When Mehdi Hasan sat down with Jon Stewart last month, the roles were reversed. This time, the Emmy-winning host of The Daily Show was the one asking the questions — about corporate media, Gaza, Do…
Im not sure how this request is relevant to the topic. No one is talking about nominating Ashton Kutcher. This is not someone who’s famous because they’re pretty or act well, he’s famous for his mind, and just happens to also be funny. So I have to believe all these comments calling him a “celebrity” are knee-jerk reactions or in bad faith.
It’s not at all bad-faith or knee-jerk, it’s the premise behind the idea that just because you see a character someone plays on television for a long time that you trust them and think them capable and a more desirable outcome. This is the same brain-rot that got us Trump and fawning over someone more towards your “side” doesn’t make the situation less rotten.
I think ANYONE would be better than Trump but if anything, that’s where the bad-faith is happening here, the notion that just because shit is so bad right now that we can start selecting any clown and further this slide into bullshit nonsense political theater. Why not youtube streamers or late night talk show hosts like Colbert? Why are those LESS appealing than John Stewart even though they ostensibly have the same exact qualifications? Why NOT Ashton Kutcher then? The arguments for someone like him are the same arguments for Stewart. They are television characters.
There’s probably no stopping it, our population has gotten too dumb to understand that recognizability does not equal best outcomes and policy power. Which Stewart has hardly any of; political capital is something Trump has tons of, and so do many less charismatic and less well-known politicians, and if you don’t know how political capital works… then yeah, your best bet is electing someone based on how much you recognize their face. Democracy is cooked. The branches of government are over.
But no one knows what any politician is really like off camera. We do know what Stewart’s record is though, and he actually has fought for at least one political matter in court and before Congress, and successfully. He is at the very least a thinker. You can’t possibly be a good comedian and not be, a legitimate debater, and he can rally a crowd. It is not the same thing as supporting your average Hollywood celebrity, because he isn’t one.
Again, Ashton Kutcher has also done many of these things. I don’t get why we are drawing a line between actor-activists when they’re all just actors and play characters on television.
So far the issue of political capital has been going over everyone’s head here. I would love to stand corrected and see someone like Stewart suddenly reveal he’s been sowing the seeds of power for years in a deliberate manner AND has the actual desire to rally specific power groups in the nation. But it’s VERY late in the game for that kind of surprise. Even Harris had more chips on the table.
This insistence that having the tepid support of moderate liberals who barely watch the news is somehow more valuable than dedicated, ideological activists is why we have Trump leading a literal warband of Orcs without opposition across the country.
Im not sure how this request is relevant to the topic. No one is talking about nominating Ashton Kutcher. This is not someone who’s famous because they’re pretty or act well, he’s famous for his mind, and just happens to also be funny. So I have to believe all these comments calling him a “celebrity” are knee-jerk reactions or in bad faith.
It’s not at all bad-faith or knee-jerk, it’s the premise behind the idea that just because you see a character someone plays on television for a long time that you trust them and think them capable and a more desirable outcome. This is the same brain-rot that got us Trump and fawning over someone more towards your “side” doesn’t make the situation less rotten.
I think ANYONE would be better than Trump but if anything, that’s where the bad-faith is happening here, the notion that just because shit is so bad right now that we can start selecting any clown and further this slide into bullshit nonsense political theater. Why not youtube streamers or late night talk show hosts like Colbert? Why are those LESS appealing than John Stewart even though they ostensibly have the same exact qualifications? Why NOT Ashton Kutcher then? The arguments for someone like him are the same arguments for Stewart. They are television characters.
There’s probably no stopping it, our population has gotten too dumb to understand that recognizability does not equal best outcomes and policy power. Which Stewart has hardly any of; political capital is something Trump has tons of, and so do many less charismatic and less well-known politicians, and if you don’t know how political capital works… then yeah, your best bet is electing someone based on how much you recognize their face. Democracy is cooked. The branches of government are over.
But no one knows what any politician is really like off camera. We do know what Stewart’s record is though, and he actually has fought for at least one political matter in court and before Congress, and successfully. He is at the very least a thinker. You can’t possibly be a good comedian and not be, a legitimate debater, and he can rally a crowd. It is not the same thing as supporting your average Hollywood celebrity, because he isn’t one.
Again, Ashton Kutcher has also done many of these things. I don’t get why we are drawing a line between actor-activists when they’re all just actors and play characters on television.
So far the issue of political capital has been going over everyone’s head here. I would love to stand corrected and see someone like Stewart suddenly reveal he’s been sowing the seeds of power for years in a deliberate manner AND has the actual desire to rally specific power groups in the nation. But it’s VERY late in the game for that kind of surprise. Even Harris had more chips on the table.
This insistence that having the tepid support of moderate liberals who barely watch the news is somehow more valuable than dedicated, ideological activists is why we have Trump leading a literal warband of Orcs without opposition across the country.