Lots of thought-provoking material here, and a good piece overall, but I'd argue the problem isn't "left" comedy vs. "right" comedy. Comedy wants to be funny, not support one political party or another. Political comedy is fine, and necessary, but why should someone have to go to YouTube to watch Kyle Dunnigan's homemade show in order to get funny Joe Biden content? Biden would've been absolute comedy gold, even for those who voted for him, in a more sensible era.
The problem with post-liberal comedy and entertainment in the age of Trump "resistance" is that it's flattened everything into a form of intellect-free partisan cheerleading that's just not funny or entertaining. Colbert's show is absolutely indistinguishable from MSNBC content. Ratings for network late night or lavish awards shows are at historically and embarrassingly low levels, and most expensive mainstream entertainment is just becoming bland and unnecessary; and a failure of supply and especially demand.
It's important to remember that Carlin — old-school, "original formula" liberal progressive and civil libertarian — hated all politicians. Like really, really hated politicians. Partisans all want to claim him for themselves, but the truth is that he'd despise all of today's ultra-partisans, and I can't imagine he'd see anything he recognized in the "MSNBC mom and dads" or their children in the "Brooklynized forced-conformity phony left" crowds.
Comedy should be able to be just comedy again, not a series of committee-approved statements thinly disguised as jokes reinforcing one's hive-enhnaced belief system, but we seem to be moving further from that daily.
Re the migrant article - really, you should be able to do better than this.
It is not "immoral" for Republicans to highlight the problem cleverly. It is immoral for the Biden administration to allow the problem to fester.
You are talking out of both sides of your mouth on illegal immigration like most Democratic politicians.
"Democrats of all ideological stripes should use this moment to celebrate the very places that could become permanent homes for migrants fleeing violence and economic calamity."
"An open border policy is not feasible."
If everyone fleeing poor economies has a valid asylum claim, then you have a de facto open border. You are too smart to not understand that, you just seem to be unwilling to admit it. The fact of the matter is, under the law economic distress is a not a valid basis to claim asylum.
"It was always a canard that low-wage immigrant workers undercut the employment of American citizens—they were, almost always, performing the sort of punishing work that most Americans would rather not do at all—but it is even less true now, in an economy where demand for service-sector work remains robust. Many employers are still struggling to fill job openings. This is especially true in New York, where restaurants can’t return to their pre-pandemic hours because of a lack of waitstaff and cooks."
Wow, I don't even see how you can call yourself a man of the left and repeat this Chamber of Commerce nonsense. Economics 101 says when "employers are still struggling to fill job openings" it is because the wages they are willing to pay are too low. Raise wages and the amount of work "most Americans would rather not do at all" drops dramatically. You do realize unpleasant work still gets done in countries with very little immigration such as Japan, don't you? OF COURSE importing a perpetual supply of easily exploitable serfs hurts American workers, and this is especially true of low-skill Americans with limited employment opportunities.
I was a happy member of liberal blue tribe world for a couple of decades or so. The Great Awokening changed that entirely. I wish I didn't have to say it, but the Babylon Bee is funny more often than most of the dreck that is foisted on us now by the didactic woke monoculture. I won't spend a second of my life getting harangued by a fetid piece of garbage like Hannah Gadsby. When I was young the right were the humorless scolds and zealots and now sadly the situation is halfway reversed.
It’s almost like media/entertainment being a glamour industry (high economic barrier to entry) allowed the most puritanical upper middle class ppl to have a disproportionate amount of say in what’s acceptable in comedy. As if that combination of words isn’t an oxymoron.
Most of these freaks voted for Warren AGAINST Sanders. Usually if an ideology only represents 10-15% of the population it’s considered anti-social behavior. But not in the context of the ruling class reproducing itself in media/entertainment.
Most ppl don’t want these speech restrictions, it’s not a left-right issue.
Also you have to be pretty dim-bulbed to ignore 10,000 ethnic Russians were killed and 2.5 million refugees driven to Russia before the invasion even happened. Like are you stupid enough to think they’re just as likely to invade Sweden ie a country that wasn’t bombing the shit out of its ppl? They outlawed the opposition parties and monopolized the media into one state apparatus ffs. You’re backing a fascist dictatorship that doesn’t care about the well being of its ppl. NATO mutants tried to instigate this invasion even though the world population won’t bare the economic consequences and just want a negotiated peace (not Crimea back and Donbas has to be an autonomous zone). We’re not even tracking the flow of weapons anymore ffs. In a country where most of the weapons and Aid gets stolen and leaked onto the black market.
