Jon Stewart is a Collaborator

Jon Stewart has been lionized as the “the most trusted man in America.” You’ve probably heard it before: While “professional” journalists are a bunch of partisan hacks and lapdogs for government and corporations, the “comedian” Jon Stewart is the real muckraker: the man who courageously speaks truth to power; calls out politicians and journalists for their incompetence and dishonesty; and reports more “real” news than mainstream media that are obsessed with celebrity scandals and puff pieces. There is an element of truth to this characterization, but make no mistake: Jon Stewart is a collaborator—meaning that he “collaborates” with a tyrannical government.

First, the element of truth: John Stewart does ask tough questions. The Daily Show brilliantly uses video montages to show politicians constantly and flatly contradicting themselves. Stewart asks his guests fundamental questions about government policy that real journalists would never touch. Alan Greenspan famously stumbled and bumbled after Stewart asked him why the Federal Reserve is necessary in a country that supposedly values a free market.

Jon Stewart gets it—“it” being the reality that politicians are a bunch of lying, self-serving frauds who will say anything to get elected; that Washington is run by special interests; and that most political discourse in this country is superficial and pointless. Stewart’s finest moment was when he bitch-slapped Chris Matthews for saying that people should emulate politicians in their everyday lives in order to get ahead. Moreover, unlike his partisan audience, Stewarts gets the fact that both parties basically suck. I remember one show in 2004 when Stewart chided his audience for not laughing at one of John Kerry’s gaffes. Stewart said, “Oh? When it’s your guy it’s not so funny, is it?”

Jon Stewart gets what politicians are all about, but he still collaborates with them by inviting them on his show, shaking their hands, chatting with them amicably, giving them a platform for their lies and propaganda, and applauding as they exit his stage. You might say that Stewart is “just doing his job.” But notice that his collaboration his personal as well as professional. Despite being a fierce critic of the Iraq War, Jon Stewart is a close personal friend of John McCain, a man who voted for the Iraq War and promised to expand it if he were elected president. McCain has the blood of a million Iraqis on his hands! After sparring with McCain over Iraq in 2007, he still shook McCain’s blood-soaked hand and promised him “shits and giggles” the next time he came on the show.

Wars and other government atrocities don’t just “happen.” Individuals make decisions that cause them to happen. As Charley Reese wrote, “One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices—545 human beings out of the 300 million—are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.”

The first step toward holding politicians accountable is to stop respecting them! As Hans-Hermann Hoppe says, “…instead of admiring them or seeking their association, politicians (and the more so the higher their rank) should be treated with contempt and as the butt of all jokes, as emperors without clothes.” That’s the problem with Jon Stewart: He gives every politician the “emperor” treatment. By doing so, he perpetuates the myth that any government is legitimate as long as it has democratic elections. No matter how corrupt or criminal our government might be, all politicians deserve basic respect because “we” elected them.

It’s because of people like Jon Stewart that politicians and their cronies sleep soundly at night. They know that even their harshest critics still have to be nice to them. Freedom isn’t won by being “nice.” The American colonists did it by gleefully tarring and feathering tax collectors, vandalizing symbols of Royal authority, burning effigies of King George, rioting against British troops, ransacking the homes of loyalist politicians, and finally by declaring their independence and killing anyone who tried to stop them.

Jon Stewart is also a coward. Even though millions of fans see him as “the most trusted man in America,” he refuses to take that responsibility seriously. He says repeatedly that neither his show nor his channel purports to be anything other than satire and comedy. Again, you might say that Stewart is “just doing his job” as a comedian, but there is a darker side to Stewart, a despair that is particular to progressive intellectuals.

All progressives see government as the engine of social and economic progress. They believe that government can end poverty, care for the elderly, provide health care, educate children, cure cancer, create jobs, and control the weather. They believe government can do all of these things as long as it is run by smart, caring people. Faced with a government that never lives up to expectations, partisan progressives typically attribute government failures to those stupid, mean Republicans. But the smarter, more honest progressives—like Stewart—recognize that the problem goes deeper. Stewart says, “The absurdity of what you imagine to be the dark heart of conspiracy theorists’ wet dreams far too frequently turns out to be true.” He describes Daily Show meetings as “a gathering of curmudgeons expressing frustration and upset, and the rest of the day is spent trying to mask or repress that through whatever creative devices we can find.”

Another example of progressive despair is David Simon, whose HBO series The Wire portrayed Baltimore city government as hopelessly corrupt, self-serving, and dysfunctional. Mark Bowden described Simon as “The Angriest Man in Television,” driven by a deep sense of cynicism and a “knowledge of his own futility.” While Stewart takes refuge from his despair in “fake news” and humor, Simon takes refuge in drama and rage.

Kierkegaard once said that resignation is the highest virtue. But resignation to what? These people, who see the darkness and absurdity that exists in the highest realms of power, and do nothing but “express frustration,” shrug, and use it as creative fuel, adopt a fatal quietism that is ushering in the end of liberty. Why don’t progressives snap out of their despair and join the Resistance? I know why. Because it would mean that they would have to abandon their ideology. It comes down to pride. Leo Tolstoy said it best:

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their life.

The “conclusion” shared by all progressives is that government is good and capitalism is bad. (Although David Simon is a fierce critic of the drug war, he attributes most of Baltimore’s problems to “capitalism.”) A strong central government is the non-negotiable cornerstone of the progressive worldview. That is why even “anti-Establishment” progressives like Jon Stewart can comfortably befriend power-hungry politicians like John McCain. They would rather collaborate with tyranny than admit the falsity of their State-centric ideology. In today’s world we value skepticism and cynicism above all. To take the idea of resistance seriously is to cease to be taken seriously. It is this cynicism we call “enlightenment.” And if there is one thing Jon Stewart would not be able to handle, it would the awful earnestness that comes with accepting responsibility: to be earnest is to place yourself in a position where you are more likely to become the laughed at instead of the laugher.

Jon Stewart is smart, insightful, and entertaining. But he is still a collaborator. He is an ally of the State and an enemy of freedom. As the Revolution approaches, we must never forget who is with us and who is against us.

Sic Semper Tyrannis.