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The Push For Colbert's "Restoring Truthiness" Rally
jamie writes "A grassroots campaign has begun to get Stephen Colbert to hold a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to counter Glenn Beck's recent 'Restoring Honor' event. The would-be rally has been dubbed 'Restoring Truthiness' and was inspired by a recent post on Reddit, where a young woman wondered if the only way to point out the absurdity of the Tea Party's rally would be if Colbert mirrored it with his own Colbert Nation.'"
Why is this on Slashdot?
I couldn't care less about the Tea Party or Colbert. It isn't real news. It certainly isn't for nerds.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Knock what you want, but Beck must be doing something right. Now everyone wants to hold a rally...
Shouldn't this be in idle?
Every so often I think it's a sad state of affairs for journalism when satirists like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert on a comedy channel are considered more reliable, trustworthy, and objective in their reporting than "serious" (for lack of a better term) journalists like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly on what's supposed to be a news channel.
Are usually nerdy college students or people who live in their parent's basement rent free. In other words dependents who are dependant upon staying out from the daylight. You really think they are going to get a bunch of them pryed away from their gamestations and computers long enough to go outside to a rally in the hot burning sun?
You would have better luck convincing Vampires to eat a cloves of garlic while standing in an open air church at high noon.
You shouldn't assume that everyone who watches the same shows you do is like you.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I'm sorry, but every political/issue rally is absurd. Million man march anyone? The countless demonstrations for the environment? Any rally with a politician?
These events only serve to make the participants feel like they are doing something.
where a young woman wondered if the only way to point out the absurdity of the Tea Party's rally would be if Colbert mirrored it with his own Colbert Nation.'"
It's certainly easier than, you know, actually acknowledging and dealing with their ideas...
It was sad enough to see Beck's shameless self promotion, let alone to now see Colbert's cynical copycatting of shameless self-promotion
Haver you never seen Colbert's show?
The date they want to hold the rally is 10 October of '10. I.E., 10/10/10, however they have the poster written with the date as 101010, which is binary for 42, which, as we all know, is the answer to life, the universe and everything. Its the ultimate truthy thing. It's the ultimate nerd thing. Only thing its missing is a sign saying "Repent! The Singularity is Nye!" with the Science guy himself staring everyone down like Uncle Sam.
Colbert's entire shtick is parodying shamelessly self promoting pundits like "Papa Bear" O'Reilly and Beck.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Both sides still get it pretty regularly.
But let's be honest, there isn't a liberal Glenn Beck. There just isn't anyone even in that league in terms of humor value. You have to go where the jokes are, and a guy who writes crazy conspiracy crap on a chalkboard while crying is a gold mine.
Even if you somehow secretly cloned, say, President Obama and raised him in a secret lab to be the worst parts of everything his detractors claim him to be, then somehow swapped him for the real president, the result would still not be the comedy fodder of a Glenn Beck.
Wow, you mean some smug Internet denizen came up with a way to launch a "hilarious" yet substance-free attack on a group she and all her cool friends just "know" is silly? What stunning news! Strawman used by baselessly smug group of left wingers against group of right wingers!
What next, are we going to have a story about a group of right wingers painting left wingers as Anti-American and playing the Outrage Card to rouse the rabble?
A pox on both their houses.
Doesn't it get boring after a while, reveling in how clever you and your Internet buddies who have developed some lame shared-language of goofball Internet memes are?
Oh, wait...
I think the fellow below had it right when he completed the cycle with "Getting laid leads to marriage, and marriage leads to SUFFERING!"
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
To think that ANY political ideology, no matter where it sits on the spectrum of political thought, provides an optimum framework for solving the world's or nation's problems is the sign of a very small mind.
It's obvious you haven't watched either recently.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
After a Colbert rally, I am quite confident that there will be trash all over the place.
Huh... so I suppose you've done an in-depth survey, and have thus proven that Colbert Report viewers are slobs... or something?
Fuck, I'm saddened, yet unsurprised, you got modded up... apparently there are 3-4 idiots out there who believe that baseless opinions insulting groups they dislike qualifies as "interesting".
That's the part about Colbert I always found so awesome...through parody, he speaks more truth than those with a "serious" agenda.
Of course, nothing is funnier than someone who thinks Colbert is serious. My friend's mom is a die hard conservative, and she thought Colbert was serious about everything he did (taking it as Comedy Central's counterpoint to The Daily Show, in the interest of being balanced.) I showed her clips of Colbert getting his start on The Daily Show, and of him talking politics outside of his "Colbert" character.
Her head exploded.
