Centrist Comedy Always Sucks

usually when people on Brad tube make a response video it's to some chug Lord who's out there actively making the world the worst place someone like Stephen Crowder or ben shapiro or carl benjamin you know some crypto-fascist information or bigotry someone whose work causes direct harm i'm not doing that today today i'm going to be talking about a pair of comedy sketches from the nominally harmless group man shorts Dungeons & Dragons liberal edition and Dungeons & Dragons conservative edition the premise of these videos is about as simple as it gets a group of people sit down to play D&D but the players in one video are all liberals and in the other are all conservatives they're part of a series of videos about themed D&D campaign Tain's like the Canadian edition or Florida edition that kind of thing the DM plays the role of a frustrated straight man as the players ruin his campaign because of whatever the stereotypes they're making fun of are instead of the usual reasons that you would ruin your DMS campaign which is for fun because I like doing it try and stop me Tristan I couldn't tell you what the political beliefs of this group are and furthermore I don't really care I'm not interested in what a bunch of comedians making YouTube videos secretly believe and I doubt these videos are going to indoctrinate anyone either way what does interest me is the implicit assumptions in both videos the ways that the political beliefs of others are argued for and against based on a very shallow and distanced point of view which suggests all politics are simply surface level disagreements between people with identical core values who simply disagree on the nitty-gritty details like much political comedy these sketches aim to poke gentle fun at both sides of the aisle without ruffling any feathers or alienating anyone by necessity if therefore has to argue for form of centrism where extremes on either side are presented as equivalent these sketches attempt to take a neutral stance between American liberalism and American conservatism and in doing so take for granted several positions as the logical midpoint between two extremes it is taken for granted for example that illegal is wrong and that is a reasonable opinion that liberals and conservatives can agree on even she's a socialist she wants to let all the immigrants in regarding your assumption she heavily opposes illegal immigration she actually immigrated to the United States legally ten years ago and has been paying taxes ever since now you may believe that so-called illegal immigration is wrong I disagree with you but I'm not trying to argue that this is some wackadoo out there opinion I would wager most people would agree that illegal immigration is wrong but to position this is the bedrock of immigration policy upon which both liberals and conservatives can find common ground ignores the fact that this is a pretty conservative framing of the issue like if you ask people what do you think of illegal immigration they're like no I don't like it well fuckin obviously but the nuance lies in what illegal immigration is defined as and also crucially whether or not the current definition is just the majority of so-called illegal immigrants in the United States entered the country legally and simply let their visas expire should they be forcefully removed from their homes businesses and families and deported for what is in essence a clerical error this framing also precludes any kind of leftist analysis from discussion the idea that settler colonial its nation-states shouldn't get to dictate who has access to what resources or that borders are fundamentally violent are not worth consideration according to the implicit assumption set upon this sketch now you may believe these positions are too wacky or extreme to seriously consider I disagree but even if you believe that the problem with this mentality is that by de facto cutting the left out of the conversation these sketches attempt to find the reasonable center between what is already the center and the right the middle ground that the sketches suggest therefore skews right words and that's where this type of feckless political commentary always trips up by attempting to maintain neutrality you're placing that neutrality in the center of the ranges of political thought you're willing to consider rather than the range of political thought that exists and presenting that position as a synthesis of all of the best ideas on either side if your range skews rightwards your neutral positions we'll be sympathetic to the right if your range skews leftwards your neutral positions will be sympathetic to the left and go ahead and make comedy that is explicitly left-wing or right-wing or centrist or whatever I make what I consider to be explicitly leftist comedy videos I might dislike right-wing comedy because it's right-wing but I don't find the idea of right-wing comedy inherently insidious aside from like how I consider the right-wing to be inherently insidious but when attempting to make political comedy that remains ideologically neutral you're kind of taking an ideological stance while pretending not to because what is and is not neutral is itself contested enough preamble let's talk about these sketches first up liberal edition the sketch opens up with the DM saying it's election season and let's see how those wacky limbs react all right gang election time is approaching so we've got to stop Russian hackers raise taxes on the rich let the state control everything no I was going to say that we need to have a rational discourse about the direction of our society and so right away a tone is established we're here to have a rational discussion which means we can't talk about Russian hacking letting the state control everything which is what liberals want or raising taxes on the rich three very wacky opinions equally wacky one might say I'm just so frustrated I keep trying to have a reasonable discussion about politics but you keep saying we should raise taxes on the rich and that's crazy so then they roll initiative even though they're not in combat which is not how that works it just seems like if you're gonna make a comedy video about D&D you should you should know the rules of D&D but whatever it's a setup for a joke about how the guy with the lowest roll gets to redistribute other players points to his roll six all right so the three of you eight I have a feat called role redistribution once per day it lets me take points from other players roles and add them to mine what how is that fair make some up whoa are you trying to say that Whalen has the same opportunities as us I mean in a way yeah you all have the same dice well it looks like someone failed their insight check because this analogy sucks to map the idea of wealth redistribution which by the way isn't even a liberal idea liberals don't really seem to like it all that much but whatever to dice rolls implies that everyone across all economic classes has an equal chance of success or failure so let's examine that idea and see if it holds up to scrutiny let's say two guys each one to build their own hotdog company they both make hot dogs of commiserate quality they both have the same business model which requires a hundred thousand dollars in start-up capital now who is more likely to succeed a person with no money or a billionaire to whom a hundred thousand dollars is pocket change the very fact that wealth inequality exists means that people don't have equal chances of success or failure that is in fact the problem that wealth redistribution intends to solve none of the liberal players who presumably support wealth redistribution despite the fact that it's not even a liberal position make any attempt to explain that they just react with immediate hostility they don't believe the things they believe for any reason they're just belligerent case in points they overhear an npc in the game say is conservative and they immediately assume he's racist and rich you overhear the man at the table next to you say that he's a conservative and racist what all I said what he's a racist he's probably rich too no racist I get I can see why a liberal stereotype would think that all conservatives are racist but rich that's not something people typically assume about conservatives the stereotype of a Republican is like a hillbilly living in a trailer park and and like liberals are rich and out of touch that is suppose that's the stereotype and get this guy's he's black checkmate liberals these guys aren't racist they have an imaginary black friend and whalen he's black let's go against like everything I've ever read on the Internet yeah it probably wasn't on CNN whoa they're not gonna show that on CNN that some black people are conservatives no way no way would they ever put that on CNN no way not gonna happen you're like a young I knew with tattoos and stuff why you support Donald Trump given some of his racially inflammatory rhetoric yeah well I think so look I mean I was raised in a conservative family and I'm in business I'm a business consultant I mean business is great I don't want to lose that you know and I know that you know a lot of the the rhetoric that comes out of the white house that's what happens in society these days is if you say anything that's remotely close to conservative Republican or supportive of Donald Trump you're automatically labeled a racist or you're you're you're you're out of tune with your community or in this case Kanye West being called crazy it's absurd one of the things that you need to do as a Republican particularly if you're running for the presidency you have to surround yourself with a bunch of folks that look like us and not just you that look like Hispanics and not just you so they get to talk in the day of the conservative and I didn't name him that I know I always named people Dave but in this case it was already like that in the video and it turns out he is a pretty cool guy they just disagree about some stuff we just disagree on some things okay like what health care is in a human right no I believe in health care I just don't want to put the well-being of myself and my family in the hands of an inept government hey come here come here for a minute I want to talk to you come here that's not how that works Medicare for all doesn't put the government in charge of health care it means that the government pays for your health care but the people who provided don't necessarily work for the government the government already controls health care standards and laws the phrase I'm for health care is meaningless everyone agrees that there should be health care the issue is who should have access to it and the only acceptable answer to that question is everybody let me guess you don't believe in rights for the trans community no I believe that everybody should be treated equally I just don't think that I should be compelled by law to use certain terminology I mean okay but if he doesn't agree with it then that makes him a bigot so that's not true by the way calling someone a bigot because they have differing opinions than your own is bigoted ok firstly in the context of trans issues to say that you support equal rights for everyone is nonsense sis people don't require the same considerations that trans people do like for example access to hormones or gender affirming surgeries to deny these things to trans people insist people alike is technically equal treatment but does in fact constitute a lack of support for the trans community secondly nobody is compelling anyone by law to use certain terminology this talking point is made up it is nothing what people want is protection from harassment in the workplace extended to trans people this does not legally compel you to use their correct pronouns or whatever bullshit you're pretending to be mad about it simply grants trans people that equal treatment you talked about earlier thirdly it is not bigoted to call someone a bigot for disagreeing with you if what they disagree with you about is whether or not bigotry against trans people is cool and good but all of the trans supporting libs are cowed into silence by the reasonableness of Dave's arguments they've then cast a spell that prevents them from speaking for a little bit because he just couldn't get a word in edgewise before the party kept sitting there and offering no resistance to his views how's he supposed to explain himself and then he delivers this wet fart of a speech look I can tell that you on the Left really care about equality and that's great but equality means freedom for all especially those that you disagree with tribalism helps no one and if you allow yourselves to have calm open unbiased conversations with the opposition you might be surprised to what you find out about your fellow America oh and also stop restructuring existing characters and storylines to fit your agenda it's lazy if you want a strong female character right one well there you have it folks if