“Jon Stewart undermines any remaining earnestness that liberals in America might still possess.”
Don’t laugh at politicians, Jon Stewart; they’re our friendssssss!
Yeah, our problem is that young libs are ending up at Morgan Stanley because they’re too hip and detached to run for office. Right. And it’s Jon Stewart’s fault, because, like, he makes fun of politicians. And if Jon Stewart weren’t making fun of politicians, politicians would be a lot more honorable. And then youngsters might want to be one.
Thanks, Michael. Glad to have that cleared up.
Please share widely!
There’s never been a Greek system at Vassar, Mike.
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Seriously, though, I think the folks Michael describes were disillusioned with politics long before Jon Stewart arrived on the scene. Time to find another scapegoat.
And thought it was the most nonsense article I’ve ever seen in the Globe! And from a Hahvahd grad too, how shameful. It’s just so awful that these Morgan Stanley dems are cutting checks to the Party, we’d rather they lay down in front of the main entrance to the Pentagon? I mean, what’s his purpose here? I guess if you take his argument to its logical conclusion, it’s that liberals aren’t allowed to have fun.
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Does that mean I can’t listen to Air America on the flight back to Boston anymore? snicker Because thats always fun. (XM radio on AirTran ;p).
Al Franken books either!
On the T on the way in to work, I was thinking about things to write to the Globe in response. Most of them involved reflecting on how young, inexperienced and naive the author seems to be, and how that article belonged in the Crimsom and not the Globe … Haven’t written it yet, because it’s been very busy today, but I’m still angry about it. That someone from “my generation” would be writing such high-falluting garbage and it would get printed by the Globe.
I read the whole article thinking “who the heck is this guy?” and, well, all was explained by reading his one-line bio.
I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how the Globe gave him anything more than a 2 paragraph LTE. What were they thinking???? Or, what kind of legacy connections does the obviously uninformed young thing have?
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The Globe should be ashamed of itself for printing such tripe, but then again, they are owned by the NYT who printed Judy Miller for years and years. . . .
Am I the only one wondering where he’s getting his notion of the typical “apostle” of the Daily Show, and why “Josh Goldberg” seems as much a composite of Jewish stereotypes as of fans of liberal humorists?
He sounds like a very conservative boy too uptight to get Jon Stewart’s jokes and pissed off that everyone else seems to. I don’t know why he got me so mad by he did. Perhaps it’s the fact that he got printed at all just for spewing verbiage “contrary to public opinion.”
…but I hadn’t wasted too much time getting to the “merits” of his comments, since the bedrock of the whole thing is so bad.
de Tocqueville, Mencken (or, “Menckenesque”), Teddy Roosevelt and Woody Wilson, all in one paragraph?
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I guess that sort of name-dropping must have really wowed the other undergrads.
…is that he offers a FICTIONAL character–Goldberg–to illustrate his argument about the evils of Jon Stewart.
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Say what you want about Michael’s idiocies, we are talking about him today.
Wow. That editorial hits close to homeâIâm a young activist who loves Jon Stewart and went to Newton South. I’ve never read commentary about Jon more off the mark. For the people who watch The Daily Show who are already involved, it’s absolutely hilarious. For those who don’t pay attention to the news, it’s a comedy show and they learn about current events. People who would never be interested in politics suddenly are. Why? Because it’s funny. And as a member of my cityâs Democratic Committee, young activist on my college campus, and more, I take offense the idea that all it takes to dissuade me from activism and leadership is a really good comedy show.
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Stewart and his writers are the modern Mark Twains. The fact is, The Daily Show is humorous and is incredibly earnest. (See Jon’s appearance on Crossfire, for instance.) He can attack the “jokers” in power because he has the shield of being the court jester.
Damn shame the Globe printed this. There’s so much better stuff that shows up on blogs that could have been in Kalin’s column-space.
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Hey, just a thought… but didn’t that other Harvard boy Jedediah Purdy write about how Seinfeld’s irony disarmed the public’s sense of social justice?
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Do we have a cheap knock-off column here? I don’t want to use the word, ‘Plagiarism.’ That would bring too much scrutiny to Michael Kalin.
I’m 27, and I’m running for Town Meeting in Brookline. I’m going around today collecting signatures with… (brace yourself)…
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a 20something employee of Morgan Stanley, who is also running.
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So, there you have it. Two young people running for public office. I watch Jon Stewart on the blogs (no cable TV), and she freaking works for Morgan Stanley.
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So, if you’re interested in our campagins to contribute to the youth of Brookline Town Meeting, drop me a line.
I can’t keep up with all the various forms of city government…
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If so, put up a diary announcing your candidacy!
Town Meeting is the legislative form of government for most New England towns. Cities like Boston and Cambridge have a different government structure, with more power in the executive branch.
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In Brookline, the 60,000ish citizens are divided into 16 precincts, each with 15 Town Meeting members, who sit on off-set 3 year terms. So, each year, 5 seats are voted on in each of the 16 precincts, in addition to other town positions, such as selectmen (Brookline has 5), Library Trustees, School Board, etc. This means there’s approximately one town meeting member for every 250 Brookline residents.
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Wikipedia has (all?!) the answers… Town Meeting.
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Once I submit my papers I may write a diary. Those are due mid-March. I’m still gathering signatures from registered voters in my precinct.
The thing reads much better if you assume it’s a parody of earnest collegiate gibberish.
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If it’s genuine earnest collegiate gibberish, there’s been a severe drop in quality over the past few decades.