Isaiah Lee, the 24-year-old self-identified bisexual who tackled comedian Dave Chappelle onstage during a packed Hollywood Bowl appearance back on May 3, pleaded no contest recently to assault and entering a restricted area, and was sentenced to 270 days in prison. Lee, who was carrying a replica gun and a knife at the time of the attack, said Chappelle’s controversial material about the LGBT community had “triggered” him to commit the violence. “I wanted him to know that, next time, he should consider first running his material by people it could affect,” he said in a jailhouse interview.
Translation: make jokes at the expense of those who enjoy the protection of leftist victimhood status and we will come after you. Chappelle, who is no conservative, knows full well that the totalitarian Left cannot tolerate being the butt of jokes. He had been excoriated by them for his very politically incorrect 2019 Netflix special Sticks & Stones, in which he declared that Hollywood’s one unspoken rule is “Never upset ‘the alphabet people,’” by whom he meant the bullying LGBT lobby.
Chappelle’s upset alphabet attacker stated that he had also been inspired to rush Chappelle by actor Will Smith’s infamous onstage slap of comedian Chris Rock at the last Academy Awards ceremony. That incident too demonstrates the violent response of leftists to even the most good-natured humor aimed at them. Smith was triggered at the Oscars by a tame throwaway line the host Rock directed at Smith’s wife, actress Jada Pinkett, who also clearly disapproved. “Wow, dude. It was a joke,” the stunned Rock pleaded with Smith in the aftermath of the slap.
“There is no fun in Islam,” once declared the Ayatollah Khomenei, whose stern visage glowered down from posters plastered all over Iran after the 1979 revolution, as if daring anyone to crack a smile. The same could be said for today’s Progressivism which, like Islamic fundamentalism, is a totalitarian ideology. And today’s Democrats, like the Iranian mullahs, simply can’t take a joke.
They can’t afford to, since successful totalitarianism depends on the total control of every aspect of people’s lives, even – perhaps especially – their thoughts. The totalitarian state maintains that control through fear and division, and people who feel comfortable enough to ridicule the regime clearly are not sufficiently afraid or divided. The greatest enemy of authority, wrote the philosopher Hannah Arendt, is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter. Humor unapproved by the state – particularly humor aimed at the state – is a sure indication that the regime’s death grip on the populace is slipping.
“It is laughter that demasks the nonsense of totalitarianism,” declared Czech novelist Milan Kundera in a 1981 interview in Paris. “It is laughter that shouts ‘the emperor has no clothes’ and enables people to resist the stupidity of the regime and keep their interior distance from it.” As if to prove his point, when his novel The Book of Laughter and Forgetting was published in France in 1979, the unamused Czech government revoked his citizenship.
There is a scene from the brilliant 2007 German movie The Lives of Others, set in East Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin wall, which captures not only the existential terror of life in a totalitarian society, but the state’s vulnerability to mockery. In one chilling scene, a Party official overhears an oblivious young soldier beginning to tell friends a joke at the expense of the Party Chairman. When the soldier realizes a Party superior is eavesdropping, he blanches in fear, but the official feigns amusement and encourages him to finish the joke. The punch line ridicules not only the Chairman but the rigid oppression of the system itself. The official then sternly demands to know the soldier’s name and department, warning him, “I don’t have to tell you what this means for your career. You were deriding the Party. That’s incitement, and likely just the tip of the iceberg. I will report this to the Minister.” Under totalitarianism, mockery threatens the Party as surely as armed insurrection does – perhaps even more so, because a revolution can be crushed by military might, but ridicule is a more insidious, elusive, and subversive threat.
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon,” reads Rule #5 in the infamous Rules for Radicals written by community organizer and Machiavellian strategist Saul Alinsky. “There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating.” The Left has mastered the implementation of Alinsky’s rules for decades, and has used the entertainment industry as a platform from which to spray derision of their political enemies like a flamethrower. The entire late-night talk show scene, to cite just one arena, has been commandeered by so-called comedians devoted to Progressive propaganda and to vicious attacks on conservatives. Saturday Night Live has spent almost 50 years mocking conservative politicians almost exclusively. There is no right-wing equivalent, apart from a few culturally marginalized lone wolves like Greg Gutfeld. So the Left is utterly unprepared when the tables are turned.
