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comment by elizabeth
elizabeth  ·  3472 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sugar

I shall try beating you to it next time. In fact, I almost posted this episode here today. I agree with nowaypablo that it does feel weaker that the usual.





am_Unition  ·  3472 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Actual dialog yesterday:

Me: "Did you see the new John Oliver bit?"

Girlfriend: "No, what's it about?"

Me: "Sugar."

Girlfriend: "OK, what about it?"

Me: "Don't eat too much."

Girlfriend: "Well... yeah, duh."

And that's the problem. Usually Oliver covers little-known or at least newly arisen issues, but this episode was like beating a dead horse. Americans more or less accept that their sugar addiction is slowly killing them, they just don't seem motivated enough to do something about it.

thenewgreen  ·  3472 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was just writing up a similar critique, but you said it better than I could have. I didn't really "learn" anything from this one. The others that I've seen are generally educating myself and others about something we may know little to nothing about. He might as well have had a program titled, "Smoking is bad."

I have tickets to see him in December. I'm looking forward to it

nowaypablo  ·  3470 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I have tickets to see him in December.

I have never even considered the idea of buying tickets to be a studio audience. Is this a fun thing to do? I feel like it's a super fun thing to do. Why haven't I thought of doing this???

thenewgreen  ·  3470 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's his standup, it's not a studio audience taping. Truth is, I had too much to drink and saw the ad on a website somewhere and it worked. I bought the tickets. I am not sure I even want to go. But.. yeah.

user-inactivated  ·  3458 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    they just don't seem motivated enough to do something about it

Last Week Tonight submitted to hubski so far:

net neutrality

civil asset forfeiture

sugar

the lottery

local politics

-

Do you still think your statement only applies to sugar? Americans are stupid and disinterested. Remember that ten percent of them think HTML is an STD. And John Oliver doesn't help. He just spins the positive liberal elitist feedback loop round and round.

b_b  ·  3458 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Remember that ten percent of them think HTML is an STD.

I think that 10% is kind of background for polling. It's essentially the same number that says they approve of Al Qaeda, that guns shouldn't be subject to background checks, or that Congress is doing a good job. I'm pretty sure it's about 5% fringe nuts, and 5% who didn't understand the question.

user-inactivated  ·  3458 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You're probably right. There were methodological issues with that survey as well, I think.

am_Unition  ·  3458 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Nah, you're not wrong.

In fact, one thing I've noticed about Hubski culture is that most users give the average American far more credit than the stupid fuckers deserve.

I'm not going to pretend that Oliver is something better than one small step more informative than Stewart or Colbert.

I wouldn't classify his talking points as strictly liberal, but I won't discredit your perception of it being somewhat of a circle-jerk.

Living in Texas is especially psychologically crippling though. I had to listen to Lamar Smith give a speech 12 days ago. It does strange things to a man.

Disclaimer: I didn't vote, so take that as you will.