Lots of thought-provoking material here, and a good piece overall, but I'd argue the problem isn't "left" comedy vs. "right" comedy. Comedy wants to be funny, not support one political party or another. Political comedy is fine, and necessary, but why should someone have to go to YouTube to watch Kyle Dunnigan's homemade show in order to get funny Joe Biden content? Biden would've been absolute comedy gold, even for those who voted for him, in a more sensible era.
The problem with post-liberal comedy and entertainment in the age of Trump "resistance" is that it's flattened everything into a form of intellect-free partisan cheerleading that's just not funny or entertaining. Colbert's show is absolutely indistinguishable from MSNBC content. Ratings for network late night or lavish awards shows are at historically and embarrassingly low levels, and most expensive mainstream entertainment is just becoming bland and unnecessary; and a failure of supply and especially demand.
It's important to remember that Carlin — old-school, "original formula" liberal progressive and civil libertarian — hated all politicians. Like really, really hated politicians. Partisans all want to claim him for themselves, but the truth is that he'd despise all of today's ultra-partisans, and I can't imagine he'd see anything he recognized in the "MSNBC mom and dads" or their children in the "Brooklynized forced-conformity phony left" crowds.
Comedy should be able to be just comedy again, not a series of committee-approved statements thinly disguised as jokes reinforcing one's hive-enhnaced belief system, but we seem to be moving further from that daily.
Re the migrant article - really, you should be able to do better than this.
It is not "immoral" for Republicans to highlight the problem cleverly. It is immoral for the Biden administration to allow the problem to fester.
You are talking out of both sides of your mouth on illegal immigration like most Democratic politicians.
"Democrats of all ideological stripes should use this moment to celebrate the very places that could become permanent homes for migrants fleeing violence and economic calamity."
"An open border policy is not feasible."
If everyone fleeing poor economies has a valid asylum claim, then you have a de facto open border. You are too smart to not understand that, you just seem to be unwilling to admit it. The fact of the matter is, under the law economic distress is a not a valid basis to claim asylum.
"It was always a canard that low-wage immigrant workers undercut the employment of American citizens—they were, almost always, performing the sort of punishing work that most Americans would rather not do at all—but it is even less true now, in an economy where demand for service-sector work remains robust. Many employers are still struggling to fill job openings. This is especially true in New York, where restaurants can’t return to their pre-pandemic hours because of a lack of waitstaff and cooks."
Wow, I don't even see how you can call yourself a man of the left and repeat this Chamber of Commerce nonsense. Economics 101 says when "employers are still struggling to fill job openings" it is because the wages they are willing to pay are too low. Raise wages and the amount of work "most Americans would rather not do at all" drops dramatically. You do realize unpleasant work still gets done in countries with very little immigration such as Japan, don't you? OF COURSE importing a perpetual supply of easily exploitable serfs hurts American workers, and this is especially true of low-skill Americans with limited employment opportunities.
I was a happy member of liberal blue tribe world for a couple of decades or so. The Great Awokening changed that entirely. I wish I didn't have to say it, but the Babylon Bee is funny more often than most of the dreck that is foisted on us now by the didactic woke monoculture. I won't spend a second of my life getting harangued by a fetid piece of garbage like Hannah Gadsby. When I was young the right were the humorless scolds and zealots and now sadly the situation is halfway reversed.
It’s almost like media/entertainment being a glamour industry (high economic barrier to entry) allowed the most puritanical upper middle class ppl to have a disproportionate amount of say in what’s acceptable in comedy. As if that combination of words isn’t an oxymoron.
Most of these freaks voted for Warren AGAINST Sanders. Usually if an ideology only represents 10-15% of the population it’s considered anti-social behavior. But not in the context of the ruling class reproducing itself in media/entertainment.
Most ppl don’t want these speech restrictions, it’s not a left-right issue.
Also you have to be pretty dim-bulbed to ignore 10,000 ethnic Russians were killed and 2.5 million refugees driven to Russia before the invasion even happened. Like are you stupid enough to think they’re just as likely to invade Sweden ie a country that wasn’t bombing the shit out of its ppl? They outlawed the opposition parties and monopolized the media into one state apparatus ffs. You’re backing a fascist dictatorship that doesn’t care about the well being of its ppl. NATO mutants tried to instigate this invasion even though the world population won’t bare the economic consequences and just want a negotiated peace (not Crimea back and Donbas has to be an autonomous zone). We’re not even tracking the flow of weapons anymore ffs. In a country where most of the weapons and Aid gets stolen and leaked onto the black market.
Also, from the pandemic article:
"Technically, of course, the pandemic is not over."
This is false. Technically the word pandemic has no agreed upon definition, so for some people it will never be over. For most of us it is.
He is not funny 😡
Conservative comedy writes itself. Take Stacey Abrams as a great example. You can’t make shit up like that.