I used to like Stephen Colbert, just like millions of others. His Colbert Report was funny and well played, so much so that people like me felt that here was a man nuanced enough to wrap his liberalism in enough humor that he came off as balanced, above it all, and well …nuanced. Stories of his personal life seemed to confirm this persona. He was a devoted Catholic, expressed support for causes that were humane, loves Tolkien, all the while holding his political beliefs with dignity. When he migrated to the Late Show, he found it hard to shed his old host image but managed. All the while, his funny streak gradually died. As reported in this Variety piece, Stephan Colbert, as the comic, is dead. Meet Stephen the shrill, the mocker, the desperate, the lewd baiter, the ridiculer. But more than all of that, Stephen Colbert is wrong.
Stephen has become part of the out of touch hate wagon that characterizes so much of the Democrat Party now. He defends a press that has lost all objectivity in their zeal to destroy Trump. The wing of the press he defends becomes less of a fourth estate each day. They are simply partisan activist. Stephan fantasizes about a Putin-Trump kink axis, and for what? They had a short season of mutual superficial admiration during the campaign? Just in case you haven’t noticed, we’re virtually at war now. The Putin-Trump kink trope is pretty popular in NYC where Stephen operates. It’s taken on a life of it’s own among the militant LGBTQ crowd there. It’s a complicated thing apparently. Love, hate, desire, loathing, all wrapped up and projected onto a guy they dispise – whom by the way, they didn’t pay all that much attention to when he was their neighbor, except for his generic classless capitalistic sensibilities. Now he’s the intense locus for their homoerotic churning. And into that, has Stephen Colbert bought-in.
I personally don’t care what happens to Colbert in the aftermath of these intemperate remarks. In as much as he represents a huge media group-think, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to see an example made of him, but I’m not holding my breath. Canning him won’t stop the descent of the mocking left into ever more fringe frenzy. I’m not interested in a forced apology. The institution he is a part of is beyond hope. I’m all for a sincere ‘left’ that participates in a legitimately elected government and fortunately, there are those that do so, but that is not the party of Colbert. Say a dirge for him, change the channel and let the ratings determine his fate.
