Welcome to this week’s co-op. We didn’t leave the light on for you because you didn’t ask.
Notes from the Editor:
They say comedy is tragedy plus time. So...has enough time passed? I think so.
It’s hilarious that Rush Limbaugh died. Specifically, that he died a slow, painful death from cancer after decades of treating his body like he treated other people--as nothing more than a rotting receptacle for his hedonistic kinks and vices. He was a terrible person, and he irrevocably degraded the discourse in this country. The effect he had will last long after his putrid flesh turns to soap. I’m glad he’s dead. Good riddance.
Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system let's talk some more about comedy. Some people thought that Rush Limbaugh was a genuinely funny person. Even if you didn’t like his politics, at least he was a top notch entertainer. Of course this is bullshit. Rush couldn’t keep a job that wasn’t fully ensconced in the safe warm echo chamber of his reactionary fan base. As a general rule, conservatives aren’t funny. It’s extremely hard to be funny while punching down. It’s not impossible, but it takes a level of finesse and compassion to make fun of someone lower on the totem pole than you without sounding like a bully. But that was the point of Rush Limbaugh. That is what attracted his audience to him. He bullied the people they hated. It didn’t matter that Rush wouldn’t have peed on his fans if they were on fire (unless he had travelled to Thailand and paid for the pleasure). It didn’t matter that the politicians that Limbaugh endorsed wouldn’t even attempt lifting a finger to help the people that listened to his show. All that mattered was that he made the libs cry.
OK let's talk about Texas.
What’s going in the Lone Star State is very much not funny. People are suffering. People are dying. And as usual in our failed state, they are suffering and dying so that a few rich people can make some more money. Problem is, I see more than a few liberals and left-leaning people enjoying some laughs at the expense of the people who reliably vote Republican and now are literally left out in the cold because of it.
Did the voters of Texas bring this on themselves by embracing a politics of greed and every man for himself? Sure, you can say that. But it isn’t funny. Greg Abbot and his conservative forebears in the state created a situation where energy companies could gouge customers and avoid responsibility for maintaining a reliable energy grid. The voters that put them in office had given up any pretense that society should provide benefits to them or provide for their safety (beyond violently controlling any person of color who got too close). They didn’t vote for Greg Abbot and his Republican cohort because they thought they would get something out of it. They voted for the Republicans because that would make liberals mad.
But before you get to cracking jokes like, “Hey Texas, you still wanna secede now?” just remember that not too long ago the liberal stronghold of California experienced historically damaging wildfires due to the malfeasance of an energy company. In New York, we are just now learning how liberal hero Andrew Cuomo covered up hundreds of thousands of nursing home deaths in order to protect one of his donors.
I’m not going to go down the list of times when Democrats failed to help people in need because it got in the way of profit. It’s a long list. Suffice it to say this: Neither party has proven capable of keeping people safe and secure. They don’t even try. They just blame the other party when they get in trouble, or laugh when their enemies suffer. We can’t do anything in this country other than cope through schadenfreude. We are all Rush Limbaugh fans punching the people we don’t like.
It is fine and good to laugh at Rush Limbaugh's demise. He certainly laughed at others’ deaths and general misfortune, and more importantly, he became a millionaire doing it. He died rich, and millions died poor and alone in no small part due to the rhetoric he pushed into our national consciousness. The people in Texas are not benefiting from their support of hateful politicians and policies. I mean, leave aside the fact that not everyone freezing in Texas right now is a Republican. Biden lost Texas by six points, which means a big portion of the state voted Democrat. But even Republicans don’t deserve this. No matter what bullshit they believe, they deserve a society that does the bare minimum to prevent shit like this from happening. We all deserve that. But none of us have it right now.
So maybe it’s too soon to be laughing.
To the links!
News of the World
If things are happening and you know it, clap your hands!
In which David Sirota details the scandal currently surrounding New York governor Andrew Cuomo --even if other news outlets won't:
Cuomo-gate: A Nixonian Scandal Is Engulfing New York - The Daily Poster
In which Daniel Boguslaw provides a depressing account of Massachusetts politics, where entrenched insiders pursue the traditional grift while the progressive stalwarts that the commonwealth is known for remain silent:
The Deep Rot of the Massachusetts Democratic Party | The New Republic
In which Ben Natan takes some time away from writing about the Philadelphia Eagles (Dilly Dilly) to inform us about how enemy of the blog (and humanity in general) Jerry Jones is indulging in a bit of disaster capitalism at the expense of the people of Texas:
Jerry Jones is profiting off the misery of Texas - Bleeding Green Nation
In which Chris Maisano interviews Aziz Rana about the true nature of our undemocratic democracy:
It Would Be Great if the United States Were Actually a Democracy--Jacobin Magazine
Let’s Be Pods
It’s like the Socratic method but you don’t have to participate!
In which the returning champions Mathew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell of the Know Your Enemy podcast discuss West Coast Straussianism and how this theory of an idealized America shapes the reactionary responses to critical studies:
UNLOCKED: Midnight in the Garden of American Heroes | Know Your Enemy
In which Ryan Grim gives an accounting of the Republican politics that led to hell freezing over in Texas:
Texas Republicans Ran a Twenty-Year Experiment. The Results Are In. | Deconstructed
The Internet Is A Series of Tubes
For when you can’t find it on Spotify
We are going to do something a bit different this week. No politics, but if you are a fan of cinema you should do yourself a favor and check out the work of Patrick Willems. If YouTube has any value in this world, I believe that it’s in the wealth of excellent video essays on movies and pop culture in general. There are a lot of great content creators in this space and Patrick is one of the best.
In which Patrick takes on realism in movies and gives some film history about the concept of formalism:
Why Do We Care if Movies Are "Realistic?" - YouTube
In which Patrick dissects the use of popular music in movies. When it’s clunky and when it’s used to great effect. This one is a bit long but I promise it’s worth it:
A Complete Guide to Pop Music Needle Drops in Movies - YouTube
Notes from the Editor Cont.
That’s it for this week. Solidarity forever.
Content Co-Op Episode 6: The King of Comedy
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” — The World As I See It... Such a great article ... especially about Rush Limbaugh... “Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen.” —The Universe and Dr. Einstein... The fact that he was singled out and given a medal for his racist views is mind-boggling... “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.” — Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen (19 March 1940)... Solidarity Forever!!
Deliciously on point as usual. Sharing, as usual.