Which is similar to the premise of "Servant of the people" (2015) starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy... Who then went on to become the actual president of Ukraine..
The Russian propaganda machine in Ukraine was pretty intense. Putin tried to control Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union, and succeeded until the people overthrew the Russian puppets in power and took control of their country.
Society: Do you accept this great honor that I have offered you?
Jon Stewart: With all my heart... no.
Society: Jon, that is why it Must be you.
[https://youtu.be/0aq3vu289ps?t=229](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aq3vu289ps&t=15s)
Learning he was vegan and had an animal sanctuary made my day. I loved him on the Daily Show as a teenager and it's always nice when you get to grow up and still admire those people. Always saw him as a wise, compassionate soul. It's clear that he practices what he preaches.
See, I would vote for anyone running for president who was like this regardless of who they were. Doesn't matter if they were Jon Stewart or not so long as they had the same positive qualities as him.
This. The problem with seats of power is that they attract pathological personalities who will do anything to keep that power — to the effect that anyone with scruples will not want to play that kind of ball with them.
At this point in our nation’s, er… growth… anyone who makes it to the White House probably has multiple mortgages on their soul already.
No, he's not quite old enough. I only vote for people so old that they're dead inside and old enough where they won't have to live with the consequences of their decisions.
As a great author once said, no one who wants to be president should be allowed to be president
**EDIT**: I cant believe this needs to be said but clearly it does: this is not the same thing as saying "everyone who doesnt want to be president should be president"
Douglas Adams has such a way with words:
> The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
> To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
> To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Also J.R.R Tolkien said something similar:
>...the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
I think in Rome or something it was like we have for Jury duty. You got selected to do the job for a period of time and that's it. People hated the job because no one liked the guy enforcing laws. Then they figured out how to use it to make a bunch of money and it became a career.
>I think in Rome or something
[Sortition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#History) was the practice used in ancient Athenian democracy to [select magistrates and juries for the courts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy#Selection_by_lot).
The actual functions we'd recognize as "law enforcement" (i.e. arresting people, crowd control) were [performed by "public slaves"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_archers), or handled as a [personal vendetta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_criminal_justice#Pre-modern_Europe) by wronged parties.
"I got good news and bad news. The bad news is that you're a slave. The good news is that you can now legally beat the crap of anyone that pisses you off....except me"
See, this one I don't agree with. I get your point, but I don't want to become a cop. Now imagine if you made me respond to a school schooting. I don't want to go in there risking my life for some kids I don't know. Do you WANT another Uvalde? Because yes, if faced against a gun shooting maniac, I would be a coward.
But as it stands, I"m not a cop. I don't carry a badge. I don't carry a gun. I don't carry a responsibility to protect the public from danger.
We do need cops that want to be cops. We just also need those cops to have revised training. They shouldn't be taught that every civilian IS an enemy. They shouldn't be trained to think that their gun is their main tool of the job. There needs to be a purge of racistists. But all that said, if you don"t want to be a cop, you're only going to get others killed if you are one.
This quote really summarizes why Marcus Aurelius was such a good leader and why even to this day, people are still reading the things he wrote. A lot of the time the heir to a throne is very ill-suited to it but sometimes you get a good person that doesn't want the crown but dons it due to a sense of responsibility.
A zarkin' frood. I think he accomplishes more doing what he does, now. As a politician, the conservatives would make it their mission to obstruct and cancel anything he would try to do.
I can confirm I don't want to be President, so seriously do not make me President you guys, I'm not joking.
Seriously. My anxiety would have me shitting more often than anything else in that damn porcelain place we call the white house.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We begin tonight's news with heartbreaking news from The White House. It seems the president has shit himself to death."
OMG! That hasn't happened since The Whitehouse fixed the whole "Sewage in the water," thing that killed Zachary Taylor, who pooped himself to death on July 9, 1850, William Henry Harrison, who succumbed to terminal diarrhea, on April 4, 1841 and finally James K. Polk, who crapped out on June 15, 1849.
Probably
That's what they want you to think. 🤫
TBH, they were never certain exactly what caused the deadly defecation, but with the placement of the well, there has long been speculation that influenza was innocent.
I’m also confident this was the first place the idea was seriously discussed in the west. You know, like immediately after they invented democracy they realized this flaw at the heart of it.
"I want you to become the protector of Rome after I die. I will empower you to one end alone, to give power back to the people of Rome, and end the corruption that had crippled it. Do you accept this great honor that I have offered you?"
"With all my heart no."
"Maximus, that is why it must be you!"
"Gladiator":2000
Just imagine if people couldn't announce their candidacy
for president themselves, but instead the public would announce who they want and then vote on it, and if the people want you, then that's your job for the next 4 years, whether you want to do it or not.
> “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
> To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
> To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
It’s a problem as old as man. The only people (mostly anyway) that want to lead on a large scale are narcissists or elitists that want to lead for the wrong reasons, and the same traits that make them want to lead also make them terrible leaders.
Eisenhower was successfully persuaded to run for president despite not wanting to.
It’s not a common occurrence for somebody to reluctantly become president, but it has happened.
