There is a wonderful, but small, concept that has vanished, almost utterly, from American political life.
Self-deprecating humor is its name.
It used to be common for people to make a humorous comment or two about themselves or something that they did in order to show that they did not take themselves too seriously. It was a way of showing that a person could admit they could be wrong, that they could see oddities about themselves and their positions and still communicate.
Now, in the howling world of the Left Fascist Bloc which is seeking control over all speech and thought – this is a revolutionary idea. Admit a fault and the bots, gnats and bloodsuckers of twitter, Facebook Google will pounce on it and try to make it seem like every joke is somehow a weakness to be exploited for political gain. Why do they do that? Because it causes people to watch what they say.
Humor is one of the greatest tools of social interaction. It can make people laugh with you – rather than at you. It can be used to project an atmosphere of broad willingness to change and adapt and with that comes opportunities for agreements.
Without it – it all just becomes balkanized. It becomes the political equivalent of trench warfare. Things move only very slowly with vast effort.
Let’s get back to a world where satire, self deprecation, laughing at ourselves and our own foibles become the norm.
One thought on “Humor, the forgotten tool”
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You’re right. I think maybe humor in politics departed with Reagan. George Bush had some, but those since, not.