Yes, dear readers, I've coined a new term. "Folly" meets "politics." I'm hoping that it'll be bigger than "truthiness" eventually.
A few days ago, faux-political pundit Stephen Colbert announced his intention to run for president. As a result, I am ashamed and furious. Allow me to elaborate.
Colbert's obnoxiously grandiose entrance (whether or not it's a fabrication is irrelevant; it's the principle of the thing that grinds my gears) makes a political system that millions of people take for granted even less serious. In the 2004 presidential election, less than 61% of eligible American voters cast ballots. Just think about that for a moment, but not too much more than that, because if you have even half a brain, thinking about it for more than a moment might well cause your head to explode, and we don't need any more of that. Anyway, such a low voter-turnout rate shows that people are too busy spending their time feeding their addiction to Facebook, playing HALO, getting drunk, and smoking marijuana (read: doing other things less important than voting) to help guide the direction their country heads in. You know, no biggie.
What role does Stephen Colbert (fellows Bill Maher and Jon Stewart are also culpable) play in this mad dash to the septic tank? Well, you see, he's a comedian (a crappy one at that) who makes his living lampooning any and every aspect of the political system; the protocol, the people, etc. But now, in the ultimate show of bad taste and disrespect, he's actually trying to enter that political system--whether or not he's at all serious does not matter--in a blatant attempt to subvert the system even more. To stand for the antics of this clown constitutes a complete disregard for the reasons why America as a whole is better off than the rest of the world. And that's no better than burning an American flag as an American citizen (an atrocity I believe should be repaid with immediate, permanent exile from the country, no questions asked).
The icing on the cake? My generation is taking this bag of nonsense and running amok with it. There is a Facebook group called "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T Colbert," which now has 1,125,175 members. It's unspeakably, pathetically sad. It really is.
No lyrical selection tonight. Instead, I will define this new term.
fol•li•tics [fol-i-tics]
-noun (used with a singular or plural verb)
1. The deliberate mockery of the system of government, manifested by participation in said system, e.g. Stephen Colbert's stated intention to run for president.
2. The use of politics as a joke.
Sentence: Stephen Colbert is a prime example of how the American government system has turned into mere follitics.
8 comments:
nice, very nice....
i dunno, on one hand i agree that colbert makes his career by criticizing others while showing no proof he could do any better himself, but on the other hand, I do think it's funny and i am a member of said face book group (though I would only vote for him if the other alternatives didn't seem any better, i would laugh my ass of if he actually got elected into office and was sworn in and told all that top secret information)
First of all, is anyone aware that the Colbert we see on tv is but a comic persona? The guy himself is apparently very intelligent. In any case, I believe his run for office is a joke. Even if he's not joking, he'd probably resign immediately if elected, which I agree would be a hilarious little blip in America's history. And even if he's serious, won't this help drag those facebook-obsessed, Halo-playing unpatriotic hooligans that make up 39% of our eligible voters into the ballot box?
And why is it that people are so preoccupied with making everyone vote? In a free state, why is apathy and indecision frowned upon so heavily?
because if 10 people dont care about elections, but one person does and he/she is the only person that votes, only their interests are represented, even if they hurt the other 10 ppl. It's really only the other ten people's fault, of course, that they did not make their voices heard, but political participation does nothing but help, and politics affects all of us very immidiatley.
Yeah I get that, but don't we want our voters to be willing? Maybe the 60% we have now is the only 60 we need.
Well considering that 50% of the country is below average intelligence, its probably a good thing that about half the country doesn't vote, right?
My thoughts exactly.
So, don't know if you've heard, but he recinded his candidacy.
why on earth??? i was so excited to see what happenned with that....
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