[lit-ideas] Hitler/Stalin - Stewart/Colbert Tag Team
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:39:47 -0400
"Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert"
A few friends also rely on Comedy
Central for news. I don't know what to
say to them about it, so I change the
subject when those guys come up. Here, I
can vent.
Can't anyone see that something is
terribly wrong with the popularity of
Stewart and Colbert? Maybe imagining
them as right-wing comics would help.
Maybe not. The problem is more than
political. It's the reinforcement of
nihilism, of irony-as-worldview with no
positive counterargument.
Comedy Central's main demographic
audience, unlike Veronica, has no
understanding of any social, political,
or economic issues. Instead they receive
biases wrapped in jokes. The
indoctrination is subliminal. Comedy
substituting for reading.
What about Limbaugh and the rest of the
talk radio people? The conservative
gasbags rely on outright verbal
persuasion. A listener can accept or
reject faulty arguments and slander
using the critical thought available to
them. It's in-your-face politics, take
it or leave it.
TV politicomedy disguised as news, on
the other hand, bypasses the critical
faculties. A good joke, even if laden
with faulty argument and slander, is
accepted as entertainment. Goes straight
to the funny bone. "It's just a joke.
Lighten up." Hitler/Stalin could only
dream about such plausible deniability;
lacking it, they had their secret police
and prison networks.
Sure I'm making too much of it ("It's
just a joke. Lighten up.") but ironic
nihilism only plays in favor of the
ruling elite, whatever their politics or
agenda for the rest of us.
Off my rocker,
Bonzo
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