4 ms·

This isn't a new, or original, thought. It's an allusion to an ongoing conversation within what is considered mainstream comedy about why we (as a culture) seem

This isn't a new, or original, thought. It's an allusion to an ongoing conversation within what is considered mainstream comedy about why we (as a culture) seemingly have a plethora of mainstream liberal comedians (especially political comedians), but a dearth of conservative ones. And, this conversation is an extremely important one to have. It relates deeply to the whole "fake news" obsession that seems to have taken hold of particular strains of "conservatism" (the right).

rhapsodic 9y ago
> This isn't a new, or original, thought. It's an allusion to an ongoing conversation within what is considered mainstream comedy about why we (as a culture) seemingly have a plethora of mainstream liberal comedians (especially political comedians), but a dearth of conservative ones. Fair point. However, many liberal comedians, such as Jerry Seinfeld[1], will no longer perform on college campuses, because they don't want to deal with the blowback from the leftist students who take offense at seemingly anything that does not espouse their party line. [1] http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-espn-college-campuses-politically-correct/ http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-espn-c...
- ravitation 9y ago
  To be perfectly honest, that has absolutely nothing to do with this conversation. Yes, there is a conversation that needs to be had (and is being had) about when proclaimed "liberalism" becomes anti-liberal. This conversation is about the nature of (mainstream) comedy, and how there are potentially aspects of modern conservatism that inhibit its viability as a topic of what is currently comedy other than as a topic of ridicule. > leftist students If you want to have an actual conversation about the current American political spectrum, please, use a real term. "Leftist" is, honestly, a stupid meme.
  - rhapsodic 9y ago
    >If you want to have an actual conversation about the current American political spectrum, please, use a real term. "Leftist" is, honestly, a stupid meme. Really? I've never heard that complaint before, from either end of the political spectrum. What do you think would have been a better word with which to refer to these particular students?
    - ravitation 9y ago
      Well, that's exactly the problem. You haven't taken the time to actually considered what these students believe, or a good term that actually relates to those specific beliefs. Leftist, as a term, exists only to describe opposition to the right. Not to actually describe a system of beliefs.
      - rhapsodic 9y ago
        >Leftist, as a term, exists only to describe opposition to the right. Not to actually describe a system of beliefs. Wikipedia disagrees with you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics
        ravitation 9y ago
        Ah! So, you're using the Wikipedia definition of left-wing. And, you're also using it in the context of American politics. So, members of the left ("leftists"), i.e. Democrats, must be support "social equality and egalitarianism." Oh wait, but both the left and the right claim to support those things in modern 21st century America... That's probably because our left and right do not conform to the Wikipedia definition... We can use the Wikipedia definition of what left and right is, but it's not helpful at all in the context of the modern American political spectrum. So, again, "leftist" is only used to describe opposition to the right, which is also how it's used colloquially in modern America... It's not a useful adjective for describing an actual system of beliefs. To be honest, you're just intellectually being lazy...
      - sincerely 9y ago
- vernie 9y ago
  "Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong." -Principal Skinner
cat199 9y ago
> This isn't a new, or original, thought. It's an allusion to an ongoing conversation within what is considered mainstream comedy about why we (as a culture) seemingly have a plethora of mainstream liberal comedians (especially political comedians), but a dearth of conservative ones. I'm sure editorial bias determining 'what is considered mainstream comedy' has 0% to do with this.. > It relates deeply to the whole "fake news" obsession that seems to have taken hold of particular strains of "conservatism" (the right). this trend has taken ahold of all sides as a way to tar-and-feather political opponents; as best as I can tell the trend started when hillary lost and everyone in her camp was trying to blame russia for everything - it was then later co-opted by trump and has subsequently been used all around.
- bo1024 9y ago
  I think you would benefit from more research into fake news. As referring to "news" stories that are completely false and made up, the origin is mostly in the runup to the 2016 US presidential election where such stories were widely spread, mostly on facebook, and there is indeed evidence that they were mostly anti-Clinton and often had Russian origin.
- ravitation 9y ago
  > I'm sure editorial bias determining 'what is considered mainstream comedy' has 0% to do with this... Ah, yes, the multitude of journalists that have written articles on the subject must be overlooking the plethora of conservative Jon Stewarts of the world purely on "editorial bias". Maybe you can shed a light on this, until recently, hidden world of conservative comedy? > this trend has taken ahold of all sides as a way to tar-and-feather political opponents; as best as I can tell the trend started when hillary lost and everyone in her camp was trying to blame russia for everything - it was then later co-opted by trump and has subsequently been used all around. Look, I'm not going to turn this into a bunch of finger pointing. You very blatantly misunderstood what I said. I'll overlook the somewhat absurd statements you make as it relates to this deep misunderstanding... I'll just say that I'm explicitly referring to the current administration's painting of the mainstream media (the MSM, as the administration's supporters like to refer to it) as "fake news". This is very clearly not a problem with "both sides" (as there is only one side that is part of the current administration). This is also not a new phenomenon, it just has (until now) only been a major part of the political fringe. Rumblings of the bias of the media is not new, this administration has just made it (among other things) mainstream.
bduerst 9y ago
Someone did a study on the correlation between political identity and humor. Surprise surprise, conservatives tend to not be very humorous people: > Within the sphere of nonsense humor, conservatives were intolerant of jokes that failed to provide resolution of incongruous elements. Such results confirm the hypothesis that conservatives seek emotional control and cognitive closure compared with liberals, who are comfortable with more abandoned self expression and thought processes. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.848.2563&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.848... [pdf]

