I wonder if part of what brought us to this point, from Trump 1.0, to a more emboldened Trump 2.0, is the very impulse to assert and project moral superiority. If satire and scorn become just another aesthetic for that same impulse, rather than a relinquishing of it, can we really expect different results?
thank you. I love how your argument acknowledges and calls on the power of 'The Emperor has no clothes.' It's so obvious, yet the throats of all the adults are stuck with fear. Subversive sustained directed laughter could tip over the enormous slop trough they are feeding us from and we with horror are drinking.
This is brilliant. A breath of fresh air. A reframing of our existential crisis that should be an organized battle cry. Or at least inspire even more meme worthy protest signs. Bravo.
From the editors' introduction: "Its moralistic rhetoric and cringe aesthetics — brilliantly lampooned by the Onion’s “ResistanceHole” — are largely to blame for its demise."
This seems to me intellectually and morally unserious. Citing the Onion piece -- mostly about Mueller, apparently because he had a sad face -- clearly suggests that the Mueller Report, and by extension the liberal and left-wing criticism based on it, were "moralistic" and "cringeworthy" and deserved to fail. This is facile nonsense.
Attorney General William Burr lied when he publicly proclaimed that the Mueller Report "exonerated" Trump. It did not, of course, as Mueller immediately and repeatedly pointed out. It alleged a clear pattern of ethical violations not amounting to grounds to indict a sitting President. Not exactly exoneration.
"Throughout the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, court filings and news organizations revealed numerous instances of campaign contacts with Russians that were not publicly known until after the election. Reports of these contacts fueled the federal probe, even as the president dismissed it as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”
"A redacted report written by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and released April 18 by Attorney General William Barr said there were “multiple [later estimated at 180] contacts — ‘links,’ in the words of the Appointment Order — between Trump Campaign officials and individuals with ties to the Russian government.” But “the investigation did not establish such coordination” between the campaign and Russia.
“In sum, the investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russia offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away,” the Mueller report said. “Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.”
All this is not counting extensive obstruction of justice by the Trump administration during the investigation, including intimidation of witnesses.
In short, more than enough to disqualify any candidate from high office, if his party had contained even a few conscientious officeholders, if the utterly and unblinkingly partisan media supporting him had had a grain of integrity, and if light-minded scoffers on the center/left/right/?, like you, weren't terrified of being thought "moralistic" or "cringe-worthy."
Maybe I need to read Mary’s commentary a few more times, but I do not see a pathway to resolution in her commentary. i love wit and humor and a good sea story, but when your ship is floundering, or you are about to run aground on a reef dead ahead, I do not think Molière is a realistic answer. Yes, keep our sense of humor, rebroadcast Chaplin's The Great Dictator on TV and in the theaters, but work together as a nation to restore the rule of law and stop the rape of Democracy, and remove Donalito Trumpolini from our lives before he becomes more of an Adenoid Hynkel. My thoughts on this below.
For example, I’m amused by Jimmy Kimmel’s ongoing comedic ridicule of Trump. I have no argument with laughter in most contexts as good medicine, and Kimmel’s jokes about Agent Orange and his band of buffoons do provide de-stressing, which we know most of us badly need. But as a cancer expert, I have not seen a malignancy disappear with laughter. In 2001, I wrote an editorial in The Oncologist medical journal titled
On September 11, 2001:
Its Impact on the Practice of Medicine
Maniacs, Malignancy, Medicine
I showed the parallels between cancer and terrorism and offered thoughts about how both could be avoided or dealt with. What we have in America (and elsewhere) are leaders of countries that are tyrannical, who care not about the people nor the planet. The issue of good
versus evil has been with "humankind" since its earliest days. I believe the real question in today's global society, where human and planetary life is threatened, is how do we muster human beings to prioritize the oneness and wonder of the world and move as close as possible to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How do we move away from "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". - Santayana, and move towards LUV (Legacy, Unity, Vision)?
I have seen incredible remissions and cures when a physician-patient team works together (unity) and uses available resources that many in academia seem to neglect (vision). Let me share a true story.
