Trevor Noah interviews Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R) about CRT, Climate Change, Immigration, Cancel Culture

[ken_matthews]

No you don't. Not with safe-seat officials who are just on for clout, not actual debates. Dan Crenshaw represents a small part of Houston, not the fuckin' state. He can go to Fox News and talk his ass off there.

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We can agree to disagree.

Cool that didn't happen here and these things never happen so when it's more often then not usless interviews like Noah maybe it's rational to just prefer these liberal media personalities not have them on.

You're in a thread about a specific interview

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I think you are right. It was a useless interview as far a challenging bad ideas goes. We agree, Trevor should not have had him on if he did not intend to challenge his views more directly. For me personally, it was still interesting to compare that interview with the Fox interview to see how he packages his taking points for different audiences.

Being evil isn't punishable by death until you get your hands dirty. I don't really get your issue.

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Dude you're the hyperbole jumping to desire mass murder as litmus test to dedication to verbiage

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You're the one who jumped to "so should we murder them??". 🙄

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I jumped to we should murder them? I asked a question in response to somebody calling people evil. To be evil means to be morally reprehensible. To be morally reprehensible means that you earned that description. I don't mean to belabor the point, but words do have meaning, and if somebody is evil, then that means they did something to justify being called evil (their hands are dirty). I was trying (unsuccessfully) to point out that it is not useful to seriously call people evil if they are not actually evil or you don't really mean it. Yes, there are plenty of really awful people on the right, and some of them are actually evil (KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc), but is somebody really evil if they are anti-immigration? Are people who supported the boarder wall evil? Or are they most likely just shitheads and idiots mixed in with some racists and xenophobes? I think hyperbole is almost never helpful and it is counter productive when challenging bad ideas.

 

[Mekanos]

We need to have more of these type of conversations. Crenshaw is a quack idiot, but some of his followers will see this and be less hostile towards the left. We have to stop this tribalism bullshit. It's destroying nations, slowly. If we don't even speak to each other then we risk going so far into our own holes that we collapse everything built above us.

We have to reach a middle ground here. To the "don't give this guy a platform" posters. I get it. But he already has a platform. A big one. What we're doing isn't working. If you think it is, just wait until next year. Hooboy are we in for a rude awakening.

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What middle ground? How do you reach a middle ground with a group that have fundamentally different material interests? People spent years playing footsie with Republicans on TV and it's only emboldened them.

"Republicans have dangerous beliefs and shouldn't be validated" isn't tribalism. Republicans and their followers don't give a flying fuck about reaching across the aisle, we saw this throughout the Obama years despite him more or less begging for their support.

There's no happy storybook ending where Republicans' hearts grow three times bigger. They are politically and economically motivated by destroying the country.

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

To be evil means to be morally reprehensible. To be morally reprehensible means that you earned that description.

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professional republicans, then? the same party (and democrats aren't angels, either) that pushed for false wars in iraq? and now those same people are on liberal talkshows doing there little anti-trump spiel because they can't get jobs in their party anymore. Or maybe Bush going on Ellen and dancing with her?

 

[Adventureracing]

I fucking hate how the media has people like this as guests as don't challenge their views. It's bad enough that right wing media let them spew their bullshit but then even supposedly left wing media let them on to 'hear both sides' with challenging them appropriately.

This is why the left side of politics is struggling around the world.

 

[ken_matthews]

professional republicans, then? the same party (and democrats aren't angels, either) that pushed for false wars in iraq? and now those same people are on liberal talkshows doing there little anti-trump spiel because they can't get jobs in their party anymore. Or maybe Bush going on Ellen and dancing with her?

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Some of them, probably.

 

[Biske]

This dude's my representative, I love living in this gerrymandered hell.

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It's just fucking incredible that this is so normal and so acceted.

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

We need to have more of these type of conversations. Crenshaw is a quack idiot, but some of his followers will see this and be less hostile towards the left. We have to stop this tribalism bullshit. It's destroying nations, slowly. If we don't even speak to each other then we risk going so far into our own holes that we collapse everything built above us.

We have to reach a middle ground here. To the "don't give this guy a platform" posters. I get it. But he already has a platform. A big one. What we're doing isn't working. If you think it is, just wait until next year. Hooboy are we in for a rude awakening.

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Nah, fuck middle ground wishy-washy shit. The Republicans destroyed that type of thinking back in the 90s with fucking Newt Gringrich and Fox News. Thinking these motherfucker's bases will be less hostile towards the left is insanity. They want to be less hostile towards YOU, or the mainstream viewer. And it's working. They created the tribalism in this country and now WE have to pull back? No, fuck that.

