DAD, ARE YOU REALLY "THE G.O.A.T." IF YOU ABANDONED A WOMAN AFTER YOU GOT HER PREGNANT WITH ONE OF OUR SIBLINGS YOU'VE NEVER MENTIONED BEFORE BUT - APPARENTLY - THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS ABOUT?
Jon Stewart's Daily Show return felt great. All warm and fuzzy; very comfortable and familiar. It was so good, it felt necessary. Like the country needed it. Like the country needed him. Yes, nine months before an election, for a few minutes, the country seemed to need Jon Stewart more than either of the current candidates for president. Jon Stewart for president, maybe?
But then, of course, the show tried to turn serious, and that re-started something else, that's all too very comfortable and familiar: screaming at the TV. Wondering what an idiot he can be, sometimes. AND wondering if he swallows the bullshit he preaches, or is this comedian, on Comedy Central, only really about the comedy, and putting on a show, for mere entertainment, in the end?
Which should snap anyone out of it: yes, the joke is all there is - remember? Jon Stewart may be back, but The Daily Show is still a hack, so - no matter what else his return may mean in the end - ultimately, it all comes down to this: the next nine months in the United States just got a whole lot longer. Because, now - along with everything else - there'll be somebody else, who's unavoidable, goosin' us in the ribs, as our lives crumble around us. And he's a professional gooser.
Top French chef quits luxury hotel job after 'troubling' hazing incident: "A kitchen hand was tied to a chair naked for hours with an apple in his mouth and a carrot in his anus,..."
Putting "killing" in the title, and an early (and brief) appearance by Bill Burr, are obvious giveaways: Stand-up has another great newcomer, showing American males how to thread our cultural needle.
Old Town Road is put behind a lot of Tik-Toks now; which is frustrating, and even sad.
Because, then, I'm constantly being reminded of the NewAge direction Lil Nas X took his career - making explicit what he originally hinted - which took all the subversive fun and mystery out of it.
Having been there, his art BORES me; so I avoid his work like the plague.
On the other hand, if you understand Christian symbolism, Louis CK is the Devil.
A charming, unpretentious man who can rationalize literally anything - that's the Devil. And the moment he (inevitably) says "You're in this with me now" is the moment your toes should curl, as the Undisputed Truth's old lyric solidifies into reality:
"You make your own Heaven and Hell right here on Earth"
And we've chosen Hell. We've chosen to be little Hitlers. Just another one of Satan's minions. And there's no shame in it because everybody's joined. This is what the Devil does: You just realized it.
And you just realized it because there's a veil of bullshit over it all.
Why don't conservative white guys act like the white guys who get along with everybody? Conservative white guys are always telling everyone else to act like them, because they've been successful (leaving out all the historical advantages everyone knows American society boosted them with) so why don't they listen to anybody white who's being successful at getting along with others? Where's the conservative Bill Burr Fan Club? Blacks seem to love him. So what's the conservative's problem?
How did Louis CK get so enlightened on racial issues, when conservative white guys seem to have huge problems? How is he so gracious, while they're so viciously hostile? Is it because he's part Jewish? Part Mexican? Or is he just a better class of person than they are?
White conservative guys often think they have to come across hardcore, and racial differences can't be mentioned, because they're "colorblind" - which is the opposite of what black people want from them. We prefer they be decent people who can make intelligent observations about the collective situation we're in.
I don't get that watching Fox News.
Tim Gaither loves black people. Announces it. You don't see that very often. Love's not a sentiment I hear from conservative white guys. They usually want to know something that'll start a fight, like why black people don't live their lives according to one line in Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. (Hint: Martin Luther King made more speeches than that.)
White guys who can handle black people, without getting upset, are unique and deserve to be emulated. The ones who know the difference between a real criticism and just some "woke" bullshit. They're cherished. But that is NOT most conservatives. Conservatives think there is no real criticism. And that, all by itself, is a problem.
Because racism, past and present, is real. And effects us all, whether we realize how or not.
Slavery lasted roughly 250 years, with Jim Crow going for another hundred. And now we're here. Or, as Louis CK says, slavery ended after two old ladies lived and died. That's not very long ago. So, if you don't have some, almost collective memory of all of that coursing through your bones, somehow or in someway, then I don't know what kind of American you are.
As they read this, I'm sure there are many people who forget Quakers and abolitionists were white people who were always vehemently against slavery and the oppression of blacks. Are you going to tell me there's no one else carrying on that tradition today? Or deny their numbers have always been small?
That's America.
Their numbers have always been small. So the "majority" as a concept is what it's all about. And all I'm saying is some white people handle being the majority more gracefully, today, than others. And they're not the Republicans demanding blacks leave the Democrat party. I ended up going Independent, and a Trump supporter, because I just couldn't take Republicans anymore.
And white conservative dudes ought to take note, because it is to today's abolitionists - not the Greg Gutfeld's trying to tell us we're wrong - that I am eternally grateful for. Because - really - without the rest, black people like me would probably go crazy.
