 I just found out that John Stuart actually has a new show on Apple TV, and I haven't checked it out yet. But he did an interview, I believe, about his new show, and he said a couple of things about subjects that is on everyone's mind that we're all thinking about. And what he had to say, the insight that he offers is really refreshing to hear. So the first thing that he talks about is Trump 2024 and the prospects of him getting reelected. And he basically says what we're all thinking. He has a really, really good shot at getting reelected, unfortunately. This is the reality of the situation, and it's a little bit early to try to figure out what is actually going to take place in 2024. But assuming Trump is going to run again, does he have a good chance? Absolutely. So as Judy Kurtz of The Hill explains, John Stuart says former President Trump has a very good chance of winning back the White House if he enters the 2024 race. I think he's got it. He's got a very good chance. And they're smarter about it. Stuart said Sunday during an interview with David Remnick at the 22nd annual New Yorker Festival. He's brilliant at understanding what will drive the television narratives, Stuart said, referring to Trump. Stuart also predicted that if Trump runs again, it will all be about January 6th and stop the steal. But what I think they really learned from this experience was there are really specific pivot points within the American electoral system. And those pivot points are generally the administration of elections run by partisans, but not by ideologues, he said. The actual danger of what happened at the Capitol in January, Stuart added, is that it exposed a fragility at a level that is not flashy or sexy or known. While Trump has repeatedly teased a potential 2024 White House bid, he hasn't formally declared his candidacy. I thought he disqualified himself at every turn in 2016. The former Daily Show host said of Trump, adding that the former president displayed an antibiotic resistant strain of populism. He came at the right moment for that audience with the right message and unapologetic. And in a lot of ways, I think every time you thought that something was disqualifying or something would defeat him. But for those of us who have been in New York, we probably saw like if nothing else, the dude's resilient, Stuart 58 said. And unfortunately, I think that John Stuart is correct here. One thing that I disagree with him on is that Donald Trump is brilliant when it comes to television narratives. I do believe that Trump is good at creating narratives, but I don't think that Trump is deliberately trying to disseminate certain narratives. I think that he says something and the media will cover it because Trump is good at generating ratings. So I mean, Trump may be savvy, somewhat as a media personality in some ways, but I don't want to give Trump too much credit. I think that a lot of things happen on accident. There were some theories that really irritated me about Donald Trump that, oh, he's he's doing this to distract you from this or he's doing this to distract you from that. And he's trying to play 3D and 4D chess. I think that he's dumb. And a lot of the things that he does, the consequences of his actions usually are the result of coincidences or accidents. But either way, I think that he's correct overall about the larger point that if Trump were to run in 2024, he really would have a great chance. And yes, this is going to be about January 6th and stop the steal. Which means that Trump in 2024 would be a lot more dangerous because now he is running to further delegitimize a system that's already barely holding up. He's going to run on. Listen, I was denied. I was cheated. So that's not only going to give him the advantage in the Republican 2024 primary because nobody else is going to want to challenge the president who the base loves, who was cheated. So that's going to help him there. And furthermore, he's going to hammer home in a 2024 election against Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. I was cheated. I was cheated. I was cheated. And eventually people are going to think, well, since he was cheated. Well, of course, we should reward him with the presidency that he was illegitimately denied. And overall, the discourse will continue to deteriorate and the situation will get worse. Republicans will grow increasingly authoritarian and do what they can to actually cheat him to victory. Now, they're they're already kind of doing that by gerrymandering. They're already doing that by instituting voter suppression laws, particularly in areas where Trump did not do as well as he did before. So, for example, in Texas, one thing that really drove voter turnout was drive through voting, and they got rid of that. Or they're trying to. I believe that they did already do that. But mail in voting, one thing that hurt Donald Trump because it increased turnout, they're doing away with that in many states. So we have a lot of things when you put them all together, they tend to add up and they hurt democracy. I just covered a story where there were 11 states that had passed laws that allowed their state legislatures to subvert elections in the event they don't turn out the way that they like. Now, that doesn't mean that they can