Jon Stewart is a sellout

[stewie]

After saying that Truman was a war criminal for nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki and giving reasons why, now he has done a 180 and said it was stupid to say that. When are people going to learn, this guy is bought and payed for.

I never liked him to begin with, first of all I don't find it funny that our society is headed towards a warmongering, impoverished police state. Secondly a lot of the people he has on his show are the same people who are causing all the problems, and he does not go nearly far enough in challenging them about it.


Jon Stewart: Wimp, Wuss, Moral Coward

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009 ... al-coward/


Jon Stewart calls Truman a War Criminal for Dropping nuclear bombs on Japan - Torture?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF4pV27_7PI


Jon Stewart Apologizes for calling Truman a War Criminal for Dropping nuclear bombs on Japan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7bqyOzZzfI

[Phys]

I never realised he was on-board? I think he just hated bush and company as well as most republicans.

[Ry]

nuking to save lives...lol Ok so lets kill some innocent people because after they die we can save starving people with the food we save....

Why don't we just nuke everyone then and then no Americans would die.

Japan wanted to surrender and had been trying to for months. The US nuked Japan to create total surrender because that is what they wanted politically. They didn't need total surrender and they didn't need to invade the main islands when the enemy was surrendering the war was over and that would have saved the most lives.

You can't just slaughter women and children because you think it will make you win the war faster. If so then why have the concept of war crimes at all because your essentially saying everything is OK so long as it helps you win.

If killing the innocent is not a war crime then what is? Couldn't Hitler say having the slave labor camps was going to help him win and produce needed goods for the guys in the field? Or burning prisoners was a way of saying food for others. Why bomb any military targets, just go straight for cities.

It's not a tough moral question when you know the real situation. Japan wanted to surrender, the US could have taken that and the war was over. But they didn't want to divide Japan with Russia into North and South Japan like they had East and West Germany. So the days before Russia invaded the US nuked Japan twice and got a total surrender. They could have avoided the whole thing and just accepted a Japanese surrender but then they wouldn't get their bases there so that they could invade Korea two years later.

[stewie]

Japan wanted to surrender and had been trying to for months. The US nuked Japan to create total surrender because that is what they wanted politically. They didn't need total surrender and they didn't need to invade the main islands when the enemy was surrendering the war was over and that would have saved the most lives.

That's correct. The link below is an excellent article about how the Japanese had been saying from at least May 1945 that they would surrender as long as their emperor was allowed to stay, and Truman was well aware of this. Obviously this should not have been any big deal to the americans. I highly recommend this article because it gives a behind the scenes look at what led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the kind of the stuff they don't teach in our schools.

The Hiroshima Myth

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/denson7.html

[Elvis]

Jon seems like a good guy. He seems sincere IMO. I think overall, he's an entertainer at heart and wants to be liked.

He once said that comedy was a way for him to ingratiate himself within this culture. He mentioned that Jews and Blacks do this, as do other minorities, as a way of fitting in.

I can understand that. I don't think he's a phony like the PEP (Progressive Except for

Palestine) liberals, but he was a coward in this instance.

Keep in mind, he's got a good bullshit radar and seems like the type of person who could keep an open mind on a lot of issues. He's just uninformed. For example, Chomsky in his position would have destroyed that other guy. Chomsky (if that fucking Satan would let him speak) would destroy O'Reilly.

We got to accept that for anyone to be on television they got to kiss some ass and be a certain 'type' of character.

You'll never get true dissidence on modern American television since it's all about advertising and blah blah.

All in all, Jon is still important. The drawback is not him so much as it his audience who may think simply watching his show is enough to be informed.

When I was in HS, I loved that show. In retrospect I had no idea what was going on in the world. You got to read as much as you can and learn stuff on your own by a variety of sources. It takes a lot of work to put things in context and to think critically.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say Jon is a sellout. I do think he was a bit of a coward though. And if he knew his shit, he wouldn't have rescinded on his original statement.

[Irie Dave]

Stewart's kind of a shill imo.

[exquisite]

unbelievable.

o'reilly mentioned the killing of women and children in pakistan.

and stu appologised for calling a war criminal a war criminal

[stewie]

He's just uninformed.

I'm sure he knows a lot of what is going on. It's his job. Given that Obama is doing virtually everything Bush did and more, it is hypocritical to not slam Obama and the democrats just as bad as he did Bush and the republicans.

You'll never get true dissidence on modern American television since it's all about advertising and blah blah.

No it's all about propaganda and dumbing down and the destruction of our morals. But mostly it is to keep the public hoodwinked about what is going on.

In retrospect I had no idea what was going on in the world.

It looks like you still don't. Anyone who thinks TV is all about advertising and bullshit has a very limited understanding of what is happening.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say Jon is a sellout. I do think he was a bit of a coward though. And if he knew his shit, he wouldn't have rescinded on his original statement.

Someone who apologizes - obviously because it was a threat to his job not to - for something so important and which he obviously felt strong about and knew something about is a sellout almost by definition. This is not complicated either, killing innocent civilians is never right. To say that he only rescinded his statement because he did not know enough about the subject is ridiculous.

[stewie]

Stewart's kind of a shill imo.

People just remember the good things Stewart has said and not the hours and hours he has spent joking about very serious matters and have many of the ruling class on his show and not standing up to them. His show is laced with poison, teaching young people that it is ok to have neocons and warmongers and treasonous democrats on his show and not challenge them is not something young people should be learning. I think joking about the topics he covers without saying anything serious about it is in reality a very nasty and subversive form of propaganda. It is fine to joke about these things once in a while but to have the whole show like that - without ever hearing any real dissent make idiots out of everyone who watches.

I haven't watched his show lately - I have never watched it much but I saw enough the few shows I have watched - but I would bet that it is far different than when Bush was in power. That right there should tell you something is seriously wrong with this picture.

Joking about the obvious problems with the neocons, republicans, Bush and sometimes democrats is not serious dissent, not even close.

The only good thing I could say about him is that POSSIBLY he has good intentions, him saying that Truman was a war criminal and speaking out about gaza showed maybe his conscience is bothering him.

[Irie Dave]

TV is worthless for anything political. It's all propaganda.