A rare moment of utter sincerity
He’s a great human being.
(H/T HumboldtBlue!)
[cross-posted at ABLC]Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!
Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.
I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.
An unpunished coup is a training exercise.
This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.
But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.
Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.
Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.
I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.
… gradually, and then suddenly.
We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.
Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!
At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.
Republicans don’t trust women.
The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!
When we show up, we win.
My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / Gay Rights are Human Rights / Stephen Colbert: It Gets Better
rob!
The true heir to Johnny Carson.
aisce
i swear to fucking god, if anybody makes this thread about obama, gay marriage rights, doma, or jane hamsher…
shorter me: inb4 trollenschlongen and trurl bring the stupid and uncle clarence thomas gets his racism on. these threads are more predictable than an episode of alf.
lamh34
Wow, as if I needed ANOTHER reason to prefer Colbert over Jon Stewart.
Nice!
MikeJ
I still say this campaign has the wrong idea. Guns for Gays is the right way. Give every picked on gay kid a gun. The bullies will think twice, and you can assume that everybody you see carrying a gun is gay.
Dennis SGMM
@aisce:
I am going to sue you for reminding me of Alf.
No one of Importance
Dunno about people getting nicer as they get older, but they usually get lazier, and less inclined to be worked up about stupid crap that doesn’t impact their lives one way or another – stuff like who other people want to fuck/marry/believe in.
Colbert as usual, says what needs to be said, in the way it needs to be said. A wonderful message not only for GLBT kids but for all kids who get picked on. (Wish someone had said this stuff to me when I was at school.)
Corner Stone
Maybe if Obama had the guts to repeal DOMA then Lady Jane could marry Lady De Rothschild and I could finally gay marry Lil Tim, Interruptus with Uncle Clarence Thomas presiding.
Trainrunner
Nice overall message but dumb as fuck example.
You can’t fight bullies by becoming Oscar Wilde/Noam Chomsky and “reclaiming” the slurs. What kinda shit is that?
You fight them with societal pressure on all sides, but especially from adults who should make it clear it won’t be tolerated.
I felt sure that Colbert’s story was going to end with a “twist” that Pat got the shit kicked out of him after school anyway, cuz that’s what happened to me every time I try to lip my way out of something.
Shitty, shitty example, Stephen.
mike in dc
I was going to say “this is the least controversial assertion you’ve ever made on this blog, ABL.” Spoke too soon, apparently.
ruemara
Mike, when you’re black, even getting a tan is controversial.
Lysana
I’ll say this. With some bullies, that kind of approach works. I had multiple kinds of attackers in school. I threw off some by standing up to them, others required more focused ignoring/redirecting work. One set I got rid of in much the same way. The ringleader was a puertoriqueña who decided one day to throw orders at me in Spanish. I stopped, blinked, and said, “I don’t speak Spanish. It’s all Greek to me.” She stared at me dumbfounded. Her two lieutenants got the joke and laughed their asses off. I walked away and they never gave me shit again, singly or in a group.
I personally notice the people filming are making SURE to include the BT in the alphabet. Apparently they didn’t start out that way. Glad to see a small change in a Dan Savage production at any rate.
RalfW
Turning on the bully can work, or it can lead to a pummeling. It’s risky but can be worth it.
And in aggregate, people get nicer. But as we’re seeing, some of the not-nice people seem to end up in some pretty powerful places.
JPL
OMG.. I love him. His idea might not work all the time but just empowering some to follow his advice has to help
Thank you Stephen. …
No one of Importance
But that’s not actually what Colbert is saying. He explicitly said the take away lesson is not how to get the better of bullies, but how to take the sting out of their insults. It’s like people – complete strangers – feel perfectly entitled to call me a stupid fat cunt, or fat fool. Once I accepted that (a) that behaviour reflected worse on them than on me (b) yes, I’m fat, so what and (b) no, I’m not stupid and nothing they say can change that, then I could ignore what they said.
Replying to people who feel free to insult you in public is always risky, and usually useless as well. It’s how their words affect you inside, that you can control.
Butler
Except… that’s exactly what “Pat” did. How can a true story be a bad example? It may not apply to all situations but its isn’t “dumb as fuck”.
