Dirty Mirrors

There is a bit from an American expat comedian in the UK, Reginald D Hunter, that I heard probably 15 years ago, and as time passes it seems more and more relevant. He talks about his experience in the UK and people’s use of sarcasm, debating opinions they may not personally hold, and even “taking the piss” as an everyday part of interactions, and how that doesn’t really translate to the US. He talks about how holding multiple viewpoints is an advanced way of thinking, and we, as a young country, don’t have that maturity, which is why the US loves catchphrases so much. They’re easy. It’s one simple idea.

The standup routine itself was absolutely hilarious, and he honestly made some very good points, but that particular bit really stuck with me. Today more than ever, it seems depressingly relevant in looking at our media, our politics, our world events. It’s is absolutely depressing seeing how people seem to be completely incapable of separating and looking at the individual elements of so many complex concept and have to distill them down to simplistic, frankly incorrect, categorization so that they can take a binary viewpoint, because the idea that things are complex is just, what, too hard?

Identity politics is just mindless partisanship and fails to represent individual views. Not understanding something about someone does not make them your enemy. So long as nobody is being hurt, how you choose to live your life does not entitle you to dictate to others how they live theirs. A country is not a religion or an ethnicity. All Arabs are not terrorists. All Hispanic immigrants are not members of a cartel. Criticism of a government is not criticism of an entire ethnic group. Calling for the financial divestment from organizations that are supplying weapons that have been used to indiscriminately kill thousands of innocents is not bigotry!

This kneejerk oversimplification of every goddamn issue has gotten completely out of hand. We treat complex issues as overly simplistic monoliths, failing to recognize the actual issues at stake, just to be able to pick a side and further divide us, and until people are willing to shut the fuck up, stop fixating on a reductionist label or a catch phrase, stop acting like the entire world is nothing more than “us versus them,” and start actually using the grey matter between their ears to understand that NOTHING is simple, then things will never get better. They will only get worse. Look at the world around us. Look at what we have become. Is this what you all want? Because it’s a disgrace.

Comedy, good comedy, holds a mirror up to the world. Be it satire, absurdity, observation, etc., it lets us see a reflection of everyday life in a way that is entertaining because we can relate to the truth that underlies the jokes. Looking in that mirror today, I am ashamed of what I see.