Young, affluent, digital types are as a class among the most deeply disingenuous and full of shit people on earth. If you need to prove that, this Daniel Tosh rape joke thing may be the perfect example.
To recap: Daniel Tosh made an offensive, threatening rape joke to a member of the audience. People got mad, and good for them. Then Louis CK defended him, which was wrong. People didn’t get mad. They came up with long, bizarre, convoluted rationalizations for why they shouldn’t get mad. There’s been tons of justifications of CK on blogs and comments and Twitter and Facebook. And the whole reason for the difference is that the world is currently gargling Louis CK’s testicles, not for any genuine political reason. The exact same thing happened when the world went apeshit about Tracy Morgan’s homophobia and Louis CK defended him. It’s pure hypocrisy and it’s fucked.
Well, you know what? I think Louis CK is funny, too. But he’s just as wrong as everyone else defending Daniel Tosh. These bizarre, convoluted rationalizations are just people struggling to reconcile their politics and their tastes and choosing taste. You could take this Lindy West post at Jezebel, who argues that Louis CK’s rape humor can be excused because, um, I guess because she thinks he’s a good dude. It’s a particularly weak entry, but it’s just one of a whole genre.
Please, understand: your political convictions mean nothing if you aren’t willing to sacrifice for them. And there is no sacrifice for the vast majority of people going after Daniel Tosh because they never liked him in the first place. Meanwhile, there’s a lot to sacrifice in criticizing Louis CK, considering that they like him and his show. But that’s what convictions are, you know? Sometimes, you have to stand for something. It’s cool to like Louis CK, it isn’t cool to like Daniel Tosh, and so the Twitterati judge them accordingly. Which is a perfect example of why that whole class of people should be forced onto an ice floe and pushed out to sea.
Plenty of Indignation, Not Much RighteousnessPost + Comments (185)