Smug semi-intellectualism: American liberals like Jon Stewart may laugh at Republican rhetoric, but why can't they speak up for their own values?
The phrase “Latte-sipping liberal elite” may have recently arrived on British soil, but the picture it paints is straight out of the American political playbook. Having moved to the US last summer to do a humanities PhD at an Ivy League university—truly fertile ground for smug soft-leftism if there ever was any—I have discovered that, like most imported political narratives, it is far more accurate in its original context. The right-wing caricature of the American left as self-congratulatory, self-indulgent elitists has more than a grain of truth to it.
The problem arises partly because a whole American generation has now reached political maturity in an era where there are very few intelligent conservatives in public life. Yet the American left goes wrong in ruling out even the possibility
Belinda Webb
I love Jon Stewart. Funny, cutting, and just the right angle to expose absurdities.
There is a reason why most intellectuals are on the left. They’re cleverer and work to have more insight.
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Matt Rooney
Completely misses the point of the Rally to Restore Sanity. It was making fun of extremists on both sides who’ve made their mind up before any argument. It was saying: very few Republican voters are actually like Glenn Beck and their voices should be heard a little more.
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Stanford Chiou
Looks like smug self-congratulation isn’t unique to the American left.
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Dell Brown
Because they’re fucking comedians! Why are you looking to comedians to “speak up for their own values”?!! Unreal!
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Ross Quinn
What a bizarre article. jon stewart must just over your heads. like most things
If you are going to choose sarah palin as a running mate and perhaps as a presidential contender, well then sorry but you have to be ready for a deluge of laughing
http://www.google.es/searc? h?hl=es&nord=1&biw=1165&bi? h=662&site=webhp&tbm=isch&?oq=signs+from+the+rally+to? +sanity+&aq=f&aqi&q=signs+?from+the+rally+to+sanity
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Luke
Speaking as a British leftist I thought this article was a pretty powerful critique of the american centre-left to be honest.
Luke
London
Nathan Midgley
Do agree with some of this, but Matt Rooney is right – the rally was specifically satirising Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor, which in all seriousness exhibited the political behaviours you castigate Stewart/Colbert for ridiculing.
There’s definitely a whiff of complacency about TDS, but the claim that it delivers legitimate journalism was always made by the media and not the show (John Oliver openly ridiculed the idea in Sunday’s Observer). MSNBC is far, far worse than these guys and doesn’t get a mention here…
Bob
WHOOSH! way over your head.