From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Welcome Back, John
America’s #1 Brit wit John Oliver returns for season five of Last Week Tonight Sunday, and not a moment too soon. During the Trump era, late-night comedians have become nearly as vital as journalists in terms of sounding alarms, debunking GOP bullshit and moving the masses to action, but Oliver takes deeper dives into the swamp. In last season’s finale, Oliver discussed “three key techniques that Trump uses to insulate himself from criticism and consequence.” It’s important to recognize them, Oliver says, because “their natural end-point is the erosion of our ability to decide what’s important, have an honest debate, and hold one another accountable. It’s like being murdered by a sloth—it happens very slowly, and you might not notice until it’s too late.” A brief refresher:
Delegitimizing the Media
“Trump has been attacking the press since he declared his candidacy. And in a broader sense, he’s been waging war on the very concept of truth ever since he first turned to his mom and said ‘Dada,’ and she said, ‘No, I’m Mama,’ and he said ‘Fake news’ and shit his pants. The difference now is, he’s crying ‘fake news’ as president of the United States.”
Whataboutism
“It’s the practice of changing the subject to someone else’s perceived wrongdoing. […] This technique of saying ‘what about…’ is actually an old Soviet propaganda tool. And the reason it’s dangerous is because it implies that all actions, regardless of context, share a moral equivalency. [But] a defense attorney could not stand up in court and say, ‘Maybe my client did murder those people, but let me ask you this: what about Jeffrey Dahmer? What about Al Capone? What about the guy from Silence of the Lambs? I rest my case!’ […] The point is just to muddy the waters.”
Trolling
“As a troll, Trump often does things that have no effect other than to piss off his perceived enemies, like when he tweeted a wrestling gif of himself body-slamming CNN, or attacked Mika Brzezinski by saying she was ‘bleeding badly from a facelift,’ or called a leader with nuclear weapons ‘short and fat.’
Trump even once re-tweeted a claim that he was the most superior troll on the whole of Twitter, calling it a great compliment. Which it is not. Because sometimes, when you do something that makes a lot of people mad, it’s because—and bear with me here—you’re a dick. When you sneak into someone’s house and urinate into every heating vent, you’re not an epic troll sticking it to the ‘snowflake cucks,’ you’re just some fucking asshole.”
Oliver concludes by saying, “The Trump presidency is basically a marathon: it’s painful, it’s pointless, and the majority of you didn’t even agree to run it, you were just signed up by your dumbest friend. … And though you’re exhausted, and your whole body is screaming for you to give up, and your nipples are chafing for some reason, the stakes are too high for any of us to stop.”
You can watch the whole thing here. Lord only knows what or who he’ll be skewering Sunday night, but one thing we do know is everyone will be talking about it Monday morning.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold…[Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