Living With a Nerd
The Daily Show and the Colbert report make fun of the brainless.
Fortunately for the Democratic party, they are spineless.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Wait, you think we were on track to win in Vietnam? And it was the protests that screwed things up? And you think the citizens of Vietnam are 'relegated to live under communism?' Vietnam had one of the highest growth rates in the world since the government instituted free market reforms in 1986. Vietnam is a member of the WTO, and well respected in the international community. The human rights situation is still abysmal, but improving. Give it time and Vietnam will be indistinguishable from the free and prosperous hybrid socialist/free market economies of Europe. As of right now, their economy is doing quite a bit better than ours. Funny how it was capitalism that imploded recently, not socialism.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"Colbert" is in fact a persona not a real person,
and the single best part of this is the Bush Administrations complete idoicy when they booked him for the White House Correspondents Dinner.
That was pure gold.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
I seem to remember some other guy holding a rally at the Lincoln Memorial before Beck, went over really big too IIRC.
Something about him having a dream or something like that.
The best counter-protest signs I'd seen were from the attendees of Comic-Con this year when the Westboro Baptist Church (The "God Hates Fags" guys) protested the event:
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/
And your point is... what exactly?
His shtick is funny and has more truth in it than O'Reilly/GB's festering mouth(s) could ever dream of.
Festering mouths? Really? Why the hatred? I mean, it's OK to disagree on the subject matter, but do you really need to literally HATE those with a different perspective on life? I believe yours and nearly every other post here, are proof that it's not the right that are the "hate mongers", but the left.
So it's true. The left does project.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Really? Count the number of times John Stewart makes direct fun of a Republican, then rewatch an episode and count the number of times he makes fun of a Democrat. Each episode is HEAVILY weighted to make fun of conservatives.
First, sure, but making fun of one more than the other != only making fun of one, which is what the post you replied to was rebutting.
Second, to be fair, if you removed mocking Fox News from the count, I think it'd be pretty even up. As a comedian, what can you even do about that? Half the day MSNBC is airing what amount to Dateline NBC reruns or the equivalent and there just isn't shit funny to say about that. Olbermann at his most blustering and ridiculous can't hold a candle to the sheer ludicrousness of Glenn Beck drawing something completely nonsensical on a chalkboard and weeping about it.
(Colbert is a little more middle but still ridicules Republicans more.) Comedy Central is just as left-leaning as CNN and MSNBC.
If you think the modern incarnation of CNN is left-leaning, you're seeing what you want to see and not what's actually there. If anything, they attempt to be "balanced" to a fault, giving voice to both sides of an issue even when one of those sides (be it conservative or liberal) is clearly insane. If I was a politician and came out tomorrow saying I thought we shouldn't set kindergardens on fire, CNN would find some nutball who thought we should to provide a counterpoint.
Cannot contain the laughter...
That was the perfect Colbert immitation of cyclical fallacy based arguments!
Build a strawman, name it hatred, claim "literal" hatred, denounce the made up statement, over-generalize and claim as proof.
The last line though, was absolute perfection. Projecting your own hatred in a statement about projection.
Classic Colbert.
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
Wait, you think we were on track to win in Vietnam? And it was the protests that screwed things up?
Uh, yeah. We lost zero major battles in Vietnam. Exactly zero. Had the bombing campaign been allowed to continue and not been limited (again, due to liberal protests), we bet your ass we could have won that war.
And you think the citizens of Vietnam are 'relegated to live under communism?' Vietnam had one of the highest growth rates in the world since the government instituted free market reforms in 1986.
So, what you are saying is that Vietnam had one of the highest growth rates in the world since the government realized that communism doesn't really work and tossed aside all that "to each according to their need" bullshit.
Vietnam is a member of the WTO, and well respected in the international community. The human rights situation is still abysmal, but improving.
What gets me is the respect coming from you, even though you are fully aware that " The human rights situation is still abysmal...". A country with an "abysmal" human rights record is what we were there fighting to prevent. Populations don't want to be oppressed. They are forced to allow it to happen because the oppressor is stronger than they are and is either stronger or more staying power than those fighting for freedom.
Give it time and Vietnam will be indistinguishable from the free and prosperous hybrid socialist/free market economies of Europe.
You mean, like they could have had since 1975? How many souls spent their entire lives under oppression because someone thought that if we showed peace and love that the world would turn into a John Lennon song.
As of right now, their economy is doing quite a bit better than ours.
