Thinking Liberally

Great blog entry over on Mother Jones today, about the vacuum of news left by the writers' strike:

For all their irony and their anger, Mahr, Stewart and Colbert are among the most idealistic figures in pop culture today (they could also kick ass as journalists. Thank God they don't 'cause we can only funny by accident.) I sometimes think Stewart's actually going to cry furious tears when he's trying to get an administration official to give the straight skinny on the war. Mahr, I suspect, will someday sucker punch someone, so pissed off is he by stupidity. Colbert, the truest performer of the three, is just a naughty little imp having fun screwing with all our heads; who knows what he actually thinks? But I digress.

College kids love them because they make caring cool and the primary way they do that is by out-sourcing the dweebery to nerds like me who long ago embraced the geek chic of primary sources and well-thumbed pocket Constitutions. The late night satire system has subverted the high school pyramid. We do the work. Colbert, Mahr and Stewart, primarily by being appalled at either what we've uncovered or what we've screwed up, make it interesting and accessible via ridicule. They invite us on their shows and make fun of us while we attempt to save the world, an offer no nerd burger could ever refuse. It's win-win. We're cool by association and so is serious thinking because when Joe Cool tells everyone to shut up and listen to the dork they've just pinned a 'kick me' sign on, they do. Or they did before the stupid writers' strike, selfish bastards. Where do my socially retarded colleagues and I go now to force ourselves on the unsuspecting who don't know how badly they need to know what we're thinking about?

Don't believe the hype, chickens. There isn't an ink-stained wretch out there who doesn't fantasize about getting 'the call' from one of the satirist troika of Colbert, Stewart and Mahr (I know. he's weekly, not nightly). There isn't one of us who hasn't done the math - by the time the strike is over, the election will be so close that none of us small names will see a green room while there's a Bush in the White House. Sigh

Read it here. Cry a little.