These type of conversations create no discussion or value. It is only used to blow hot air up the politican's skirt and score Noah some centrist points.

 

[gozu]

I only got about ten minutes in, through the immigration portion, but I think it was a good discussion. Nothing especially eye-opening, but I think Crenshaw raised an interesting point about some legal immigrants becoming frustrated about illegals "cutting in line," so to speak.

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It's a bullshit point racists and racist panderers like to use against undocumented immigrants. I've had republicans try to get me to agree with them, since I was the "good" kind of "legal" immigrant. I refused.

I never for one second resented illegals trying to make a life for themselves. I never thought that I deserve US citizenship more than them just because I got luckier with education or support.

Least importantly, but most relevant: There is no "line" that anyone is cutting into. It is an imaginary ploy devised to trick people like you. And apparently it's an effective one. :(

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

No thanks. Having the ability to make your awful political views palpable for the mainstream doesn't make him any better than the rest. Just more dangerous.

 

[Rover]

The comments section confirms my suspicion that this is centrist porn.


Edit:

Crenshaw says "Redlining in the past can affect how neighborhoods are segregated today. I don't think there's more to the story than that." and Noah, who was raised in Apartheid South Africa, does not even blink.

 

[UnpopularBlargh]

The comments section confirms my suspicion that this is centrist porn

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Pretty much. Best is when someone is like "he seems normal and totally not evil" cuz that false perception is the whole goal of going on Sunday shows and late night talk shows.

We've all been here. Ignorance/denial of who the otherside is will not help you.

 

[Scottoest]

I've got no issue at all with someone bringing Dan Crenshaw on to talk about "the issues" - talking about "not giving him a platform" and stuff is absurd: he's a GOP congressman. The horse was never even in that barn to be let out.

However what I always dislike is when shitheads like Crenshaw are brought on to shows like this and put on a nice veneer of reasonableness, and aren't confronted with how this veneer stands in stark contrast to how they speak to their voter base. The smart Republicans are very good at this act, because they know the media craves the elusive "reasonable Republican" they can all embrace. John McCain made a career of it.

So yeah - by all means bring Dan Crenshaw on. But don't just be a tool for his goals.

 

[BBboy20]

You can't say Noah didn't try to reach across the aisle.

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What is on the other side wants to murder us all.

 

[KingK]

Can someone tell me what CRT stands for? I've been seeing the abbreviation all over the last few days, and all I can think of is an old TV lol.

 

[Mekanos]

Can someone tell me what CRT stands for? I've been seeing the abbreviation all over the last few days, and all I can think of is an old TV lol.

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Critical race theory, right-wing fearmongering over people learning about America's history of racism... to put it simply.

 

[Morrigan]

I was trying (unsuccessfully) to point out that it is not useful to seriously call people evil if they are not actually evil or you don't really mean it.

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This is nonsense. I can call someone evil without saying that I wish for them to be killed. Jesus fucking christ.

 

[KingK]

Critical race theory, right-wing fearmongering over people learning about America's history of racism... to put it simply.

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Oh, Okay thank you! Kept seeing the acronym without much context haha.

So yeah, quick Google search and I get the gist now. Dumbass conservatives offended that people want to teach their kids a more accurate and slightly less watered down version of history.

 

[Deleted member 3924]

most definitions of evil fit without exaggeration though

 

[Fudgepuppy]

Fuck Crenshaw in his eye-hole.

 

[UnpopularBlargh]

Oh, Okay thank you! Kept seeing the acronym without much context haha.

So yeah, quick Google search and I get the gist now. Dumbass conservatives offended that people want to teach their kids a more accurate and slightly less watered down version of history.

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The same people that say we need to keep statues of slave owners and confederate traitors up to teach kids the 'dark' history of America.

Which their railing against "CRT" shows was a total lie.

 

[ryan13ts]

We need to have more of these type of conversations. Crenshaw is a quack idiot, but some of his followers will see this and be less hostile towards the left. We have to stop this tribalism bullshit. It's destroying nations, slowly. If we don't even speak to each other then we risk going so far into our own holes that we collapse everything built above us.

We have to reach a middle ground here. To the "don't give this guy a platform" posters. I get it. But he already has a platform. A big one. What we're doing isn't working. If you think it is, just wait until next year. Hooboy are we in for a rude awakening.

