NOTES: Before I begin this article, just a couple of quick updates. I am continuing my series on the decline of education and the primary reasons for its destruction over the next couple of months. As mentioned, if something occurs in our culture that acquires my attention, then I intend on posting a blog about that current event. A satirical website that I personally admire has come under attack from the tech and media community and they will not be satisfied until the website is removed from cyberspace. So this blog will be about that subject.
Second, I deleted my Parler Account this week. Since the website was destroyed by the evil tech cabal of Apple, Google, and Amazon, the community is a shell of its former self. I was getting most of the activity on my blog from the Parler community. Now, there is hardly anything of interest occurring on the platform. It is a tragedy but the mission to impact its popularity was accomplished. Finally, I have an account with the Messaging App Telegram. On this application which is Free and Open Source (FOSS), you can join various groups that provide news and other commentary from intellectuals and public figures. I follow multiple groups that discuss various topics that are interesting to me. My Username is @MisterBlasty. Send me an invite and I will befriend you. All this information can be found on my website. ARTICLE: There is no comedy I enjoy more than satire. For satire to be ‘evergreen’ (Meaning it remains relevant for decades), it has to be extremely intelligent and prescient. Back in the 1990s, most comedy shows would satirize culture or specified subject matter best exemplified by shows like THE BEN STILLER SHOW, THE SIMPSONS, BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD, and MR. SHOW WITH BOB AND DAVID. You had talk shows handled like satires that were pure junk candy like THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW. You also had satires of talk shows with THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW. But after 9/11, the late night satirical political talk show began taking off. Best represented by the sixteen-year run of Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2015 on THE DAILY SHOW, the satirical political comedy empire was established. With spin offs ranging from THE COLBERT REPORT (which ended when Stephen Colbert took over for the retiring David Letterman in 2014), and two failed one season shows hosted by Larry Wilmore and Jordan Klepper, the empire created by this incredibly influential show has expanded to multiple streaming services and networks where Jon Stewart alums like Samantha Bee (FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE on TBS), John Oliver (LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER on HBO), and Trevor Noah, the replacement for Jon Stewart (THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH) continue to thrive. Mix into the pot the more libertarian leftist Bill Maher who started in the 1990s with POLITICALLY INCORRECT and found a home on HBO with REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER as well as the once powerful satirical news site THE ONION and the amount of satirical television shows and news sites has exploded into our public consciousness over the last two decades. Why did these types of satirical news sites take off? Well, two things happened. The conservative party known as the Republicans, in decline since the Nixon years, somehow got the intellectually deficient George W. Bush Jr. into office between 2001-2009. Right wing news, which became a dominant form of information on the radio, as well as the highly ranked conservative leaning FOX NEWS, were primarily in the nation’s consciousness during Bush's presidency. With the incompetence of the president mixed into the propagandistic aspects of these outlets, it was only a matter of time before all this propaganda and news was satirized. Bring in Jon Stewart and his cabal of correspondents and writers who took advantage of an aspect of the market that was missing: liberal political satire. As these liberal satirical outlets have thrived, an interesting thing started to happen. After Bush left office and was replaced by the ‘sainted’ Barack Obama, the left-wing politicians started becoming ridiculous in their own way. I watched Jon Stewart for about a dozen years, but his comedic satire started to wear on me around the years 2013 when it was apparent that the current president was not being satirized for some of the idiotic decisions that he made. The focus continued to be on some of the ridiculous conservatives whose arguments actually started to make some sense. I enjoyed John Oliver as a replacement for about three to four years. But he started stating “facts” on his show to criticize conservative ideals when the actual ‘factual’ basis of his claims were disputable. Up to this point, most conservative satirical news sites were cringeworthy and terrible. But a few started to appear that pushed back on the complete control that the liberals had over political satire. The Duffel Blog is the best satire site on the internet related to military issues that has a conservative leaning. The Hodge Twins, a pair of black comedians, have millions of followers on YouTube with their hilarious observations of left-wing culture. But the best of these websites is THE BABYLON BEE. Now that the Democrats have elected their own dementia ridden idiot to the White House, conservative satire is starting to expand bringing about the ire of many leftists who find it impossible that anyone from the ‘right’ could ever be funny. Yet, these people continue to watch Rachel Maddow on MSNBC (The Bill O’Reilly of the Left), THE YOUNG TURKS and read THE HUFFINGTON POST and SALON without breaking into fits of laughter. Here are some of the best headlines from THE BABYLON BEE satirizing trans-gender men performing as women in the Olympics. https://babylonbee.com/news/female-weightlifter-suffers-tragic-testicle-injury-just-weeks-before-tokyo-olympics Satirizing the stupidity of the CDC. https://babylonbee.com/news/cdc-says-you-no-longer-have-to-wear-a-life-jacket-outside-in-case-of-rain Or making fun of our ridiculous education system. https://babylonbee.com/news/college-student-aces-final-by-just-answering-racism-to-every-question The satire is having an impact as the liberal media, which has unfortunately always been more akin to censorship than their right wing brethren, (With the exception of Bill Maher who lost his ABC show POLITICALLY INCORRECT due to right wing outrage along with a few lower tier outlets) is calling for the site to be eliminated. Hilariously, many liberals are having a difficult time understanding that the site is satire. Not understanding the joke, SNOPES tried to de-platform the site due to “false” information. The New York Times filed a defamation lawsuit against THE BABYLON BEE that was eventually dropped. But now, there is a much more serious attack. Facebook, which is run by an android that does not understand humor, is looking to define satire in a way that will exclude THE BABYLON BEE from profiting on its platform for its content due to a new definition that the website “Punches Down” meaning that it is not officially satirical. Besides the obvious joke that everyone is “punching down” when dealing with the most sociopathic morons in the universe, politicians, this new definition may actually be taken seriously and enforced. Within days, the useless writers at SLATE decided to make this exact case. The email provider, MailChimp, initiated the first step by suspending THE BABYLON BEE’s mailing list which was quickly reversed when outrage grew over the decision. But these initial actions could lead to a snowball effect which could destroy the BABYLON BEE. Whether you find THE BABYLON BEE funny or not, the precedent that our ‘cancel’ culture is setting involving taking down right-wing sites while using the now famous “Fake News” or “Disinformation” argument should be appalling to you. First of all, satire is always controversial because the best satirists know how to irritate the existing institutions of power. Second, if the liberals are able to get away with destroying THE BABYLON BEE, what happens when the power vacuum switches back to the right? These attempts at cancellation could lead to an even more radical movement than what Trump is promoting which could be even more authoritarian and oppressive than the freedom destroying activities of the last two liberal presidents, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. I support THE BABYLON BEE (As well as four other independent journalists which will be discussed at a later date). For 50 dollars a year, you can enjoy their content ad-free while supporting an independent publication. The independent media is thriving as a much needed ‘check’ on the propagandists in the mainstream media and this is a topic to evaluate in the near future with another blog evaluating what has happened over the past 16 months at another point in the near future. If you like the content, I recommend joining and keeping this hilarious site alive. Until next week!
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October 2024
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