I wish everyone was like Jon Stewart. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone in the punditocracy, everyone in the media, all politicians etc. Because he has 3 key ingredients: 1) not a trace of political correctness, 2) an ability to cut clean through the bullshit with BITING satire and get straight to the rotted, beating heart of the matter, and 3) good old fashion common sense. (For the record, Obama has #3, albeit with a liberal bent, but he doesn’t have a trace of #1 or #2. Now I’m not asking him to be Jon Stewart (that wouldn’t quite make sense for a president), but if you don’t have some Stewart sensibilities at your core, you fucked up.) Stewart says exactly what he means and he understands how to deal with irrational people: you make fun of them. When you have a strong-but-wrong ideologue that is hell-bent on saying 2 + 2 = 5, you don’t try to engage them on a point that is axiomatically incorrect; if they had the capability of understanding that 2 + 2 = 4 well they wouldn’t have said 2 + 2 = 5 to begin with. You’ll never be able to talk to a Glenn Beck rationally. You’ll never be able to talk to a Limbaugh rationally. How about Eric Cantor, I love this guy. 60 minutes did a piece on him and the reporter earnestly asks him, “Senator you say you are trying to compromise, but on what points exactly are you trying to compromise?” Cantor: “Well we’re more than willing to compromise on taxes. Democrats want to raise revenue through taxes; we said we’re willing to agree to that if each dollar obtained through a tax increase is matched by a corresponding tax cut.” ….Huh?? Now look, I don’t know if more taxes is a good or bad thing for the economy….personally I’d rather pay less, who wouldn’t?….but uh, each dollar from taxes is matched by a cut? How does that raise revenue? Isn’t 1 + (-1) = 0? The editing on the piece was great too; they ended on a shot of the 60 minutes reporter with a completely baffled look on her face. So these types of people, who have proven time and time again, on issue after issue, that they have wax in their ears and resistors in their brains, simply cannot be talked to rationally. They should be belittled and dismissed categorically. Now you might say what’s the point of that, that’s that childish 3rd grader stuff. No, not really; not when done as sharply as Stewart does it. The point of that mockery is that since you obviously can’t get through to these witless assholes, you need to show to everyone ELSE how stupid they really are. This way polls swing against them, public opinion goes against them, and ultimately either they respond to those polls or someone who’s more in line with public opinion will be voted in. Obviously a small cable show like the Daily Show can’t effect that kind of change (too small and too outrageous), but I’m pointing out the principle. It’s to illuminate idiocy and hypocrisy for those that are too stupid to see it for themselves. That’s why I’m saying that you can’t actually BE Stewart, but you have to have Stewart sensibilities at your core if you want to figure out how to deal with strong-but-wrong ideologues in a public forum.
Now that being said, the whodi ain’t perfect. For one, I always wonder how much (if any) of the material is Stewart himself and not his writers. Because when I’m watching some of his perfectly on-point caustic satire, I actually have to suspend my disbelief a little so that I’m not always thinking “Well this isn’t Stewart talking; this is the genius of his writers at work.” But that being said….on interview after interview, like this one with Judge Napolitano, he just purely shows his chops. That clip is just so perfect; he is able to have a very substantive discussion with someone that is diametrically opposed to him on many issues, and throughout the whole thing he is able to maintain such a sharp, clear mind, AND, as I said, channel just a touch of “Jon Stewart” when needed. Actually it is incredibly ironic: Mr. Biting Satire is a guy that is actually able to sit down with a staunch libertarian and have a very civil and very substantive discussion. And you know what? After watching that clip again, I retract what I said earlier, i.e. “Ixnay on the Jon Stewart type for president.” Bullshit. Look at how this guy holds a discussion: clear, crisp, civil, purely logical and channels JUST the right touch of sarcasm….and what do we end up with? A great discussion in which Napolitano (who CLEARLY does not seem like a dumb guy) looks a bit ridiculous on some of his extremist positions. “Government is inherently evil; it takes away your liberty.” Stewart: “This is true, but I disagree insofar as that government sometimes provides, oh I don’t know….roads.” What idiot really believes in the pure, distilled libertarian position of Napolitano? Stewart illustrates this perfectly.
But also there are times when Stewart just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I say this particularly with the market in mind. For example, after the financial crisis, Stewart ran clips of Jim Cramer making market predictions and the market subsequently fucking his predictions over. And he goes on and on, trying to make the point that these Cramer/CNBC predictions are asinine I guess. I hear this and I wish I had a direct pipeline to his ear so I could whisper “Cramer (ostensibly a clown, but actually not even close) has solid summations of market action and current economic conditions. But if you try to use his, or anyone else’s, predictions of future market action, you are a complete retard.” Any even semi-sophisticated investor knows that you NEVER take analyst reports/predictions as gospel. Even if a million reporters all say the same thing you still can’t blindly follow them when it comes to investing, to say nothing of the fact that realistically, a ton of economic reporters don’t know what they’re talking about half the time anyway. Anyone worth their salt in investing/trading understands that analysts/reporters are only to be used as a guide; all risk-management of your portfolio and which triggers you actually pull are squarely on you. You can tell Stewart doesn’t seem to understand this; he doesn’t sound particularly sophisticated when he talks about the market.
But….it’s like Stewart himself says. People love you until they disagree with you. Then it’s pure vitriol. And it’s true; Stewart is too liberal for me on some issues. I said in the beginning that Stewart doesn’t have a trace of political correctness; that’s just false. Colbert arguably doesn’t, but Stewart does. Also he does eschew the darwinian mentality. I don’t. There have been other times when I roll my eyes at what he’s saying, but like he says….you love someone till you disagree with them. So I just remind myself that on balance, it really doesn’t get any more genius than Stewart. And another gripe is that sometimes the show just plain ain’t funny. But again, what do you want, for them to bat a thousand? Ain’t gonna happen. On balance, I can only wish that everyone in the world would flock to the Stewart-type mentality. Lord, how many issues that would solve.
1/15/2012 – Christ
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