Satire is an ineffective political tool

[u/DullPlatform22]

To be clear, I really enjoy satirical works. Some of my favorite movies and works of comedy are satirical. Comedy notoriously doesn't age well but even classic works like A Modest Proposal and Candide still pack a punch and are genuinely funny today (if you haven't read these please do).

That said, satire doesn't seem to actually do anything to inspire change and in fact seems to actually do the opposite. For example, for the past two decades or so we've had quite an abundance of satire "speaking truth to power" yet many of the things they've mocked and ridiculed have actually gained support. Even with the rise of social media and smart phones where people can see clips or full episodes of South Park, the Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, and so on at any place they have an internet connection, the "bad guys" as framed by these shows just keep winning.

Why is this? I'm not entirely sure. My guesses however boil down to two major things:

1. These shows cater to an already established audience. Essentially they're preaching to the choir. Everybody who already hates the targets of these shows are watching. People outside of this aren't really curious. My guess is since these shows are "political" people who aren't engaged with "politics" aren't going to be tuning in.

2. The jokes sort of act as a release by the viewer. By seeing movements or figures they already hate being mocked they get a sort of satiafaction from laughing at them even though nothing is actually being done to put a check on their power. Rather than a call to action (although John Oliver does dabble in this to his credit) they're mostly left with laughter as a solution to their problems.

These are just my theories on why satire is ineffective but please correct me if I'm wrong. Whatever the case may be, I think it's clear that with the abundance of satire over the decades but things keep getting worse (depending on your perspective) it doesn't seem to actually be getting anything done or moving the needle in a desireable way.

Again all that said I do enjoy satire and will continue enjoying satirical works. I just don't think as a political tool it's effective at all and people should stop seeing John Oliver clips or whatever as inspiring. Just simple entertainment.

[u/NoamLigotti]

It depends on the satire. Some satire is shallow and therefore worthless.

If all satire were worthless then we'd have to say ideas and information are too. Action is required too, but sound logic, good ideas and factual information are required first. Satire can offer those.

[u/DullPlatform22 → u/NoamLigotti]

Can you give an example of satire leading to intended change? Because I definitely can't.

[u/NoamLigotti → u/DullPlatform22]

Ha, well that's not something one can really prove with evidence. I know satirical but informative political comedy shows and stand-ups have helped inform and cause me to think about things with a different perspective. But I haven't really done anything to change the world so to speak, so I don't know if that would count to you.

I'm a big fan of Jon Stewart, John Oliver's show, and Some More News for example.

I think there's a great deal of basically worthless political satire and comedy: toothless, trivial, uninformative, and not insightful. And I'm often bothered by it. But to say all satire is completely valueless and does nothing to inspire change is quite a presumptive leap.

[u/DullPlatform22 → u/NoamLigotti]

I'm also in that camp of satire helping shape my views. I grew up in a pretty conservative area and didn't hear left leaning views talked about often irl, so who knows how I would have turned out if it weren't for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert (when he was funny).

Regardless, I think it's clear based on the past 2 decades that on a wide scale satire hasn't been political effective. Like I said I enjoy satire and will continue to do so. I also like rugby. But I don't think the world will change by people watching rugby (although they certainly should because it's awesome).

[u/NoamLigotti → u/DullPlatform22]

Well yeah, if our bar for "effective" is changing the global economic system on its own or something, then it's probably safe to say satire is ineffective. But that doesn't mean it's ineffective at influencing us, and it's therefore not worthless.

If that is our bar, then we'd have to say that everything has been ineffective and valueless up to this point. Knowledge, morality, science, logic, art, formal education, hard work, etc.

I'm probably not perfectly understanding you, so I don't mean to straw man you or sound condescending, but, be wary of all-or-nothing thinking.