Really? While our economy sucks, it only sucks when compared to itself. Our economy grew more in the past year than the entire economy of Vietnam. The US GDP per capita is $46,381. Vietnam's is $2,942. Um, I think our economy is a bit better than Vietnam's. So, given your track record of "non-facts", I guess we can throw out your last point of "Funny how it was capitalism that imploded recently, not socialism."
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Well of course. Beck, Limbaugh, and Coulter, it's pure performance art. The only difference between them and Colbert is that Colbert plays the whole thing for laughs, and makes few secrets that it's satire. The real eye opener here is just how fucking stupid the Teabaggers are that they don't realize that they're falling for a joke. Now I still Beck is an immoral pile of crap, not because of what he says, but because he doesn't wink at the audience like Colbert does.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
but Colbert and others continue to tell us all that nothing's wrong
Jon Stewart and Colbert are constantly talking about the budget problems lately...they both do many things, but acting like nothing is wrong certainly isn't one of them.
Living With a Nerd
The Best Thing Ever was when some Bush-administration lackey took Colbert seriously enough to invite him to speak at the 2006 White House Correspondents' dinner.
That speech made Colbert forever one of my personal heroes.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Wait, you think we were on track to win in Vietnam? And it was the protests that screwed things up?
Uh, yeah. We lost zero major battles in Vietnam. Exactly zero. Had the bombing campaign been allowed to continue and not been limited (again, due to liberal protests), we bet your ass we could have won that war.
Except the political battle.
And you think the citizens of Vietnam are 'relegated to live under communism?' Vietnam had one of the highest growth rates in the world since the government instituted free market reforms in 1986.
So, what you are saying is that Vietnam had one of the highest growth rates in the world since the government realized that communism doesn't really work and tossed aside all that "to each according to their need" bullshit.
That would be a sterling example of winning a war by losing a battle and letting Vietnam realize that communism isn't a plausible way to run a country in the long term.
Vietnam is a member of the WTO, and well respected in the international community. The human rights situation is still abysmal, but improving.
What gets me is the respect coming from you, even though you are fully aware that " The human rights situation is still abysmal...". A country with an "abysmal" human rights record is what we were there fighting to prevent. Populations don't want to be oppressed. They are forced to allow it to happen because the oppressor is stronger than they are and is either stronger or more staying power than those fighting for freedom.
We can't force democracy on people, by definition.
Give it time and Vietnam will be indistinguishable from the free and prosperous hybrid socialist/free market economies of Europe.
You mean, like they could have had since 1975? How many souls spent their entire lives under oppression because someone thought that if we showed peace and love that the world would turn into a John Lennon song.
Again, you cannot force democracy on people who don't want it. North Vietnam would not be as free as it is today had we not withdrawn from the war.
As of right now, their economy is doing quite a bit better than ours.
Really? While our economy sucks, it only sucks when compared to itself. Our economy grew more in the past year than the entire economy of Vietnam. The US GDP per capita is $46,381. Vietnam's is $2,942. Um, I think our economy is a bit better than Vietnam's. So, given your track record of "non-facts", I guess we can throw out your last point of "Funny how it was capitalism that imploded recently, not socialism."
GDP per capita is not adjusted for the market value of goods. I bet they have iPhone clones that cost 1/10th of what ours cost.
Oh yes. Unfortunately, the famous liberal dove Robert McNamara doesn't agree with you if you read between the lines of "Fog of War".
One of the main reasons the bombing was less effective that you make out was the C Chi tunnels which IIRC were far more extensive than bomber-command wished to believe.
From Operation Thunder
So, how many million tons did we fall short of achieving an easy victory? Another 700 tons per man, woman and child?
Thanks for playing.
Having been visiting /. for over 15 years I'm shocked at the amount of, what appears to be, left wingers here. It's never really come up but am I in the conservative minority on Slashdot?
It's hard to say. A lot of people used to vehemently defend the Iraq war, but as the public soured on it they became a distinct minority. We still get a fairly large number of anti-Islam anti-Muslim posters... I was shocked by the views I saw posted here (and modded up) on a story a week or two ago.
But maybe all that doesn't really reflect conservative/liberal politics.
Traditionally we've had a very large number of "Latter Day Libertarians", by which I mean self-described Libertarians who apparently don't care about anything but gun ownership, taxes, and laws that might restrict their ability to become filthy rich.
Also... The most vocal group isn't necessarily the biggest group. We should have a /. poll on political orientation.
Younger people are typically left-wing. As you get older, and if you're responsible, you'll begin swinging right... unless you're a career politician...
This is conventional wisdom, but I'm not sure it's true. I have certainly gone the opposite direction.
Also, I suspect liberals and conservatives disagree intensely what "responsible" means.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade