"Parody" is not there for you cancerous fags to try and hide your cancer behind it.

It all started, as all blood pressure fortifiers do these days, on irc :

fluffypony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfgSEwjAeno
assbot Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Wealth Gap (HBO) - YouTube
mircea_popescu All these people and their weird equalitarian ideas.

fluffypony That segment is brilliant.
nubbins` Imagine! fluffypony could finally go back to speaking xhosa.
mircea_popescu Somehow I'm the only one vaguely offended by the fact that "humorous" talking head is "explaining to the masses" what "the president said" ? What is this, leninism ?

fluffypony nubbins`: Lol
asciilifeform ;;google start control talking pet
gribble Star Control II - Ultronomicon: ; Walkthrough - Ultronomicon: ; List of Star Control races - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
mircea_popescu fluffypony hmm, I killed it 10 seconds in. Too soon ?

fluffypony Yes definitely. He sits in front of an audience of Americans and points out how retarded their leadership is.
mircea_popescu Right. Sits in front of an audience of Americans and points out how retarded their leadership is for not being left enough.

nubbins` 2:10 "hashtag class warfare"
mircea_popescu Someone needs to explain to me sometime why "too much inequality can be very dangerous". Seems that TOO MUCH is perfectly fine, a little is fucking dangerous if the idiots now have the means to argue the point, and a shitton of it is just toxic, which is where we are now. Not in any sense dangerous, but just slowly asphyxiating everything to the point the whole society has to be destroyed by a bunchy of barbarians so the five surviving women can start over, in between buttrapes.

nubbins` Nation of haves and will-haves.
mircea_popescu Moar like might-haves, could-haves, should-haves and will-haves.

asciilifeform nubbins`: have-nots and will-nots.
nubbins` ;;ud willnot
gribble http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Willnot | A little round ball of shit (and/or bumwad) stuck in the hair of the crack of your ass and WILLNOT come out.
asciilifeform Lol.
mircea_popescu Isn't that a dingleberry ?

The discussion continues in private!

Her I think you sound a little oversensitive. The vid was a sorta Colbert-SNL parody show. It's there to make people laugh, not rly anything moar.
Me Yeah, I think I'm becoming oversensitized.ⁱ

Her But you seem to take it pretty seriously and hate it for even mentioning the sorta themes you don't like (whether it's arguing for or against them; in fact it was mocking the "income inequality" thing).

Me No it was not. That's the point. It was NOT mocking the income inequality thing. It was trying to mock into making it a thing. Just the fucking terminology you know ? 20% of the available income ?
Her But see, again. It's a show for the general public trying to make fun of the actually serious "political commentary" done on news shows. What terminology are they going to use?! Shouldn't exist, no creative TV, just the one channel with the "correct" show? See where that goes? He's mocking it, dude. That he may be mocking it imperfectly is certainly an observation, but to get super offended by it even existing because omg the wrong word seems....again, oversensitive.

Me It's not motherfucking "available income". It's income the 1% made available.ⁱⁱ
Her Sure it is. So?

Me Fuck that lmao. He is not even TRYING to be funny. He's just pushing pushing pushing. 4:05-4:10 ?
Her He's trying to be funny. You lack context.

Me Which is ?
Her The Daily Show, the Colbert thing, this has been a running thing for like 15? 20 years, this "style" of mocking the political news headlines/anchors. He's trying to be funny within those constraints. I always thought it was pretty boring, but hey.

Me But he is NOT trying to be funny. He is trying to package a specific, socialist message, in the trappings of some other funny show, so it may perhaps be swallowed by the idiots, and in any event so that people pointing out just how fucking lame and cancerousⁱⁱⁱ it is get told "they're oversensitive" and "lack context". I don't lack any motherfucking context. He does. That context being that unless inequality in the Western World increases tenfold this fucking year, so that all the currently "college degree" fucktarded kids start showing their face in the fucking videos^iv designed to humiliate them, because they're so hungry and desperate they no longer think this is a problem it's going to be the case they actually get mowed down like chickens in a chicken farm on chicken steak day.
Her Mkay so until then nobody can fucking laugh or try to make something or play around?

Me I laugh and play around.
Her And anyone else?

Me Nobody can go around dressed like a slut trying to preach feminism. This is tumblr raiding 4chan, this video. Unfunny "social justice" faggot trying to pretend he's whatever other mildly funny faggot, because without this everyone'd just tune out the moment his mouth opened.
Her Why mix things? He is not a social justice faggot. He is some douche on a TV show trying to make fun of the actually serious political commentary on TV. Whether he manages to be funny or not is certainly arguable towards the negative, but you're taking it incredibly seriously, personally, and irrationally.

Me Wait, what ?!
Her ...?

Me You dispute this man went to the trouble of even being in front of the camera strictly because either a) he is trying to "do his part" in "lowering inequality" ; b) is paid by people so trying or c) both ?
Her Yes. This is because I'm not paranoid.

Me Eh get out of here.
Her He wants to be a star.

Me If he wanted to be a star he'd be doing something with a mild chance of delivering. This man has given up on being a star.
Her This is television. Is he running for anything? Does he write books? Does he anything indicating anything at all about him personally? No, he's a fucking SNL head. There's a whole slew of them, too, because since the Daily Show/Colbert/whatever this is now a thing.

Me Let me put it this way. Suppose John Lennon really wanted to be a star. What'd he do ? Would he be John Lennon, or would he try to be "Skinny Elvis" ?
Her Skinny Elvis.

Me Eh get out. That's no longer wanting to be a star. He just wants a little attention and to pay the bills.
Her Look I have no argument at all that most "famous" people or certainly people on TV have no fuckin' soul. But that's a different topic eh.

Me How ?
Her This is about people personally. The previous discussion is about the secret insidiousness and universal domination of socialism.

Me Wasn't aware of that. Maybe it's how you painted-it-by-the-numbers for your own use.
Her How would it seem otherwise? You've got a parody show that you're insisting is serious and evil.

Me But anyway, I dispute that I take it irrationally. Seems so far I'm the rational party here. I'm not taking it personally, which means, as to my person. Of course I am taking it personally as in, to his person. This is because that's how you interact with people. They don't get to be "an institution" just so as to have something to hide behind. And this is in general SOP : whatever "the police" may be, if any one policeman pisses me off I'm not going to go "o it's the police", I'm not some nigger from Compton. Instead I will go after him, personally. He gets fired, he goes to court, the whole gauntlet. Responsibility for one's deeds is always personal. That's what responsibility is. And finally, I am taking it seriously because that's what happens to cancerous faggots. They get taken seriously instead. If he doesn't want to be taken seriously, how about he is... you know, funny.
Her I think that's an interesting line.

Me And as to "how would it seem otherwise?", well say through you successfully playing a reductio ad absurdum trick, for instance.
Her TBH I thought that's what I was doing here: "mkay so until then nobody can fucking laugh or try to make something or play around?" and here: "What terminology are they going to use?! Shouldn't exist, no creative TV, just the one channel with the "correct" show? See where that goes?"

Me They all failed.
Her Is it the case that it's okay for people to try mocking this stuff and to make a show about it and so forth, but if you personally don't think it's funny it's therefore dead and cannot exist anymore?

Me Yes. For instance, if a screwdriver fails to work for me "personally" w/e that is, it then therefore is dead and can not be a screwdriver anymore. I'll even say "not that piece of shit, it doesn't work". How do you do it ? Reduce usage inequality between the screwdrivers ? Use them all so as to not develop a "personal" relationship with any of them ? "Personal" is not fucking codeword for discriminatory! Just because I identify an idiot as an idiot it does not follow I now have a personal relation with him.^v
Her Well not the best hypothetical between the two of us. If a screwdriver fails to work for me personally I figure out how to use a screwdriver.

Me Yea. Well, here's the thing, I'm not really in the position where some douche on the TV screen is going to discover new crinkles in the space of humour for my benefit. The relationship is more like, I'll tell him how badly he fails and if he should keep the dayjob. In this case... he should GET a dayjob.
Her Okay, that's totally understandable. But then why not SAY THAT? Because the impression is more like "this guy is evil and the devil and thoroughly socialist just like everyone watching it and it's very offensive and should be burned at the stake right nao".

Me How the fuck am I responsible for what damge your primitive word filter does to your own head ? Ever read http://btcbase.org/log/?date=04-07-2014#742858 ?
Her Yep.

Somehow I'm the only one vaguely offended by the fact that "humorous" talking head is "explaining to the masses" what "the president said" ?

That's where I got the idea you were offended and in the course of discussion I'm sure I overshot it.

Me Yeah but it has a vaguely there.
Her Probably because rather than dayjobs you talk about people needing to be "hungry and desperate" and stuff like that connotes to me this very strong emotional factor. Obviously that may not have anything to do with you.

She's right : It absolutely has nothing to do with me. I'm in that 1%, and in the 1% of that 1%, and probably in the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. I make the shit work. How about you ?

1. I've been reading all sorts of random stupid shit on the Internet the past few days, as well as watching a bunch of movies as filler activities for having to be online pretty much all the time to talk to server people. I may be getting popculture overdose. Jesus fuck it's bad, this soylent goop. [↩]
2. Fucking Obama, seriously. IT IS MY BUSINESS, bitch. Even if your degree is not really your degree, even if your house is not really your house, even if your children are not really your children, nevertheless my fucking business is actually my business. 'Cause I made it, that's why. Nobody gave it to me because I was black, or stupid. [↩]
3. Term of art. [↩]
4. This apparently is a thing : camwhores don't want to show their face. What fucking sense does this make ? Isn't it sort-of like the cab driver that doesn't want to be seen in his cab, or the handyman that always keeps his hands in his pockets ?

   It makes no fucking sense at all until you understand these mentally ill English speakers are most emphatically not trying to be something or do something. They're just half-ass doing it, so as to avoid narcissistic injury through the unavoidable failure. It's okay to suck at waitressing insofar as you're really a writer, and you don't have to confront how you suck at writing insofar as you're working as a waitress. Such is the ill effect of a generation raised by the mentally ill baby boomers in the false belief that "they can do anything" and all the rest of the libertardation. Sad, huh. [↩]

5. The socialist ideology tends to argue - always implicitly, because it's too fucking stupid to put out explicitly - that discrimination can only be the result of "personal" dysfunction, ie, that the party discriminating is somehow broken and should fix it. This works well enough in some contexts, but in most contexts the party being discriminated against is actually broken, and will have to be fixed. Notice the passive voice there. [↩]