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Crazy Political Status Updates from my Facebook news feed...


Ness
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Vanguards, you say?

 

 

I'm growing increasingly convinced of it. You appropriate the identity of some preferred group or cause, and use it as a shield to deflect criticism from yourself and bolster your own image. The "leftist hangers on" you refer to have a centuries old tradition of this. The right are far from innocent of it themselves.

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I'm growing increasingly convinced of it. You appropriate the identity of some preferred group or cause, and use it as a shield to deflect criticism from yourself and bolster your own image. The "leftist hangers on" you refer to have a centuries old tradition of this. The right are far from innocent of it themselves.

Absolutely! And not for lack of trying, I just think the right has a harder time because their tent is more overtly incongruous: where, exactly, does the Bible demand tax cuts for the rich and fewer benefits for the lower classes (sorry, moocher class)? So right from the start, there are some cognitive dissonances that need to be overcome. Preaching rugged individualism to a working class white male who has come to the realization that he is pretty much guaranteed to die in debt can't work forever, unless you also play to his prejudice and fear ("sorry you have it rough, but it will get even worse if those people start receiving more stuffs).

 

The left, on the other hand, serves an enormous throbbing clitoris-shaped goddess that can only stimulated by issues pertaining to equality and harm and how they relate to your identity, so it is much, much easier to dovetail. You, as a democratic socialist tell an ethical vegan that people are suffering (harm! lick lick stroke) because of the inequities (equality! rub lick rub) inherent to a capitalist society, and the vegan can identify with the argument and perhaps become an ally, because they spend much of their day wailing over their perceived suffering of broiler chickens (harm! rub lick rub) due to humanity's callous speciesism (equality! lick lick stroke) -- there's just a much greater capacity for synergy over there right now.

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Ha! I thought it was a decorative bow on her dress.

 

So many things about that bother me that was posted by a friend. Not the least of which is the ignorance concerning religion and history. However I think my favorite is jihad being a hand with a knife. That one makes me chuckle. So many other ways to show that and the worst or scariest jihad is a downward stab.

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  • 2 weeks later...
pong! I bet you wish your liburals were this funny.

Funny you'd say that. I know very few conservatives in real life, but have some entertaining and seriously whacked out ones in the gaming groups I belong to. It's not a constant stream of political rants, maybe a drip drop of comments here and there, and when you click on their profile, it's pretty obvious where they stand. Now, they believe a lot of truly stupid (and factually incorrect) ****, but to give credit where it is due, a lot of them have good senses of humor and can laugh at themselves, which is more than I can say about the Portlandia crowd.

 

I've been thinking about that a fair amount lately: there are very few (no?) funny comedians who come from a culturally conservative perspective. There are a few (mostly writers) who are ideologically conservative; usually they have more of a libertarian than socially conservative outlook. Meanwhile, most of the funniest comedians are both culturally and ideologically liberal.

 

I don't think this is a matter of opinion, liberals are just straight up funnier. Yet -- and here's where it gets weird -- among people I interact with, if somebody comes off as self-righteous and utterly humorless, it's a sure bet they are also a rabid Bernie Sanders supporter.

 

:eek:

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pong! I bet you wish your liburals were this funny.

Funny you'd say that. I know very few conservatives in real life, but have some entertaining and seriously whacked out ones in the gaming groups I belong to. It's not a constant stream of political rants, maybe a drip drop of comments here and there, and when you click on their profile, it's pretty obvious where they stand. Now, they believe a lot of truly stupid (and factually incorrect) ****, but to give credit where it is due, a lot of them have good senses of humor and can laugh at themselves, which is more than I can say about the Portlandia crowd.

 

I've been thinking about that a fair amount lately: there are very few (no?) funny comedians who come from a culturally conservative perspective. There are a few (mostly writers) who are ideologically conservative; usually they have more of a libertarian than socially conservative outlook. Meanwhile, most of the funniest comedians are both culturally and ideologically liberal.

 

I don't think this is a matter of opinion, liberals are just straight up funnier. Yet -- and here's where it gets weird -- among people I interact with, if somebody comes off as self-righteous and utterly humorless, it's a sure bet they are also a rabid Bernie Sanders supporter.

 

:eek:

 

The explanation I've heard for that is that liberals, in general, tend to be outside of and opposed to the status quo, and the most successful humor is that which mocks and pokes holes in the status quo ('punching up' as they say). While conservatives, being part of the status quo by definition, are not capable of taking the kind of jabs at it that liberals are. Thus, conservative comedy is either completely apolitical, which can be funny but is not as universally appealing as satire is, or involves mean-spirited attacks on the disenfranchised ('punching down'), which alienates anyone who doesn't already share their viewpoints.

 

The best comedy comes from a place of weakness. The audience can relate to the shared suffering of a comedian struggling to get by, and who is therefor taking jabs at the existing power structure that leaves them disenfranchised. They can also relate to a comedian gently skewering those who try to change the system in ineffective ways, like Portland Hipsters and such. It is admirable to see a comedian going after those more powerful than them. David vs Goliath, the little guy picking a fight with those powerful enough to crush them, and winning in a way? That's something audiences can relate to. It's why George Carlin was so well liked. His comedy was all about skewering and deflating powerful cultural institutions in a way that removed some of their power.

 

Audiences cannot relate to some rich prick mocking a poor person who has to work three jobs just to put food on their table for their children, as conservative 'comedy' often is. The comedian then looks like a bully and an as*hole, which he is. He is the powerful picking on the powerless. That's never funny.

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Last couple of days, anybody daring to say anything even remotely negative about Sanders (or remotely positive about Clinton) has been labeled a "Shillary Trollbot," which is kind of silly in and of itself (I know people who support Clinton; do Bernie's most fervent supporters talk to anybody outside their social circle?), but after tonight's election results they are in full meltdown mode. Jesus Christ.

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