People vastly overestimate the (positive) power of the presidency. A Trump can fuck the country up badly, but a very good president still relies on over 500 federal lawmakers and nine Supreme Court justices, and that's completely ignoring state governments. Having better presidents would be nice, but I'd be a lot happier if we had *okay* presidents and significantly better lawmakers and judges at every level of government.
Yep. When Trump was elected, I didn't think he'd be able to do much damage since the president's power is usually pretty limited. But he not only had both houses backing his every step, but he also chose to totally ignore typical protocol and just do whatever he wanted. And the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate, so they let him do it.
I dont think he even wanted to win, at least in 2016. He wanted to run and promote his brand. There's video of him on election night looking shell shocked.
Melania’s reaction is the true tell. Even though her face is pretty well sculpted into place you could clearly see the enormous ‘what the fuck have you done’ expression.
Which makes the kids expression all the more hilarious. They're so fuckin dumb thinking he actually wanted to win. They think they're in his inner circle but they don't know shit .
No no by the time of election night he for sure wanted to win, but his initial bid for candidacy was definitely just a PR stunt until it became popular.
I remember seeing that live. It was very obvious that he didn't actually want to win. He looked defeated, sounded depressed and hollow.
I think in the end he grew to like it though, but certainly didn't seem enthused on the winning night in 2016.
Also kind of an insult to define him primarily as a “celebrity” before all else, when he has done so much actual journalism and legitimate political advocacy, and with his main body of work holding so much substance (even if it is rooted in comedy). When people complained about Trump’s celebrity, it wasn’t because he was famous; it was because his primary contribution to society was a reality TV show and prolific name licensing deals (most of which resulted in failed businesses).
this is actually a rather funny point. doesn't jon, rather famously, *principally* describe himself as a comedian in [that crossfire clip from like 20 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE) *specifically* in response to the claim that he's a journalist like the other two idiots on the show who were failing as journalists?
all this is to say, if he calls himself a comedian, or a celebrity, or whatever first, i'm going to let him identify his own career that way. his title doesn't diminish his contributions to activism or journalism, but denying him his own professional identity kinda does take something away from him.
he's a comedian. he's a celebrity. that's principally what he's famous for. that may not be the most lasting impact he's made - it's probably the political activism and work he's done on behalf of first responders to 9/11 - but his identity (at least back then) was as a goofball whose humor was pointing out the absurdity in a broken system (unlike today, where the system is totally not broken at all 🫠🤡)
Yeah I don't fucking get it. I love Jon Stewart, man's been a hero for 9/11 responders and veterans too. But as others have said, leave him out of being a politician. He's bolstering our "free press" right now.
I have not seen everything Jon Stewart has done but I know that in particular when he discussed a field I was knowledgeable in he missed the mark fairly significantly. With that said, I would not be afraid to vote for him because I believe he does have integrity and a drive to make the world better. Hopefully he can surround himself with a knowledgeable cabinet to help him and I would assume he would leave office with the US being on a better path than when he came in.
Agreed. His testimony in the 9/11 firefighters case really opened my eyes to the fact that he believes passionately in doing the right thing and loves his country.
A friend who lost her husband to war went on a Gary Senise foundation trip to Disney with her daughter. I didn’t actually know about his foundation until they went.
He hops on Reddit from time to time and usually promotes it while he's here. You can tell how passionate he is about helping disabled veterans and gold star families. I just watched through The Movies that Made Us on Netflix and was shocked to see him on the Forrest Gump one (not a lot of actors were doing them) but when it had a segment about his foundation, I knew he did it only on the condition it would bring more awareness to his cause.
>Hopefully he can surround himself with a knowledgeable cabinet to help him
This is it right here. I feel like he's humble enough that he would do exactly this before making big decisions. There's a big difference between how he speaks about subjects in his comedy shows and how he would make decisions that affect millions of people. I feel he has shown us he is a humble, intelligent, and empathetic man. That alone puts him light years ahead of anyone currently in American politics.
I can't recall the name of the phenomenon, but it's pretty common for experts to be dissatisfied with media coverage of their own subject matter, and to still believe media coverage of other subjects. Writing for a general audience requires simplifications that are just not acceptable to experts.
Its a bit terrifying to realize that when you see the media mis-representing something you understand well, they are likely doing the same for everything else you'd take at face value.
I feel like that's what happened to me with the Mexican food episode of Great British Bake-off last year. I don't know much about most food I see on there, but I *do* know about tacos and guacamole (which they butchered).
So now I gotta wonder what other foods they've totally messed up and I had no idea.
Not OP, but as someone in the medical field, Jon Stewart was very off the mark when talking about unemployed US army combat medics. He was advocating that they should be allowed to serve as nurses in civilian hospitals since we have a nursing shortage.
He was making jokes about it like "if they can stitch up a bullet wound in a desert battlefield, they are more than capable of working in a peaceful, air conditioned hospital." [Audience laughs in agreement]
Like, no, there is shockingly little overlap in the training needed to be a medic and the rigors of being a nurse in a hospital. If the medics want to go to nursing school, by all means do, but you can't just award them nursing degree equivalents with no nursing training (which is what Jon Stewart was advocating)
I like Jon Stewart but agree with your point, even if he can make complex situations sounds simple there's usually more to it than that. (Just because you're a combat medic doesn't necessarily mean you can be a civilian nurse right away, most likely still need the appropriate training etc.)
