When I first became aware of him I took it at face value that he was one of us, loved it when he zapped the wingnuts, which was most of the time, and gave a pass as his being a comedian when he zapped one of ours, which was little of the time. I never watched more than some minutes here and there, since, except for SNL's Weekend Update, political satire (Onion, Daily Show, BEE) is predictable and does the Fox thing of telling fans what they already know and want to hear.
My first confusion about him was when he guested on CNN's Crossfire, where the format was fierce debate between clear Left and Right, and STEWART ranted that this show was hurting the country. And soon after that Crossfire was cancelled. Yes, division that is now polarization is a problem, but clarity in taking a stand on principles appealed to me, so STEWART made me wary of him as to where he was coming from.
But years later, what tore it for me was when Glen BecKKK staged a stunt of a wingnut rally in D.C. that was supposed to be about "unity" and pseudo-religious and nationalist pandering, and then STEWART decided to do one supposedly from the Left. Both of those circuses left their own adherents dissatisfied, since their fans wanted their own Left-Right red meat and both dudes put on some kind of semi-kumbaya thing. STEWART's was a namby pamby part Renaissance fair thing, with blowing bubbles and the Myth Buster nerds. When it was over, the much maligned here Bill MAHER said, "If you're going to have an event it needs to be *about* something."
So he was then on my No-Like list, and I started wishing that COLBERT would cut the STEWART cord. And then STEWART took it to another level by "reaching out" to O'REILLY, guesting and hosting with each other, which meant to me that STEWART was something of a Third Way dupe, since it was obvious that the wingnuts are scorched earth types who will *NEVER* do anything constructive and that O'LOOFAH was playing him.
Is he a "Problem Solver caucus," Blue Dog, MANCHIN, Third Way - what?!
So, that's why STEWART is dead to me. I shouldn't do the Debbie Downer thing in threads I disagree with, so just disregard if you disagree with my disagreement.
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