Back in the 70s, most cancer care was hospital-based. One day, making rounds on my patients, I saw a colleague and realized immediately that he was distraught. I asked and he told me his 5-year-old daughter, who was battling acute leukemia, had relapsed, and the specialists at Children’s Hospital in LA felt her prognosis to be dire. Serendipity or Providence has been a routine part of my life. I had seen an adult with acute leukemia (lymphocytic) just a few weeks ago, and he presented with far-advanced disease with CNS (Central Nervous System) meningeal involvement. I dug deep into the medical literature and found a protocol of promise being used in Berlin, Germany, aptly called the Berlin-Frankfurt-Munich Protocol. I had used it on this adult patient (CS), and he had gone into a complete remission (CR). (as an aside, he never relapsed, and for many decades was leukemia-free until I lost contact with him and his family). I told my colleague (RK) that such a protocol could be adapted for a child. His HemOnc MD at Children’s Hospital (SS) agreed, and RK’s daughter went into a CR and is still with us some 50+ years later. A horrendous situation turned into a cure due to hard work, an open mind, collaboration, and collegiality among professionals and the patient’s circle. I have experienced this strategy of success so many times that I have come to expect it. Such an approach to what seems an impossible situation requires work, love, caring, unity, and vision. When successful, it is a high that is unmatched.
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
For me, the question is how do we extirpate Trump et al from office? He and much of his Cabinet have violated the First, 5th, and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and although IANAL, I believe any of these is grounds to start impeachment in the House. The high hurdle here is the Republican-controlled House and members who have dropped their compasses in a punch bowl. Can the American electorate work together in LUV and demonstrate peaceably and convince the GOP that what they are doing is throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
I wonder if part of what brought us to this point, from Trump 1.0, to a more emboldened Trump 2.0, is the very impulse to assert and project moral superiority. If satire and scorn become just another aesthetic for that same impulse, rather than a relinquishing of it, can we really expect different results?
thank you. I love how your argument acknowledges and calls on the power of 'The Emperor has no clothes.' It's so obvious, yet the throats of all the adults are stuck with fear. Subversive sustained directed laughter could tip over the enormous slop trough they are feeding us from and we with horror are drinking.
Trump plays a comedian on the world stage so how to outjoke him?
Great piece I had to read it twice.Where is a Groucho Marx or George Carlin to put these clowns on the stage for all to see.
This is brilliant. A breath of fresh air. A reframing of our existential crisis that should be an organized battle cry. Or at least inspire even more meme worthy protest signs. Bravo.
I agree. And I’m sure Alexey Navalny would, too. Truth is an essential element of to good comedy. That’s what makes it so powerful.
From the editors' introduction: "Its moralistic rhetoric and cringe aesthetics — brilliantly lampooned by the Onion’s “ResistanceHole” — are largely to blame for its demise."
This seems to me intellectually and morally unserious. Citing the Onion piece -- mostly about Mueller, apparently because he had a sad face -- clearly suggests that the Mueller Report, and by extension the liberal and left-wing criticism based on it, were "moralistic" and "cringeworthy" and deserved to fail. This is facile nonsense.
Attorney General William Burr lied when he publicly proclaimed that the Mueller Report "exonerated" Trump. It did not, of course, as Mueller immediately and repeatedly pointed out. It alleged a clear pattern of ethical violations not amounting to grounds to indict a sitting President. Not exactly exoneration.
A report of FactCheck.org of the Annenberg Public Policy Center analyzed the matter in great detail: https://www.factcheck.org/2019/04/what-the-mueller-report-says-about-russian-contacts/.
"Throughout the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, court filings and news organizations revealed numerous instances of campaign contacts with Russians that were not publicly known until after the election. Reports of these contacts fueled the federal probe, even as the president dismissed it as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”
"A redacted report written by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and released April 18 by Attorney General William Barr said there were “multiple [later estimated at 180] contacts — ‘links,’ in the words of the Appointment Order — between Trump Campaign officials and individuals with ties to the Russian government.” But “the investigation did not establish such coordination” between the campaign and Russia.
“In sum, the investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russia offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away,” the Mueller report said. “Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.”
All this is not counting extensive obstruction of justice by the Trump administration during the investigation, including intimidation of witnesses.
