Weaponizing Comedy in the Culture War Against Liberalism

In his Monday interview with me, Big Hollywood’s Christian Toto rightly quoted me as saying my stand-up act (wholly separate from my more serious works which many of you have seen) is intended to “preach to the (conservative) choir,” and that my purpose, in part, is to make my audience “feel comfortable.”

I should have elaborated.

I do, in fact, seek to preach to the choir. This is because I recognize that just because someone can sing the songs doesn’t mean he understands the gospel. And it doesn’t mean that, even if they are steeped in the gospel, that, when they step outside the congregation, they take that gospel with them and stand firm (much less evangelize) when confronted by people hostile to their beliefs.

Far too often, the conservative foolishly sees his libertarianism as synonymous with “surrender” and lets his “to each his own” ideology lead him to cede the battles to those who are most willing to promote, proselytize, propagandize and co-opt–starting with our children–the masses.

And I suspect that the Christianity that suffuses the movement (happily so to this Jew) sees too many conservatives believing that “being nice” to others–including those whose ideological purpose is the undermining of all things Christian–is somehow a Christian value. Remember, Jesus did throw over the tables from time to time.

Whether I deliver my message in a serious dissertation, like my book, The KinderGarden of Eden: How The Modern Liberal Thinks or in my more comedic take as I will do Thursday Oct. 3 at the world famous Laugh Factory in Hollywood, I want my audience–“the choir”–to “feel comfortable” knowing what they already know but think it is somehow wrong to act upon: that modern liberalism is an infantile and destructive ideology at war with all things good, right and successful.

I want “the choir” to understand that their libertarian streak and their Christian hearts (no matter their faith) are under assault and that this is, in fact, war. Thank God it’s not–thus far–a shooting war (although violence and the threat of violence has been at the heart of modern liberalism from the day it first began to take over our society, from the terrorists like William Ayers who now just wait for us to die as they brainwash our children into accepting their ways; to the movement attempting to undermine our commerce, a movement that takes its very name from the Nazi occupation of Europe–“Occupy Wall Street.”

I want “the choir” to “feel comfortable” with what they already know: that this is a war for the very survival of all that has given us our freedom, prosperity and progress. I want “the choir” to “be comfortable” with the knowledge that fighting this war–not just singing about it when alone amongst ourselves–is good and right and just.

It’s a different kind of war, one in which the weapons of persuasion can still be effective. I want “the choir” to be “comfortable” using those weapons as needed and at every turn.

The “weapon” of persuasion I bring to bear through my stand-up is one that Saul Alinsky includes in his “rules for radicals”: ridicule. I do so because modern liberalism is ridiculous. It is infantile to its core–with one famous Leftist author, Robert Fulghum speaking for them all when he declared in all seriousness, “All I ever need to know I learned in kindergarten”–and like the small child, while he cannot build anything, the Modern Liberal can and will, if left in charge, destroy.

Even though these are serious subjects we’ll be talking about Thursday, I want “the choir” to laugh–laugh with the joy of the sublime stupidity that is modern liberalism–made comfortable in their knowledge that the enemy they face is not merely wrong, he is ridiculous.