I like John Oliver a lot. I think he's more or less an independent thinker (who happens to be liberal), and his show often goes against the narrative of the zeitgeist to tackle real issues based on original research. That's why we get almost nothing about trivial progressive causes, like the Keystone pipeline, and more about actually significant issues, like special districts.
But in this episode, he has joined the narrative. I wouldn't be surprised if his next episode is about Trump's ties to Russia. And that is unfortunate.
The progressives who create most of the content in mass media has become hung up on Trump's stupidity. Ya, we get it. The man is uninformed. But in their outrage at Trump's character, they can no longer see the forest for the trees.
A lot of the stuff, although far from all, that Trump talks about are in fact real issues. That he talks about them in a stupid way doesn't make them any less real. A lot of his complaints have historically been shared by the left, but has now been abandoned because of their adoption by Trump. When Trump talks about the high crime rate, he's practically right. He's not literally right, as liberals love to point out. Crime is at an historic low. Yeah, but nonetheless, the US has a serious crime problem. By far the highest in the developed world. In some areas, it can fairly be called a crisis. But we're no longer interested in talking about that, because we want to talk about how stupid Trump is instead. I think I liked it better when the conversation was about gun control. As shallow a solution as that is, at least both sides acknowledged that the US has a crime problem.
The same applies to Trump's comments about blacks. Blacks ARE disproportionately poor. Black neighborhood DO have disproportionately high crime. It is a serious issue looking for a solution. But we no longer care about that. We care about self-righteous lovey dovey **** about how blacks can be found in all strata of society, and how hateful Trump's generalizations are.
Most importantly, I fully understand the gripe Trump's supporters have with the workings of the economy. "The economy recovered under President Obama, and we're basically at full employment". LOL. Line, hook, and sinker! In reality, we have significant unemployment (when you count ALL unemployed people, not just those who meet the complex criteria to be counted), and we have a ton of underemployed people. We also have a ****-ton of unskilled and semi-skilled workers who are wage slaves working 60+ hours a week to be able to provide a basic life for their family, while others continue to become richer and richer from the fruits of the poor sobs labor. And we managed to make this into some kind of nationalist creed, as if it's something to be proud of. Sad (Trump voice).
The thing with Trump is not that he's wrong about the problems the US is facing. It is that he doesn't understand the causes of these problems, and thus he's unable to provide meaningful solutions. The media should be providing input on why what he's doing won't work, and explain why certain alternatives might be better. But no. They validate Trump's supporters suspicion that the media and the government establishment are in cahoots, and that they don't have the good of the American people on their mind.
I think this is the biggest tragedy of Trump's presidency. The opposition has turned into ideology-cheerleaders who just want to see Trump fail. Trump's issues WERE their issues a few months ago. But now they're the issues of Trump and his stupid Nazi supporters. **** em. Let's just laugh at them!
I only have an hour before bed, and I'd like to smoke some weed and read a bit before falling asleep. So that was a very condensed version of what could have been a much longer rant. Good night.