In short, more than enough to disqualify any candidate from high office, if his party had contained even a few conscientious officeholders, if the utterly and unblinkingly partisan media supporting him had had a grain of integrity, and if light-minded scoffers on the center/left/right/?, like you, weren't terrified of being thought "moralistic" or "cringe-worthy."
Maybe I need to read Mary’s commentary a few more times, but I do not see a pathway to resolution in her commentary. i love wit and humor and a good sea story, but when your ship is floundering, or you are about to run aground on a reef dead ahead, I do not think Molière is a realistic answer. Yes, keep our sense of humor, rebroadcast Chaplin's The Great Dictator on TV and in the theaters, but work together as a nation to restore the rule of law and stop the rape of Democracy, and remove Donalito Trumpolini from our lives before he becomes more of an Adenoid Hynkel. My thoughts on this below.
For example, I’m amused by Jimmy Kimmel’s ongoing comedic ridicule of Trump. I have no argument with laughter in most contexts as good medicine, and Kimmel’s jokes about Agent Orange and his band of buffoons do provide de-stressing, which we know most of us badly need. But as a cancer expert, I have not seen a malignancy disappear with laughter. In 2001, I wrote an editorial in The Oncologist medical journal titled
On September 11, 2001:
Its Impact on the Practice of Medicine
Maniacs, Malignancy, Medicine
I showed the parallels between cancer and terrorism and offered thoughts about how both could be avoided or dealt with. What we have in America (and elsewhere) are leaders of countries that are tyrannical, who care not about the people nor the planet. The issue of good
versus evil has been with "humankind" since its earliest days. I believe the real question in today's global society, where human and planetary life is threatened, is how do we muster human beings to prioritize the oneness and wonder of the world and move as close as possible to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How do we move away from "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". - Santayana, and move towards LUV (Legacy, Unity, Vision)?
I have seen incredible remissions and cures when a physician-patient team works together (unity) and uses available resources that many in academia seem to neglect (vision). Let me share a true story.
Back in the 70s, most cancer care was hospital-based. One day, making rounds on my patients, I saw a colleague and realized immediately that he was distraught. I asked and he told me his 5-year-old daughter, who was battling acute leukemia, had relapsed, and the specialists at Children’s Hospital in LA felt her prognosis to be dire. Serendipity or Providence has been a routine part of my life. I had seen an adult with acute leukemia (lymphocytic) just a few weeks ago, and he presented with far-advanced disease with CNS (Central Nervous System) meningeal involvement. I dug deep into the medical literature and found a protocol of promise being used in Berlin, Germany, aptly called the Berlin-Frankfurt-Munich Protocol. I had used it on this adult patient (CS), and he had gone into a complete remission (CR). (as an aside, he never relapsed, and for many decades was leukemia-free until I lost contact with him and his family). I told my colleague (RK) that such a protocol could be adapted for a child. His HemOnc MD at Children’s Hospital (SS) agreed, and RK’s daughter went into a CR and is still with us some 50+ years later. A horrendous situation turned into a cure due to hard work, an open mind, collaboration, and collegiality among professionals and the patient’s circle. I have experienced this strategy of success so many times that I have come to expect it. Such an approach to what seems an impossible situation requires work, love, caring, unity, and vision. When successful, it is a high that is unmatched.
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
For me, the question is how do we extirpate Trump et al from office? He and much of his Cabinet have violated the First, 5th, and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and although IANAL, I believe any of these is grounds to start impeachment in the House. The high hurdle here is the Republican-controlled House and members who have dropped their compasses in a punch bowl. Can the American electorate work together in LUV and demonstrate peaceably and convince the GOP that what they are doing is throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
Don't you watch Colbert?
The problem with Colbert is that he's not funny. Moralistic, preening, smug. But not funny.
Yes, I’m thinking that jokes that leave you even more self-satisfied that you’re morally in the right are just as self-defeating!
Good jokes implicate us as well.
"good jokes implicate us as well" -- very good point that I will think about the rest of the day
I think the joke might be on us, though, because I half expect that William was joking when he mentioned Colbert ...
What about the former Jon Stewart? Or George Carlin? Or, for that matter, Lenny Bruce, who I don't think ever cracked a right-wing joke?
Funny is funny, ideologically unbalanced or not.