just say, well, we don't like the results. We're going to overturn them like that. But what it does mean is that they have more power, as opposed to local governments who usually control these these elections. So it's just overall, it's it's really scary to think about that being said. I think it is still a little bit too early to speculate about 2024. But John Stuart said everything that's on our minds. Yeah, he's probably going to run again. And if he does, he has a phenomenal chance. Now, he also commented on cancel culture and coming from a comedian. What he's going to say is actually very refreshing yet again, because he says something that you wouldn't expect a comedian to say because all comedians are seemingly in lockstep on this particular issue. But he takes it in a different direction. It says something that's pretty common sense, in my opinion. But seemingly, most people don't agree with this point of view. So here's what he says. Stuart also knocked the absurdity of cancel culture in his virtual chat with Remnick. People that talk about cancel culture never seem to shut the fuck up about it, the comedian said, like there's more speech now than ever before. He said, the internet has democratized criticism. What do we do for a living? We talk shit. We criticize, we postulate, we opine, we make jokes. And now other people are having their say and that's not cancel culture. That's relentlessness. We live in a relentless culture, Stuart said, and the system of internet and all those other things are incentivized to find the pressure points of that and exacerbate it. And to that I say, exactly, he is exactly right here. The people who complain about cancel culture are usually people who are very powerful, who haven't actually been canceled. Maybe they've seen some accountability for their actions. Maybe they've been criticized. But the amounts of people who claim they've been canceled. Well, it seems like they're still around. How many people themselves can claim, well, I've been canceled for this or that. Well, if you've been canceled for something, that implies that you're you're you're gone, you're you're canceled, but that's not actually happening. So what he says here is that, yeah, freedom of speech has been democratized because of social media. Before, we never had the opportunity to interact directly with the celebrity. But now if a celebrity says something that's stupid, like Nick Minaj, if she tweets about her friends, cousins, swollen testicles, we can directly challenge her and say, you are stupid. And there is a chance that she might see that. I mean, there's a lot of people tweeting at her at once. So odds are still diminished that we're going to get through to her directly. But have the chances increased? Yes. And if enough people say something all at once, odds are that celebrity is going to hear it. This is unique. This has never happened before. And it's all possible because of the internet and social media. So because of that, we're trying to figure out as a society how to deal with this new phenomenon. And a lot of celebrities who usually are insulated in their bubbles and surround themselves with yes, men, they've never had to deal with this before. So what do they do? They melt down like snowflakes and they claim I'm being canceled. What an actuality you're not being canceled. You're still rich. You still have a mansion. You still are at the tippy top of the social hierarchy in the United States. You still have power. You're just being a baby about the fact that for once you're facing criticism. And sometimes that criticism is going to be illegitimate. Sometimes that criticism is going to be too harsh. But it doesn't mean that cancel culture is this rampant phenomenon. And certainly the hysteria over cancel culture is definitely overblown at a minimum. And that's what I think that John Stewart is getting at. And it's nice to see him say that because this is what I've said as well. And I would like to think that people would already acknowledge this because cancel culture isn't as big of a thing as people want you to believe it is. And certainly discourse surrounding cancel culture has been weaponized by political actors. So the conversation overall is usually bad faith and disingenuous. So I feel like what he's saying shouldn't be that surprising. It should be common sense to most people. But it really isn't a lot of people view cancel culture as a real threat. And to the extent that cancel culture exists, it's not that prevalent as a phenomenon as many people would like us to believe. So John Stewart here, his insight is really great to see because what he says is common sense, saying something that's common sense like this is necessary and it makes a difference. So I'm glad that he spoke on these issues. I absolutely agree with him. And I hope he says more if he's going to offer refreshingly common sense takes like this. I'll have to check out a show because, yeah, it seems like John Stewart still kind of has his finger on the pulse for the most part. I'm sure that I have a lot of disagreements with him on certain things, but at least on these things, things that he that is inside is usually really valuable cancel culture as a comedian. I like that he's saying this. It's it's common sense, in my opinion.