you just listen to each other you'll find that you actually agree about everything because actually everyone's opinions are pretty reasonable if you let go of tribalism it is for example just tribalism that some people want to get access to health care while others want to work to deny that health care to them it's just tribalism that transpeople want to be able to work in peace make a living and be free of the harassment that makes living their lives in the same terms as everyone else impossible it's just tribalism that some people think it's okay to use the word tribalism to mean sectarianism implying than indigenous people who divided themselves into tribes are inherently warlike or contentious or unable to see the bigger picture like you can they brought that last one is that they probably didn't know that but don't use that word that way please it's not a not a cool way to use that word a lot of people don't realize that now you know hey stop trying to rewrite existing properties because of your agenda we shouldn't be rewriting old properties if we don't like them we shouldn't be changing them just write new ones he said while playing the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons get wrecked lives oh ho we certainly spewer those liberals and now let's make fun of some conservatives mostly this video follows the same format beat for beat it's election season what do you think of that conservatives all right gang election time is approaching and that means we all need to build the wall drain the swamp repeat catchphrases until they stick well actually I was gonna suggest that we have a rational discourse about the current state of affairs what weird have a reasonable discussion about politics not to discuss our views that's not productive so then they roll initiative and they're they're not in combat again it just just doesn't work that way and and there's no turn order in either of these sketches like there's no reason for them to roll in they could be rolling any the whole joke is just that is it that there's a dice roll you could have them roll anything roll your initiatives please 15 17 8 okay great so the three of you are so wait a minute I have a feat called full freedom it allows me to change my role to whatever I want fine but this feat says that you can only use it if you're a specific race and class so what the other races and classes want bonuses they should work harder this analogy doesn't work either it's not the conservative position that rich white people should be able to have special rules that apply only to them they strongly reject that such systemic advantages exist and the use of these advantages is by no means limited to conservatives weren't you complaining in the previous video that assuming all conservatives was racist was itself bigoted civic conservatives meet a liberal and they jump to a bunch of conclusions about her they assume she's a socialist because they assume she supports welfare which is what socialism is in their mind they assume she wants to let all the immigrants in and they assume that she wants to take away their guns but guess what everybody guess what it's gonna flip the script on you she's against welfare because she's a small business owner she's not on welfare in fact she opposes it she's a small business owner and she owns 15 guns and makes regular contributions to the NRA she owned 15 guns and regularly contributes to the NRA and she's against illegal immigration because she immigrated legally and pays taxes she heavily opposes illegal immigration she actually immigrated to the United States legally 10 years ago and has been paying taxes ever since which you know frames this as though undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes but most of them do and most of them immigrated legally like I said earlier so that's kind of an oversight but the conservatives like this because conservatives like when people pay taxes and you might notice something a little fishy here when the Liberal Party met a conservative they were surprised to find that he could politely explain his conservative values when the conservative party meets a liberal they're surprised to find that she doesn't have liberal values some conservatives are reasonable because they can be nice to you some liberals can be reasonable because they have conservative social views so they get to talking to Susan the liberal we just disagree on some things like what you want to take my money and give it to some lazy drug addict no the welfare system in its current state sucks but I think it's short-sighted to suggest that any citizen it needs a helping hand is a leech no you silly conservatives I don't support the welfare system as it exists that sucks I'm a small business owner obviously we're giving away too much now I just support some other kind of welfare policy that I'm not going to discuss and I don't think people are leeches just because they need help you know leeches like drug addicts like how that person said drug addicts and then that supposedly reasonable liberal replaced that with leech almost like almost like you think drug addicts are leeches on society which is it weird thing to present as ideologically neutral in your video and not have any one remark upon okay but you do want to let women kill their children no I just don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do with my body I'm all about individual freedom I just don't agree with okay but if you don't agree with it then you're a fascist so that's not true by the way calling someone a fascist because they have a differing opinion than your own its fascist no no it isn't that doesn't make any sense do you think Mussolini was going around calling everybody else fascists what the fuck you talking about it might be rude or hyperbolic to call someone a fascist if they are not but it is not itself an act of fascism I'm guessing here because they don't really explain what they mean by this but I'm assuming what he means by this is that labeling something fascist is like anti pluralistic because it shuts down conversations and allows you to stop people from expressing opinions you don't like if that's his intent here he is wrong calling something fascist does not shut down discourse or prevent anyone from expressing their views a lot of very confused numb nuts in my comments section call me a fascist sometimes and I'm literally an anarchist it has never shut me up and it never will nothing can live Oh Susan casts that no speech spell