, 12,000 foot sierra mountain range.. He told them it would be easier and faster than the well-established northern route everyone else was taking. And the whole ordeal was considered a scandalous disaster at the time – not just “a particularly bad winter.” (though it was an unusually heavy snowfall)

    It’s almost like you should listen to experts rather than whatever fantasy some lone kook is trying to sell. The Donner party could have avoided the horrors they experienced… just as the US could have avoided the kind of pandemic outcomes they’re now facing.

  14. woozy says

    That’s really rich considering how flexible and adaptive Donald Trump is.

    And taking something seriously and taking proper precautions is not “living in fear” or crying. That is adapting. The living in denial and refusing to do anything and throwing a temper tantrum just because you don’t like the people who are telling you to adapt are the crybabies. Sheesh.

    I mean, sure, complaining about millenial cry-babies is a fun rallying cry for our current generation gap (although it doesn’t seem to fit with any reality I’m aware of— my 80-year old mother would get a quick out of being called a millenial— whereas the July 4th beach crowds all seem to repeat the excuse “I heard it’s not so bad for young people”) but that’s all it is– a fun way of bullying others away from you.

  15. christoph says

    @daved, #: And yet, Rush has the strength and courage to continue making hateful and stupid remarks. What a brave, brave man.

  16. christoph says

    @ woozy, # 17: My new nickname for Trump is “Tantrum boy Trump.” I hope it catches on.

  17. davidc1 says

    @19 I am sticking with “The Snatch Snatcher “, have called him that since the pussy grabber tape came to light .
    Talking of said tape ,i think the guy who made it had been sitting on it until he thought releasing it would do TSS the most harm ,didn’t turn out like that did it?

  18. gyreandgimble says

    PZ “ He even suggests that this should become one of the themes that the president adopts. The situation is so dire that we, the American public, should be contemplating cannibalism! Remember, you can’t eat your neighbor if you’re wearing a mask”
    I don’t think Rush was suggesting cannibalism. He was suggesting we adapt. I agree with everything else said here about Limbaugh.

  19. astro says

    thanks, fossboxer and mrquotidian. the only lesson of the donner party is that they were idiots and it cost them.

  20. blf says

    @22, The only example of “adapt” he gave (in the quote in the OP) was cannibalism.
    However, reading a bit between the lines (e.g., They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. [… W]e can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to) strongly hints at what he really means: Accept Covid-10 is here to stay, so restart the economy, and done. A few people will die, accept it. Etc., etc., etc. This also happens — not at all coincidentally — to be what hair furor and his dalekocrazy are claiming.

  21. dudev says

    Conservative pundits are just filled with the notion of sacrifice —adapt, let people die for the cause — except they insulate themselves from being part of the pool of potential, sacrificial lambs. Trump keeps dismissing COVID testing, says we should do less testing, but the White House hypocritically went from testing its staff weekly to testing them daily. Trump once admitted in an interview that he’d never been in a supermarket. Yet he mocks mask-wearing. It must be nice for Rush to sit back in his climate-controlled studio and mouth off without sharing any of the risk.

  22. says

    They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.

    So he’s telling his audience to adapt by wearing masks?

  23. gyreandgimble says

    When trump says that we have more cases because of more testing I wish someone would ask him why there are more deaths lately if things are going so well.

  24. woozy says

    Sometimes it’s annoying that our side just doesn’t respond to their side’s arguments because we do not operate with the same premises. It’s a bit of an oversimplification but it has been observed that conservatives value individualism and independence and self-sufficiency, whereas liberals view the entire purpose of a community and a government is to care for and take care of each other.

    So the conservatives love to paint liberals as whiny wienee wimps and sob sisters. And so Rush’s narrative of adopt adopt move on and live with it and don’t live in fear and whine.

    Okay… but who in reality are the ones who are adapting and accepting reality and facing it head on and who are the ones who are whining and saying its too hard and we want to do things they way that looks good for me me me?

    But… we don’t argue on those terms. We don’t care about appearing stoic and strong and realistic. We want to help people. Although we could argue we are the strong silent he-men because (sexist terminology aside) we are and they are the whiny cringers because… they are. But we don’t because helping and solving are much much more important to us.

    Sheesh.

    ……

    My nickname for Trump is President Shitstain. That or the Walking Shit Sausage.

  25. unclefrogy says

    the ditohead in chief has one operative approach that is to sell resentment resentment resentment that is all he has. It does not make any difference how he says it or what he says as long as the main thrust of the words is resentment of “those other people”.
    It makes no difference that he uses adopt without defining what he means nor offering suggestions. That is not the point just as long as he can accuse some others of not doing it and instead criticizing the members of his audience and thus stirring up their feelings of resentment.
    what ever so long as his audience does no extra thinking and keeps listening so he can make a buck.
    an asshole of the first caliber.
    uncle frogy

  26. billmcd says

    There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.

    Uhmmm…. you mean like wearing masks and social distancing? Ok, so… stop bitching about it and adapt, you dumbass.

  27. Frederic Bourgault-Christie says

    I love the utter hypocrisy most of all. Like, yeah, Rush, we are adapting. Quarantine. Dealing with idiots like you. If we’re willing to commit cannibalism, why not be willing to censor you? I mean, I’m not, I have principles, but surely you should have no objections to anything no matter how extreme!

    But of course for conservatives patriotism and responsibility are all for other people. Black people. Women, Gay folks. The young. Those people need to adapt. The good folk don’t need to do a thing but whine.

  28. a_ray_in_dilbert_space says

    You know, if ol’ Rush wants to say the Rethugs are leading us to a bright future of cannibalism, I’m fine with that. Somehow, I think people might opt instead for a future full of taco trucks on every corner (serving something other than “long pork”).

  29. davidc1 says

    Pah ,you amuricans ,you should copy us Brits and our British Bulldog Spirit .

  30. davidc1 says

    @33 I had to look up “Long Pork ” ,according to that bloke Hitchens ,fireman do not eat roast pork because it looks like roasted human flesh .

  31. Kagehi says

    @4 daved

    Rush has Stage IV lung cancer — if he contracts coronavirus, he’s a goner. So I wish he’d hurry up.

    Probably already eating people, which is why he acts like he has.. what is the human one – Kuru?

  32. tasmaniac666 says

    Can anyone else see the exact parallel of the Donald Party to the Donner Party?
    Idiot conman leader, gets his followers stuck in mortal danger, then when people come, who only want to try to assist them to overcome their peril , they drive off their only chance of survival.
    And then the Leader writes that it was a bit cold, just like Trump keeps saying “Stop moaning ,it’s not hurting me, and anyway it’s just like a dose of ‘flu.
    Only difference is more people dying, and it’s more than a bit of cold, and the unemployed and uninsured homeless population haven’t been seen to be feasting on human flesh. Yet.

  33. pocketnerd says

    Ah, yes, the Donner party: Grotesque failure and massive loss of life caused by refusing to listen to experts, putting faith in incompetents, and a big helping of racism and xenophobia. What a perfect microcosm of the modern Republican Party.