Comedian Ricky Gervais, for example, despite being a Progressive himself, unloaded a brutal takedown of his privileged celebrity audience as host of the 2020 Golden Globes Awards program: “You say you’re ‘woke,’ but the companies you work for: Apple, Amazon, Disney… if ISIS started a streaming service you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?” He told the increasingly uncomfortable stars that they “know nothing about the real world – most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.” He warned them not to get political in their acceptance speeches, because “no one cares about your views on politics or culture.”
Gervais’ no-holds-barred monologue was cheered by conservatives in the flyover states that Hollywood holds in such open contempt, but showbiz suckups in the media were stung by his bullseyes. The Los Angeles Times criticized “the smirking master of ceremonies” for “taunt[ing] the room for trying to use their influence to change things for the better.” Vanity Fair writer Mark Harris dismissed Gervais’ jokes as “right-wing talking points” – as if the entire entertainment industry isn’t a showcase for left-wing talking points.
The Left has always embraced comedy that desecrates “bourgeois” values, while becoming increasingly intolerant of humor that skewers the Left’s own sacred cows. Comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock have been complaining for years that humor has dried up on college campuses thanks to politically correct sensitivity toward approved minority victim categories. Salon called Chappelle’s act part of an era of “nonchalant cruelty” ushered in by former President Trump and his supporters; would Salon equally condemn the nonchalant cruelty directed at Progressive-approved targets like white people or Christians?
One of the principal reasons the Left was so triggered during the Trump presidency is that when it came to being mocked, he gave better than he got. He was uninhibited about publicly taunting his opponents, giving them derisive nicknames which have caught on in the popular culture, at least among conservatives: Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, Adam “Pencil Neck” Schiff, Pete “Alfred E. Neuman” Buttigieg, and many more. Democrats had never had to deal with Alinsky tactics from a conservative politician before, much less a president. It left them infuriated and defenseless, just as Saul Alinsky promised it would. You could see it in the unhinged, impotent anger of pompous celebrities who continue to rage profanely at Trump and his supporters on social media.
Older generations may wistfully recall that bygone era when comedians managed to unite all Americans with laughter by poking fun at politicians of every stripe, instead of dividing us with mean-spirited partisanship. Those days are long gone. Democrats have held the reins of cultural power now for over fifty years, and have used it to demonize and diminish their political opponents. Beginning with President Trump, however, they began to feel that power slipping from their grasp as they became the ones helplessly exposed by the spotlight of mockery. Totalitarianism, like comedy, is serious business; but unlike comedy, totalitarianism doesn’t work if everyone’s laughing.
Are these the same kind with those Coexists Bumper and window Stickers? I just wish they knew the truth
Probably the best way to mock the totalitarian leftist elites is to watch JP
Interesting article as media just leaked that Democrats are “laughing.”
As laughter also shows power, maybe they’re actually more afraid than bemused,….
“would Salon equally condemn the nonchalant cruelty directed at Progressive-approved targets like white people or Christians?”
Christianity prepared the ground for modern totalitariansm. The Christians get mighty upset if you mock their nonsense too. Once upon a time the Christians had their own totalitarian states, the Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, etc. And those totalitarian states would throw you in a dungeon for heresy and blasphemy or burn you at the stake. But today’s Christians insist that Christianity is really a religion of peace, love, and fun too.
But there is no fun in Christianity either. Not when the religion is practiced seriously. Weep and repent for you were born of Original Sin, from dust you came and to dust you will return. Seek salvation for having been born a sinner by renunciation and sacrifice of the pleasures of life. This life is not for the pursuit of happiness but for the pursuit of forgiveness for Original Sin and Salvation from this mortal and brief life.
There is no fun in atheism or objectivism. Life is short and painful, and then we are all extinguished forever.
That’s not true. There is joy, pleasure, love, and happiness to be achieved in life. The fragility of life and the fact that we die does not invalidate or cancel out the love and joy we achieve and experience during our time alive.