rhapsodic 9y ago

> This isn't a new, or original, thought. It's an allusion to an ongoing conversation within what is considered mainstream comedy about why we (as a culture) seemingly have a plethora of mainstream liberal comedians (especially political comedians), but a dearth of conservative ones. Fair point. However, many liberal comedians, such as Jerry Seinfeld[1], will no longer perform on college campuses, because they don't want to deal with the blowback from the leftist students who take offense at seemingly anything that does not espouse their party line. [1] http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-espn-college-campuses-politically-correct/ http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/08/jerry-seinfeld-espn-c...

ravitation 9y ago
To be perfectly honest, that has absolutely nothing to do with this conversation. Yes, there is a conversation that needs to be had (and is being had) about when proclaimed "liberalism" becomes anti-liberal. This conversation is about the nature of (mainstream) comedy, and how there are potentially aspects of modern conservatism that inhibit its viability as a topic of what is currently comedy other than as a topic of ridicule. > leftist students If you want to have an actual conversation about the current American political spectrum, please, use a real term. "Leftist" is, honestly, a stupid meme.
- rhapsodic 9y ago
  >If you want to have an actual conversation about the current American political spectrum, please, use a real term. "Leftist" is, honestly, a stupid meme. Really? I've never heard that complaint before, from either end of the political spectrum. What do you think would have been a better word with which to refer to these particular students?
  - ravitation 9y ago
    Well, that's exactly the problem. You haven't taken the time to actually considered what these students believe, or a good term that actually relates to those specific beliefs. Leftist, as a term, exists only to describe opposition to the right. Not to actually describe a system of beliefs.
    - rhapsodic 9y ago
      >Leftist, as a term, exists only to describe opposition to the right. Not to actually describe a system of beliefs. Wikipedia disagrees with you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics
      - ravitation 9y ago
        Ah! So, you're using the Wikipedia definition of left-wing. And, you're also using it in the context of American politics. So, members of the left ("leftists"), i.e. Democrats, must be support "social equality and egalitarianism." Oh wait, but both the left and the right claim to support those things in modern 21st century America... That's probably because our left and right do not conform to the Wikipedia definition... We can use the Wikipedia definition of what left and right is, but it's not helpful at all in the context of the modern American political spectrum. So, again, "leftist" is only used to describe opposition to the right, which is also how it's used colloquially in modern America... It's not a useful adjective for describing an actual system of beliefs. To be honest, you're just intellectually being lazy...
    - sincerely 9y ago
vernie 9y ago
"Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong." -Principal Skinner

cat199 9y ago

> This isn't a new, or original, thought. It's an allusion to an ongoing conversation within what is considered mainstream comedy about why we (as a culture) seemingly have a plethora of mainstream liberal comedians (especially political comedians), but a dearth of conservative ones. I'm sure editorial bias determining 'what is considered mainstream comedy' has 0% to do with this.. > It relates deeply to the whole "fake news" obsession that seems to have taken hold of particular strains of "conservatism" (the right). this trend has taken ahold of all sides as a way to tar-and-feather political opponents; as best as I can tell the trend started when hillary lost and everyone in her camp was trying to blame russia for everything - it was then later co-opted by trump and has subsequently been used all around.

bo1024 9y ago
I think you would benefit from more research into fake news. As referring to "news" stories that are completely false and made up, the origin is mostly in the runup to the 2016 US presidential election where such stories were widely spread, mostly on facebook, and there is indeed evidence that they were mostly anti-Clinton and often had Russian origin.
ravitation 9y ago
> I'm sure editorial bias determining 'what is considered mainstream comedy' has 0% to do with this... Ah, yes, the multitude of journalists that have written articles on the subject must be overlooking the plethora of conservative Jon Stewarts of the world purely on "editorial bias". Maybe you can shed a light on this, until recently, hidden world of conservative comedy? > this trend has taken ahold of all sides as a way to tar-and-feather political opponents; as best as I can tell the trend started when hillary lost and everyone in her camp was trying to blame russia for everything - it was then later co-opted by trump and has subsequently been used all around. Look, I'm not going to turn this into a bunch of finger pointing. You very blatantly misunderstood what I said. I'll overlook the somewhat absurd statements you make as it relates to this deep misunderstanding... I'll just say that I'm explicitly referring to the current administration's painting of the mainstream media (the MSM, as the administration's supporters like to refer to it) as "fake news". This is very clearly not a problem with "both sides" (as there is only one side that is part of the current administration). This is also not a new phenomenon, it just has (until now) only been a major part of the political fringe. Rumblings of the bias of the media is not new, this administration has just made it (among other things) mainstream.

bduerst 9y ago

Someone did a study on the correlation between political identity and humor. Surprise surprise, conservatives tend to not be very humorous people: > Within the sphere of nonsense humor, conservatives were intolerant of jokes that failed to provide resolution of incongruous elements. Such results confirm the hypothesis that conservatives seek emotional control and cognitive closure compared with liberals, who are comfortable with more abandoned self expression and thought processes. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.848.2563&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.848... [pdf]