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This is honest the position I personally want to agree with, as I know that not trying to find a common ground isn't doing us any good and just driving this country and it's people further apart. I'm also hesitant to advocate deplatforming or silencing the other side in most circumstances (Outside of shit like advocating violence) because as much as I absolutely abhor some of the things they say, I grant it's their right unfortunately... that, and I also know they'd be all too eager to return the favor against us if the winds shift in their favor.

That said, the unfortunate fact that professional Republicans like Crenshaw aren't interested in actual compromise and understanding like we should be working towards. If they were, they wouldn't be supporting abhorrent policies that keep driving a wedge between this country and it's citizens, and doing it eagerly at that. EVERYTHING is a culture war for them now, manufactured to illicit extreme responses from their bases that villianize them against left, and even worse, average people that are already vulnerable. If the majority of Republicans were reasonable, like Kinzinger or Cheney, I'd honestly be more for trying to have honest discussions and would have hope for both sides moving to some moderate understanding that would hopefully pass down to the rest of the country.

But as long as the GOP is stacked with scum of the likes of Cruz, Taylor-Green, Gaetz, and Crenshaw, achieving any hopes of real progress and understanding is as hopeful as people in hell getting a glass of ice water.

 

[Psittacus]

We need to have more of these type of conversations. Crenshaw is a quack idiot, but some of his followers will see this and be less hostile towards the left. We have to stop this tribalism bullshit. It's destroying nations, slowly. If we don't even speak to each other then we risk going so far into our own holes that we collapse everything built above us.

We have to reach a middle ground here. To the "don't give this guy a platform" posters. I get it. But he already has a platform. A big one. What we're doing isn't working. If you think it is, just wait until next year. Hooboy are we in for a rude awakening.

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President Biden is that you?

 

[BUNTING1243]

fuck Dan Crenshaw and fuck trying to pass him as respectable.
edit: just to be clear my issue with with Trevor Noah, not the OP.

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Omg

 

[Deer]

This is awful, and yes - this man is evil. And no, I won't try to kill him. And no, that is not strange.

 

[Clefargle]

The bar is so low for what passes as eloquent in Republican circles

 

[Capra]

I almost like the naivete of thinking that if evil exists, then it must be like Dragon Quest or some shit where we go off on a quest to banish it with swords and magic spells.

As opposed to, you know, it just being widely-accepted as a valid political stance so we have to fucking debate with the Dragon Lord on tv about whether we should roll back civil rights.

 

[rjinaz]

I understand why Trevor Noah wanted to interview him in theory. Trevor is one of the smartest guys out there countering Conservative bullshit and I have to admit that even I was interested to see him do it.

But as others have pointed out, these people are politicians but they are also actors as well. They can put on a show and appear to be perfectly reasonable Conservatives, just caring about immigration and concerns about government over reach. I mean, nothing wrong with that, right?

But then once they go back outside of the Left leaning audience they jump right back into fascism, declaring the election was stolen, White genocide, all that fear rhetoric and anti-Democracy bullshit.
If they behaved in these interviews the way they behave on Twitter and on Fox News, they'd look like lunatics to the audience, but they don't.

There is nothing to gain here except to make it seem like Conservatives are reasonable to a base that usually might not be exposed to their bullshit.

 

[OtterX]

Can someone tell me what CRT stands for? I've been seeing the abbreviation all over the last few days, and all I can think of is an old TV lol.

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Cathode Ray Tube

 

[ken_matthews]

This is nonsense. I can call someone evil without saying that I wish for them to be killed. Jesus fucking christ.

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I never said you must wish for evil people to be killed. You may be putting too much weight on that line at the cost of the entire comment, or more likely, I just probably poorly communicated my thoughts. I only used that line to match the hyperbole of calling people evil, to point out how unproductive talk like that is when we're usually just talking about people who have bad ideas. Most people with bad ideas are not evil, even if those ideas support public policy that negatively affect a lot of people. Are we really going to say that somebody is evil if they are anti-immigration? Is somebody evil if they're anti-abortion? If you feel the answer is yes, then the the action should match the weight of the accusation, and calling somebody evil is not a light accusation. If you think we should simply ignore or de-platform evil people, then I think you're appropriating that word to mean something that it doesn't. You don't ignore evil people. Instead, you confront them (in one way or another), otherwise they will continue to do evil things to other people.

