Gori the Grey
The Poster
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
- Messages
- 10,858
Yeah, just no. His show is a comedy show that draws on material provided by journalists covering current events.His show is journalism with comedic elements.
Yeah, just no. His show is a comedy show that draws on material provided by journalists covering current events.His show is journalism with comedic elements.
I'll ignore your EU dis.^^Why do I care? Can your elections have any impact on me? Not really. If John Oliver wants to use country X as a foil for humor, I'm all in for a laugh. But until the rest of the world starts showing some signs they will be willing to suffer the pain involved in forming a coalition to rein in the obviously rogue state US they really aren't going to matter, and some citizen that wants to pontificate about their podunk country is going to matter even less.
Oh i have some sundry paragraphs written as to-be-parts of that and i intend to do it at some point.I'd listen to that rant.
Exactly my point. I would even grant that the difference between US liberals and conservatives is still substancial. But it's collapsing rapidly since 2014.It's very slightly better among liberals than conservatives, but of course liberals are the ones that posture about knowing so much more about the rest of the world and being open-minded. So yeah, that is kind of irritating.
However, I don't think John Oliver is the best example here: he's doing a comedy show, and interviewing people about their opinions isn't particularly funny unless they share a bunch of stupid or off-the-wall thoughts.
My life is mess right now and my points don't come out as clear. Sorry.John Oliver and Trevor Noah are foreigners.
And liberals... so ...
I missed that. 3000 posts. These are wonderful answers.I got the following answers, all of them among the most informative in the thread:
Of course.I don't think this is unique to American liberals. Most of us don't ask questions.
I think the point is that he wants John Oliver to be held to the standards of a serious professional journalist because stupid liberals watch his show and are too stupid to realize that its comedy/political satire and for entertainment... unlike FOX News which of course lives up to the highest standards of journalism, accuracy, verification, ethics, and overall truthiness... and/or shouldn't be held to any such standards because reasons.
Yes. No.SNL's Weekend Update has never been taken as anything other that a snarky poke at current events, whereas at his finest (Yes, I was a fan) Stewart was sharp as a rapier when The Daily Show exposed the hypocrisy and moral corruption of modern politics. SNL, as far as I know, never did things that bordered on investigative journalism or extended multi-episode serieseses.
I'll ignore your EU dis.^^
Anyway, elections in other countries do affect you. You may argue that the effect is small but still.
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is letting foreigners talk when you actually can be bothered to care about something they do. You know instead of having outsider (and be they Canadians or Brits) talk about them.
Dude, that's just the British accent.Oliver has such an air of intellectual seriousness and docutainment and smug preachy knowingness.
I don't know if its the same in Allemagne... but I'm thinking it might be.
It's Sommer's birthday? Do we have a thread? I don't see a thread. Don't we usually have a thread?birthday boy,
MeToo is about protecting women by helping them speak up against abuse, and only an incredibly myopic male-centric attitude could see it like you describe. My feeling is far too many people view protecting men's reputations as more important than women's safety. Women should just put up with whatever men want to do to us because some poor helpless man might lose his job if his victims speak up about what he's done to oppress them.
If you think you are a victim of anything, prove it. Or shut up with the victim talk.
Buddy boy, care to explain to us inferiors how one can realistically and consistently prove sexual harassment, assault, or rape?
Well, obviously that wouldn't aplly to me.Dude, that's just the British accent.
It wasn't obvious at all, that's why I asked you.Well, obviously that wouldn't aplly to me.
His English accent is informed by the English equivalent of the more cliched portions of West Virginia.
I am genuinely surprised here that Americans have this reaction not just to any, but - if you say so - all English accents.
So you do have the same thing going on with certain British accents... You just said "Well, obviously that wouldn't aplly to me." But then in the next sentence you admit that it does in fact apply to you.I allways thought it was only... well accents we would consider to have that effect, or for that matter the English would (and my idea would have been that with Americans the effect is just stronger).
By asking questions i mean asking foreigners, say on this board, about their perspective.
You will be tempted to claim that you - liberal Americans - are attentive of the outside world and curious about the things people in foreign countires do, particularly their politics.
And my point is going to be: Yes, and no.
Yes, in that you spend time on hearing and reading about affairs in foreign countries.
No, in that you are not actually asking people from those countries the relevant questions.
So you, for example, read newspaper articles about elections in country xyz.
And you watch those late night shows with frequent talk about foreign countries.
But you don't truly let these strange people actally speak.
The newspaper articles you read are written by Americans most of the time, or by a British person reluctantly visiting the country in question, often someone who doesn't speak the local language.
Sometimes its a partisan from that country contributing infrequently or even just this one piece and they are little more than a tool of editorial direction.
Effectively it's either about the weird/bad things the people in that foreign land have, or about the good thing they have and you don't, supposedly because Republicans.
I'll demonstrate the difference. We'll do it with late night, because, hey, you may as well be entertained.
Beware John Oliver is cursing:
I hope you can see (with the possible exception of Le Pen) none of the dozens of French persons cited got to actually speak in any meaningful way.Spoiler :
Considering the educational overtone of the piece and the length of 18 minutes that's odd, isn't it?
For contrast:
He mocks him with the fake French accent and he obviously disagrees and with him but none the less Noah let's the actual ambassador of France not just speak, but potentially break through your frame.Spoiler :
You see what i'm saying here:
It's one thing to have Americans (and some imported Brits and Canadians) talk about the things that are relevant to the funny foreigners.
It's a wholly different thing to have the weird foreigners talk about things that are relevant to you or things that are relevant to everybody and listen.
Let's look at the consequence of engaging the outside world in this fashion:
You have just spent over 3000 posts debating this confirmation process with the two-and-a-half conservatives on this board. Last thing i witnessed your attempt to paint some Portuguese socialist on the internet as a Trumpist. Surely a valuable use of your time.
At one point, i suppose somewhere in the first thousand posts, i tried to bait you into letting me tell you about how the surpeme court of my stupid country is literally a sorkinesque phantasy in the real world. You didn't bite and that's fair.
But let's go closer to home...
Spoiler :
This is Beverley McLachlin.
It's her retirement party.
Maybe you've heard her name before.
It probably wasn't here. Her name was used twice on this board in this decade: Once just now, and once in 2013. Also by me.
That's arguably ironic because she has been the Chief Justice of Canada while Trump was elected. She was also Chief Justice of Canada when the old WTC was still up.
Canadians also happen to have undertaken a series of reforms of their Supreme Court and have arguably one of the best ones on the planet.
You could ask them about it.
Or you can go another thousand posts relitigating brewski appointments on that dude's calendar.
No problem. You just say: "Oh none of that applies to us anyway, because we have Republicans and they break the rules..." etc. I deem it possible that you were allready halfway through saying something to that effect this very moment.
Which one will be more useful to you?
Which one will be more fun?
Your post appears to be rather antogonistic.whateves...