There has never been an easier time or place in all of history to be satirical. Donald Trump (among other things) has made satire easy. Satire is open for the public! No longer are we slaves to the many and ever-changing hosts of Saturday Night Live. No longer do we have to watch in pain as Jimmy Fallon amasses millions of viewers by being likable and refusing not to just smile constantly as if everything is okay. Never again will we weep for the death of Jonathan Stewart’s Daily Show, and the Colbert Report (Trevor Noah is great, but we can still miss Stewart).
Satire is for the people, and today it is by the people. Youtube streamers unite, let us change the direction of American politics, and thus the economic state of the whole world, by mocking everyone and everything!
As the venerable Neil Postman, writer of “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” said: “Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials.”
And thank God! Propositions! Words! Talking! These allow people to develop thoughts rather than laugh. We don’t want that, satire is for the people and by the people. Government is for the memes, and by the memes. (Even multi-millionaires know that real political change happens when we fund "shit-posters" on 4chan).
What do we want to make fun of? Everything! And indeed we will, and do. Who watches the debate to decide who to vote for? No one! Who watches the debate so they can live tweet a joke and hopefully get a lot of retweets? Everyone! (Even Hillary Clinton has mentioned cat gifs in an attempt to be relatable). Show me one person who wouldn't tune in to "Keeping up with the Obamas," and I'll report that individual to my friend who runs an asylum for the criminally insane.
Life is too boring to vote smart. Vote entertaining, and watch the world burn! That would give us a ton of shit to tweet about. If this campaign were normal, if any politician suggested practical legislation to fix any real problems (i.e. police brutality, globalization and the unethical nature of international labor, or I don't know, maybe the fact that it seems like the Cold War is getting hot), then we wouldn't be able to mock them. They wouldn't be entertaining; life would be about helping others and not laughing one more time before crying ourselves to sleep because we don't have any good matches on Tinder.
Satire is for the people. For the ravenous entertainment appetite of bloated celebrity-obsessed Americans who can only handle peripheral routes of persuasion because direct routes require us to pay attention to the details. And we wouldn't have it any other way.
