How can someone claim to be interested in national unity when they think the Christian right is like ISIS?
Sarah Silverman, host of I Love You, America, has allegedly expressed interest in bridging the political divide with her series. In an interview with Vice’s Hope Reese, the comedienne talked about the concept behind her show. Reese raved, “Her material is less tethered to the news, and she rarely utters Trump’s name or weighs in on specific political viewpoints, instead drawing on broad themes of the moment––patriotism, nationalism, immigration––and reaching across the divide.”
But Silverman used some extreme rhetoric in describing Christians. She ranted in her interview, “Like patriotism, religion can be sometimes used as a weapon, or to support someone’s own narrative or fears and prejudices. These Christian-fringe, Roy Moore, do-what-I-say- not-what-I-do people––they’re not very Jesus-like. I see them as fringe the way I see ISIS as fringe.”
Silverman did talk about the idea of patriotism, and what the right is doing to words, saying: “The right has perverted the meaning of being liberal, or being feminist….Patriotism is perverted.”
Context. The host of I Love You, America, who in a previous interview with Entertainment Weekly denied being political at all, and argued that she wasn’t increasing the divide, just accused the right of perverting the terms patriotism, liberal, and feminist. In September, Silverman said: “The goal is really to find a way to be funny that isn’t ‘We’re right and you’re wrong and we’re smart and you’re dumb,’ because I just think there’s enough of that.”
In the Vice interview, even though Reese started it by saying that Silverman generally avoided speaking about Trump, the comedienne jumped into talking about Trump anyway, saying: “How perverted it is to go from “We are one” to “We are No. 1,” which is such a childish idea. There’s a difference between childlike and childish. The president is childish. He was stunted around 8 years old––maybe something traumatic happened––but he stopped growing emotionally. And yet, he got all the way to the presidency. There are a lot of pathologies that are not healthy but can bring great success, if that’s how you measure success.”
She also told Reese: “Truth has no currency.” Apparently not. In some of the I Love You, America episodes, Silverman mocks religion, Jesus, and pro-life supporters. Guest Fred Armisen dressed up as Jesus and told the audience that abortion was comparable to “the squishing of the tiniest bug.”
Yikes.
Sarah Silverman thinks that she follows “the tenets of Mr. Rogers” on her show, I Love You, America. One wonders if she ever watched Mr. Rogers as a child.
