In the eleven years that have passed, a few things have changed. Colbert and Jon Stewart no longer own the sphere of comedic political commentary, while their understudy John Oliver does.
For Last Week Tonight’s latest in a succession of equally concerned and futile analyses of Donald Trump and his campaign, Oliver targets a number of conservative commentators at the Republican National Convention for passing off their ~feels~ as the straight facts.
Each of them bear the same hallmark: they spout off their take and treat it as gospel, despite the demonstrable and opposing reality of the situation. A more cynical take would be to assume they’re doing it because the reality is there, but Oliver digresses.
He calls the convention “a four-day exercise in emphasising feelings over facts” and labels Trump as “what happens when The Secret gets into the wrong hands.” Of course, the host makes it known “this focus on feelings reached its apex in Donald Trump’s acceptance speech,” which was, for all intents and purposes, horrifying.
Even then, horror is an emotion, and Oliver’s point is that… well, they know what they’re doing. Is the left wing of politics immune from trusting its gut over the facts? Hell no, but only one side of the political divide seems to be riding rabid truthiness to the White House.
Watch:
