What happened to Stewart and Oliver is indicative of a wider phenomenon, I think: Nobody is allowed to just be goofy and make fun of shit anymore. That’s what they used to do and they’d even say, in effect, Don’t listen to us on important things.
It’s like everybody has to be on the “right side of history” (whatever that means) on every i…
What happened to Stewart and Oliver is indicative of a wider phenomenon, I think: Nobody is allowed to just be goofy and make fun of shit anymore. That’s what they used to do and they’d even say, in effect, Don’t listen to us on important things.
It’s like everybody has to be on the “right side of history” (whatever that means) on every issue. I’ve heard Jesse lament about the end of the “old days” of the internet, when people were just fuckoffs for fun.
We’re all familiar with how this works on the left but it’s true on right too. I remember hearing about the Proud Boys some time ago and they were mostly just a group of harmless dipshits who wanted to drink beer and act bro-y. Fast forward two years and they’re in my home city marching through the streets in paramilitary gear looking like American Isis scaring residents and vandalizing property.
It’s like fuck man why are the stakes so high on everything now? We did we all decide to get so serious?
I think it is more that when Stewart started, Conservatives had a lot of political power and a lot more cultural power, especially after 9/11. Stewart does not realize that overall progressives have won the culture war. He is not pushing against anything
I realized several years ago that progressives won the culture war but never got the memo. Part of the cultural identity/mythology is that we are the ones on the margins fighting the bad forces, and now apparently forever embattled.
I think seeing other famous people’s bad tweets drudged up for public shaming broke a lot of people’s brains.
I mean, think about it. You see that happening to someone else, and you’re an entertainer--someone whose self-worth hinges on the approval of others-- you will do basically anything to avoid the hammer.
My theory is that it has to do with advertising. I know this sounds like a non sequitur but hear me out.
Early 2010s, Facebook and Google were stealing everyone's ad revenue. Publishers responded with clickbait/ragebait to recapture attention and ad revenue. Ragebait is effective, but you need something to rage against to make it work. Having the Other Team on the opposite side of the political spectrum as your foil makes ragebait effective. But then you get the rage treadmill where we're in an existential fight for survival against those people who want to destroy democracy and ruin your children. Such a super serious culture war demands super serious people. No room for joking when everything is an existential fight for life or death.
What happened to Stewart and Oliver is indicative of a wider phenomenon, I think: Nobody is allowed to just be goofy and make fun of shit anymore. That’s what they used to do and they’d even say, in effect, Don’t listen to us on important things.
It’s like everybody has to be on the “right side of history” (whatever that means) on every issue. I’ve heard Jesse lament about the end of the “old days” of the internet, when people were just fuckoffs for fun.
We’re all familiar with how this works on the left but it’s true on right too. I remember hearing about the Proud Boys some time ago and they were mostly just a group of harmless dipshits who wanted to drink beer and act bro-y. Fast forward two years and they’re in my home city marching through the streets in paramilitary gear looking like American Isis scaring residents and vandalizing property.
It’s like fuck man why are the stakes so high on everything now? We did we all decide to get so serious?
I think it is more that when Stewart started, Conservatives had a lot of political power and a lot more cultural power, especially after 9/11. Stewart does not realize that overall progressives have won the culture war. He is not pushing against anything
I realized several years ago that progressives won the culture war but never got the memo. Part of the cultural identity/mythology is that we are the ones on the margins fighting the bad forces, and now apparently forever embattled.
I think seeing other famous people’s bad tweets drudged up for public shaming broke a lot of people’s brains.
I mean, think about it. You see that happening to someone else, and you’re an entertainer--someone whose self-worth hinges on the approval of others-- you will do basically anything to avoid the hammer.
Nothing really matters. I call this Bohemian Rhapsody Activism.
My theory is that it has to do with advertising. I know this sounds like a non sequitur but hear me out.
Early 2010s, Facebook and Google were stealing everyone's ad revenue. Publishers responded with clickbait/ragebait to recapture attention and ad revenue. Ragebait is effective, but you need something to rage against to make it work. Having the Other Team on the opposite side of the political spectrum as your foil makes ragebait effective. But then you get the rage treadmill where we're in an existential fight for survival against those people who want to destroy democracy and ruin your children. Such a super serious culture war demands super serious people. No room for joking when everything is an existential fight for life or death.
Edit: Sorry, hit post too soon.