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I'd agree except that the popular comedians tend to have the same points of view as major multinational corporations and billionaires. Want to lambaste the ric

I'd agree except that the popular comedians tend to have the same points of view as major multinational corporations and billionaires. Want to lambaste the rich? You and Buffett both. Make fun of racist white people? Who doesn't? Healthcare is a mess? A long line of CEOs parrot that line, too. Nobody is sitting around making fun of overreach for a good cause. Nobody is making fun of the absurd political mathematics thrown around by favored political movements. To be fair, it's more work to actually push against the grain of the culture you live in. It's easier to be make the millionth dig at the orange skinned jackass.

TheOperator 8y ago
The big comedians backed by the big networks in the prime time slots I don't watch. It's not really the Jay Lenos of the world I'm talking about when I say this stuff. It's the sort of comedians which have picket lines outside their shows and get kicked out of town. Comedians like the Python Troupe.
mr_overalls 8y ago
> Want to lambaste the rich? You and Buffett both. Make fun of racist white people? Who doesn't? Healthcare is a mess? A long line of CEOs parrot that line, too. These are popular positions (at least in the US) only among the Left. The Republican party - including its poorest members - lauds the most greedy billionaires as "job creators" and the pinnacle of achievement for Americans. Conservatives believe that straight, Christian whites are just as discriminated against - if not more so - than racial, religious, or gender/sexual minorities. Republicans decry almost any attempt to provide affordable health care to the American masses as "socialism." The positions you describe are most definitely "against the grain" for half of the US. And they are important positions to take, for the future health and wealth of the country. And I'm not sure why you're focusing on the difficulty/popularity of espousing certain positions on social issues, rather than the correctness of the positions taken.
- humanrebar 8y ago
  Good point. Clearly comedians should be carefully considering which jokes are "correct" before making people laugh. But my real point is that the bubble of most forms of comedy includes powerful people like academics, politicians, executives, and even corporate policies of multinational megacorps. It's mostly a myth that comedians mostly contrarians making digs at the powerful. On the contrary, they're living in the same bubbles. I'd actual settle for some aggressive criticism of the fairly ludicrous tribalism going on these days. Perhaps the biggest problems these days are a lack of grace and humility, and it should be really easy to make fun of all the small hearted people wrapped up in the modern social moment.
  - libraryatnight 8y ago
    Is there a myth comedians are contrarians? I don't think so. Rebellious at times, perhaps, but not contrarians since most of the audience that goes to see them already agree with them and the audience seems pretty aware of that to me. Also you're really creating a weird situation for yourself if your idea of contrarian is that there can be no overlap with the wealthy or powerful.
  - mr_overalls 8y ago
    I thought I just provided examples that powerful people hold a wide spectrum of positions on most issues. It will be a difficult task for a comedian to identify a position so contrarian that no influential/powerful people or institutions favor it.
    - humanrebar 8y ago
      Powerful people with no direct influence over their day to day. The Republican party and conservatives broadly defined aren't censoring comedy shows, picking up sitcom pilots, commissioning Netflix specials, etc. The people nixing comedians' and other speakers' university events have real power, in contrast.
  - munk-a 8y ago
    > Perhaps the biggest problems these days are a lack of grace and humility I haven't been alive for all that long and mostly came into political awareness when W. Bush was in office, but my impression of the times before based on the political art and documentation that survives is that... it was never really nice and graceful, that's just a rose tinted view of the past.
PhasmaFelis 8y ago
Are you saying that Warren Buffett's opinions are typical of the super-rich? I'd like to see a source on that. Lots of people from every walk of life lambast the US health care system, because the US health care system is objectively terrible, in terms of positive outcomes vs. money spent. Making these out to be rich-people opinions is really reaching.
- humanrebar 8y ago
  I was just saying it's not particularly brave to side with Zuckerberg and Gates on immigration or Buffett on tax reform. I wasn't commenting on the merits of the positions.

TheOperator 8y ago

The big comedians backed by the big networks in the prime time slots I don't watch. It's not really the Jay Lenos of the world I'm talking about when I say this stuff. It's the sort of comedians which have picket lines outside their shows and get kicked out of town. Comedians like the Python Troupe.

mr_overalls 8y ago

> Want to lambaste the rich? You and Buffett both. Make fun of racist white people? Who doesn't? Healthcare is a mess? A long line of CEOs parrot that line, too. These are popular positions (at least in the US) only among the Left. The Republican party - including its poorest members - lauds the most greedy billionaires as "job creators" and the pinnacle of achievement for Americans. Conservatives believe that straight, Christian whites are just as discriminated against - if not more so - than racial, religious, or gender/sexual minorities. Republicans decry almost any attempt to provide affordable health care to the American masses as "socialism." The positions you describe are most definitely "against the grain" for half of the US. And they are important positions to take, for the future health and wealth of the country. And I'm not sure why you're focusing on the difficulty/popularity of espousing certain positions on social issues, rather than the correctness of the positions taken.

humanrebar 8y ago
Good point. Clearly comedians should be carefully considering which jokes are "correct" before making people laugh. But my real point is that the bubble of most forms of comedy includes powerful people like academics, politicians, executives, and even corporate policies of multinational megacorps. It's mostly a myth that comedians mostly contrarians making digs at the powerful. On the contrary, they're living in the same bubbles. I'd actual settle for some aggressive criticism of the fairly ludicrous tribalism going on these days. Perhaps the biggest problems these days are a lack of grace and humility, and it should be really easy to make fun of all the small hearted people wrapped up in the modern social moment.
- libraryatnight 8y ago
  Is there a myth comedians are contrarians? I don't think so. Rebellious at times, perhaps, but not contrarians since most of the audience that goes to see them already agree with them and the audience seems pretty aware of that to me. Also you're really creating a weird situation for yourself if your idea of contrarian is that there can be no overlap with the wealthy or powerful.
- mr_overalls 8y ago
  I thought I just provided examples that powerful people hold a wide spectrum of positions on most issues. It will be a difficult task for a comedian to identify a position so contrarian that no influential/powerful people or institutions favor it.
  - humanrebar 8y ago
    Powerful people with no direct influence over their day to day. The Republican party and conservatives broadly defined aren't censoring comedy shows, picking up sitcom pilots, commissioning Netflix specials, etc. The people nixing comedians' and other speakers' university events have real power, in contrast.
- munk-a 8y ago
  > Perhaps the biggest problems these days are a lack of grace and humility I haven't been alive for all that long and mostly came into political awareness when W. Bush was in office, but my impression of the times before based on the political art and documentation that survives is that... it was never really nice and graceful, that's just a rose tinted view of the past.

PhasmaFelis 8y ago

Are you saying that Warren Buffett's opinions are typical of the super-rich? I'd like to see a source on that. Lots of people from every walk of life lambast the US health care system, because the US health care system is objectively terrible, in terms of positive outcomes vs. money spent. Making these out to be rich-people opinions is really reaching.

humanrebar 8y ago
I was just saying it's not particularly brave to side with Zuckerberg and Gates on immigration or Buffett on tax reform. I wasn't commenting on the merits of the positions.