Repulican Hypocrisy_Jon Stewart clips

[Jason Ross]

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[kev ferrara]

Rove and Morris come off looking like the Iagos they are. O'reilly is just an endless talking machine. He must be on like 4 hours a day. And nobody could possibly have that much to say and still remain coherent.

Politics is poison. Back to art.

[FourTonMantis]

Politics is poison.

I think it's not so much that politics is poison; more that the mudslinging that politics has become is. While it is quite humorous, too much gets you down.

[kev ferrara]

I think it's not so much that politics is poison; more that the mudslinging that politics has become is. While it is quite humorous, too much gets you down.

I don't know where you get your whitewashed notions of history, but politics always has been and always will be poison. The only people who believe otherwise are people who, as a form of quasi-religious ecstasy, enjoy listening to self-flattering feel-good rhetoric that also happens to call the other half of the country demonic morons.

[kingshaj]

politics can be poison..... but, laughter, while not always the best medicine , sure f*%kin' helps.

... and in some objective way ... there are some things going on politically, that are to funny not to frame that way...( at least for a 30 min episode.)

Edit:
i couldn't find the clip, but the piece the daily show did on palin and bush's respective.."don't blink" speeches, was so hilarious... made me pee a lil'

[Zaxser]

Hey, kev, even poison can be a source of lulz.

I mean, I'd agree if the opening post was serious, but jeez.

[Elwell]

In other news...
Obama to Nation: “Fuck this shit, I’m outta here”
In the wake of an epic financial meltdown that threatens to derail the U.S. economy for years, Barack Obama announced he was ending his run for President of the United States, declaring to a stunned nation, “Man, this is bullshit.”
In a boisterous and hastily-called press conference, Obama detailed his reasons for the decision. “I was prepared to fight global warming, reform the health care system, repair our crumbling roads, create a 21st century electric grid, find Bin Laden, end the war in Iraq, and bring peace to Israel and the Palestinians. But now you tell me I have to clean up the worst financial mess since the Great Depression too? One that’s going to plunge our economy into a recession for most of my administration while I take the blame? Fuck that. That’s fucking ridiculous. You guys clean up your own shit. I’m outta here.”

...continued here (http://www.1001words.com/2008/09/obama-to-nation-im-outta-here.html).

[Ilaekae]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...snort...

KEE-rist, I'd love that skinny asshole forever if he really did that. It would make him the most intelligent human being that ever lived...

[kev ferrara]

I was referring to FourTonMantis' suggestion that politics has turned to mudslinging only recently. Mudslinging is a step up from the ballot-stuffing, rioting and gunfire of bygone days. Which reminds me, my Italian grandfather told me that in the 1930s when he lived in New York City, there were men in suits at his local polling station who offered him money to pull the lever for the "correct" candidate. That's politics.

Guys like Rove and Morris and James Carville and Paul Begala and that jackass who does the polling and bumper sticker phrases, Frank Luntz... those guys are the political hacks that are trying to divide the country and their type - snivelling, grovelling, obsequious, solicitous, gossipy, wormy, mendacious, pontificating, hangers-on - have been around since politics began.

I greatly admire Obama's efforts to stay above that spiritual wasteland and I wouldn't mind him as president at all, now that he's become more of a centrist. I think by now he has a much better sense of the gravity of the office, having been tutored all summer by the realists in his party.

[TASmith]

the main thing about politics is, poisonous as it is, it's important. It effects everything from the rights you have to whether you or your children get drafted to war.

[kev ferrara]

I consider that "Civic Engagement", TA, not politics. Jon Stewart makes fun of politics, not civic engagement. Beneath some of the populist political theater we endure might be a core of civic engagement, but it is not necessarily so. It should be the responsibility of every citizen to demand an end to political theater so we can have a forthright discussion about the issues of the day. But too many people consume political theater as a product, and enjoy it daily. Thus the industries that produce it will stay in business, from the paranoid and radical left to the jingoist or religious right. I consider it a civic duty to be against those industries and I believe any serious discussions about their poisonous products are deserving of ridicule, and I'm glad Jon Stewart and Greg Gutfield, for example, are around to do it.

[TASmith]

me too.

[s.ketch]

I don't know where you get your whitewashed notions of history, but politics always has been and always will be poison. The only people who believe otherwise are people who, as a form of quasi-religious ecstasy, enjoy listening to self-flattering feel-good rhetoric that also happens to call the other half of the country demonic morons.

Not to mention it makes people feel smart when discussing politics. People like to have strong opinions and even more so, they like to state them repeatedly.

That is one the biggest things I hate about people in the 18-25 age group. Its all about the act of sitting down with friends, smoking a cig and discussing politics and simulating the "adult experience." This is the majority that decides who wins the popular vote, a group of kids playing dress up in mommy and daddy's clothes.

[Cthogua]

Not to mention it makes people feel smart when discussing politics. People like to have strong opinions and even more so, they like to state them repeatedly.

That is one the biggest things I hate about people in the 18-25 age group. Its all about the act of sitting down with friends, smoking a cig and discussing politics and simulating the "adult experience." This is the majority that decides who wins the popular vote, a group of kids playing dress up in mommy and daddy's clothes.