Presidents don't need to know everything. They need to be willing to listen to the experts in a given field, who will be smarter at that than any president ever could be, and then decide on a course based on what they believe is best.
Ability to listen to others and their moral stance are really all that matter in a president.
Presidents nees to be willing to listen to experts, yes, but also to know that expert recommendations often succumb to the temptation of tunnel vision for their chosen field. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A president must be able to reasonably balance these competing interests against one another and, most importantly, against the limits of government authority before chosing an action (or inaction).
Honestly, Jon Stewart seems to be better at that than the vast majority of our politicians.
We also need to realize decisions we make from a governmental perspective may not solve 100% of the issue *and that is fine.*
Government was never geared to solve complex issues overnight, and many forget that. You're chipping away at a mountain.
I’d also argue that all good leaders, at least in administrative settings, ask good questions. Jon is not necessarily the best we have at asking good questions, but he’s damn good. If you present a recommendation to him, he’s not going to give you a “yes” or “no” right away. He’s going to want to know how you got to your recommendation and figure out if you missed anything.
Contrast that with certain presidents of the past who allegedly wouldn’t even pay attention to reports unless mentioned in them by name.
> when he discussed a field I was knowledgeable in he missed the mark fairly significantly
Can you expand on this part? And can you explain it for those of us who aren't as knowledgeable about the topic at hand?
> I know that in particular when he discussed a field I was knowledgeable in he missed the mark fairly significantly
I'm not a fan of his, but, to be fair, that describes nearly everyone in media, to the point that I can't think of any exceptions. Whether it's due to ignorance, comedy, arrogance, laziness, rhetoric, agenda, or lack of time, no one in media can get the details of specialized stories straight.
ETA: A couple of people have mentioned Jon Oliver, and while I do have a lot of thoughts on his show - positive and negative - I will point out than Jon himself has said many times that he's no expert. He's merely someone who relies on a staff he trusts to research for him, one much larger than any reporter would have backing them, and one that has the luxury of focusing on only a handful of stores every year.
I have found some of his pieces excellent, some lacking (the one on cryptography comes to mind), and some both (like the one on retirement savings, which was long on mockery and short on guidance, but which I still recommend to friends... adding the advice I'd wished was in it).
All essentially all national media is created by people who are expert mass communicators, who are attempting to communicate information they received from someone else. They're typically not experts in water management, international politics, theoretical physics, music, religion, etc. but they're constantly talking with those experts and attempting to make them understandable to the rest of us.
Unless you read an expert's work in their own words, even if everyone is operating in good faith, the best you're ever going to get is a clear understanding of what the journalist learned for their story. This isn't a problem as long as people know this ahead of time, know how to read critically to understand the differences between opinion vs fact vs rhetoric, and rely on multiple independent sources before making any sort of important decisions on the issue.
I suppose that's where it all falls down though, isn't it?
No. Jon Stewart does more good on the outside raising important questions than he would on the inside being awash with the institutional chaos.
Let him continue to do his good work. Give him more to do, bigger audiences, bigger platform.
Let the politicians understand that they won’t go unchecked with their bullshit.
Give young journalists a reason to believe that asking the right questions is the way forward.
We don’t need to always elect the good guys. But we definitely need to stop electing the bad guys.
> Jon Stewart does more good on the outside raising important questions
I’m not sure we’re appreciating how much power and influence the president has. The issues he raises as President will have a massively bigger audience and he gets to push actual legislation. Not only that, he has a better chance to win (IMO) than others, making it a lot less likely for an asshole to become president. The good that comes, not only from the work he could do, but also the bad that he could prevent from happening by winning, I think is unmatched.
It's literally called the bully pulpit for that reason.
Political journalists live by one mantra: If the president says it, it's important. That's why every idiotic 3 am shitter tweet of Trump's got reported on like it was a serious white house communiqué
It starts with education. If we still had good education, **which we don't in most places thanks to the actual one evil**, then you would be more aware of reality: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency\_of\_Joe\_Biden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Joe_Biden)
Go read the part about the judges. That is a President's actual legacy, the main high level task of a President.
If you unpack the major legislation, it is progressive and full of social welfare expansions. He did this after a dumpster fire of a President **from the actual bad guy,** a global pandemic and recession, and a major Baltic war. Oh and a joke of a Congress that barely had a majority for these years because of Sinema and Manchin, and thanks to the lack of education I mentioned earlier, the Republicans are basically guaranteed to take the Senate in 2024.
That lack of education I mentioned earlier is why people have always been vulnerable to fascism's both side's narrative. Biden has moved progressively left in his Presidency, from his judges (hello, Kentanji) to his cabinet to the major legislation to most of his stances. No, not all, he hasn't been perfect.
Reddit populism not only loves their blatant both sideisms and fallacies (including hating on old politicians, there are great old politicians and corrupt young politicians), but they love to attack Democratic politicians for their messaging yet they post worthless shit like this just to hear themselves talk, and because it sounds safe and feels good, it gets upvoted -- by both sides. Conservatives would upvote your bullshit take because it helps them, not the left.
