Yeah Stewart doesn’t really get it. To be fair watching America decline into an authoritarian state is not really funny. And not something I want to be entertained and distracted through.
Good work. How sad: Jon Stewart got me through much of the "W" era (we recall that aw-shucks war criminal?). I guess many products have their expiration dates.
Pundits like Stewart (and despite his “I’m just a comedian” weaseling, he is a pundit, and that excuse was tired in 2004 when he used it on Tucker Carlson) think it makes them cool to be all “chill out” about fascism, because they can look down on us for freaking out over Trump. But when we’re living in an era where the guardrails are gone and nothing can stop the dictator it just looks out of touch and it’s frankly gross for a rich insulated person like Stewart to act as though those of us without his means who stand to lose big are being a bunch of nervous Nellies.
Stewart could use his platform to inform people that if Trump can whisk off anyone he wants just by smearing them as a criminal—with no due process—and let them die in a jungle prison, then no one is safe if they displease the regime. He chooses not to, so he can seem too cool to freak out.
And considering Stewart likely lost close relatives to the Nazis, this is particularly obtuse of him. We are having our 1933 moment.
I don't know what point Jon Stewart is making when he says these things - is it to get a laugh? Is he serious? I'm over him - John Oliver gets a laugh, does his research, and is honest in his opinion. No wonder he wins all the Emmys.
It makes me feel very old to say that the people who learned least from Trump’s first term (from REAGAN’s, even) are comedians. Comedy is important, but taking the piss out of good guys to the same level as bad guys has been destructive since the rise of social media and a public who is solely reading headlines and tweets/skeets about those headlines.
I didn’t used to believe so much hinged on the poor understanding of stupid people, but I believe it now that even well-educated, previously well-informed people are getting their information from social media and continuing to think of themselves as well-informed. People didn’t used to get their news from SNL, although it might have alerted them to a topic they’d missed and it might have unfairly given a vibe (Ford is clumsy, ark ark ark). But The Daily Show changed all that, and I think the writers either feared the power they had so denied it or, like so many of us, stopped reading the actual news in favor of reading takes of the headlines, and now comedy is deeply to blame for making everything going on seem light.
“So that’s shitty, but totally outside of our control, what kind of sucker votes?” has been a through(punch)line since Carlin and before. And it was wrong then and it’s wrong now, the tendency to bothsides among people who can see the absurdities in politicians and parties. Sure, they’re all absurd, and politicians are people consumed with popularity and power, and that’s funny, but making jokes about all of them in a climate where people read your joke and not the NYT article that inspired the joke, is undermining democracy. It didn’t used to do that, but now it is doing that.
If every one of the joke news shows, from cable to YouTube, turned to reporting on real horrors and an occasional joke at the expense of the fascists, Ala Jon Oliver, they might be able to undo what they’ve done. Probably not. But maybe.
Exactly right, Stephen. I get real tired of the Jon Stewarts of the nation, with their self-perceived big brains who look down on us unwashed peasants like we can't really see what's going on.
Daily Show Stewart says what his writers provide. They're not great, so all of this is bad scripting.
His fighting for compensation for military burn pit victims shows his actual views which if he were being honest, should be outraged that the latest GOP bill cuts all that aid he had fought to have the Senate pass in 2022. No mention of that in the above, but then again, this was his day job as entertainer.
Thank you, Stephen. It’s very disappointing that Jon isn’t meeting the moment. It’s also very concerning to hear someone like Stewart who has had such a powerful influence in left wing politics be so cavalier and dismissive of what’s happening right in front of his face.
Stewart could have joined AOC and Bernie and Maddow and others to inform the public on what’s happening. But he chose to be the Chuck Todd of Comedy instead.
I have always had a soft spot for Jon, but in this case, I can't defend him. Just because the Dorito Despot isn't competent doesn't mean he's not a fascist? Competence and fascism are not mutually exclusive.
Jon both-sided himself into irrelevance, which is a shame, because he HAS taken a stance before (his tireless work for 9/11 healthcare, for example).
Yeah, trump is incompetent, but all he has to do is lie about his competence, and if enough people believe him, he will be considered the latest one to make the trains run on time, like a common Mussolini. About Mussolini making the trains run on time, it's a lie, but even today, many believe that he did do that.
Jon Stewart makes a lot of mistaken assumptions, but that a despot needs to be competent is the worst.