 

[metalslimer]

He fell into the same trap that will make this guy a strong candidate for president as some point. People want to give conservatives a chance to not be complete pieces of shit

 

[ken_matthews]

This is honest the position I personally want to agree with, as I know that not trying to find a common ground isn't doing us any good and just driving this country and it's people further apart. I'm also hesitant to advocate deplatforming or silencing the other side in most circumstances (Outside of shit like advocating violence) because as much as I absolutely abhor some of the things they say, I grant it's their right unfortunately... that, and I also know they'd be all too eager to return the favor against us if the winds shift in their favor.

That said, the unfortunate fact that professional Republicans like Crenshaw aren't interested in actual compromise and understanding like we should be working towards. If they were, they wouldn't be supporting abhorrent policies that keep driving a wedge between this country and it's citizens, and doing it eagerly at that. EVERYTHING is a culture war for them now, manufactured to illicit extreme responses from their bases that villianize them against left, and even worse, average people that are already vulnerable. If the majority of Republicans were reasonable, like Kinzinger or Cheney, I'd honestly be more for trying to have honest discussions and would have hope for both sides moving to some moderate understanding that would hopefully pass down to the rest of the country.

But as long as the GOP is stacked with scum of the likes of Cruz, Taylor-Green, Gaetz, and Crenshaw, achieving any hopes of real progress and understanding is as hopeful as people in hell getting a glass of ice water.

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I think you're absolutely right. Many of these people are not honest brokers. And I think that's the main reason why we have to challenge these elected officials at every opportunity. We need to call out their bullshit, call out the games and divisive tactics, and call out thier lies. They are not going to go away if we ignore them.

 

[Hrodulf]

This is the guy who cut an ad depicting himself going in a special operation in Georgia to kill BLM advocates so they wouldn't steal the state from Trump/the GOP.

He deserves no respect for anything and I don't really give a shit about what anyone says about or wishes upon him.

 

[Capra]

This is the dumbest fucking semantic argument

 

[Deleted member 8257]

Daily Show and SNL normalizing fascists through laughsies. Ha Ha Ha. Lets ban refugees and bomb more countries. Ha Ha Ha.

Fuck Daily Show.

 

[ken_matthews]

This is the dumbest fucking semantic argument

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Words have meaning and those meanings matter. Words motivate people to take action. Think about all the hyperbolic language that was used to galvanize a bunch of people into storming the capitol. I'm sorry that you think it's dumb, but instead of just dropping a hot take, why don't you make an argument explaining why the meaning of words doesn't matter.

 

[Capra]

Words have meaning and those meanings matter. Words motivate people to take action. Think about all the hyperbolic language that was used to galvanize a bunch of people into storming the capitol. I'm sorry that you think it's dumb, but instead of just dropping a hot take, why don't you make an argument explaining why the meaning of words doesn't matter.

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First of all, we're on a forum that's heavily moderated and needs to maintain ad revenue. So even if we believe that the Republican Party represents a tangible existential threat to American democracy and the lives of its non-white/non-male/lgbtq+ population the most we can suggest is that we fight them within the bounds of what is legal. I want to be here next week to talk about Sheen Megoomi Tensay 5.

Second, they are evil. The Republican Party actively perpetuates suffering. They are currently fighting against scientific advances that would stop an ongoing global pandemic. They want to roll back civil rights. They believe in forcing women to have their rapists' children. They actively deny global warming despite knowing damn well it's a thing because they care more about lining their pockets than they do the future of their own children. Or they know their kids will be protected by the wealth they've accumulated while others suffer. They don't just have "bad ideas." They are evil.

And they're also one of two major parties in American politics and their views are considered legitimate. Because we live in a world where being evil is just a different political view. So yeah, we have to fight them by tearing into their terrible views or by just refusing to give them a chance to clean themselves up and present themselves to an audience that'll happily slurp up their bullshit in order to maintain the illusion of civility.

 

[rjinaz]

He fell into the same trap that will make this guy a strong candidate for president as some point. People want to give conservatives a chance to not be complete pieces of shit

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Oh god, it just brings me back to all the times I heard "if only Trump would stop doing this, or that." or "he's new to this". Nevermind the efforts people made to explain how the man that says what he thinks, actually didn't really mean what he said at all every time he opened his mouth and that people are just interpreting it wrong.

It's also why people are badly mistaken if they think America is over Trump for 2024. By then his slate will be clean and they'll be begging for a chance for Trump to show how much he has changed.

 

[heathen earth]

Yeah, if your mission in life is solely to oppress others, that means you are definitely evil.

Interviews like this are exactly how fascism became a legitimate political position in this country, rather than the societal cancer it is.

 

[Gwenpoolshark]

does he ask him about the brave mujahideen soldier that fucked his eye hole?

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Yes queen.