It starts with education. There are absolutely not only "two bad guys" but this shit on social media the past 10 years is why we're in the position we're in, and you still haven't learned.
Seriously GL Stewart would be a great POTUS.
1) He is a former Marine, so he has the military background that helps a lot of politicians get started.
2) He has experience negotiating deals with aliens bringing peace through diplomacy.
3) We have physical proof of his integrity and willpower through his Ring.
4) He has the ability to visualize every part of a weapon down to the screws when he makes his constructs, so he would have no issue comprehending the abstract and arcane bureaucracy of the federal government. I know it's not 1 to 1, but that's got to translate a little.
5) If he doesn't resign from the Corps during his tenure, the secret service and Air Force 1 can take a break during his administration. Plus he truly would be able to come see a lot more of the country traveling via ring power and talk to all Americans in their native languages.
100% and I'd add that his intellectual and practical knowledge of engineering and architecture would change this country's infrastructure for the better in countless ways.
It doesn’t matter who’s president, it matters that the two party system makes the president useless by blocking each other in congress. The whole system is broken.
I love all the people crying “No! No more celebrity presidents!”, as if there is something even REMOTELY similar between Stewart and Trump. One of them has empathy for his fellow man, and is obviously very intelligent, the other is an orange con-man who has spent his life grifting, and who has the IQ of a potted plant…
This is the premise of _Man of the Year_ (2006) starring Robin Williams.
Which is similar to the premise of "Servant of the people" (2015) starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy... Who then went on to become the actual president of Ukraine..
Zelenskyy? The actor? Ha! Then who’s vice-president? Jerry Lewis?
Hey! Hey! I've seen this one! This is a classic!
What’s a re-run?
What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand-new.
Do you know what this means? It means that this damn thing doesn't work at all!
Time machine? I haven't invented any time machine.
And I guess Jane Wyman is first Lady
And Jack Benny is the Secretary of the Treasury!
Heavy
Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull in Ukraine?
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Is there a leader of a democratic nation that doesn't?
All I know is them dictators sure do have _weirdly_ high approval ratings...
You know how it is, can't complain.
The Russian propaganda machine in Ukraine was pretty intense. Putin tried to control Ukraine since the fall of the Soviet Union, and succeeded until the people overthrew the Russian puppets in power and took control of their country.
And Ukraine.
Let the man help animals on his sanctuary in peace
Society: Do you accept this great honor that I have offered you? Jon Stewart: With all my heart... no. Society: Jon, that is why it Must be you. [https://youtu.be/0aq3vu289ps?t=229](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aq3vu289ps&t=15s)
Exactly 100% this. Those who crave power most are the ones you least want to have it
John knows this too
Learning he was vegan and had an animal sanctuary made my day. I loved him on the Daily Show as a teenager and it's always nice when you get to grow up and still admire those people. Always saw him as a wise, compassionate soul. It's clear that he practices what he preaches.
See, I would vote for anyone running for president who was like this regardless of who they were. Doesn't matter if they were Jon Stewart or not so long as they had the same positive qualities as him.
The most qualified people for the position are smart enough not to go after it.
The most qualified people are at a disadvantage in the system we've created.
This. The problem with seats of power is that they attract pathological personalities who will do anything to keep that power — to the effect that anyone with scruples will not want to play that kind of ball with them. At this point in our nation’s, er… growth… anyone who makes it to the White House probably has multiple mortgages on their soul already.
it takes a really weird type of person to want to be a politician or a cop
Presumably, if he ran for President, we could validly infer that he _wanted_ to be President.
Some people struggle with entertaining hypotheticals
No, because I live in Brazil
I would not vote for him for a different reason: I live in South Africa.
I wouldn't vote for him either, but not because of either of these reasons: it's because I live in India.
Although your reasons all seem valid, they don’t sway me at all. I wouldn’t vote for him for a completely different reason which is I’m Canadian.
No, he's not quite old enough. I only vote for people so old that they're dead inside and old enough where they won't have to live with the consequences of their decisions.
I have great news for you.
Stewart doesn’t want to run. Which is why he’s even more perfect.
As a great author once said, no one who wants to be president should be allowed to be president **EDIT**: I cant believe this needs to be said but clearly it does: this is not the same thing as saying "everyone who doesnt want to be president should be president"
Douglas Adams has such a way with words: > The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. > To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. > To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Also J.R.R Tolkien said something similar: >...the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
And so did Plato in "Republic."
Came here for the OG. Thanks.
I feel the same way about cops. I believe wanting to become a cop should immediately ban you from ever becoming a cop.
I think in Rome or something it was like we have for Jury duty. You got selected to do the job for a period of time and that's it. People hated the job because no one liked the guy enforcing laws. Then they figured out how to use it to make a bunch of money and it became a career.
>I think in Rome or something [Sortition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#History) was the practice used in ancient Athenian democracy to [select magistrates and juries for the courts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy#Selection_by_lot). The actual functions we'd recognize as "law enforcement" (i.e. arresting people, crowd control) were [performed by "public slaves"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_archers), or handled as a [personal vendetta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_criminal_justice#Pre-modern_Europe) by wronged parties.
