Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Jews For (& Against) Obama

The Daily Show had a hilarious segment last night. Wyatt Cenac went to Florida to see how old Jewish voters reacted to the Presidential Debate. Jon Stewart's own reaction at the end is priceless.

Like all groups that we, 'human beings', categorize ourselves into, Jewish people are never a monolithic entity. Groups of 'Jews', like 'Christians', 'Eastern', 'black', 'white', 'old', 'young', 'rich', 'middle class', etc, etc are all going to include many, many people who have differing political views, religions, moral outlooks, artistic tastes, sense of humor & personalities in general.

One of the many annoying things about the corporate-driven 'mainstream' media is the natural human tendency to treat segments (ie. Jewish voters in Florida, women, African-Americans, middle-class) of the population as some kind of hive mind. This is especially true during elections, when stereotypes of all kinds are amplified & reinforced.

As this small group of older Jewish people suggests, even the strongest of social bonds can't prevent strong differences of opinion.



Alot of the people in the Daily Show clip weren't really fond of Obama, but the raunchy & very funny Sarah Silverman is a comedienne of Jewish heritage who definitely supports a President Obama. This video I saw on BoingBoing immediately made me think of the Daily Show clip above. It's like Sarah watched the same clip of those wacky old folks watching the debate.


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

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