When it comes to the once-and-current host of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, I've always flitted between liking him and disliking him. To say that he doesn't make good points sometimes would be a lie, though these good points are often sandwiched between ridiculous commentary and ho-hum jokes.
Still, Stewart has a couple of abilities I've seen that many people in his field lack. He can self-deprecate and, from time to time, say something that's pretty intelligent.
I was watching the latest opening monologue from The Daily Show to see Stewart respond to the backlash he received for criticizing President Joe Biden's cognitive ability. Sure enough, he did. Members of the left are furious with him for making fun of Biden and accusing him of giving Donald Trump more credence by comparison, even though he spent time lambasting Trump as well.
However, right after this segment, he moved on to judging Tucker Carlson's recent trip to Russia, his interview with Vladimir Putin, and even his visit to a Russian grocery store.
Carlson's recent pro-Russia commentary has a lot of people divided not just between the right and the left, but the right and the right. Stewart played some clips from Carlson's report, including a look at Moscow's incredibly beautiful subway system, which went viral on social media.
Carlson said that the trip to Moscow had radicalized him against American leaders. I would say that you don't need a trip to Moscow to accomplish that, but I understand the sentiment. What many don't understand is how Carlson can effectively become a person who is so ready and willing to promote the Russian way of doing things, and how many on the right could also begin cheering it on.
At the end of the day, Russia might very well have a firm sense of law and order, it may have beautiful and clean public transportation, and its grocery stores might be filled with goods for far cheaper prices...but it's also a dictatorial nation that doesn't tolerate too much dissent and death might await you if you're considered too much of a bother.
Russia is not a free country. So why is Carlson and some members on the right so soft on it?
I think Stewart is the closest to the right guess, and love him or hate him, his take is worth hearing out.
After going over some of Carlson's points and countering them with his own arguments, Stewart gets to the question of why Carlson is doing this.
“It’s because the old civilizational battle was communism vs. capitalism — that’s what drove the world since World War II," explained Stewart. "Russia was the enemy then. But now they think the battle is woke vs. un-woke. And in that fight, Putin is an ally to the right. He’s their friend.
"Unfortunately, he is also a brutal and ruthless dictator," Stewart continued. "So now they have to make Americans a little more comfortable with that. I mean, liberty is nice, but have you seen Russia’s shopping carts? And Tucker would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling assassins [killing Navalny].”
You'll never catch me saying Stewart is a better journalist than Carlson. He's a man who says the news funny and then makes some real points. He'll never have to put himself out there like a real journalist and can always hide behind his humor as a shield.
However, this doesn't necessarily make Stewart's point here wrong.
I think many people on the right have been fighting wokeness for so long that it's become the chief villain in America's story. To be clear, what we know as "wokeness" is just Marxism dressed up in social justice talk, but the interesting thing about Russia is that despite its Marxist leanings, it is wholly anti-woke and there is something undoubtedly attractive about that.
In fact, as my colleague Ward Clark reported, Russia is so anti-woke that it shut down a "My Little Pony" convention on the grounds that it was suspected of promoting homosexuality, something it does not allow in the country. Given the rampancy of LGBT activism in the United States, many people are going to see that as a good thing.
But as attractive as anti-wokeness is, this level of it is a stark rejection of freedom, a principle America is based on and most on the right support. Yes, a bit of anti-wokeness would be a refreshing change and start putting society on the right course, but at no point am I willing to fight wokeness by doing what the Russians do and start restricting freedoms and embracing dictatorial power to do it.
I think many people on the right believe they're drawing a line between some of Russia's results and Russia's methods, but at this stage in America's history, I don't believe we can get Russia's clean public transportation and cheap groceries without something of a dictatorial crackdown on lawbreakers, homeless, drug addicts, or even protesters. Punishments would need to be over-the-top to set examples and people who break the law and those who effectively speak out against the government's new zero-tolerance methods would need to be jailed or killed.
Because that is how Russia gets its results, and while that may be acceptable for some when it comes to the cause of cleaning up America, you run into two issues.
Firstly, once you hand someone that power, it's not going to be given up. They'll always have a fresh new excuse to keep it, and that oppression will continue.
Secondly, it won't be long until you're considered a criminal for wanting to indulge in a freedom you once enjoyed but now can't legally. If you try to, feeling it's your right to enjoy that freedom, you'll quickly find that you're now part of the problem and the cleanup attempt by the government that you once endorsed will now turn against you.
The point is, yes, Russia's public transportation is really, really nice, and there is an element of respect for it that allows it to be so beautiful and well-maintained...but there's also an element of fear.
Stewart's point is worth considering. The enemy of our enemy, in this case, isn't our friend.
A quick aside: The enemy of our enemy, Ukraine, isn't our friend either, but I digress.
