Will you end up reviewing Freddie deBoer's book? I like his substack but despite all his postering that he's been a leftist his whole life, I consider him a liberal and he has too much sympathy for identity politics.
He just reminds me of this type of white progressive who sometimes cares about class, but he spends more time on his niche cultural issues versus talking about class in any ongoing meaningful way. I learned about him on This is Revolution, a Black Marxist podcast, and Freddie just kept asserting that we have to be invested in these social issues AND class. He hasnt been invited back, so I imagine he's not sufficiently left for the show. And I agree; I think he's just a disgruntled white liberal.
Aside from that, I am fascinated by this. I only learned about him because women complained about their treatment on his show. But, like Aziz, I never engaged really engaged his content. I only watched Master of None when Lena Waite wrote the last season that was about her and her ex girlfriend. I checked out some other parts of the show, and didnt find it funny. (But he does narrate an audiobook which I greatly enjoyed).
I am not a fan of Mindy Kaling, and when I finally saw Late Night, I thought it was propaganda for white progressive multiculturalism and loathed it. And she ends up dating the racist white guy in the end.
Anyway. This was really interesting. I love all your posts!
Thanks! Always appreciate and love reading your comments as well.
I've read deBoer's book and am working through Elite Capture right now. I don't want to exactly write a review of those books, but I do want to discuss more of some of the key concepts they go into. As for deBoer and identity politics, a big factor is probably that writing about culture issues is more audience-friendly than class stuff. Generally, people probably would rather read about Taylor Swift than wage theft.
I watched Minhaj's special, Homecoming King, around when it came out. It was all right, but he's just a predictable and uninteresting comedian. Indian John Oliver. Man, the Daily Show's crimes against comedy will need to stand trial one of these days.
Oh thank you! Are you someone who enjoys comedy? I think a lot about the abundance of Black comedy in the 80s and 90s (ie Def Comedy Jam) and how comedy as a profession seems to not really exist anymore? I dont have tiktok, but I do see clips/videos of stand up on youtube. I kinda get the sense that most funny people are on tiktok and are angling for a Netflix special or an acting career.
This is an aside as I have never actually watched The Daily Show/Colbert Robert. I know about it; but I have never been a fan of the show and only recently started getting into Trevor Noah's comedy (who I find very funny).
But also! I would like to read about wage theft! I have very few feelings about culture outside of race stuff. But my controversial opinion is that I think Taylor Swift is a bigger pop star than Beyonce (or maybe a better business person). And that's about it.
Oh I am looking forward to your insight into these books. I have Elite Capture on my TBR but havent read it.
I'm not a huge comedy fan, whether it's movies/TV or standup. I think some people really get invested in comedy because it does boost your social status a lot if you're good at it (especially if you're a guy). But I was never that funny nor did I try to be. I happily revisit my holy trinity of comedy (The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and Frasier) and often reference them, but that's about it.
I don't think it should be controversial at all to say that Taylor Swift is a bigger pop star than Beyonce. Swift has come back from basically being called Eva Braun in the mid 2010s during the height of Trumpmania lol. That's god-like power.
"Minhaj...treated some of its female staff, primarily the researchers and fact checkers, poorly. When the show had been cancelled, I remember seeing some tweets from South Asian American women who’d worked on the show saying how harrowing, even traumatic the experience had been..."
Working as a fact checker in Manhattan was "traumatic"?? I wonder how they'd describe living through a war or famine? Wherever these women may have been born, once they become baptized in the Victim religion, they instantly become deeply, inescapably American.
And Hasan was just following the first rule of show business: Give the people what they want! His audience is upscale white liberals and their deepest emotional need is to hear tales of oppression and discrimination from brown people, as this gives them an S&M frisson of guilt and shame, but also leaves them feeling holy and absolved, or at least morally superior to those OTHER white people who "just don't get it".
You cannot become an elite American until you denounce the country, its history and at least half of its people and our smarter, well-educated immigrants know this better than anyone.
Yeah my basic feeling is I like jokes in my comedy. If his work were funnier, this wouldn't have been a shocker. Like, did Richard Pryor really light his hair on fire while freebasing cocaine? Who knows and who cares. If we discovered it didn't happen, we wouldn't care in the slightest. It's the fact that most of his stories WERE NOT FUNNY and weren't even meant to be funny that puts more emphasis on their truthfulness.
I only saw his Homecoming King special, but I remember thinking that none of it resonated with my experience as a brown person growing up around the time of 9/11. I was tall and bearded for much of that time, but never experienced any overt hate. I chalked it up to the difference between being Muslim and living in a city vs a small town, but still, I remember that reaction, and I remember thinking how funny it was that so many Indians had these stories that I didn't have at all.
