Meteor Blades created the word nopologies to cover the vileness of Limbaugh's fake apologies for Sandra Fluke that followed his 3-day tirades of cesspool spewing from his mouth. Such BS apologies exacerbated and exemplified his hate speech against women.
In a private chat, Meteor Blades explained nopology:
Rush Limbaugh transformed the standard just-kidding-non-apology into something more vile. Calling it not really an apology or a non-apology doesn't go far enough. It's a nopology. A doubling or, in this case, a tripling down on the libel he initially leveled against Sandra Fluke. What he did (and what everyone else who imitates this level of fake apology does) demands a new word. Nopology. Everybody immediately knows what 'nopology' means: not a lame apology but an aggressive poke-in-the-eye fake apology. And it achieves its work in the same number of syllables as 'apology' does. We need more words like that.
The current expression to cover the political escape hatch from responsibility and accountability is non-apology apology. The non-apology apology is a condescending insult heaped on top of the action or words for which the apologizer offers a non-apology apology. The apologizer uses the non-apology apology as a political tool when public pressure erupts into a controversy and the
apologizer wants to wipe out the controversy with sleight of words:
[T]he non-apology apology is issued under pressure in order to make a controversy go away, without actually expressing any contrition or admitting anything untoward happened, attributing problems to the perceptions of others. "I’m sorry if anyone might have been offended by what I said,” is the prototypical non-apology apology."
It is no apology at all, or as Meteor Blades says, a nopology. The apologizer does not regret his/her behavior, statement or actions but is only sorry that he/she was caught or that a public controversy arose around his/her actions. The non-apology apology uses
"sufficiently artful double talk" so that the apologizer can get what he/she wants by "seeming to express regret while actually accepting no blame."
The non-apology apology gives the media and politicians wiggle room to argue that a real apology was provided, such that the media are still reporting that "Despite apology, Rush Limbaugh loses more advertisers". What they don't seem to understand is that women and the public won't accept nopology and that is why a movement for accountability and justice continues with advertisers and the public, and will continue through the elections and beyond in our fight against the War on Women.
Nopology is not limited to misogyny but the word does make it clear that Limbaugh and other anti-women racist, sexist, misogynist idiots don't believe that they need to offer real apologies to us because we are not even human to them. We are simply property to be used for right-wing politics and power in the GOP War Against Women.
Now, women fight back against nopologist Limbaugh. Limbaugh’s words repeated by female Democratic candidates in new fundraising appeals:
Sen. Claire McCaskill was so disturbed by Rush Limbaugh’s description of a law school student as a “slut” and “prostitute” that she decided to repeat his rhetoric, featuring it in a fundraising appeal sent to thousands of supporters around the country. The tactic has paid off nicely for the Democrat’s re-election campaign.
McCaskill is one of several female Democratic candidates facing competitive races who are seeking to capitalize on the conservative radio host’s comments to fuel their quests for the U.S. Senate or House. Their message: You can help fight Limbaugh — and, by extension, Republicans or tea party activists — by financing candidates who will stand up for women’s rights.
Women are not alone. Nopology is not good enough for the market, which has reacted to this vile anti-women speech by
recognizing that Limbaugh crossed a line of decency as radio stations and sponsors drop Mr. Vile. My diary yesterday,
Is Rush Reduced to Public Service Announcements, reported how PSAs were used yesterday to fill in the gap of paid ads at WABC in New York.
Nopology makes it clear that this is not a case of "poorly chosen words" or some unintentional faux pas committed by some politician who slinks away with a non-apology apology. Jed provides the video of 53 of his smears and lies against Sandra Fluke, documenting the numerous lies and hate speech spoken with passion and clarity of his belief and intent.
JohnKWilson provides links to a list of Rush's 53 Smears Against Sandra Fluke, where he called her a slut at least 4 times while he lied in continuous personal attacks against Ms. Fluke. Limbaugh attacked Ms. Fluke and every daughter, sister, mother, and grandmother.
Limbaugh's nopology was simply BS that his at least 53 separate attacks on Ms. Fluke were not meant to be a "personal attack" and so he nopologized for his "insulting word choices." Sandra Fluke rejected, recognizing from his words and the context that this was not an apology that would change anything – her words described a nopology:
I don’t think that a statement like this issued, saying that his choice of words was not the best, changes anything. Especially when that statement is issued when he’s under significant pressure from his sponsors, who have begun to pull their support. [...]
This was not one person who went crazy and made 'funny,' outrageous statements. This is evidently a segment of our political commentators who think that it’s acceptable in today’s society to say these things about women.
Limbaugh quickly backpedaled, and nopologized some more,
claiming that "Obama and the Left made him call Sandra Fluke a slut:"
Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything I know to be right and wrong I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke. That was my error. I became like them, and I feel very badly about that.
Descended to lefty level? Last year, Ed Schultz called Laura Ingraham a right-wing talk slut to describe her political hypocrisy, and was
held accountable with a sincere apology and one-week suspension.
MSNBC host Ed Schultz used a misogynist slur against conservative commentator Laura Ingraham on his radio show, while discussing her hypocrisy towards the president:
"President Obama is going to be visiting Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday but you know what they're talking about, like this right-wing slut, what's her name? Laura Ingraham? Yeah, she's a talk slut. You see, she was, back in the day, praising President Reagan when he was drinking a beer overseas. But now that Obama's doing it, they're working him over."
The well-deserved outrage was quick and furious, and MSNBC accepted what was reportedly Schultz's offer to take a week of unpaid leave as a consequence of his use of the epithet. Schultz also made an on-air apology, which, irrespective of whether he made it under duress, sounded genuine, to his credit. For their part, in a statement, MSNBC said, bluntly:
"Remarks of this nature are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
But,
Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Network respects Rush Limbaugh's right to call women sluts, saying:
"The contraception debate is one that sparks strong emotion and opinions on both sides of the issue," Premiere Networks said in a statement emailed Sunday by spokeswoman Rachel Nelson. "We respect the right of Mr. Limbaugh, as well as the rights of those who disagree with him, to express those opinions."
Contraception debate…respecting the right to express opinions?
Clear Channel knows calling women sluts is a matter of per se liability for defamation, not political debate.
Clear Channel can establish that it was potentially liable to the Caseys for defamation... .
Finally, Torain's statements about Gia Casey's past sexual conduct, including Torain's undisputed use of the terms "slut" and "whore," can give rise to per se liability for defamation, thus obviating the need for the Caseys to prove special damages. See, e.g.,Walia, 160 F.Supp.2d at 394-95 (finding that statements, including referring to plaintiff as a "whore" and "slut," constitute defamation per se as they impute unchastity to plaintiff). In sum, the Court concludes that Clear Channel has offered sufficient undisputed facts to establish its potential liability for defamation to the Caseys.
Limbaugh has not apologized for his vile, misogynist attacks. Given the number of his attacks, the number of days over which he nopologized, the arrogance and hatred of his intentional lies, he can never offer a real apology. The only alternative is a nopology, and the consequences that flow with advertisers dumping him, and the impacts on the elections as women and men fight back against the GOP War on Women.
Let's remove the political life-line offered by the non-apology apology and the culture of condescending insults attached to it. Let's make nopology go viral. Use in our posts. Tweet it. Hashtag it (#nopology)!
Tag it at Daily Kos.