@KNOWITALL—I wasn’t talking about respectful discourse, I was responding to your comment about Limbaugh and abortion issues. It seemed odd to me. It seemed like you were saying: well, he wasn’t a good man, he did many harmful and despicable things, but I appreciate that he was pro-life.… because I wouldn’t say the reverse if he had been pro-choice. His being pro-choice wouldn’t somehow excuse the harm. I wouldn’t somehow accept the harm simply because it was advantageous to my position on an issue, and I didn’t understand why it seemed like you were.
But I think I see now that I was misreading your statements. If I understand correctly, you don’t see his other actions to be as harmful as others on this thread see them. (Which may explain why you’ve also offered what seems to me an inexplicable comparison between Limbaugh and MLK Jr.)
Limbaugh was undeniably a popular, successful radio persona. There are clearly millions of people who thought his persona and his actions were just fine. It’s not like that’s news. But it also shouldn’t be news that he was controversial because many others saw his persona and actions as corrosive and actively harmful. That’s not news either.
@OP—I don’t think that it’s only about being perceived as “bad.” I think it’s also about how much power/influence an individual has over others, and about how much interactions are “parasocial” (one person facing a “public” or “audience”). No one but Limbaugh’s close family knows who he was as an individual. That’s just a fact. Most know Limbaugh the public persona… and regardless of how closely or not closely that public persona matches the individual, it’s a different type of “relationship” to have. Death means something different in that context, and I think that can be okay as long as it’s understood for what it is.
When someone wields a lot of influence, and they use that influence in ways that cause harm, from certain perspectives their death means an end to harm, not a loss of “life.” I think ultimately that’s what people who are celebrating are celebrating, and I’m sure some are doing it with more tact than others, but I’m not going to be the one to judge that.
I’ve seen comments on other threads related to this topic that go something like: “It says more about the person celebrating the death than the person who died.” I’m not sure that’s true. I think it says how the person celebrating perceived the person who died—as someone who wielded the power and social status they had in ways that caused harm. I don’t think it says much else “about” the person celebrating, though.