The New York Times published a wide-ranging interview with Jon Stewart on Monday. It was good reading for some of its insights considering recent petulant Twitter exchanges in and around politics.
Stewart expressed regret about giving in to impulse and satisfying the desire for conflict on his show. He acknowledged, “Those moments when you had a tendency, even subconsciously, to feel like, ‘We have to live up to the evisceration expectation.’ We tried not to give something more spice than it deserved, but you were aware of, say, what went viral. Resisting that gravitational force is really hard.”
Politics has indeed created an evisceration complex within many of us. Social media, Twitter especially, has calcified it. Performances are put on in hopes of rhetorically “obliterating” opponents, embarrassing them, shaming, all at the expense of emotional maturity, honesty, and manners.
Trump’s participation in this online way of life has been duly criticized. The many politicians and celebrities who compete with him get somewhat less attention.
For example, actor Ron Perlman lashed out at Rep. Matt Gaetz over the weekend, and Gaetz hit back. Sen. Ted Cruz then chimed in with a few jabs, proposing that Perlman wrestle Rep. Jim Jordan (Jordan wrestled growing up and was a college coach) for charity. Perlman hit back, raising the stakes and suggesting that Cruz do the wrestling.
Listen Hellboy. You talk good game when you’ve got Hollywood makeup & stuntmen. But I’ll bet $10k—to the nonpolitical charity of your choice—that you couldn’t last 5 min in the wrestling ring w/ @Jim_Jordan w/o getting pinned. You up for it? Or does your publicist say too risky? https://t.co/eRerYVe5kj
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) June 15, 2020
Sen. Doug Jones and Jeff Sessions had a similarly charged exchange, full of caricatures, which ended in the perennial “delete your account” clapback.
Delete your account Jeff. This came out of a Republican controlled Senate committee on a strong bi-partisan vote. I know it’s tough for you to be on the right side of history when it comes to the Confederacy, but you should give it a try. https://t.co/Nuhl5LW9dx
— Doug Jones (@DougJones) June 13, 2020
It feels like a playground or a locker room. These people, excepting Perlman, have been elected to serve in high posts, and they’re acting like children. It’s really quite sad.
If these spats were isolated, or the tones had any sense of geniality, they wouldn’t be a big deal. They aren’t isolated, though, and are rather ingrained in the internet’s social experience. Common users share in the hatred. Politicians are becoming one with the entertainment class, lashing out and multiplying the reasons for their shared disdain. Twitter has seemingly everyone developing an evisceration complex, and it’s not a good thing.