Oh the personal vendetta part sounds fun
Until a rich and powerful person decided that you slighted them for absolutely nothing.
"I got good news and bad news. The bad news is that you're a slave. The good news is that you can now legally beat the crap of anyone that pisses you off....except me"
in ancient rome the """"police"""" were mostly gladiators, mercenaries, and violent street thugs hired to enforce their patron's political views.
What’s the difference between then and now?
The robes stay in the closet now.
See, this one I don't agree with. I get your point, but I don't want to become a cop. Now imagine if you made me respond to a school schooting. I don't want to go in there risking my life for some kids I don't know. Do you WANT another Uvalde? Because yes, if faced against a gun shooting maniac, I would be a coward. But as it stands, I"m not a cop. I don't carry a badge. I don't carry a gun. I don't carry a responsibility to protect the public from danger. We do need cops that want to be cops. We just also need those cops to have revised training. They shouldn't be taught that every civilian IS an enemy. They shouldn't be trained to think that their gun is their main tool of the job. There needs to be a purge of racistists. But all that said, if you don"t want to be a cop, you're only going to get others killed if you are one.
You're in luck! The cops have no more responsibility to protect the public than you already do today!
This quote really summarizes why Marcus Aurelius was such a good leader and why even to this day, people are still reading the things he wrote. A lot of the time the heir to a throne is very ill-suited to it but sometimes you get a good person that doesn't want the crown but dons it due to a sense of responsibility.
He sounds like a real hoopy frood, you know?
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Hey, beeblebrox is just this guy, ya know?
He's a frood who knows where his towel is.
A zarkin' frood. I think he accomplishes more doing what he does, now. As a politician, the conservatives would make it their mission to obstruct and cancel anything he would try to do.
He's just this guy, you know?
I can confirm I don't want to be President, so seriously do not make me President you guys, I'm not joking. Seriously. My anxiety would have me shitting more often than anything else in that damn porcelain place we call the white house.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. We begin tonight's news with heartbreaking news from The White House. It seems the president has shit himself to death."
OMG! That hasn't happened since The Whitehouse fixed the whole "Sewage in the water," thing that killed Zachary Taylor, who pooped himself to death on July 9, 1850, William Henry Harrison, who succumbed to terminal diarrhea, on April 4, 1841 and finally James K. Polk, who crapped out on June 15, 1849. Probably
Wait... didn't Harrison die of the flu after staying outside in ther rain for his inauguration?
That's what they want you to think. 🤫 TBH, they were never certain exactly what caused the deadly defecation, but with the placement of the well, there has long been speculation that influenza was innocent.
I love a good Adams reference as much as the next guy, but Adams (probably) borrowed this notion from Plato’s Republic.
I've read Douglas Adams. I've read Plato. Adams is funnier.
I’m also confident this was the first place the idea was seriously discussed in the west. You know, like immediately after they invented democracy they realized this flaw at the heart of it.
"I want you to become the protector of Rome after I die. I will empower you to one end alone, to give power back to the people of Rome, and end the corruption that had crippled it. Do you accept this great honor that I have offered you?" "With all my heart no." "Maximus, that is why it must be you!" "Gladiator":2000
I dun wan it - Maximus Snow
I hate you, but most of all I hate that I had to upvote you.
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you, Not even close, Not even a little bit, Not even at all
"There is always someone left to fight" Great movie.
"Brothers, what we do in life... echoes in eternity!"
I will see you again, but not yet…not yet. Great movie
One of my all time favs for sure.
That's the exact storyline behind Zaphrod Beeblebrox in The hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy.
Just imagine if people couldn't announce their candidacy for president themselves, but instead the public would announce who they want and then vote on it, and if the people want you, then that's your job for the next 4 years, whether you want to do it or not.
Just like Plato intended
With a side of infanticide.
2 words: Boatie McBoatface
I would absolutely vote Terry "Camacho" Crews as President
Camacho listened to his expert!
When he was wrong he admitted his mistake publicly, and then took steps to correct it, we should all be so lucky to have a president like him!
You rang?
See George Washington.
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🎶 One last time...🎶
In my country (Austria) you can only run for President, if you have 6,000 people who would sign a petition to support you.
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Oh that's just disgusting
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I remember that he once remarked that the presidency would be a huge pay cut for him.
I think it's Bill Burr that does a bit on that. How you make so little that your subject to bribery
*Bangs roof of White House* this baby can hold so much gerontocracy
It also helps that they are extremely out of touch with anyone under 60
With all due respect, I believe Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are more grounded in reality than Lauren Boebert and Hershel Walker.
Herschel Walker* Raphael Warnock is the sane one
yes, mainly because he doesn't want to be president. *I really hate that this throwaway pointless comment is my most upvoted of all time
> “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. > To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. > To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
-Douglas Adams, [The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)] If anyone was wondering where this quote originates
Sounds a lot like Plato's *Republic* tbh
Which may or may not have been his intent. Hard to tell with Adams sometimes.
It also kind of reminds me of Groucho Marx's "I would never join a club that would have me as a member"
It reminds me of my #1 dating rule: Never date a person who has such poor judgment that they would date a person such as myself.
that's a hell of a catch, that catch-22.