Hehe, the funny thing is that with all that talk so few in the 18 to 25 range actually go out and vote. However, I suppose it's worth noting that they also make up the majority of activist groups. (or so it seems, I don't have a statistic to back that up or anything) Taking personal responsibility for the changes you'd like to see is much more satisfying, and more likely to really produce some local change then voting...it's too abstract, and I think a lot of the younger people don't really see the institutions as fundamentally flawed and thus voting really looses it's efficacy (in their minds)

[kingshaj]

KEV:
its a fine line....but there clearly must be times when laughing at the naked king is not only appropriate ...but healthy too. i still find humor in Nixon and Reagan ...that shit, while terrible and dire, was funny .

how is stewart different than pat paulson?
is see this as a direct descendant of that spirit of political satire.

one can laugh or cry or loose sleep hiding under the covers...i suggest all three...


.

[kingshaj]

Hehe, the funny thing is that with all that talk so few in the 18 to 25 range actually go out and vote. However, I suppose it's worth noting that they also make up the majority of activist groups. (or so it seems, I don't have a statistic to back that up or anything) Taking personal responsibility for the changes you'd like to see is much more satisfying, and more likely to really produce some local change then voting...it's too abstract, and I think a lot of the younger people don't really see the institutions as fundamentally flawed and thus voting really looses it's efficacy (in their minds)

students have always been the protestors ...globally

anyone whos been a student remembers why this is the phase of youth that breeds idealism ...if only till one graduates. Then there will be no time to take a night stick in the head or stand in front of a tank, to save the world...gotta get up early for work.

[kev ferrara]

Fun is fun. But words aren't reality. At some point Jon Stewart becomes an enabler of mass inaction and powerlessness.

I wonder if you find humor in the terrible and dire results of the administrations of Carter and Clinton as well as the "allowed" laugh targets of Nixon and Reagan. Or are you, dear Kingshaj, a partisan hack? :)

kevbot

[Arshes Nei]

Both parties are in a "No U" engagement. I still remember Obama blaming the Republicans when he slipped up saying "you better learn Spanish" I found that rather offensive since I learned two other languages including my Family's language of Farsi and still learned English.

Seriously, try learning another language that has barely any basis in Latin. Spanish has it EASY :P Or you can try the 12 dialects of Chinese! Yet many people come here and learn English.

It's really one of the nit-pickiest campaigns where everyone is fighting over the best bite of a shit sandwich. So I'm not surprised at either party's behavior, it just drives in more apathy at voting time.

[kingshaj]

laughing at Clinton not allowed? are you kiddin? lets just say it was allowed.
are you saying it was a uncool to laugh at carter? ...i dont think you are.

shucks, i still hear clinton jokes.

im wondering why you havent asked yourself, if youre stance is a product of this logic...maybe it is the incendiary nature of OP's the thread title?
but you arent a republican so , that's out. hmmm.

i sense a reaction to his kind of humor that suggests that, some folks see it as directed at the masses of people who voted for, or support the people being lampooned. i think the program (wisely ) tries to avoid that connection. It can safely laugh at a bush speech without condemning half the country as "demonic morons". i really dont think that the daily show picks on the lil guy, or that it's humor comes from looking down on citizens of the red states. no self flattering ..but rather consolation.

its humor is far more about the abstract of "the man" in general (the anxiety and helpless feelings and sense of betrayal )..the Rove's and Cheneys. about the lack of elegance in bold face lies. its about "let 'em eat cake"

i certainly never suggested that the republican party has the monopoly on funny stuff...just happens to be the current trend.

The conventional wisdom is that laughter is directly wired to fear and anxiety. and i think most fans of the daily show are not being dumbed down by its form of entertainment. ( i think that is far more true of the CW). they are releasing their political anxiety and take solace in others having the same reaction to the daily news. not the "religious ecstasy" or you described but good ol' fashioned "blowin' off steam"

as youve suggested before ...the daily show is spoon fed by current events... and neednt be creative at all ... sometimes Jon Stewart provides little more than a spit take, after a clip. and that the "humor" (to those that see it that way) is found in the events ...not the humorist.


as to me: hack? perhaps... partisan? ..hardly. just anti bush and anti cheney.
i doubt anyone is partisan anymore...

even our president has never been inline with his party.
and as his administration has provided most of the material for the daily show ... it isn't really very partisan either.

just a very different world view form the way on the otherside of the spectrum:geekg:

-----

[Elwell]

Speaking of Clinton, did anybody see Letterman last night?
(if not, check this (http://gawker.com/5053486/chris-rock-to-bill-clinton-hillary-lost) out. I don't know if the booking was intentional or not, but it turned out brilliantly.)

[Sundance]

Speaking of Clinton, did anybody see Letterman last night?
(if not, check this (http://gawker.com/5053486/chris-rock-to-bill-clinton-hillary-lost) out. I don't know if the booking was intentional or not, but it turned out brilliantly.)

Elwell...you must have like three red-bull IV's on a constant drip and never sleep. I don't really know how you have the time to find all this stuff, critique almost everything that is posted, plust still put out top of the line work like you do. :bow:

[kev ferrara]

Kingshaj, in true blink form, our reflexes give us away. Your reflex was Nixon and Reagan. All the rest is tap dancing.

:)

kev

[kingshaj]

no shame about my political stance being "given away"

especially as i state it explicitly


..i think i just got "the hand" ...lol

[FourTonMantis]

I don't know where you get your whitewashed notions of history, but politics always has been and always will be poison. The only people who believe otherwise are people who, as a form of quasi-religious ecstasy, enjoy listening to self-flattering feel-good rhetoric that also happens to call the other half of the country demonic morons.

Goodness kev, can I have my head back?

I do see what you mean though. It does go right back to the days of the founding fathers; Jefferson was a very in-the-dirt politician himself.

But hey, I'm just an 18 year old college student, what do I know?