penismightier.com

Alright, living where I do I’m not exactly the world’s foremost expert on The Boondocks. But after reading this New Yorker profile, I’ve gotta say that Aaron McGruder is my new hero. You’ve gotta admire a guy who offered What Liberal Media? author Eric Alterman the opportunity to “try these nuts” in response to heckling about voting for Nader.

In the same profile, after complaining that America has a state-run media, McGruder is quoted: “I know what this sounds like: conspiracy theory. But you know what? A conspiracy is something hidden. This shit is out in the open. People are just too dumb to see it.” My first thought was Chomsky, when asked whether he’d consider his theory of media self-filtering (“the propaganda model”) a conspiracy theory: What what we’ve been discussing are simply the institutional factors that set the boundaries for reporting and interpretation in the idological institutions. That’s the opposite of a conspiracy theory, it’s just … the kind of analysis you do automatically when you’re trying to understand how the world works.” (Understanding Power, p26)

And it gets closer to home. More MacGruder: “A lot of black people ain’t up on Monty Python like they should be.” Moreover: “I’m not the guy that wants to spend my life being some kind of closet intellectual … I want to play Vice City.” What more can you say? Alright, probably he’s got a ton of flaws – the profile isn’t too positive on his work ethic and there’s probably smarter things for a young liberal radical to do than grab his crotch in front of the assembled staff of The Nation. But fuck it, it’s just another small dose of what the world needs.

Next week I’ll be introducing you dear readers to a little something called “Reality Television”. Also, Fox has started a news channel.