The "Last Word" is Stewart deserved to be "Worst Person in the World"

[boston bean]

How's that for some common ground, come to jesus, speak the truth, middle ground, wishy washy breaking news.

John Stewart punted because he didn't want to be slammed as being a partisan hack himself.

It was a selfish and harmful thing to do.

And he did it for himself.

[SidDithers]

1. Unrec...nt

Sid

[boston bean]

23. glad you got that out of your system.

I presume that is all you will write in this thread?

[stray cat]

2. Wow your world must be a wonderful place where the sky is always blue and the sun shining

And no one ever utters a discouraging word! I guess Bush doesn't exist in your world either....

[Riftaxe]

33. I suspect that in his world,

the only time the sky can be seen at all is during intense flatulation.

[classof56]

3. Another unrec. Give it up! nt

[WhiteTara]

4. I have a word for your post

fail.

[boston bean]

10. Well, I used both a left and a right inference, doesn't that count for anything? nt

[davidinalameda]

19. fail is much too kind of a word to use

[boston bean]

21. what adjective would you like to use.

[WhiteTara]

29. stupid. n/t

[davidinalameda]

31. probably one that would at least get this post deleted

[jancantor]

5. or maybe Stewart actually believes what he says

Fwiw, I believe it. Why can't he? It's pretty insulting actually, to attack his motives vs. his argument.

[boston bean]

12. I always go right to the motive. Gives me lots of insight. nt

[jancantor]

15. Or gives you a way to ignore the merits (or lack thereof ) of an argument

It's an easy out. Opponents of medical mj can ignore the evidence of its medical utility (or that it should be a states rights issue) and just attack supporters as trying to backdoor legalization of mj overall.

Ideologues of all stripes use this tactic, and it's generally bogus imo. It's incredibly disrespectful to Stewart. I can say "I disagree with you" to people on all sorts of stuff from abortion to gun control to tax policy without resorting to attacking their motives. People can be smart, informed, and sincerely disagree. Considering Stewart's obvious intelligence, I'm not about to attack his motives.

[boston bean]

17. Ignore motive at your own peril. Lots of things sound real nice, but sometimes the motive

isn't so nice and the end result no matter how pretty the argument is packaged can be harmful.

Motive is one way to determine merit of an argument.

But as you say, we can "agree to disagree".

[jancantor]

32. Motive is never a way to DETERMINE merit

it is suggestive at best. That's because one can have a motive to take a position AND it may happen that this position is correct. However, the converse is much stronger. Iow, if somebody has a motive to believe Y, iow Y benefits them personally, but they advocate Not Y, then that's much more strongly suggestive of their genuine belief, and arguably the merit of Not Y.

[REP]

28. Now, THAT'S hilarious!

Or did you forget to include any blinding flashes of insight by mistake...?

[inna]

6. oh come ON. "Worst person in the world"?? Ridiculous.

[boston bean]

8. Well, no probably not. But the point still stands, he did it for his own vanity

out of fear that what he does could be flung right back at him.

I still like John Stewart. I think his rally sucked and he's no George Carlin.

[slipslidingaway]

7. unrec n/t

[tularetom]

9. Nah but he could easily qualify for "Most Confusing Guest Ever"

He babbled for half an hour (that's when I turned it off) and contradicted himself several times.

I think he was drunk. Or medicated. He said he had been ill.

I don't think he was at his best.

[era veteran]

11. Do not agree with you. n/t

[boston bean]

13. You don't have too. Like Jon said, I would never run you off the road and would probably

let you cut in during traffic.

:-)

[JanMichael]

14. rec to offset one unrec. nt.

[UTUSN]

16. K&R (unknown #, since the UnReccs are winning). Plus, it's amusing

that those who disagree with us criticizing Jon that they are breaking ALL of Jon's points/rules:

1) Not about conflict (Red vs Blue). Broken.

2) Not about trying to understand opponents. Broken.

3) Not about shutting down debate. Broken.

4) Not about name-calling. Broken.

5) Not about mountains-out-of-molehills. Broken.

[Lucian]

18. Rec.

[RZM]

20. Unrec

I see the point you are trying to make. I just don't agree with it.

On a related note, I never much cared for the 'Worst Person in the World' segment in the first place, in large part because it was so heavily focused on the expression of opinion in the United States. Many 'real' worst persons are figures like terrorist leaders and militia commanders in places that few people here think or care about.

[fishwax]

22. I don't buy that

I don't think it was all that selfish or all that harmful.

[Ozymanithrax]

24. Jon Stewart a Partisan hack....

And I thought Freepers think holograms are Satan would be the funniest most unreal post on DU this weekend.

[boston bean]

25. Glad you find it comical. Was meant to be that way on one level.

I think Jon Stewart is a partisan, but he didn't, couldn't, wouldn't speak truth to power. and in doing so gave one batshit crazy side(FOX) better standing in the publics eye.

And why would he do that? Possibly because he didn't want FOX attacking him for be a partisan hack. I think he wimped out.

ETA for grammar and clarity

[Ozymanithrax]

37. And I still think this beats holograms are satan...

for the most unreal thread out here. Jon Stewart is less a Partisan Hack that was Jonathan Swift, and is not even an ideologue. He is one of the two finest living Satirists, with Colbert being the other.

I still find it amazing how quickly people will throw someone under the bus.

[MineralMan]

26. Oh, for pete's sake....

That is all.

[emilyg]

27. unrec

[jonnyblitz]

30. you are talking apples, jon stewart was talking oranges. it's

amazing how what he was saying went completely OVER so many heads. he was complaining about the STYLE or "delivery" of both "extremes" not the SUBSTANCE or content of what both "extremes" are saying. or something like that. :hi:

[applegrove]

34. Unrec.

[apocalypsehow]

35. Nonsense. UnRec. n/t.

[defendandprotect]

36. Grateful to KO and Schultz for raising their objections ... they were right!!

My viewing of Stewart has dropped off since KO came on --

used to feel guilty about it -- but when I did tune it ... the tone was very silly!

Not what we need in political commentary from the left.

Guess we'll see what happens now with the show ... ???