One of the most refreshing things about millennials is an unwillingness to accept the status quo. Some may argue that sentiment holds true for almost any generation. Many great social movements in US history came from a younger generation not accepting the status quo set forth by their parents and grandparents etc. The millennial generation has thus far proven to be no different. This is the generation of people that fancy themselves champions of gay marriage, women's rights, and racial equality. On the surface these all seem to be great, deserving, and important issues. Should gay people be allowed to marry in every state? Yeah, I don't see why not. Should women get paid the same wage as men for doing the same job? Yeah, that seems like a fair deal. Should people get treated equally regardless of their complexion? Yeah, no issues with that. This all sounds great. The only problem is none of these issues are our own, and if you think you've done anything of true consequence thus far in fixing these issues you are kidding yourselves--seriously.
If you really think about it our generation has actually never done anything risky. We live in quite possibly the softest generation of Americans to have ever lived. This isn't inherently bad but what good comes from obeying the rules? You've been told since Day 1 "play nice." Somehow along the way of becoming the "rebellious" generation many young people think we are, we got trapped in the cruel game of political correctness. Somehow along the way we've bought into the idea that it is better to say nothing than to say something controversial that may hurt someone's feelings. Somehow along the way it became "cool" to be a critic and attack the work of other great individuals rather than actually doing something of importance yourself or ever actually achieving anything. We may think that we are the generation that values equality more than the generations before us, or the generation that will bring about more fairness and happiness, but the truth is we aren't or at least we have no reason to think we will be. We are the participation trophy generation. We are the hashtag activism generation. We are the Instagram filter generation. We are the people who rather than going out and doing something amazing are content getting almost there and filtering our way to the finish line. We have allowed ourselves to sit and tweet and watch television and allow guys like Jon Stewart to tell us we've done something important when you have in fact done nothing.
Many of you love Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. I don't blame you. Jon Stewart had an excellent show. He had a great personality that brought viewers in, he held (most) politicians accountable, and made watching the news at least a little less boring. The Daily Show revolutionized the way Americans, especially young Americans, view politics. The problem is Jon Stewart in his career of actually achieving things allowed thousands of people every night to feel like they did something important when in reality they didn't. It might hurt for some of you who hate police violence to see some of the recent events in the news, and it felt good when you tweeted "#BlackLivesMatter." It might hurt if you are a vegetarian to see stories of lions being hunted illegally and it made you feel good to tweet about #CecilTheLion. That's all well and good, but at the end of the day you are the only person that feels good. The aggrieved party in any situation never feels better because of a hashtag trend. You might have gotten great favorites and retweets but guess what. Nothing changed.... Black people are still hurt by racism. Lions will still get hunted tomorrow. The only thing you did was further a liberal agenda handed down to you by our parents and the media. If we are supposed to be the people changing the world why are we allowing ourselves to be used as puppets in situations where it has been proven time and time again that the current political system lies to us all the time. You tweeting "#YesAllWomen" does not force employers to be less sexist. Your tweet is just a publication of you giving yourself your own political activism participation trophy for all 467 of your Twitter followers to see.
In speaking fairly, this is not completely Jon Stewart's fault. In speaking realistically, he did play a significant role. Some of you may believe that his cynicism and biting attacks on the American political system were actually him being unbiased. The truth is however, that by using strictly satire in his news reporting Stewart was able to create the illusion of attacking both sides of the aisle equally which allowed progressives to gobble up everything on his show as being unbiased because well, he made that one mean joke that one time about Obamacare's website not working.
This was exactly what the political left needed him to do. In fact, that may be the toughest pill for young viewers to swallow is that in essence Jon Stewart may have been the single most effective indoctrination tool for the Democratic party ever. That's right you who are "standing up to the establishment" or "going against the grain" are just playing into the hands of people like Hillary Clinton. Young people don't like watching boring news telecasts, but here's this comedian who makes fun of old politicians and talks about the news at the same time. Stewart was for 16 years able to pass off his comedy skits as real unbiased news despite attacking conservative political figures up to 4 times more frequently according to some media watchdog outlets. This was made apparent over the years by his personal vendetta with Fox News, known to be the only real conservative news outlet on television. Jon Stewart was, for all intents and purposes, a shared Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi wet dream that aired on Comedy Central every night.
The Democratic party has been the party of young people for awhile now, and this is made painfully obvious due in no small part to satirical news outlets that push the liberal agenda so well. Jon Stewart created, mastered, and played the game for 17 seasons. No one had done it before him, and it's doubtful anyone will ever do it better. Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Larry Wilmore all owe their careers to Stewart, and to be frank, Barack Obama owes his presidency in large part to Stewart as well. The Obama re-election truly made this point. Obama fumbled his way through his first term and managed to alienate almost every voting base he had united in his first election campaign. Just when all hope was lost for the Golden Boy of progressive politics, Jon Stewart came to save the day and was able to put together one of the best smear campaigns in recent memory. Stewart painted every Republican as the rich, out-of-touch, white guy and unfortunately for Mitt Romney (who fits every single one of those criticisms), he fell right in the trap and like that, Obama was back in.
Alas, despite all of our differences there will be a small part of me that misses Jon Stewart, actually, it will be a fairly large part of me that misses him. Stewart was for 16 years the only man in America that could with any facial contortion, or voice inflection, or biting criticism change the American youth's opinion of a politician in one show. Stewart understood better than anyone that people value humor, and in all honesty, few people deserve to be made fun of more than our own elected officials. He blended comedy and political commentary in a unique way that was truly his own. Stewart recognized this niche in television and blew it out of the water. Despite the fact that my personal views rarely coincided with Jon Stewart's, I watched regularly. Stewart was as dynamic a "news anchor" as I've seen, and no one made viewers laugh and appreciate his criticisms better. Stewart may have been biased, but he created a genre that didn't exist before him and thanks to his hard work and dedication to his craft we as Americans, will always have this. Political satire is one of the most persuasive tools in government, and Stewart was undeniably the best of the best.
So long, Jon Stewart.
