Dave Chappelle

France had Napoleon and decided to become humble. Germany had the holocaust, and decided to become humble. America wiped out the people living here, and fought a civil war about slavery and dropped atom bombs on Japan. Are we humble humbled by our murders? No, we have people trying to erase them because they feel guilty? Don't teach history of slavery or the genocide of the people who lived in North America when Europeans arrived?! You're preventing a necessary natural humility that our country needs. We don't need delusional exceptionalism.



Chappelle's argument in his comedy skit is that blacks are called gangs, Italians have the mob, but if a bunch of Jewish people do something collectively we can't talk about it.

He's referring to what?

Kanye saying something anti-semetic and losing $1.5 billion in a sneaker deal? Adidas isn't some sort of gang or mob hit. It's consequences for expressing intolerance leading to a brand not wanting to associating with his brand. That's different. Someone wasn't put in cement shoes and sunk in the harbor for cutting into profits. Someone wasn't shot up for breaking some rule of a gang, for selling weed on the wrong street corner. In the world of brands and commerce, someone's brand became something another brand didn't want to be associated with. It's not the same thing as a crime syndicate whacking someone.

And what's the connection with lots of Jewish people living and working in Hollywood? That's a whole separate thing, right? Shoes and Hollywood are different things, right? Because Kanye lost 1.5 billion dollars, that somehow has something to do with Hollywood?

I do agree with him about Kyrie's punishment, seems harsh, but then again when you think about his stance on vaccination, there's a pattern of propagating misinformation, and he needs to educate himself, or take his money and go home. It's a privilege to have influence, not a right. I sometimes think canceling isn't enough. And it's an Asian owner of the Nets, so how is that a Jewish thing? I'm not really understanding the connection to Hollywood, unless Hollywood represents everything, and he's saying Jews are everywhere. I thought the whole underlying idea is that Jews have too much power as exemplified by Kanye losing his deal with a sneaker company, Kyrie losing income for being suspended, and there happen to be a lot of Jews in Hollywood. Seems kind of screwed up. If there's a real problem speak directly to it, don't allude to Jews in Hollywood like it's why Kanye and Kyrie are being punished. It's human American business. The head of the NBA isn't in synagogue with the owner of Adidas, talking to the other big wigs in Hollywood.

It's actually quite upsetting when I think about it, combined with the raise of fascism lately. The underlying pattern to call attention to is Italians celebrating Mussolini. Germans spouting fascism. Idiot bloggers in America saying we need tech startup kings to replace democracy. Republicans curbing voting right, gerrymandering and the influence of corporate money in politics. Politicians being bought by Russia. Russia admitted to subverting the USA election. That's the conspiracy shit that needs calling out. Punishments in the world have always been unfair. How about Brittney Griner doing 9 years in a Russian Gulag. How is that Hollywood Jews fault?

I know comedians say things you can't really say any more and it's easy to get in trouble and we need some space to explore things. I just don't think Chappelle is funny when he bashes Trans or uses anti-semetic tropes. 

John Stewart is saying censorship doesn't stop anti-semitism. "“Dave said something in the SNL monologue that I thought was constructive, which he says, ‘It shouldn’t be this hard to talk about things,'” Stewart said." (source)

Links:

"I critiqued Dave Chappelle and his fans questioned my Blackness" (NPR)

"Monty Python star Eric Idle dismisses Dave Chappelle complaints on ‘cancel culture’" (Independent)