Marc Maron Calls Out Right Wing Comics as ‘the Public Face of a Fascist Political Movement’
Comedian and “WTF the Podcast” host Marc Maron ripped into conservative comedians Monday night following Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist commentary at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday.
“The anti-woke flank of the new fascism is being driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers. Whether or not they are self-serving or true believers in the new fascism is unimportant. They are of the movement,” Maron wrote in a lengthy post shared on his website.
“I don’t do a political show but I am very political. Innately. I keep up. I read too many clickbait pieces. I waver between almost uncontrollable fear and, not really hope, but just fantasizing for an outcome that will guarantee the progress of culture and freedom of mind for everyone,” Maron began his piece.
Despite the fact that his own show is not political, he added, “an American fascist movement rooted half in grievance and half in Jesus and enabled by tech oligarchs and an inundation of propaganda from many sources” is “brewing” in the United States.
“Well, it’s fully percolated and pouring into the minds of all of us,” Maron continued. “It is shameless and proud. Culturally, the combination of blatant racist fear-mongering and the anti-woke movement has delivered their message for the future. A future that marginalizes almost all voices.”
On Sunday Hinchcliffe told the audience of Trump supporters, “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now? Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
He also said, “And these Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
Maron’s peers, he said, are driving this “anti-woke flank of the new fascism.”
“Whether they see themselves as acolytes or just comics doesn’t matter,” he said. “Whether they are driven by the idea that what they are fighting for is a free speech issue or whether they are truly morally bankrupt racists doesn’t matter. They are part of the public face of a fascist political movement that seeks to destroy the democratic idea.”
Comedians who host podcasts and invite “shameless, self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists on their show” are given credence to fascism, Maron added. “When someone uses their platform for that reason they are facilitating anti-American sentiment and promoting violent autocracy.”
“It may be all self-serving. Greedy influencers and comics and public personalities and certainly tech companies want to align themselves with an unapologetic right-wing movement that has no concerns for regulation or law or justice or decency or democracy to increase their earnings and put them in the seat of power.”
Maron is “trying to remain a realist and live my life and do the things that keep the existential crisis this all seems to bring out of me at bay,” he continued. “Try to realize that you don’t have to annihilate yourself in the face of cultural annihilation. Hold onto who you are and try not to be afraid to live your truth in the midst of an avalanche of toxic bulls–t.”
Hinchcliffe’s performance sparked an outcry from political leaders and Puerto Rican celebrities and celebrities of Puerto Rican descent. Bad Bunny shared a video of Kamala Harris speaking to Puerto Ricans; Jennifer Lopez shared the same video as well as several others. Ricky Martin shared Hinchcliffe’s commentary and wrote, “This is what they think of us.”
Earlier on Sunday, Harris’ running mate Walz and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose family is Puerto Rican, said they were appalled in a video posted to social media. “The thing that is so messed up — that I wish more people understood — is that the things that they do in Puerto Rico are a testing ground for the policies and the horrors that they wish to and that they do unveil in working-class communities across the United States,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“And I need people to understand that when they when you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico floating garbage, know that that’s what they think about you,” she added. “That is, like, that’s just what they think about you. It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them.”
AOC said she hopes “everyone in Philadelphia” sees the clip.
The post Marc Maron Calls Out Right Wing Comics as ‘the Public Face of a Fascist Political Movement’ appeared first on TheWrap.