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Jimmy Kimmel Is a Bully
The latest spearhead for the “reasonable” Left’s response to Las Vegas has been found in the heartfelt, but factually false monologues from Jimmy Kimmel. Now, unlike many on the Right, I don’t harbor a dislike of the man himself. He seems a decent fellow and brought one of better libertarian-leaning minds to us, Adam Carolla. I no longer watch Kimmel, or any late-night comedians for that matter, as they continually find joy in insulting me while their barking seal audience lauds their vitriolic approval with enthused applause. Why would anyone want to be attacked before going to sleep by a supposed moral authority?
Back in his youth, Kimmel said he wanted to be David Letterman. For the same reason, I didn’t watch the not-so-funny Letterman at the end of his career either. However, just because we don’t watch him, we still can’t escape his political prolix. His rants are being replayed everywhere. Kimmel is affable and sympathetic, and many of us can envision being friends with him outside of the political debate. But he is currently being a bully. A great big, ignorant bully. In fact, he is the most dangerous kind of bully. Since he elicits empathy from a great number of people, he is elevated as a voice of reason and is now being used by the left to carpet-bomb their enemies, us.
He taps into our raw emotion, confusion, fears, and anger when we are most vulnerable. He sounds moderated in his views and effectively lectures us on his “facts,” which sound like common sense. If you throw out everything you know, whether it’s on healthcare or gun rights, Kimmel seems wise, truthful, and tearful, therefore those who he has determined are on the other side of his “truth” must be ignorant, hateful, and/or evil. I won’t get into numerous details why Kimmel is factually wrong on the gun rights debate, but recommend watching the always thorough Ben Shapiro who covers it here.
Why is Kimmel a bully? Normal people (those of us not screaming at each other on Twitter for hours on end) wake up each day, head to work, take the kids to school and come home exhausted only to rinse and repeat. Every few weeks we come up for air only to remark “how did we get to October already?” Most don’t follow the minute-to-minute outrage machine from both the left and right and correctly consider the incessant anger as cancerous. Also, there are shades of gray. It’s confusing to know what’s what. Yes, CNN may hate Trump, but didn’t Trump say what he said?
Confusion, which many would say is by design, stops most from intellectually understanding the deeper issues. Therefore, emotion trumps truth. Reading an article deep in the interweb why Kimmel is wrong does not get the eyeballs that Kimmel gets when demonstrating his tormented heart on his sleeve. And thus Kimmel has been elevated to be the moral authority on this issue and tells us because we vote for conservatives “your thoughts and prayers are insufficient.” Shapiro asks “who died and made Kimmel God? Who made you the great moral arbiter of our time?”
Many of our families and friends get much of their political marching queues from empathetic entertainers, enlightened late-night “comedians,” and those unbiased “journalists” who make up the mainstream media. When Las Vegas happens, it pierces our protective bubble, which many have fortified against the shrill politics of our day.
None of us can understand how someone could intentionally kill and hurt so many innocents, and as we look for answers, the enlightened ones immediately turn evil into a political “I told you so” moment.
We cringe and think to ourselves, well, that’s just the extremists on the left — those Twitter crazies who spend their days screaming at each other while the rest of us try to make ends meet. For example, within minutes of reports of the Las Vegas massacre, we get teachers vomiting their hatred into the ether. (She since deleted her account) .
Within minutes of the Congressional baseball game shooting, Daily Kos founder (an extreme-left echo chamber) Markos Moulitsas tweeted this response to Rand Paul.
Republicans are getting what they want. https://t.co/8ZUnso6JCV
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) June 14, 2017
The Pulse Night Club massacre, until Sunday night, the worst mass shooting in the United States, brought out advocates of the LGBTQIAA (did I miss anyone?) community who immediately blamed the right for the evil perpetrated by a “radicalized Muslim lone wolf.” Here was an ACLU Lawyer’s take:
The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No. #PulseNightclub
— Chase Strangio (@chasestrangio) June 12, 2016
The Left wants to preach empathy. But they will only accept complete submission by their perceived political enemies. As we learn who the Las Vegas killer was and what psychosis propelled him to slaughter so many innocents, the left is once again falling into the trap of assuming they can bully their fellow Americans into acquiescence. It’s a formula that has only lead to the disintegration of national dialogue, balkanize our country and, if it continues, will likely lead to their greatest nightmare of all, the re-election of President Trump.
Published in General
Sabo’s on a roll today.
More Sabo,
I don’t bother to do that because I just assume that the guest at some point will be voluntarily or involuntarily conscripted for a political narrative.
Has any one else noticed that Jimmy Kimmel has turned into the lefty version of Alex Jones?
Jimmy Kimmel responds to Sabo.
Support Sabo. Leave a comment in the Hollywood Reporter for Jimmy.
With eloquence like that, why does he bother with a writing staff?
I was just thinking of something like that. You said it better.
In war you have no greater ally than the mistakes of your enemies. While Jimmy Kimmel is certainly bad for the culture he is doing more for Trump than a hundred door to door volunteers.
Actually, my take was “Right back at you!”
I hope that means that he doubles down.
Who, Jimmy? Jimmy is at the end of his talent tether. What you see is all he’s got.
Brilliant writing, Dave! The phrase, “ignorant bully” makes me think of the question I wish I had asked Mark Steyn the other night in Minneapolis;
“In your book, American Alone, you talk about how our enemies have the advantage of cultural confidence; do you think we face the same challenge with bullies on the left, who are so cocksure of their opinions?
Persuading the Left is a war unto itself, and “ignorant bullies” are the enemy we must vanquish before making any progress.
I liked this. Carson was great. And right now we have no one who will sooth the soul. We desperately need that. But, nowadays, so many so-called entertainers are engaged in trying to score points with the people they think are worth scoring points with that real entertainment has gone out the window.
He had the ability to make fun of politicians on both sides of the aisle without making enemies of either — a rare gift not shared by today’s so-called funny men who pay homage to the left and disdain those on the right. Carson is turning over in his grave.
Thanks M. His Rich Richman story cracked me up.
I watched a documentary on a PBS station about Will Rogers the other night. Rogers had the skill of poking without making enemies decades before Carson. Hearing his jokes about Dems and Repubs of the day really highlight how they have reversed roles in so many ways. The moneyed class support Dems more than Repubs. They working man’s only hope is with Repubs unless they have a favored identity and even within that must be higher on the ladder than another victim group.
Strange, isn’t it? Yet, we have been burdened with the label “Rockefeller Republicans” for decades. The super wealthy seek solace by hiding behind the emotional appeal of the Democrats who have successfully managed to label themselves as the spokesmen for the poor.