Medea Benjamin: The "Rally to Restore Sanity" is Looking Like a Celebration of "Slacktivism."

Dear Jon, Sane People Protest Crazy Wars

by Medea Benjamin

When Jon Stewart was on Larry King's show talking about his Rally to Restore Sanity, he likened himself to Alice in Wonderland and the rally as the Mad Hatter Tea Party. But is Jon Stewart really Alice, trying to find sanity in an upside-down world? Or is he the March Hare, the ultimate "slacktivist" who thinks it's always teatime -- time to sit back and jibberjabber?

The 10-30-10 rally on the capital's mall is looking more and more like a celebration of "slacktivism." Stewart is courting people who do not want to open their window and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" As he says in the Rally for Sanity website, he's looking for the people who've been "too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs)."

So let's get this straight: people who were so horrified when the U.S. invaded Iraq that they joined millions of others to protest are not sane? We shouldn't speak out against Wall Street bankers whose greed led to millions of Americans losing their jobs and homes? It's irrational to be angry when you see the Gulf of Mexico covered in oil because BP cut corners on safety? Don't get upset when the Supreme Court rules that corporations are people and can pour unlimited funds into our elections?

Stewart often roasts the warmakers and corporate fatcats on his show, but he seems to think that his viewers should be content to take out their frustrations with a good belly laugh. When Jon Stewart announced the Rally to Restore Sanity, he included CODEPINK among the "loud folks" getting in the way of civil discourse. He also equated progressives calling George Bush a war criminal with right-wingers calling Obama Hitler.

...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dear-Jon-Stewart-Sane-Peo-by-Medea-Benjamin-101027-203.html

lol

K & R

This isn't even whining it crying! He's a fucking comedian for christ's sake!

a social critic and political satirist as well.

Read the article.

His mistake is in reflexively devaluing activists as people who are somehow marginal, with no family, job or life.

That's just lazy.

limits what is considered the range of "worthy dissent" and he does tend to value the reasoned discourse angle.

Ever try being reasonable to a charging rhino John?

I'm actually rather ambivalent about both individuals but here I think Medea points out the simple reality of what will be seen this weekend. A rather "feel good" milquetoast affair with liberal paparazzi pointing out how brilliant they are in comparison to the tea thuggery. Big deal huh?

Meanwhile everyone else is making room for each other under the bus.

feeling good about doing not much...

I'm going to this thing and am still curious about what they are going to do

Medea is pointing out something that is important, though. Stewart is a comedian but he's also an opinion leader. Not all comedians are opinion leaders, fyi.

If his message is for us to be nice, he's not making very good use of his position. And I guarantee you that he knows little or nothing about what Code Pink actually does. They're fine for a punch line but that's the limit of his interest.

Medea has a great sense of humor and she is right on here.

has to change so it will get us what we perceive we need. No she does not make a good point.

as someone who wrote political comedy for a living for a decade successfully and as someone who had to figure out how to manage that success responsibly. YMMV

When we raise our voices, we create a context. :)

to a crowd that might agree with it if they understood it better. They might be too hesitant to admit Bush is a war criminal, but might still be outraged enough to vote against the Republicans if someone reaches out to them. Stewart can call me radical if it wins votes for our side. I can live with that.

are a pretty conservative bunch. Not in their ideology, they're overwhelmingly on the left. But in their personal behavior and social comfort zones. That may be in part because if you want to gig at Giggles for two weeks a year, you have to be careful not to upset the owner's nephew's dog's fleas or you're banned for life.

Those who are too far out there have more limited audiences and often wind up self-destructing, anyway. If they aren't at least personally moderate enough to prepare their material, practice it, and show up on time, they will have short life spans, and will soon be reduced to spewing angry rants about pop artists in the Lounge for free.

And although his event is goofy, it might just get a few more D votes to the polls. I'm sure Medea would prefer that.

He said that supporting the troops was a "conservative" idea.

That said, I think he's right that calling people "Hitler" is not the best way to win friends or influence people and it only serves to encourage the other side to top you. If you call my guy Goebbels, I've got to call your guy Hitler. If you call my guy Marx, I'll call your guy Stalin.

I think this rally is for people who aren't comfortable with...rallies...to show they exist.

I've been watching Jon Stewart for going on 10 years now, and two things have been constant.

He did not support the war, and was equally as horrifed by much of what happened during the Bush years as those of us left of him politically.

AND

He does not disagree with the message of groups like CODEPINK, but rather the delivery. He used to run a bit called "You're not helping!" Where he would point out that some of the theatrics used by activists actually detracted from the message by turning people off and feeding into the right wing's "looney left" talking point.

