I have seen people argue back and forth multiple times on whether or not Carlin was on the right or the left. He was a comedian. His primary job and purpose was to make people laugh. Is there truth to what he says? Yes. There is often times truth in humor. If a person can't laugh at something as absurd politics then I feel sorry for that person.
There are two political parties in the US each of them is trying to manage a coalition of supporters, and they often have contradictory desires. So politicians generally talk in ways that panders to a lowest common denominator. Most voting Americans don't actually agree with the party they vote with 100% of the time. Instead they are part of an uneasy coalition of voters.
This situation leads to a huge amount of material for comedians. It's not hard to expose how dumb it all is.
One of my favorite Carlin bits is making fun of the generally right of center refrain "think of the children!" He retorts with "F#@k the Children!" this brash vugar expression is funny on multiple levels. One it's a juxtaposition to the language normally used by politicians and activists, it's also poking fun at the absurdity of basing every opinion you have on "thinking of the children" when clearly the very same people concerned about the children are not at all "thinking about the children" in other aspects of their views. Carlin then goes on to point out how both left and right wing people actually don't think about the children. But he does so quite brilliantly and hilariously by positioning himself as "anti-children" but what he is really doing is pointing out how little people actually consider children, thus exposing the whole phrase in question as fraudulent.
Carlin is an "unreliable narrator" his actual views are hidden in many ways, but he also through comedy exposes the absurdity of the narratives thrown at us on an everyday basis.
If you are listening to Carlin and want to claim him as right wing you are wrong. The same goes if you are left-wing. Really the best thing about Carlin is while you are watching him at his best you can drop your pretentions and just watch him work. Just let his comedy make you laugh. He is one of the most cathartic comedians because he lets the audience kind of cast off their own partisan armor and laugh at themselves and others. He brings people of different political stripes together in that way.
I have seen people argue back and forth multiple times on whether or not Carlin was on the right or the left. He was a comedian. His primary job and purpose was to make people laugh. Is there truth to what he says? Yes. There is often times truth in humor. If a person can't laugh at something as absurd politics then I feel sorry for that person.
There are two political parties in the US each of them is trying to manage a coalition of supporters, and they often have contradictory desires. So politicians generally talk in ways that panders to a lowest common denominator. Most voting Americans don't actually agree with the party they vote with 100% of the time. Instead they are part of an uneasy coalition of voters.
This situation leads to a huge amount of material for comedians. It's not hard to expose how dumb it all is.
One of my favorite Carlin bits is making fun of the generally right of center refrain "think of the children!" He retorts with "F#@k the Children!" this brash vugar expression is funny on multiple levels. One it's a juxtaposition to the language normally used by politicians and activists, it's also poking fun at the absurdity of basing every opinion you have on "thinking of the children" when clearly the very same people concerned about the children are not at all "thinking about the children" in other aspects of their views. Carlin then goes on to point out how both left and right wing people actually don't think about the children. But he does so quite brilliantly and hilariously by positioning himself as "anti-children" but what he is really doing is pointing out how little people actually consider children, thus exposing the whole phrase in question as fraudulent.
Carlin is an "unreliable narrator" his actual views are hidden in many ways, but he also through comedy exposes the absurdity of the narratives thrown at us on an everyday basis.
If you are listening to Carlin and want to claim him as right wing you are wrong. The same goes if you are left-wing. Really the best thing about Carlin is while you are watching him at his best you can drop your pretentions and just watch him work. Just let his comedy make you laugh. He is one of the most cathartic comedians because he lets the audience kind of cast off their own partisan armor and laugh at themselves and others. He brings people of different political stripes together in that way.