He's not a woman with a difficult pregnancy or a young kid realizing that their body doesn't match their gender. He's not a legal refugee who will be profiled and terrorized by ICE and maybe sent to a torture camp because of his skin color.
Really, that's sort of the problem in general with America though, isn't it?
Some of us are capable of caring about those folks, but we're not those folks, not yet anyway, so in a way it doesn't feel entirely real to us. It feels like we're watching a horror movie, but not living in it yet. And so it's easy to pretend that maybe this time, they'll stop after they come for the communists and the trade unionists.
They won't though.
They hate all of us. And some of them want to kill us. And a lot more of them will be happy to sit by and pretend it's not happening when they do.
Where—I ask you—could one get clout by taking Democratic warnings and complaints seriously though?
If one's whole brand is "people who do a politics are silly and I'm above it," it kinda requires being willfully blind to reality and when people are telling you the truth. Democrats up and down the ballot were warning him. His own peers in the late night comedian echelon were warning him. He's buddies with Stephen Colbert...all he had to do was watch his friend's show! (I still remember that craptacular last appearance where he did that COVID conspiracy 'bit.')
In the end, like so many people, Both Sides ended up being his brand. And when people do that they end up needing to chase clout and diminish what Democrats say to keep the 'funny' going. Ultimately, as reality piles up they even go to oblivion or they let the mask slip and fully expose their rightwing/glibertarian nature (ala Bill Maher).
Maher cared - I think - about Democrats and democracy and donated a million to elect them back in the day. But, for me, he transitioned when he sanctioned the RW apology tour after Biden was elected. That's when I stopped watching. And Stewart has always looked great in clips but the show is something else entirely.
Great points. Has Maher ever cared about anything more than his own self-importance? I'm afraid you are right that there's going to be a lot of "celebrities"/people of note taking the easy path or as you said let their mask's slip to normalize all this.
Yeah Stewart doesn’t really get it. To be fair watching America decline into an authoritarian state is not really funny. And not something I want to be entertained and distracted through.
Good work. How sad: Jon Stewart got me through much of the "W" era (we recall that aw-shucks war criminal?). I guess many products have their expiration dates.
I soured on Stewart 10 years ago. He's too much of a both-sideser. I refuse to watch him anymore, just as I refuse to watch Bill Maher.
Pundits like Stewart (and despite his “I’m just a comedian” weaseling, he is a pundit, and that excuse was tired in 2004 when he used it on Tucker Carlson) think it makes them cool to be all “chill out” about fascism, because they can look down on us for freaking out over Trump. But when we’re living in an era where the guardrails are gone and nothing can stop the dictator it just looks out of touch and it’s frankly gross for a rich insulated person like Stewart to act as though those of us without his means who stand to lose big are being a bunch of nervous Nellies.
Stewart could use his platform to inform people that if Trump can whisk off anyone he wants just by smearing them as a criminal—with no due process—and let them die in a jungle prison, then no one is safe if they displease the regime. He chooses not to, so he can seem too cool to freak out.
And considering Stewart likely lost close relatives to the Nazis, this is particularly obtuse of him. We are having our 1933 moment.
I don't know what point Jon Stewart is making when he says these things - is it to get a laugh? Is he serious? I'm over him - John Oliver gets a laugh, does his research, and is honest in his opinion. No wonder he wins all the Emmys.
John Oliver is the best!!
It makes me feel very old to say that the people who learned least from Trump’s first term (from REAGAN’s, even) are comedians. Comedy is important, but taking the piss out of good guys to the same level as bad guys has been destructive since the rise of social media and a public who is solely reading headlines and tweets/skeets about those headlines.
I didn’t used to believe so much hinged on the poor understanding of stupid people, but I believe it now that even well-educated, previously well-informed people are getting their information from social media and continuing to think of themselves as well-informed. People didn’t used to get their news from SNL, although it might have alerted them to a topic they’d missed and it might have unfairly given a vibe (Ford is clumsy, ark ark ark). But The Daily Show changed all that, and I think the writers either feared the power they had so denied it or, like so many of us, stopped reading the actual news in favor of reading takes of the headlines, and now comedy is deeply to blame for making everything going on seem light.
