Enemies of my enemy
The latest Wisecrack video “The Politics of American Comedy” makes reasonable points in its analysis of the continuing bifurcation of the comedy world into “liberal” and white supremacist/ misanthropic/ traditionalist camps.
It’s worth a watch, but regarding controversy and quality in the comedy world, Anthony Jeselnik says all that needs to be said:
“Art is getting away with it. You know, if you put out a special, and everyone’s pissed, like, you didn’t get away with it. You know, you need to make everyone laugh. Like, yeah, he talked about some fucked up stuff, but we’re all happy. That’s art. Otherwise you’re just a troll.”
That this isn’t where the “debate” regarding “cancel culture” begins and ends is the greatest tragedy in modern discourse.
It’s no different than the principle of consumer choice, which fans of the “free market” ought to hold sacred. Actual censorship involves state power, and is commonly visited upon progressive satirists (as this absolutely must-listen episode of WTF establishes), not plainclothes Klansmen searching for applause.
One shortcoming in the Wisecrack piece, though, is in asserting that current American political divisions are the results of media being consumed through algorithmically driven platforms that create and reinforce echo chambers.
Liberals and centrists of a certain age and education continue to labor under the delusion that there was, up until recently, a genuine consensus underlying American political culture.
Didn’t we all agree on, say, consumer protection, labor standards, women’s equality (with one big exception), racial equality (under the law, at least), and use of the scientific method to solve problems? Really, weren’t we all just quibbling at the margins: Republicans want taxes a little lower, Democrats want them a little higher, and the rest is just details?
No.
American conservatism is defined by white supremacy, paranoia, a rejection of science, and Christian nationalism. Full stop. You cannot live these values without using force against others, which is precisely what the Republican Party wants to do to women, trans people, Black voters, migrants, workers, and children.
Today’s media landscape, however, is the result of more than just the profit motive preying on hate-clicks. The project of figures like Elon Musk is to normalize reactionary forces, not for the sake of “free speech,” which is a principle without a purpose unless you take the ideas being expressed seriously.
Content counts.
An oft-quoted and disseminated excerpt from Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World foresaw what today’s world would look like:
I have a foreboding of an America…when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
Scientifically-minded people are not “just asking questions” and then retreating to “It was just a joke!” when their morally abominable ideas are challenged. Acquiring knowledge requires abandoning old ideas that are found wanting in either evidence or ethics, which is by definition, contrary to any kind of “conservatism.”
Keep the people scared and ignorant. The next step?
Profit.
The final one?
Well…