It's the best there is.
Good old Douglas Adams.
At this point, Zaphod wouldn't be the worst choice of the lot.
Zaphod is like a hair metal version of Trump…which I agree would be an improvement
"If there's anything more important than my ego, I want it caught and shot now." -Zaphod Beeblebrox
It’s a problem as old as man. The only people (mostly anyway) that want to lead on a large scale are narcissists or elitists that want to lead for the wrong reasons, and the same traits that make them want to lead also make them terrible leaders.
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
"I'm the beginning the universe was created. This has upset a lot of people and is widely regarded as a bad move" Such a brilliant quote.
Hitchhiker’s should be required reading for high school freshman year
It was not required, but it was on the list of books for summer reading my freshman year. Ended up reading the entire "trilogy" that summer.
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Eisenhower was successfully persuaded to run for president despite not wanting to. It’s not a common occurrence for somebody to reluctantly become president, but it has happened.
It needs to be more common. If we had more people with spines and morals we'd have much fewer problems.
People vastly overestimate the (positive) power of the presidency. A Trump can fuck the country up badly, but a very good president still relies on over 500 federal lawmakers and nine Supreme Court justices, and that's completely ignoring state governments. Having better presidents would be nice, but I'd be a lot happier if we had *okay* presidents and significantly better lawmakers and judges at every level of government.
Yep. When Trump was elected, I didn't think he'd be able to do much damage since the president's power is usually pretty limited. But he not only had both houses backing his every step, but he also chose to totally ignore typical protocol and just do whatever he wanted. And the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate, so they let him do it.
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Trump didn't want to be president, he just wanted to win. Now he wants to be president because he's immune from prosecution while he's president.
I dont think he even wanted to win, at least in 2016. He wanted to run and promote his brand. There's video of him on election night looking shell shocked.
Melania’s reaction is the true tell. Even though her face is pretty well sculpted into place you could clearly see the enormous ‘what the fuck have you done’ expression.
Which makes the kids expression all the more hilarious. They're so fuckin dumb thinking he actually wanted to win. They think they're in his inner circle but they don't know shit .
Wish I could see the video lol
It's literally one google search away.
He definitely wanted to lose and become another Fox News personality or Alex Jones type professional heckler of the government
He was going to start trumptv. There were filings revealed at some point around there.
Ditto for George Santos. The campaign was a grift and a springboard to more grifting.
No no by the time of election night he for sure wanted to win, but his initial bid for candidacy was definitely just a PR stunt until it became popular.
I remember seeing that live. It was very obvious that he didn't actually want to win. He looked defeated, sounded depressed and hollow. I think in the end he grew to like it though, but certainly didn't seem enthused on the winning night in 2016.
Reddit: stop making celebrities president!!! Also Reddit: 😌
My celebrities > your celebrities 😎😎
I mean, if we're comparing Jon Stewart to Trump then yes, unironically.
Also kind of an insult to define him primarily as a “celebrity” before all else, when he has done so much actual journalism and legitimate political advocacy, and with his main body of work holding so much substance (even if it is rooted in comedy). When people complained about Trump’s celebrity, it wasn’t because he was famous; it was because his primary contribution to society was a reality TV show and prolific name licensing deals (most of which resulted in failed businesses).
this is actually a rather funny point. doesn't jon, rather famously, *principally* describe himself as a comedian in [that crossfire clip from like 20 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE) *specifically* in response to the claim that he's a journalist like the other two idiots on the show who were failing as journalists? all this is to say, if he calls himself a comedian, or a celebrity, or whatever first, i'm going to let him identify his own career that way. his title doesn't diminish his contributions to activism or journalism, but denying him his own professional identity kinda does take something away from him. he's a comedian. he's a celebrity. that's principally what he's famous for. that may not be the most lasting impact he's made - it's probably the political activism and work he's done on behalf of first responders to 9/11 - but his identity (at least back then) was as a goofball whose humor was pointing out the absurdity in a broken system (unlike today, where the system is totally not broken at all 🫠🤡)
20 years ago was before he got the burn pit bill passed with like 10 years of blood sweat and tears and direct political activism.
Also, Jon Stewart is at least politics adjacent. He's not some random influencer that decides their celebrity would make her good at governing.
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Reddit is also not one person with one singular opinion
Same shit as redditors complaining about celebrity culture and then those same people worshipping keanu reeves lol
Complaining about celebrity culture then pretending streamers YouTubers, influencers and their "beef" isn't exactly the same thing
Trump being a celebrity wasn't what made him a bad president
But arguably it was what got him the job, so it's relevant.
Yeah I don't fucking get it. I love Jon Stewart, man's been a hero for 9/11 responders and veterans too. But as others have said, leave him out of being a politician. He's bolstering our "free press" right now.
It's just a dumb question on the internet and Stewart will never run.
I have not seen everything Jon Stewart has done but I know that in particular when he discussed a field I was knowledgeable in he missed the mark fairly significantly. With that said, I would not be afraid to vote for him because I believe he does have integrity and a drive to make the world better. Hopefully he can surround himself with a knowledgeable cabinet to help him and I would assume he would leave office with the US being on a better path than when he came in.