“So that’s shitty, but totally outside of our control, what kind of sucker votes?” has been a through(punch)line since Carlin and before. And it was wrong then and it’s wrong now, the tendency to bothsides among people who can see the absurdities in politicians and parties. Sure, they’re all absurd, and politicians are people consumed with popularity and power, and that’s funny, but making jokes about all of them in a climate where people read your joke and not the NYT article that inspired the joke, is undermining democracy. It didn’t used to do that, but now it is doing that.
If every one of the joke news shows, from cable to YouTube, turned to reporting on real horrors and an occasional joke at the expense of the fascists, Ala Jon Oliver, they might be able to undo what they’ve done. Probably not. But maybe.
Not a fan of Jon Stewart and the other funny white dudes who think everything is a bit.
John Oliver is the exception
Exactly right, Stephen. I get real tired of the Jon Stewarts of the nation, with their self-perceived big brains who look down on us unwashed peasants like we can't really see what's going on.
Daily Show Stewart says what his writers provide. They're not great, so all of this is bad scripting.
His fighting for compensation for military burn pit victims shows his actual views which if he were being honest, should be outraged that the latest GOP bill cuts all that aid he had fought to have the Senate pass in 2022. No mention of that in the above, but then again, this was his day job as entertainer.
Thank you, Stephen. It’s very disappointing that Jon isn’t meeting the moment. It’s also very concerning to hear someone like Stewart who has had such a powerful influence in left wing politics be so cavalier and dismissive of what’s happening right in front of his face.
Stewart could have joined AOC and Bernie and Maddow and others to inform the public on what’s happening. But he chose to be the Chuck Todd of Comedy instead.
The Chuck Todd of Comedy is right!
I have always had a soft spot for Jon, but in this case, I can't defend him. Just because the Dorito Despot isn't competent doesn't mean he's not a fascist? Competence and fascism are not mutually exclusive.
Jon both-sided himself into irrelevance, which is a shame, because he HAS taken a stance before (his tireless work for 9/11 healthcare, for example).
Yeah, trump is incompetent, but all he has to do is lie about his competence, and if enough people believe him, he will be considered the latest one to make the trains run on time, like a common Mussolini. About Mussolini making the trains run on time, it's a lie, but even today, many believe that he did do that.
Jon Stewart makes a lot of mistaken assumptions, but that a despot needs to be competent is the worst.
If I was in the Trump inner circle, I'd push for Stewart to get the full Bill Maher treatment.
The invite and the tour.
The #1 handshake, eye contact...the whole package.
"Imagine, the President making time for little old me in the White House! My God, he even knows how to use the salad fork!"
He's not a woman with a difficult pregnancy or a young kid realizing that their body doesn't match their gender. He's not a legal refugee who will be profiled and terrorized by ICE and maybe sent to a torture camp because of his skin color.
Really, that's sort of the problem in general with America though, isn't it?
Some of us are capable of caring about those folks, but we're not those folks, not yet anyway, so in a way it doesn't feel entirely real to us. It feels like we're watching a horror movie, but not living in it yet. And so it's easy to pretend that maybe this time, they'll stop after they come for the communists and the trade unionists.
They won't though.
They hate all of us. And some of them want to kill us. And a lot more of them will be happy to sit by and pretend it's not happening when they do.
Where—I ask you—could one get clout by taking Democratic warnings and complaints seriously though?
If one's whole brand is "people who do a politics are silly and I'm above it," it kinda requires being willfully blind to reality and when people are telling you the truth. Democrats up and down the ballot were warning him. His own peers in the late night comedian echelon were warning him. He's buddies with Stephen Colbert...all he had to do was watch his friend's show! (I still remember that craptacular last appearance where he did that COVID conspiracy 'bit.')
In the end, like so many people, Both Sides ended up being his brand. And when people do that they end up needing to chase clout and diminish what Democrats say to keep the 'funny' going. Ultimately, as reality piles up they even go to oblivion or they let the mask slip and fully expose their rightwing/glibertarian nature (ala Bill Maher).
Maher cared - I think - about Democrats and democracy and donated a million to elect them back in the day. But, for me, he transitioned when he sanctioned the RW apology tour after Biden was elected. That's when I stopped watching. And Stewart has always looked great in clips but the show is something else entirely.
Great points. Has Maher ever cared about anything more than his own self-importance? I'm afraid you are right that there's going to be a lot of "celebrities"/people of note taking the easy path or as you said let their mask's slip to normalize all this.
None of it is funny to me. I can't watch any of the comedians that I watched before because fascism isn't funny.