Will you end up reviewing Freddie deBoer's book? I like his substack but despite all his postering that he's been a leftist his whole life, I consider him a liberal and he has too much sympathy for identity politics.
He just reminds me of this type of white progressive who sometimes cares about class, but he spends more time on his niche cultural issues versus talking about class in any ongoing meaningful way. I learned about him on This is Revolution, a Black Marxist podcast, and Freddie just kept asserting that we have to be invested in these social issues AND class. He hasnt been invited back, so I imagine he's not sufficiently left for the show. And I agree; I think he's just a disgruntled white liberal.
Aside from that, I am fascinated by this. I only learned about him because women complained about their treatment on his show. But, like Aziz, I never engaged really engaged his content. I only watched Master of None when Lena Waite wrote the last season that was about her and her ex girlfriend. I checked out some other parts of the show, and didnt find it funny. (But he does narrate an audiobook which I greatly enjoyed).
I am not a fan of Mindy Kaling, and when I finally saw Late Night, I thought it was propaganda for white progressive multiculturalism and loathed it. And she ends up dating the racist white guy in the end.
Anyway. This was really interesting. I love all your posts!
Thanks! Always appreciate and love reading your comments as well.
I've read deBoer's book and am working through Elite Capture right now. I don't want to exactly write a review of those books, but I do want to discuss more of some of the key concepts they go into. As for deBoer and identity politics, a big factor is probably that writing about culture issues is more audience-friendly than class stuff. Generally, people probably would rather read about Taylor Swift than wage theft.
I watched Minhaj's special, Homecoming King, around when it came out. It was all right, but he's just a predictable and uninteresting comedian. Indian John Oliver. Man, the Daily Show's crimes against comedy will need to stand trial one of these days.
Oh thank you! Are you someone who enjoys comedy? I think a lot about the abundance of Black comedy in the 80s and 90s (ie Def Comedy Jam) and how comedy as a profession seems to not really exist anymore? I dont have tiktok, but I do see clips/videos of stand up on youtube. I kinda get the sense that most funny people are on tiktok and are angling for a Netflix special or an acting career.
This is an aside as I have never actually watched The Daily Show/Colbert Robert. I know about it; but I have never been a fan of the show and only recently started getting into Trevor Noah's comedy (who I find very funny).
But also! I would like to read about wage theft! I have very few feelings about culture outside of race stuff. But my controversial opinion is that I think Taylor Swift is a bigger pop star than Beyonce (or maybe a better business person). And that's about it.
Oh I am looking forward to your insight into these books. I have Elite Capture on my TBR but havent read it.
I'm not a huge comedy fan, whether it's movies/TV or standup. I think some people really get invested in comedy because it does boost your social status a lot if you're good at it (especially if you're a guy). But I was never that funny nor did I try to be. I happily revisit my holy trinity of comedy (The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and Frasier) and often reference them, but that's about it.
I don't think it should be controversial at all to say that Taylor Swift is a bigger pop star than Beyonce. Swift has come back from basically being called Eva Braun in the mid 2010s during the height of Trumpmania lol. That's god-like power.
"Minhaj...treated some of its female staff, primarily the researchers and fact checkers, poorly. When the show had been cancelled, I remember seeing some tweets from South Asian American women who’d worked on the show saying how harrowing, even traumatic the experience had been..."
Working as a fact checker in Manhattan was "traumatic"?? I wonder how they'd describe living through a war or famine? Wherever these women may have been born, once they become baptized in the Victim religion, they instantly become deeply, inescapably American.
And Hasan was just following the first rule of show business: Give the people what they want! His audience is upscale white liberals and their deepest emotional need is to hear tales of oppression and discrimination from brown people, as this gives them an S&M frisson of guilt and shame, but also leaves them feeling holy and absolved, or at least morally superior to those OTHER white people who "just don't get it".
You cannot become an elite American until you denounce the country, its history and at least half of its people and our smarter, well-educated immigrants know this better than anyone.
Yeah my basic feeling is I like jokes in my comedy. If his work were funnier, this wouldn't have been a shocker. Like, did Richard Pryor really light his hair on fire while freebasing cocaine? Who knows and who cares. If we discovered it didn't happen, we wouldn't care in the slightest. It's the fact that most of his stories WERE NOT FUNNY and weren't even meant to be funny that puts more emphasis on their truthfulness.
I only saw his Homecoming King special, but I remember thinking that none of it resonated with my experience as a brown person growing up around the time of 9/11. I was tall and bearded for much of that time, but never experienced any overt hate. I chalked it up to the difference between being Muslim and living in a city vs a small town, but still, I remember that reaction, and I remember thinking how funny it was that so many Indians had these stories that I didn't have at all.
"Emotional truth" is a pseudointellectual way to say "things I wish were true but aren't" or perhaps "making shit up" or just "lying".