Posted on 02/14/2015 3:12:10 PM PST by Yaelle
I just read a very recent op/ed in the New York Times about the retiring of Jon Stewart. I didn't bring it here because I so disliked it but if you wish to go read it, do so. It was a worship piece.
Then I read the comments. If the op/ed writer was a cardinal of Stewart worship, the commenters were, nearly to a person, the priests and nuns in the service of Stewart. While FR respects pieces published in a hyperbolic biased media, I don't. And I feel this is the place to really pour out our intelligent discussion about how our country communicates. It's as important as discussion the steel trap causing your femur to bleed, getting people to understand that if the blood loss continues at this rate, you will die.
Because conservatism as a political solution is already on a museum shelf, thanks to Alinsky's first rule being enacted slowly, carefully, and thoroughly by the media of the USA.
The discussion should start about the meaning of 99% of the commenters believing that Jon Stewart has made their lives meaningful, made sense of the country and înfluenced politics away from the dumb, brutish enemy. Over and over, these well-educated Americans reiterate that conservatives are plodding and wrong and unfunny. They believe Jon Stewart's humor is pure and true and shines a light onto our political system.
They mock Lindsay Graham, Sarah Palin, and others as people who are deadly serious but come out as self-parodies. That is their extent of humor contrast for the political sides with Stewart. They do not mention Rush Limbaugh, Marc Steyn, or any other conservative humorists that can have us rolling in the aisles as well as Stewart can. They consider Nancy Pelosi a serious, respectable politician. Anthony Weiner was not mentioned, but even Lindsay Graham could not compete in utter public foolishness.
But they all are of one mind, and they are the greater part of this country. And it's growing. Stewart's famous face is the face of a bully. It is the face, turned to the weaker members of the bully's little gang, in exaggerated contempt as he mocks an opponent. The weak pals laugh uproariously because they want to be on the correct side of the bully's emotions. That's all he is good at.
Marc Steyn has wordsmith skills with wit so concise he can draw tears of laughter in writing. In person he can deliver one liners without script. If there were such a thing as a political humor debate, he'd TKO Stewart so fast we'd see that bug-eyed bully face turned inside out on the floor. But that will never happen. Hell, would a presidential debate ever happen with a conservative moderator?
Marshall McLuhan was right. The media is the message. Jon Stewart has achieved something. He has shown people there is only one correct way to believe, and because he caused that familiar rhythmic vibration in their very bodies, their laughter, he has cemented his relationship with them. Whom he mocks, you don't want to be. You don't want to like. You don't want to vote for. Whom Jon Stewart holds above ridicule, you hold above ridicule. His omission of ever mocking the foibles on the left is a thick polymer protection for the liberals in power. The people don't see that. Jon Stewart is trusted so they will only laugh at his bully victims.
We sit on our hands and shrug over this at our peril.
Ping
What kind of name is Jon?
Ping
Says who? Jon Stewart? Obama? Gimme a break.
I'm not sure why a comic reader merits a column of tribute in a major newspaper - but the NY Times isn't worth much more than birdcage lining anyways, so perhaps it was appropriate.
I’m sure they’re doing the happy dance over at Fox News.
"Jon Stewart did not offer an alternative to the media. He was what the media was becoming. The merging of opinion and reporting along with the overlay of cynical humor over every story have become ubiquitous. Stewart didn’t pave the way for a better media. He paved the way for Buzzfeed, Vice, Politico and Vox. He turned the news into a joke with an agenda… which is exactly what it is now."
The LIVs love “Stewart” because they have been told to. After all, you can’t be in the hipster club if you don’t like the right people.
The well founded basis of conservatism based on the constitution and freedom from government tyranny are things most libs are incapable of understanding. The old saying remains true: conservatives know a lot more about liberals than liberals know about conservatives.
“Marshall McLuhan was right. The media is the message. Jon Stewart has achieved something.”
The message of the medium is “buy!” and what Jon achieved was to sell... trash to idiots.
He can be a bully because he has a gang- the rest of the media- backing him up. And they do that because selling is all TV is about.
Make those young fools feel good about themselves and they’ll open their wallets wide, unthinkingly.
But if you make the audience think, ala Steyn, you’re violating the first rule of advertising. And you’ll have no place on TV.
“But they all are of one mind, and they are the greater part of this country.”
In numbers...maybe, in DEEDS not at all. Jon Stewert has achieved nothing. He is a mealy mouthed leftist punk whose ilk and followers have no part in building or creating anything much less this nation. They stand aside as other build and create then they slide to the front and start their mocking act. They WILL get away with it only until the Reality that they deny (for truths they invent)asserts itself. When the structure they mock collapses the Jon Stewerts are dead or silent enough to be mistaken for dead.
I like good, biting, even-handed political satire.
Stewart, and that Colbert dude, were just leftist hacks that occasionally (almost never) poked at a fellow leftist....usually for not being left-wing enough. The press lauds them because they say out loud what they wish they could on their supposed “mainstream” shows.
If they were even-handed and non-partisan, they would have had triple the ratings.
Stewart (Liebowitz) embodied the kind of sneering, smart-ass punkism that leftists think is wit. Rachel Maddow is another example, although Stephen Colbert is so stupid I don’t know if he could be considered a smart ass, just an infantile showoff. Funny how leftists confuse snottiness with intelligence. It’s a basic part of their “I’m smarter than you” worldview.
Correct
I’m glad he’s going. : ) Commies will miss him.
That means they cannot accept any good thing, even the authority of their own elected government.
Everything comes down to the desire to take a bite of the apple and become like the Most High.
But why is he going now? Isn’t Hillary about run again? Wouldn’t he be helpful for that?
Yet, he’s leaving.
That’s the really interesting thing to me.
Jonathan is a common Jewish / Hebrew name.
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