Doug Stanhope - is this guy for real?

[ed miliband]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycwYRcm3Lc

People have compared Stanhope to Noam Chomsky (!!!!!) and yet this video is almost exactly the opposite of everything Chomsky has ever stood for. In fact, in Manufacturing Consent Chomsky talks about how tragic it is that people are made to feel like they shouldn't have an opinion on things unless they understand the issue down to every single detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2o7y_b04YE

This makes me laugh because Stanhope's* whole shtick is about how awful conservatives are, and yet his message in this video -'overpopulation causes global warming and I'm the only one who will acknowledge it'- is almost exactly the stance the BNP the have on the issue.

*Same with Charlie Brooker's shtick. Brooker once said he'd vote Labour even if the Labour candidate was caught carving a swastika into the back of a mouse, and yet, the implications of what Brooker says don't strike me as awfully different from the views of conservatives.

So is this all an act or is this guy really serious?

[ZeroNowhere]

IIRC, he's a Libertarian Party member, and was at least attempting to stand for those guys, so it would seem fairly realistic. From what I recall, he was basically just a lower quality Bill Hicks.

[ed miliband]

Interesting he should become a darling (perhaps I'm exaggerating a little) of British liberals, then.

[praxis1966]

Actually, he strikes me as the uneducated person's Christopher Hitchens. For that, I say fuck them both. Fuck 'em and everybody who looks like 'em.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I didn't really have much of a problem with the first clip, but the second one was just neo-Malthusian nonsense.

But yeah, he's an American-style libertarian...hence his take on drugs:

yd5_nTwLVEg

[ed miliband]

The first video just seems really anti-working class to me, but perhaps I'm just being oversensitive.

[NGNM85]

Stanhope's ok, sometimes he's a bit much for me, but I love it when he talks about religion. He's a pretty militant atheist which revs my engine. Also, while he's expressed support for Libertarianism, he's been very critical of the Libertarian party.

[RHIZOMES]

I am a big fan of Charlie Brooker, he's one of the only media personalities who sees through the bullshit. I think it's very good he's on TV since he provides this rare quality (for TV anyway) called "critical thinking". When Doug Stanhope became a regular on "Newswipe" I was like WHY CHARLIE WHY.

[Il Medico]

Wait... The guy from "The Man Show"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpwmGJsE9VA&feature=related

[Raúl Duke]

I never heard of this guy...I don't think I know anyone who heard of this man...
While I heard of Bill Hicks...and know of people who know Bill Hicks.

In fact, if I can make comparisons....Carlin and Hicks were more entertaining and eloquent than this man.

[it_ain't_me]

i just watched a few of his videos. he's obviously a libertarian idiot. he wears a baseball jersey that says ''libertarian'' across the chest while he does stand up. in general, he strikes me as a frat boy who, instead of getting a six-figure white collar job at daddy's company upon graduation, went into ''comedy''.

[Sendo]

i just watched a few of his videos. he's obviously a libertarian idiot. he wears a baseball jersey that says ''libertarian'' across the chest while he does stand up. in general, he strikes me as a frat boy who, instead of getting a six-figure white collar job at daddy's company upon graduation, went into ''comedy''.

I'll never understand why this stereotype that people in fraternities are all rich, elite knockoffs of a college from the 1910s or cousins of Skull and Bones. Nobody in my fraternity got any special connections from alumni after graduation, pretty much everyone who helped each other out was people of the same graduating class becoming roommates in the city or stuff like that. The only ones who became LA plastic surgeons or corporate lawyers were rich to begin with and were never part of the social nucleus. I've noticed many rich people never join frats or even go to colleges that have frats.

Or maybe this is some dig on his unwashed, boorish drunk routine. Because frat boys are the only ones who drank at college. That's why I never saw Dean's List students come to our parties.

[Meridian]

What does this have to do with Bill Hicks?

Bill Hicks was funny and seemed pretty radical to me. He had some weird jokes but many were very political.

This guy seems like the typical american style of "radical" who says what he actually means, which unfortunately is not very radical at all. It's an understandable reaction to the extreme dishonesty and show-style of American politics though.

[Raúl Duke]

I'll never understand why this stereotype that people in fraternities are all rich, elite knockoffs of a college from the 1910s or cousins of Skull and Bones. Nobody in my fraternity got any special connections from alumni after graduation, pretty much everyone who helped each other out was people of the same graduating class becoming roommates in the city or stuff like that. The only ones who became LA plastic surgeons or corporate lawyers were rich to begin with and were never part of the social nucleus. I've noticed many rich people never join frats or even go to colleges that have frats.

Or maybe this is some dig on his unwashed, boorish drunk routine. Because frat boys are the only ones who drank at college. That's why I never saw Dean's List students come to our parties.

It depends.

In my university, fraternities are filled with a lot of "bro" stereotype kind of people who wear shorts and stupid t-shirts who although not exactly rich in many cases I doubt they themselves are paying their own fraternity dues in most cases. Although, not many are in fraternities in my university.

The Libertarians in my university are, to my knowledge, usually not affiliated to any fraternity. However, you do see a substantial amount of Reaganite (in economics) Republicans in fraternities who study poli sci and run Student Government.

[ChrisK]

IIRC, he's a Libertarian Party member, and was at least attempting to stand for those guys, so it would seem fairly realistic. From what I recall, he was basically just a lower quality Bill Hicks.

I disagree. Hicks had strong socialist tendencies. Stanhope is just a libertarian nut job. He's more of a lower quality Joe Rogan.

[ZeroNowhere]

I was referring to their styles. Stanhope seems to attempt a similar style of comedy, so to speak, as Hicks, but, unlike Hicks, is neither amusing nor informative.