Sure, I can ... I'm positive I've thrown this viewpoint out elsewhere on hubski but I couldn't find it.

Let me stress -- you're not supposed to disagree with Stewart or Oliver or whoever. We can all agree gay people are just fine. And the environment should be protected. Etc. I agree with Jon Stewart's stance most of the time. I rarely if ever agree with the way he goes about propagating it.

Unfortunately, I have many friends who get their news primarily from the Daily Show. Smart friends. Friends who could presumably devote some brainpower to reading real, thought-out, not made for TV ideas; understanding the intricacies of, say, Hobby Lobby, or the Iraq War (it was wrong! Jon Stewart says so! Why was it wrong? Er... because it didn't work? -- true, but also the worst possible correct answer and a disservice to the study of history). Instead they watch Jon Stewart a few times a week -- and become ideologues. People who defiantly know something without knowing why they know it. People who will not change their minds, even though their opinions come with only the most paltry, 30-second Daily Show soundbite evidence. I can't have more than a surface-level conversation with anyone I know about, oh, asset forfeiture, which Oliver apparently covered the other day. They don't actually know anything about asset forfeiture. Just a quotable from Jon Stewart. So while asset forfeiture is often abused and wielded badly, the nuances of the situation are absolutely lost.

I'm sure Stewart will do something with Ted Cruz' tweet about net neutrality today or this weekend. I'm sure the college-age liberals I know will laugh at Cruz and think happily to themselves about how great it is that they agree with Stewart and the side of progress and so on and so forth. I doubt they could tell you a damn thing about net neutrality, though. Just that Republicans are wrong about it.

This attitude does not help anything.

It does not raise a class of people who are ready to lead this country well, rationally or without bias. It does not promote knowledge and thoughtful discourse. It will not foster a better world -- you do not change the mind of a Republican on net neutrality by insulting him because of the preconceived notions that Stephen Colbert put in your mouth.

It creates a culture of pseudo-intellectualism and a blind belief that liberals and progressives are on the side of history and can't do anything wrong. Let's be clear: liberals have done a lot of damn things wrong. So have conservatives. You won't hear that on the Daily Show. And you certainly won't hear an explanation of why everything is wrong.

It's entertainment, not wisdom.