I'll be at the rally. Just like CODEPINK Stewart does his best to speak truth to power in the way he knows how. He uses satire, and wit, to try to convey his message in an approachable and entertaining way.

I did not like some of the parallels he drew between right and left, but I do hope he is right about one thing: That despite what the MSM tells us, moderate americans are empathetic, rational, progressive minded people, drowned out by all the noise.

I totally forgot about "You're Not Helping". Good memory!

And he knows better.

That's okay. Medea is just weighing in. We talk to each other. lol

Stewart is funny as hell, but there's a bit to much "go along to get along" in his message for my taste.

a middle-class, liberal light-weight long ago.

He reminds me of Blair and his creation, NuLab(c), both he and Brown wanting to be photographed with La Thatcher outside no 10.

Whatever.

Probably because Jon Stewart is a far bigger draw than she'll ever be.

Sounds like she is a) using it to get attention herself, which as a activist you are supposed to do so there is not much faulting her I'll just take it all with a heaping pile of salt. or b) upset she didn't get invited to the party... I'll go with a, but b felt better to write.

and became a nation of unrepentant torturers.

It would be an insane, fringe, attention seeking move to advocate against that. I mean, it just wouldn't be sensible, would it?

I am an unrepentant torturer because I don't dress all in pink and go around on marches...OR am I just the sucker?? I mean the implications of your post are pretty clear you are intending insult.

Let me be clear, Jon Stewart is seeking to satirize the current political climate in which a craaaaaazy group of people are getting all the air time right now. And quite frankly, I don't really feel like asking for a civil discourse is really something you should give someone shit about.

Just because someone likes to yell and scream till their red in the face doesn't make their point, or their message, any more powerful or righteous then mine when I write my congressmen or senators, or when I engage is a realistic constructive debate about how as a country we can pull ourselves out of an unjust war and an illegal occupation of Iraq.

So yea, she is just getting her airtime in just like the rest of them. How about instead of ripping the guy, she just shows up, doesn't yell and scream, and asks people to get involved in her cause..Simple enough right? But see now, she has airtime, attention, and people all over code pink again..

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

in San Francisco (President's day weekend one year). My whole family was walking over and ran in the ANSWER people who decided the best way to protest the war was to carry signs replacing the Star of David on the Israeli flag with a swastica. We turned around and went back to the hotel (did I mention we had all flown out there for a Bar Mitzvah?). Does that make me an uprepentent torturer (a charge so over the top I can't believe it's not sarcasm).

I think Medea is jealous and frankly, while her heart is in the right place, does more harm than good.

Let's see what has she complained about? Lies used to send us to war? Our warmongering policies uunder two presidents? Continued torture of prisoners? BP oil executives weaseling out of their responsibility to clean up the Gulf.

Gees. All valid complaints. All issues no one will address when they are raised politely.

Loud and pink and proud of the ladies here.

Er, I protested the Iraq War, too. Medea Benjamin doesn't get all the credit.

I have great respect for those who really made the effort to protest.

I am defending Medea and Code Pink because they are always attacked for being too strident or theatrical. Just a bunch of hystericalk women. Yeah right. But they walk the wlk 24/7 and they don't deserve to be attacked.

While I appreciate Stewart's political stances, I also have to separate these from his attempts to draw ratings and engage in publicity stunts for his show. He doesn't lead the antiwar movement. Little people like Medea and Code Pink women do. People who get arrested, who march and shout and disrupt are the ones who draw attention to the issues. The antiwar movement does not need celebrities co-opting it. Stewart needs to back off of criticism of the real activists.

I think Medea has a point when she suggests that it is easy to watch Stewart's cynical jaded barbs and congratulate oneself on one's activism when all one is doing is sitting on the couch clicking the remote.

in this particular instance, even though he isn't "running for president" as Paulsen did in 1968. Things were dire then, too, but we could still have a laugh now and then.

I agree with Benjamin to a point, but I don't think this rally is intended to be serious.

A celebrity faux "protest" for the comfortable class and great for tv ratings.

as well as a general protest against the insanity.

Don't you have some balloon animals to make, Medea?

Please post pictures of any protest marches you attended, and all the times you were ejected from Bush administration hearings or other actions on your part, your rap sheet for being arrested for your activism.

Like the Yippies during Vietnam levitating the Pentagon, or Bobby Seale chained and gagged at the Trial of the Chicago 7 for outbrusts in court, the tactics draw attention to the issues. Medea gets the attention when a hundred letters and phone calls get buried or fall on deaf ears. Sometimes, guerilla theater works.

Both Stweart and Michael Moore also understand the power of comedy to deliver a serious message.

I just hate how you express more bile for courageous women on our side than you do a hundred rightwing creeps you could be targeting instead.