and now a Lib gets to go off in a ranch without people interrupting her to say that her opinions are surprisingly reasonable look I can tell that those of you on the right really care about freedom and that's great but freedom means social equality for everyone especially those who disagree with tribalism helps no one and if you allow yourselves to have calm open unbiased conversations with the opposition you might be surprised to what you find out about your fellow America oh and also stop acting like climate change isn't a real issue the cause won't matter when we're all dead and guess what it's the same speech is the conservative because everyone's the same deep down everyone wants the same things but hey conservatives stop pretending climate change isn't real something that I'm highlighting to be as much of a problem as inserting strong women into old media properties was in the previous video boy these two groups really piss me off one of them keeps putting ladies in movies and the other one might end all life on Earth who just a real couple of jerks and the party just doesn't want to play politics anymore it's not fun if you're not allowed to make assumptions about your enemies how Rumph so do you guys want to just you know stop the political stuff and just do something fun it's kind of weird though to end on a note about climate change because it kind of demonstrates everything you're saying is a little bit full of shit it's kind of an example of how politics aren't a game of reasonably sitting at a table and politely discussing what you agree about if one side obstinately refuses to accept the reality of climate change there's no working around that there is no reasonable discussion or middle ground to be reached either we fix the problem or we die so think you can kind of see how the Overton Window leaning towards the right has made supposedly ideologically neutral common values that liberals and conservatives share to be center-right values bad liberals are bad because they refuse to compromise and meet their opponents halfway bad conservatives are bad because they just say catchphrases but their actual positions are surprisingly fine the problem according to the DM isn't that one side or the other wants to do something that would hurt people the problem is that people just accept the orthodoxy of their side of the aisle and doing that on either side is equivalent as far left as you can go if some guy who wants to redistribute wealth a little bit but doesn't actually really clarify what he what he wants and the farthest right you can go is chanting build the wall and calling immigrants invaders Vater that supports guns and pays taxes I'm not seeing any of this on Fox News these things are not equivalent you're comparing minor social democracy to fascism there is no room in the world of these sketches for the kind of discussion it claims will solve the problems of factionalism in American politics according to them any discussion which is divisive by its nature is corrosive to the political discourse we have to listen to everyone's point of view and learn from them no matter what their point of view is or how ignorant it may be but what is the value in considering the opinion of someone who denies climate change why is it good to come to some sort of middle ground here just because disagreeing makes people angry with one another does not make that disagreement unreasonable there are things that it's okay to be angry if another person does not agree with like for example whether or not there should be a earth or whether people deserve to have homes and more importantly than anything you roll initiative before combat I don't know if maybe they're playing by some kind of special rule where they roll initiative at the beginning of the of the session and then they just carry that turn order throughout the session so that they don't have to roll it every time maybe that's the idea I don't know do people play like that let me know if you play like that do you play Dungeons & Dragons or was this episode pretty much inaccessible to you and look I know I went a little hard on these guys but ultimately I think their hearts were in the right place it's good to want to reach out to people who disagree with you and it's good to try and understand other people's points of view it's just that sometimes upon understanding their point of view you might discover it's full of shit either way check out their videos they're not mean people trying to hurt anybody and their D&D videos are usually pretty funny even if these ones got under my skin a little like a lot like I have to make a video about it hello and welcome to the eyeball zone here in the eyeballs own small leftist projects are the instruments of the ancient ones wrath upon this fallen earth he wants indie indie content with a little more nuanced perspective check out the subtly fascist messaging of fantasy games by that Jess who's that Jess she's that Jess you thought it was bad when liberals inserted their ideology into existing works leftist can do it too and there's nothing you can do to stop us we're coming for everything you like and we're going to explain the secret fascist undertones in all of it until all media is cancelled and this video features guest appearances by previously Bali's curio and conquest of Dredd check it out because you're a big nerd who likes theand D I know you are don't lie do you have a small leftist project you'd like to see featured here on the eyeball zone send me no more than one email to thought slime editor gmail.com and maybe you too will find yourself trapped here in the eyeball zone hey if you liked the video please press the like button if you didn't then let's have a reasonable discussion about it and come to a middle ground where you agree to click the like button I don't have a patreon it's patreon.com slash thought slime that's where people go to give me money if they want to and are able to in these difficult times please don't give if it would be a problem for you please also you know what there's also youtube.com slash scaredy-cats TV that's where I go to talk about horror movies you can go over there to listen to that I also stream on Thursdays every 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on twitch.tv slash thought flame and also here on YouTube jingle that little belly if you want to be alerted when I go live you okay that's all I had for today enjoy the rest of your day you're done you finished the video congratulations

