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Humor Repressed, Savage
Capitalism Alive & Well in the Media By Matthew Fox 9/22/2025 |
It is a sad and dangerous day when the president of the US teams up with large corporations to kill humor and satire in the country. But clearly this is happening as we speak, first with Stephen Colbert at CBS and now with Jimmy Kimmel at ABC. |
Such goings-on are a canary in the coal mine of American democracy. A country that goes after those who get us to laugh at the powerful, is a country where only the powerful get to rule. We are told that in Russia’s brief flirt with democracy under Gorbachev and then Yeltsin, humor came forward in the
political sphere—perhaps for the |
Upon receiving the Mark Twain prize at the Kennedy Center in 2022, Jon Stewart described comedians as “the banana peel in the coal mine.” Video by Now This Impact. |
first time ever. But when Putin took over, one of his first acts was to cancel a popular puppet show that dared to mock Putin (among others). And we know what came next. Those who yearn to be strongmen are rarely gifted with a sense of humor—and never toward themselves. They hate being laughed at. So it was with
Putin, so it is with the current presidential team. America without evening comedy shows, is going to be a dour and flat place. But notice how swiftly the capitalist power brokers lusting to own as much media as they can, responded when Trump’s puppet at FCC called for Kimmel’s head. |
Volodymyr Zelenskyy started out as a comedian, starring in the TV series “Servant of the People” (2015-2019, now airing on Netflix with English subtitles) before being elected President of Ukraine in real life. Photo from Wikipedia. | Mussolini defined fascism as “the marriage of government and corporations.” That marriage is tightening daily in today’s America. It will be a marriage sans humor—unless it is the humor of beating up on others. Sadistic humor will flourish, such as one finds in the very name of
their favorite concentration camp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” When Pope Francis dared to write about “savage capitalism,” he was denounced by the right-wing billionaire class in America, Catholics included. But the Global South where he came from, is intimate with that reality. Now more and |
more Americans are feeling it up close and personal. Savage capitalism is all about a few winners and many losers in a system that shows no mercy and no justice. It is ill at ease with anything like laws and a judicial system that is fair, and not rigged on behalf of billionaire power
brokers. |
Pope Leo XIV pointed out in a recent interview that Elon Musk is on his way to being the first trillionaire ever, and how that does not augur well for anybody’s future. And that how 60 years ago, CEOs were paid 4 to 6 times what their workers were paid—today it is 600 times. Billionaire MAGA
donor Larry Ellison is taking over CBS (who cancelled Stephen Colbert’s show), and has chosen Bari Weiss to run CBS News. Weiss, a “free speech” crusader who is in bed with the far right, waged the big crusade over “cancel culture.” Yes, cancel culture crusaders are busy |
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canceling humorists, and will now run the new CBS News. 60 Minutes is in for a rugged ride. More MAGA talking points on the way—move over, Fox News. It’s amazing what money will buy. Savage capitalism is greed with no guard rails. And no pretense to the now outdated idea (killed under Reagan) that the airwaves belong to all of us. |
MAGA was offended by Pope Leo XIV’s very first speech—because he didn’t even speak in English. Video by The Daily Show. | Or that we all should pay taxes—even billionaires and their
corporations. Today we hear billionaires bragging out loud that they pay no taxes. Taxes are for suckers, that is the rest of us. With NPR and PBS dismantled and ABC and CBS compromised, the MAGA media megaphone will be louder than ever. And laughter is banished in the evenings. |
The
headlines for this new and dumber and sadder America? “Everything For Sale to the Highest Bidder!” “Democracy done and finished.” “Autocracy is the next new thing.” “Project 2025 at your doorstep.” Welcome to an America where our only gods are Greed and Grievance. |
Banner Image: Laughter, Criminalized: Cosplayers of partners-in-crime “Harley Quinn” and “The Joker” from DC Comics, at the Big Wow Comic Fest, 2013. Photo
by Annette Wamser. Wikimedia Commons. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you see a new religion that worships Greed and Grievance emerging in America and its media?
In politics and economics? What can we do to organize and resist? |
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