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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.'"
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?
It's in the Politics section. As incredibly depressing as it may be, Glenn Beck crying on camera and Colbert making fun of him represents the height of political discourse these days, so it fits.
We don't debate things anymore, we have competing demagogues shouting past each other, lying, and using naked appeals to emotion to push their agendas. Beck is the most visible at the moment, but he's certainly not the first nor the last. Hell, they don't even really debate things in the halls of Congress anymore, they just shout their talking points at each other to rile up the extremists on either end of the political spectrum because they're apparently the only ones who still vote.
Meanwhile, comedians like Colbert try to point out the absurdity of it all, and everyone has a good laugh, and no one changes their behavior. A rally at the Lincoln memorial would accomplish nothing. Beck's followers would either ignore it or use it as fuel to steer even further toward the extreme and follow Beck even closer. Beck's detractors would have a good laugh about it, but they're already convinced Beck is a nutbar so it's preaching to the choir for them.
On the other hand, if it was well-executed it would probably give Colbert a ratings boost, so at least he and the guys over at Comedy Central would get something out of it.
"serious" (for lack of a better term) journalists
The better term is "opinion show hosts".
Just because they're on a channel with "news" in the name does not make them journalists. Beck and O'Reilly are entertainers, just like Nancy Grace, Larry King, Keith Olbermann, Rick Sanchez, etc.
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The Tea Party isn't news?
The group whose dominating and inept control of the conservative voice in 2009 was a key factor in passing the sweeping healthcare reform bill isn't news?
No, they're news. It's just that no matter which side of the aisle you're on, they're bad news.
I don't know that that's entirely fair. These things are on a continuum.
You look at an O'Reilly or an Olbermann (to pick two guys with very different politics), and if you're not in line with them politically, you'll probably disagree a lot with their interpretation of an event or its implications, but in some sense their starting point feels based in reality even if where they end up isn't.
I don't get that same sense out of, say, Beck.
Do you really want your kids to learn creationism in school, have 99% of the budget spend on military and hunting homeless and immigrants become a recreational activity? This is what will happen if everyone (including nerds) will keep saying - "That none of my business".
Don't forget the oceans will rise to swallow the coasts and corporations will take all our rights.
All because of that party of FEAR!
It's certainly easier than, you know, actually acknowledging and dealing with their ideas...
What ideas? You mean ideas like somehow thinking that Patrick Henry was a supporter of the US Constitution http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/09/patrick_henry_and_the_tea_part_1.php. Or maybe you mean Glenn Beck's pseudoscientific ideas about how the Smithsonian is involved in a massive conspiracy to cover up 19th century archaelogical facts?http://anthroslug.blogspot.com/2010/08/glenn-becks-pseudo-archaeology-part-1.html. Or maybe you mean the idea that Obama is going to put Republicans into concentration camps http://boingboing.net/2009/03/17/foxs-glenn-beck-says.html? You know, what? I'm sick of the notion that there is anything resembling worthwhile ideas coming from this man. At a certain point, it is a waste of time to actually respond to this paranoid nonsense in any other way than ridicule. And to the people who believe him or listen to him? Fuck 'em. Fuck every one of them for being too lazy or too stupid or too tribalistic to exercise their brains at all.
Now, if you just we're talking about the saner end of the Tea Partiers then there might be some argument that they have actual ideas, mainly resembling the form "I like government policies that make life better for me but not for other people." Do I need to address what's wrong with that also or are we done?
I am concerned about pollution. I'm not concerned about the oceans rising up and swallowing the coast.
It is precisely because I care about the environment that I am concerned about people who conflate caring for the environment with fearmongering.
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.
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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.
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