It is BECAUSE life is fragile and conditional that we need to constantly pursue, produce, and maintain values to sustain our life and happiness. If we were immortal beings that would mean we would be indestructible and eternal, which would mean we would have no need or desire for any values. Nothing and no one could be good for us or bad for us. Value and disvalue would have no meaning to an immortal being. Love and hate would have no meaning. Urgency and time would have no meaning. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction would have no meaning….
A pleasure that lasts forever is impossible, our senses would become inured and indifferent to such an everlasting pleasure. A period of struggle is necessary to enjoy the accomplished pleasure and happiness that comes after the struggle.
Just because a pleasure or a joy doesn’t last forever, doesn’t make it any less a pleasure or a joy. Would Romeo and Juliet have said no to their love because of mere death? It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, is a truth, but it’s an overwhelming and scary truth, it requires heroic courage to accept it. Just because life and love do not last forever biologically doesn’t mean they are not eternal and transcendent, not in a supernatural way, but in a very human way.
If God created everything, that puts him above physics and chemistry and all of science, therefore miracles can happen? Yes or no?
Man, you are a one trick-pony.
I have observed that two Russian-born, American citizen leaders of the same generation said, “We were meant to be happy.” One, as you know, was Ayn Rand. The other is even better-known and more beloved: The Lubavicher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. I often say that Lubavichers put the fun into fundamentalism — they are quite serious about their religious practice and study, of course, but they are very open and tolerant, and they know how to have a good time. I don’t think you could say the same about Objectivists. I’ve never heard of a bunch of Objectivists drinking vodka and dancing with both the faithful and anyone else who wanders in, after a study session.
I believe that one of the reasons that the left has such a strong dislike of Trump is that he trespassed on their territory of mockery and ridicule, which they regard as their sole preserve. Conservatives traditionally tended to value civility even to a fault, so that when Trump came along with his insults and derogatory nicknames, many couldn’t go along.
So, how has the left responded to Trump’s rude demeanor? By positioning unflattering, nude statues of him in major cities; by flying blimps of him wearing a diaper above major cities; and by creating art depicting him being subjected to various gruesome attacks. Somehow this is acceptable to all of those never-Trumpers who condemn Trump’s verbal excesses. Their outrage is very selective.
President Trump is easy to ridicule he is not a De Santis or a George Washington. The Left will find ways to mock, misrepresent, disparage, and lie about any and every opponent including De Santis and George Washington but President Trump makes it easy.
I would vote for president Trump over De Santis because he’s been through the fire and is still a heroic fighter. De Santis hasn’t proven his mettle in the White House yet. But President Trump does give the Left plenty of easy ammunition for ridicule.
Totalitarian Control ? Read this; “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six”. Revelation 13:8 – 18
desperation resorting to outright lies
A Muslims is speaking the truth if he says that “there is no humor in Islam.”
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For example , Ayatollah Khomeini had declared “The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam . There can be no…joy in whatever is serious.” [1]
[1] THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISM by Ibn Warraq page 348.
Conservative comedy, much as I like the idea in the abstract, hasn’t delivered for us. Dennis Miller, Greg Gutfeld, Steve Crowder, Ricky Gervais, Brad Stine — each has his moments, but ultimately they are mediocrities. And once they get beyond politics, there isn’t much to them save for nya-nya-nya taunting. The true test of a comic is someone who is willing to make fun of anything, most of all, an audience’s squeamishness.
Leftists are neo-Puritans. These are the same deranged, debased, amoral, “If it feels good, do it” nihilists who told everyone to “Question Authority” and to hate “The Man” and “The Establishment.”
Well, it turns out that they had no problem with the CONCEPTS of “Authority”, “The Man”, or “The Establishment.”
Their problem was that IT WASN’T THEM in charge!
Now, if you question authority, have a problem with The Man or The Establishment, you’re a domestic terrorist fringe lunatic. Because, hey, now the Neo-Puritans are in charge!
If you dont have a sesne of humor then it just aint funny.