 

[Lexad]

He also had a republican pollster on as well. Seems he wants to regularly have republican guests on.

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Kristen Soltis Anderson is actually somewhat reasonable and was art of the Republican Party that did not go Trumper. She used to cohost a polling podcast with another prominent Democrat pollster whose husband campaigned for Bernie

 

[XMonkey]

This is honest the position I personally want to agree with, as I know that not trying to find a common ground isn't doing us any good and just driving this country and it's people further apart. I'm also hesitant to advocate deplatforming or silencing the other side in most circumstances (Outside of shit like advocating violence) because as much as I absolutely abhor some of the things they say, I grant it's their right unfortunately... that, and I also know they'd be all too eager to return the favor against us if the winds shift in their favor.

That said, the unfortunate fact that professional Republicans like Crenshaw aren't interested in actual compromise and understanding like we should be working towards. If they were, they wouldn't be supporting abhorrent policies that keep driving a wedge between this country and it's citizens, and doing it eagerly at that. EVERYTHING is a culture war for them now, manufactured to illicit extreme responses from their bases that villianize them against left, and even worse, average people that are already vulnerable. If the majority of Republicans were reasonable, like Kinzinger or Cheney, I'd honestly be more for trying to have honest discussions and would have hope for both sides moving to some moderate understanding that would hopefully pass down to the rest of the country.

But as long as the GOP is stacked with scum of the likes of Cruz, Taylor-Green, Gaetz, and Crenshaw, achieving any hopes of real progress and understanding is as hopeful as people in hell getting a glass of ice water.

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No one has the right to post on Twitter, or Facebook, or go do interviews on a TV show and it's disingenuous to try and frame the discussion around deplatforming in this way.

When others say they want someone deplatformed they mean they shouldn't be able to post or speak from these privately run outlets. No one is saying Crenshaw shouldn't be able to stand on a street corner and talk shit if he wants to. But we don't want him to have unfettered access to an internet-wide megaphone when doing it.

In other words, you're entitled to your speech, not your reach.

 

[Messofanego]

We've all been around this block. I'm not surprised the centrist Trevor platformed Dan. Dan got what he wanted, a moderate-to-liberal new audience to convince to his side and eventually agree with his far right talking points. It seems a couple people in this thread now already agree with him about immigration, that it's ok for immigrant in-fighting rather than making immigration easier overall so people never have to do risky actions.

Can someone tell me what CRT stands for? I've been seeing the abbreviation all over the last few days, and all I can think of is an old TV lol.

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Critical Race Theory, a legal analysis about systemic racial bias. It's now become a moral panic recently by bad faith bigots.

Khadija Mbowe and Carlos Maza did good primer videos on the topic:

 

[Chikor]

Kristen Soltis Anderson is actually somewhat reasonable and was art of the Republican Party that did not go Trumper. She used to cohost a polling podcast with another prominent Democrat pollster whose husband campaigned for Bernie

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Those fuckers have half of the US media market dedicated to pushing their bad ideas to the public, does shows like the Daily Show believe that the problem in America that not enough people have been exposed to the Republican message?
They are normalizing that shit, Kristen Soltis Anderson is more respectable than dollar store Snake Plissken over there, but her vision for America is still horrific, and it would be terrible for everyone if people like her were in power.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

Very weird to hear an actual civilized conversation after 5 years of craziness. However, the sheer amount of dogwhistles in the conversation were very concerning. This is a preview of what the Republican Party will be if they are ever able to buck the Trump craze: Palatable conversations that leave out the dirty details that often make their policy horrendous. The conversation about CRT is about protecting white fragility and maintaining the status quo of stagnated racial conversation; he often referred to the effects of CRT as being "threatening," another dogwhistle. Throughout the conversation, he often mentions "Western values" among other similar dogwhistles, which reinforce feelings of nationalism and even isolationism to a degree, since "Western values" often equates to the "American" way of doing things to most people. The conversation about illegal immigration continues to propagate those migrants as scapegoats, and places the burden of blame on their own action; there is no mention of why these immigrants are coming over, just that we need to secure the border, whatever that means in their minds. Trying to paint Exxon Mobil as one of the good guys in the fight against Climate Change was laughable. Sure they may be seeking innovations in isolated situations, but what about the basis of their profit? Was a long list of disingenuous statements.

However, on a more positive note, there were instances where the concerns from another perspective were more genuine, or at least interesting to hear. A lot of these problems are more nuanced than people like to believe, and challenging our perspectives is a good way to strengthen our positions.