Channel: undefined

Views: 234,223

Rating: 4.8904376 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: C7DPesnNk8Y

Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/DisgruntledPorcupine]

Those DND videos were uncomfortably bad.

[u/littledingusbigbrain]

Anyone who labels themselves as a centrist or apolitical certainly leans right/conservative and doesn’t want to admit it. Because if they cared about progressive values at all they would be open about it. I’ve never met someone with leftist or progressive values that would want to hide their beliefs and play both sides.

[u/Tribalrage24]

Whenever people make these "both sides are equally bad" videos, it's typically because they come from a place of privilege where this stuff doesn't affect them. It's easy to "turn off" political discussions and pretend like like none of it really matters when you're some middle class white dude. To these guys, racist immigration laws/climate change/providing financial support for people/etc. are on the same level as having to use gender pronouns/including non-white men in movies/being called a bigot/etc..

[u/SuperMutantSam]

The soapboxing at the end of each video is so incredibly pretentious, Jesus Christ lol

He literally had someone doing the “Huh, this guy has a good point!!!!” nod, because his ideas are just that transcendently insightful. It’s so incredibly lazy, yet self-aggrandizing

[u/lurebat]

While they're liberals and not leftist, Both Sides Can Laugh by Garfunkel and Oates is exactly on this issue and is hilarious.

[u/SalaciousStrudel]

I actually couldn't watch the whole thing