Cold Open
I just heard the duly-elected President of these United States... Donald J. Trump... brag about dropping the atom bomb. On Hiroshima.
My god.
Steven Colbert? Jon Stewart...?
Once, these guys were subversive... were daring. But...
But with troops still in the California streets and missiles in Mid-Eastern air...
Haven't comedians become nauseatingly... tone dead?
When the Comedy stops being funny…
We're in deep shit. Especially anybody different. Like, say… autistics..
[music theme]
Intro
You’re listening to Trigger Warnings, episode 2 … a new project of AutisticAF Out Loud podcast.I'm Johnny Profane. Your fiercely divergent guide to what's actually happening in the news.Gimme 10 minutes? I'll give you my neurodivergent world.
Today: “Not Everything's Funny: Colbert, Trump .. & Hiroshima.” Military deployments in two cities, Constitutional challenges mounting, and one burning question: Are we witnessing democratic norms under assault in real time? And trying to just laugh it off?
For an ever deeper dive, I’ve included footnotes and readings in the subStack.
Content Note: civil unrest, military deployment, law enforcement actions, concerns about democratic institutions + experiences & opinions of one autistic voice... in my 70s.
[music theme]
Show
Act 1: The Unprecedented Break
I just heard the duly-elected President of these United States... Donald J. Trump... brag about dropping the atom bomb. On Hiroshima.[1]
At a NATO summit.
In front of the world.
My god.
Let me tell you what just happened. Because the News? They aren't "reporting" just how fucked up this really is.
[music freedom, 8 bars]
No President Has Ever Done This
Since the guy who dropped those bombs in 1945…Harry Truman…stopped defending his decision…cuz he stopped being president in 1952.No American president since… has dared… brag about Hiroshima. Or Nagasaki.[2]
Not one.
You know why? Because even the worst of them understood something. Those bombs killed 200,000 people.[3] Mostly civilians. Women. Children. Grandparents.
Even Eisenhower… the guy American history class sayswon World War II… Even he said the bombing "never ceased troubling me." He called it completely unnecessary.[4]
Obama visited Hiroshima in 2016.[5] He didn't apologize. But he didn't brag either.
Reagan talked about nuclear weapons. But he said "a nuclear war can never be won."[6]
Every president since Truman understood this was serious shit. Sacred ground. You don't joke around about vaporizing cities.
Not Trump.
He's bragging. Comparing his conventional strikes to atomic bombs. Like it's a video game.
"We have the best nuclear technology," he said. "The best equipment in the world."
Like… nuclear weapons were toys.
[music]
Trump Just Shattered “Normal”
Yesterday at the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump compared his strikes on Iran to Hiroshima.
His exact words: "I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don't want to use the example of Nagasaki, that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war, this ended this war."[7]
He was bragging. Bragging about nuclear destruction. Like a fucking business deal.
"That hit ended the war," he said. Chest puffed out. Proud as hell.
This is what we've come to. The President casually referencing the incineration of 200,000 humans… as a model for current policy.
At an international summit.
On camera.With full makeup.
[music 8 bars, freedom]
You know social media… if you take a sec to hit subscribe, like, share? A lot more people will check it out. Just one click… and you do a lotta good.
[music, freedom]
The Comedy Problem
How are we supposed to respond? Where's the outrage?
In other words, where are the comedians? Most Gen Z-ers and younger get their news from late night comedy shows.[8]
Colbert will try out a "new" joke tonight. Stewart will do his smirk. They'll treat this like another Trump gaffe they can mine for laughs.[9]
But it's not funny anymore.
Once, these guys were subversive... were daring. But...
Haven’t they become nauseatingly... tone dead?
You can't satirize someone who's already become a parody of human decency. Someone the scriptures of all major religions would label simply… evil?
Bragging about mass murder... what the fuck is left to mock?
Comedy works when there's a shared understanding of normal. When people have shame. When some lines… you just don't cross.
But Trump crossed the biggest
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