On the Unpopularity of Leftish TV shows....

[Marta Russell]

>
>This is characteristic of political humor: it needs a defenseless
>victim. "Left" humor of the Eisenhower era had to go along with the
>major ideological tool of that administration: the pretense that
>Eisenhower was stupid. Hence the love of so many on this list of
>equating capitalist policy with stupidity. Whether or not Bush is
>personally not very bright is totally irrelevant. His administration is
>bright enough. The archetype of all humor based on Bush's alleged
>stupidity is the joke about "Bushonics" -- the real (whether intended or
>not) target of that being Ebonics: mockery of which in turn simply
>repeats the contempt of three or four thousand years for stupid
>peasants, etc.
>
>If someone can devise a left humor that does _not_ put down any
>individual person as stupid, incompetent, clumsy, fat, clumsy, blind,
>deaf, dumb, etc., he/she might have something. _Might_.
>
>Carrol
>

It is characteristic of far more than humor.  Two days ago a Tom 
Paine article at 
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/6329/view/print
had the title BLIND, MUTE, DEAF AND DUMB

It found its way to mediatalk, a group which focuses on disaiblity in 
the media, and I noticed that today the title has been changed to 
"Just When We Need Them Most 
The Thinning Ranks Of American Reporters Around The Globe"

It is a drag to have to be reactionary -- as in having to constantly 
complain about the language used to caste institutions, people, you 
name it in a derogatory light by using disability metaphors. It is 
old, boring and we are sick of it.

Marta

-- 
Marta Russell
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.disweb.org
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