Steven Wise is a pancake?

In one of my older blog posts, Warning: mental overload, I briefly discussed something I had stumbled upon called the Nonhuman Rights Project, a group trying to secure legal rights for other species. 

Needless to say, I was a fan immediately. 

Currently, they're working on securing legal rights for chimpanzees, and they are using a particular chimp, Tommy, to achieve this. Other Chimps are also currently in court to secure the writ of habeas corpus, meaning they cannot be detained without reason. They would have rights to their own bodies. 

So I got an email from them yesterday from the project saying that one of the heads of the project, Steven Wise, would be appearing on the Colbert Report. You can watch the interview here.

Fun fact, Jane Goodall is a member of this movement as well.

The website talks about achieving rights for non-humans, not Chimps specifically, but when Colbert asked in his typical devils advocate style about giving rights to all animals, Wise said they were only advocating rights to Chimps, and that he didn't believe all animals should have rights.

Wait a minute. What? It's called the non-human rights project for goodness sake!

The website says, as its mission statement:

The Nonhuman Rights Project is the only organization working toward actual LEGAL rights for members of species other than our own. Our mission is to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from mere “things,” which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to “persons,” who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty, and those other legal rights to which evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience entitle them. Our first cases were filed in 2013. Your support of this work is deeply appreciated.

So what's the deal?

I can understand why you'd start with chimps, because chimps have incredible similarities to humans, and will likely create more sympathy in other people.

But chimps aren't the only intelligent beings. Many non-humans have emotions and desires, and even the most simple creature has a nervous system capable of feeling pain.

I think that if Wise was going to go on Colbert as the face of the movement, he should have stuck to his guns. 

I dare say I predicted this: Colbert is in trouble with #cancelcolbert

Just a little blip here flashing back to one of my older posts. Many disagreed with my article "A Commentary on Humor Complacency: Critiquing Colbert". But now Colbert and his show are in trouble for disrespecting the Asian community. 

Ironically, the bit that made me upset and write the first post was about the smog problem in China.

The tweet, reportedly made by whoever was running @ColbertReport, a Comedy Central twitter account, was a quote from a bit in his show for which Colbert himself, @ColbertAtHome, still needs to be held accountable. 

The tweet was a parody of the inappropriate and frankly ridiculous name of a foundation started by the Washington Redskins called the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. The name of the foundation is ridiculous because the Washington Redskins have yet to change their name which is an ethnic slur for Native Americans, and also the slur is included in the foundation's name. 

This is what I was saying about being careful of satire. Satire does not mean you can say whatever you want. Colbert could have pointed out the ridiculousness of the Washington Redskin's new foundation without making the comment that got him in trouble:

I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.

Do I think Colbert meant to harm anyone? No. But that does not excuse him and Comedy Central from taking responsibility for his actions.

A Commentary on Humor Complacency: Critiquing Colbert

Picture Source: http://www.wunderground.com/news/china-dangerous-smog-20130114

                    Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman has gotten me thinking on America’s entertainment culture and how it affects one’s ability to comprehend the severity of a situation and counteracting the situation with action.

Just this morning, cup of coffee and WhoKnew cookies in hand (I’ve upgraded from the Oreos), I discovered that my usual morning tradition, “Morning Joe,” was not on. So I decided that political satire would be a fun wake-me-up before I started my day. Little did I know exactly what type of wake-me-up I would receive.

I do not watch “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show” frequently. The few times I have seen them, I have thought that they are fun to watch and in general enjoyed the content. I’m not sure if I was paying attention.

There’s a segment on “The Colbert Report” called “Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger” where Colbert adds these motions to whatever he is commenting on. This particular episode focused on China and North Korea during the segment.

The “Tip of the Hat” was (of course, sarcastically) directed towards the Chinese government.

If you have been keeping up with China (I became aware during a debate I led stating that China would not surpass the United States as the next superpower), you know that they’re having a huge problem with air pollution because of the size of the population and amount of machinery and factories releasing exhaust into the air. 

Their economic boom is destroying their environment.

If you’re looking for a good source, The Huffington Post frequently has updates on the smog situation in China:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/china-air-pollution

Colbert reported on how the Chinese government and media is handling the situation: by posting an article on the unifying effects (poor and rich breathing in the same smoke, unified by a sense of humor about the smog, etc.) of the smog and reducing the amount of alerts made about the smog in order to make the situation seem less severe than it is.

I thought it was a good thing to report on, but I certainly didn’t think it was something to laugh about. I attempted to put myself in the shoes of the Chinese people, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in a thick cloud of barely breathable air 24-7. 

The audience was laughing, Colbert was laughing, and I was thinking about Postman.

The delivery of this news and the lack of audience awareness made the situation seem less terrible than it actually is. I began to wonder how often this happens, and how often I fall into the same trend of laughing at things that really deserve deeper and more serious contemplation.

Obviously, many of us have little to no power to aid the environmental situation in China, particularly when we have many problems of our own to take a look at. However, I think this is a good example of how we can be blinded by humor as a sort of tranquilizer, because things such as these are painful to contemplate.

I believe looking at humor as detrimental to our society when used in the wrong way is extremely important. What do you think?