Arclite
@ lamh34
Um, you can like both. It’s not like they both run their shows at the same time, or are arch enemies, or are in some kind of ratings battle where only one will come out alive. And it’s not like Stewart is an asshole. He seems pretty kind, generous, and self-effacing to me.
Brian R.
Genius.
Arclite
@ MikeJ
Because if everyone had guns, no one would get shot. Oh, wait…
Karen
When I was going to school, “faggot” was the word hurled though I don’t even know if the kids knew the connection between that and a gay slur. They just used it like kids a generation before used “nerd.”
I’d also been made fun of as a “brain” because I got good grades and for some reason being a “brain” was a bad thing. So when I got tired of being bullied, I just snapped and asked one of those kids “You know what a faggot is?”
The kid laughed and said yeah, it’s gay (a word they also used).
I said, “It’s a bunch of sticks.”
And she stared at me as if I’d grown two heads and was speechless because she hadn’t expected an answer like that.
What I learned is, they expected me to cry. They didn’t expect me to use calm reason. By giving them what they don’t expect, they don’t know how to react.
I’m not proud of some of the things I said to bullies during those years, including hitting weak spots they had about their parents or their siblings or themselves and the broken nose I have today is proof of how bad it was for me to sink to that level.
But the element of surprise is a potent weapon against being bullied and what Stephen Colbert’s friend Pat did proves it.
Karen
I’m in moderation for a word I used twice but I wish they had context when they put people in moderation. I used the word as an example. Sheesh.
whetstone
Also nice to see a devout Catholic standing up for gay rights (he teaches Sunday school, IIRC).
@Karen: I’m sure the host or someone can explain, but I doubt there’s a “they” moderating the comments. I’m sure the moderation is automated, and computers can’t tell if you’re using [barnyard epithet] as an example.
Helen
@Arclite: MikeJ was being snarky and, more to the point, ironic. I think you missed that.
brendancalling
wow. That was great!
kdaug
@whetstone:
Almost. It’s “I TEACH Sunday School, Motherfucker!”
debbie
@ No one of Importance:
Bullshit. Who are you to determine the “right” way to react to anything? There’s always more than one way to reach a goal, and it’s no one’s prerogative to determine the best path.
If someone doesn’t care now, it’s more likely that they never did, not that they’re too lazy or self-involved.
gocart mozart
If you want conservatives to support stringent gun control, arm the blacks.
Cervantes
Jiminy cricket. Big chip on little shoulder.
No one of Importance
Reading Comprehension FAIL.
Back under your bridge, little troll.
satby
This clip really moved me, and I’ve liked all of them and shared a lot on FB for my gay nephew. I was a smart dorky kid who got called queer a lot too (sometimes I think it’s just the glasses, or used to be in the 60s). It’s important to support all kids who are bullied, and let the LGTB kids know that lots of times the bullies don’t really KNOW they’re gay, it’s just words they know are good weapons against anyone who’s different.
Caz
Not bad. It’s far from making him a great human being though. He’s a good human I guess, but I don’t see anything great about him. He’s a good, funny, successful human.
Larkspur
The tactic worked for Pat, and Colbert never forgot it. That’s pretty powerful in my opinion.
I stumbled over a similar tactic, although in a less upsetting situation. I worked with a woman once who was very intelligent, but very quick to take offense and to throw a great big noisy fit about it. One time she launched a tirade on me, and I was so damn tired of the whole dynamic. So I decided to change things up, hoping I could just get her off my back, so I leaned toward her and said, quietly, “Why do you have to be so mean?”
And she shut up. I was pleased, thinking I’d got her good. About a half hour later, she came up to me and said I was right, and apologized, and admitted that she tended to fly off the handle.
Well, look. My intention had been to surprise her into shutting up, but it seems I accidentally did a good thing. I broke the pattern, and she responded. Also, we became friends.
Since then, I’ve been trying to do stuff like that on purpose.
But in terms of legendary attitude adjustments of the gay variety, nothing was quite as much fun as the bully jock Larry’s enlightenment in Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Episode 15, “Phases”). Xander thinks he’s located the werewolf. Larry thinks Xander thinks something else.
Sorry. I’m just a BtVS geek, and I will be till I’m dead, and I won’t be dead till you put a stake through me.