The Fatigue of Political Rhetoric and Media
All major aspects of discourse and entertainment are being politicized, and the government has much to gain from it.
Those paying mind to political figures on social media, if attentive, will notice the countless posts published that use the format of campaign slogans and sayings. Even if they aren’t running for office, these influencers push their views on policy with messages that appear crafted by their respective parties. Whatever their motivations are, they’re still campaigning for an audience to adopt their framework.
Political party accounts are major culprits, but so are chronic tweeters like Ron Filipkowski, Nina Turner, Jeff Tiedrich, and David Hogg. Same with Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, and Joe Walsh. The politics they align with do not matter: the political talking heads aren’t developing ideas. They’re repeating catchphrases. Meaningless and emotional statements about minimum wage, police funding, tax reforms, or other issues do nothing more than fuel meaningless and emotional arguments.
Remaining trapped behind this political lens drastically stunts intellectual development and achievement—it restricts those looking through it to advocating for state-approved methodological practices, i.e., “reform” via policy.
The Late-Night Industrial Complex
Politicization is also not exclusive to discourse. “Entertainment” spreads the same disease, with late-night television being a primary example of this. Stephen Colbert’s “Vax-Scene” from the Late Show became notorious for its overt COVID-19 shot propaganda.
This type of content was not a one-time occurrence (for Kimmel or late-night as a whole), either, as Jimmy Fallon sang about a COVID-19 variant on the Tonight Show:
And as if the dosage of mindless television wasn’t already sedating as is, Comedy Central recently introduced a new season of the Stephen Colbert series “Tooning Out the News” which covers modern political happenings from a satirical angle. The channel runs continuous ads on series such as the Daily Show as well, often employing “humor” only relevant to those obsessed with current events.
This plague also extends to programs such as the Oscars. The host of this year’s show, Jimmy Kimmel, claimed that Tucker Carlson’s review of January 6th footage was an instance of editors turning “44,000 hours of violent insurrection footage into a respectful sight-seeing tour of the Capitol.”
The State’s Interest
In its entirety, the increasing appetite for politics is not a net positive for liberty. Nor did it happen by coincidence—the State benefits from a politicized population engaging in heated debates about what the State’s policy “ought to be” while ignoring the very nature of the institution and the crimes it commits against humanity.
And not only does it approve of this; the State actively influences institutions such as Hollywood. It should come as no surprise that these behemoths are intertwined: when late-night television gets negative feedback for defending the government and the pharmaceutical industry, the Fourth Estate, the state-backed media, covers for its class, such as Forbes did for Fallon’s skit, calling its critics “conspiracy theorists.”
So, as it’s made clear that these major institutions have much to gain from expanding their control and subverting freedom in the process, it is in the best interest of individuals to unleash themselves from the shackles of politics, pursue truth, and attain autonomy.
For a case against politics entirely, watch the Civil Offense podcast episode “Politics: A Waste of Time? Getting Into Agorism”