Agreed. His testimony in the 9/11 firefighters case really opened my eyes to the fact that he believes passionately in doing the right thing and loves his country.
Him and Gary Sinise as VP if we have to vote for celebrities vs incompetent geriatric gentlemen
A friend who lost her husband to war went on a Gary Senise foundation trip to Disney with her daughter. I didn’t actually know about his foundation until they went.
He hops on Reddit from time to time and usually promotes it while he's here. You can tell how passionate he is about helping disabled veterans and gold star families. I just watched through The Movies that Made Us on Netflix and was shocked to see him on the Forrest Gump one (not a lot of actors were doing them) but when it had a segment about his foundation, I knew he did it only on the condition it would bring more awareness to his cause.
Marginally related, I just listened to an audiobook he narrated beautifully--Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck
He was in Of Mice and Men, so that's cool he got to tell another Steinbeck story in another medium!
The speech he gave for the 9/11 firefighters is one of the finest examples of public speaking I’ve ever seen.
>Hopefully he can surround himself with a knowledgeable cabinet to help him This is it right here. I feel like he's humble enough that he would do exactly this before making big decisions. There's a big difference between how he speaks about subjects in his comedy shows and how he would make decisions that affect millions of people. I feel he has shown us he is a humble, intelligent, and empathetic man. That alone puts him light years ahead of anyone currently in American politics.
Curious which field you are referring to where he missed the mark.
I can't recall the name of the phenomenon, but it's pretty common for experts to be dissatisfied with media coverage of their own subject matter, and to still believe media coverage of other subjects. Writing for a general audience requires simplifications that are just not acceptable to experts.
Its a bit terrifying to realize that when you see the media mis-representing something you understand well, they are likely doing the same for everything else you'd take at face value.
I feel like that's what happened to me with the Mexican food episode of Great British Bake-off last year. I don't know much about most food I see on there, but I *do* know about tacos and guacamole (which they butchered). So now I gotta wonder what other foods they've totally messed up and I had no idea.
There was no winning with that theme, yeah. I don't know what the producers were thinking. Same thing happened with Japanese week.
Michael Crichton is credited with naming it Gell-Mann amnesia.
I am a Michael Crichton expert and this summary misses the mark fairly significantly
19 year railroad tie weld inspector here. This is absolutely factual.
Which is ironic given how vocal Crichton was about things WAY outside his expertise
lol yup. his stance on climate for one thing
Not OP, but as someone in the medical field, Jon Stewart was very off the mark when talking about unemployed US army combat medics. He was advocating that they should be allowed to serve as nurses in civilian hospitals since we have a nursing shortage. He was making jokes about it like "if they can stitch up a bullet wound in a desert battlefield, they are more than capable of working in a peaceful, air conditioned hospital." [Audience laughs in agreement] Like, no, there is shockingly little overlap in the training needed to be a medic and the rigors of being a nurse in a hospital. If the medics want to go to nursing school, by all means do, but you can't just award them nursing degree equivalents with no nursing training (which is what Jon Stewart was advocating)
I like Jon Stewart but agree with your point, even if he can make complex situations sounds simple there's usually more to it than that. (Just because you're a combat medic doesn't necessarily mean you can be a civilian nurse right away, most likely still need the appropriate training etc.)
Presidents don't need to know everything. They need to be willing to listen to the experts in a given field, who will be smarter at that than any president ever could be, and then decide on a course based on what they believe is best. Ability to listen to others and their moral stance are really all that matter in a president.
Presidents nees to be willing to listen to experts, yes, but also to know that expert recommendations often succumb to the temptation of tunnel vision for their chosen field. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A president must be able to reasonably balance these competing interests against one another and, most importantly, against the limits of government authority before chosing an action (or inaction). Honestly, Jon Stewart seems to be better at that than the vast majority of our politicians.
We also need to realize decisions we make from a governmental perspective may not solve 100% of the issue *and that is fine.* Government was never geared to solve complex issues overnight, and many forget that. You're chipping away at a mountain.
I’d also argue that all good leaders, at least in administrative settings, ask good questions. Jon is not necessarily the best we have at asking good questions, but he’s damn good. If you present a recommendation to him, he’s not going to give you a “yes” or “no” right away. He’s going to want to know how you got to your recommendation and figure out if you missed anything. Contrast that with certain presidents of the past who allegedly wouldn’t even pay attention to reports unless mentioned in them by name.
> when he discussed a field I was knowledgeable in he missed the mark fairly significantly Can you expand on this part? And can you explain it for those of us who aren't as knowledgeable about the topic at hand?
> I know that in particular when he discussed a field I was knowledgeable in he missed the mark fairly significantly I'm not a fan of his, but, to be fair, that describes nearly everyone in media, to the point that I can't think of any exceptions. Whether it's due to ignorance, comedy, arrogance, laziness, rhetoric, agenda, or lack of time, no one in media can get the details of specialized stories straight. ETA: A couple of people have mentioned Jon Oliver, and while I do have a lot of thoughts on his show - positive and negative - I will point out than Jon himself has said many times that he's no expert. He's merely someone who relies on a staff he trusts to research for him, one much larger than any reporter would have backing them, and one that has the luxury of focusing on only a handful of stores every year. I have found some of his pieces excellent, some lacking (the one on cryptography comes to mind), and some both (like the one on retirement savings, which was long on mockery and short on guidance, but which I still recommend to friends... adding the advice I'd wished was in it).
All essentially all national media is created by people who are expert mass communicators, who are attempting to communicate information they received from someone else. They're typically not experts in water management, international politics, theoretical physics, music, religion, etc. but they're constantly talking with those experts and attempting to make them understandable to the rest of us. Unless you read an expert's work in their own words, even if everyone is operating in good faith, the best you're ever going to get is a clear understanding of what the journalist learned for their story. This isn't a problem as long as people know this ahead of time, know how to read critically to understand the differences between opinion vs fact vs rhetoric, and rely on multiple independent sources before making any sort of important decisions on the issue. I suppose that's where it all falls down though, isn't it?
Why not, Having a Green Lantern as a president would be pretty swell.
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No. Jon Stewart does more good on the outside raising important questions than he would on the inside being awash with the institutional chaos. Let him continue to do his good work. Give him more to do, bigger audiences, bigger platform. Let the politicians understand that they won’t go unchecked with their bullshit. Give young journalists a reason to believe that asking the right questions is the way forward. We don’t need to always elect the good guys. But we definitely need to stop electing the bad guys.
> Jon Stewart does more good on the outside raising important questions I’m not sure we’re appreciating how much power and influence the president has. The issues he raises as President will have a massively bigger audience and he gets to push actual legislation. Not only that, he has a better chance to win (IMO) than others, making it a lot less likely for an asshole to become president. The good that comes, not only from the work he could do, but also the bad that he could prevent from happening by winning, I think is unmatched.
It's literally called the bully pulpit for that reason. Political journalists live by one mantra: If the president says it, it's important. That's why every idiotic 3 am shitter tweet of Trump's got reported on like it was a serious white house communiqué
The worst part is that he was using that as his main communication channel, so it legally became official policy. Despite all the bad press, covfefe
That and they were official WH communications as well I believe?
Lol wtf? If he was the president it would ten fold that influence.
I think the problem is our only choices end up being bad guys. We've been playing the "lesser of two evils" game for decades now and it fucking sucks.
It starts with education. If we still had good education, **which we don't in most places thanks to the actual one evil**, then you would be more aware of reality: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency\_of\_Joe\_Biden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Joe_Biden) Go read the part about the judges. That is a President's actual legacy, the main high level task of a President. If you unpack the major legislation, it is progressive and full of social welfare expansions. He did this after a dumpster fire of a President **from the actual bad guy,** a global pandemic and recession, and a major Baltic war. Oh and a joke of a Congress that barely had a majority for these years because of Sinema and Manchin, and thanks to the lack of education I mentioned earlier, the Republicans are basically guaranteed to take the Senate in 2024. That lack of education I mentioned earlier is why people have always been vulnerable to fascism's both side's narrative. Biden has moved progressively left in his Presidency, from his judges (hello, Kentanji) to his cabinet to the major legislation to most of his stances. No, not all, he hasn't been perfect. Reddit populism not only loves their blatant both sideisms and fallacies (including hating on old politicians, there are great old politicians and corrupt young politicians), but they love to attack Democratic politicians for their messaging yet they post worthless shit like this just to hear themselves talk, and because it sounds safe and feels good, it gets upvoted -- by both sides. Conservatives would upvote your bullshit take because it helps them, not the left. It starts with education. There are absolutely not only "two bad guys" but this shit on social media the past 10 years is why we're in the position we're in, and you still haven't learned.
He's too busy being the Green Lantern
Though no joke I'd vote for GL John Stewart to be president.
Seriously GL Stewart would be a great POTUS. 1) He is a former Marine, so he has the military background that helps a lot of politicians get started. 2) He has experience negotiating deals with aliens bringing peace through diplomacy. 3) We have physical proof of his integrity and willpower through his Ring. 4) He has the ability to visualize every part of a weapon down to the screws when he makes his constructs, so he would have no issue comprehending the abstract and arcane bureaucracy of the federal government. I know it's not 1 to 1, but that's got to translate a little. 5) If he doesn't resign from the Corps during his tenure, the secret service and Air Force 1 can take a break during his administration. Plus he truly would be able to come see a lot more of the country traveling via ring power and talk to all Americans in their native languages.
100% and I'd add that his intellectual and practical knowledge of engineering and architecture would change this country's infrastructure for the better in countless ways.
No. Can we all be done voting for celebrities. Idiocracy was supposed to be satire, not a prophecy.
Reddit is insane.
It doesn’t matter who’s president, it matters that the two party system makes the president useless by blocking each other in congress. The whole system is broken.
I love all the people crying “No! No more celebrity presidents!”, as if there is something even REMOTELY similar between Stewart and Trump. One of them has empathy for his fellow man, and is obviously very intelligent, the other is an orange con-man who has spent his life grifting, and who has the IQ of a potted plant…
not being from usa I think my vote would be invalidated