Liberal comedian tells Stacey Abrams ‘civility is overrated’ against MAGA right
Samantha Bee told Stacey Abrams on Thursday that civility is “worthless” and “overrated” during what they described as an “authoritarian” regime.
The former “Full Frontal” host joined the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate on Abrams’ podcast “Assembly Required” where they discussed the role of political comedy during the second Trump administration.
“I think it’s what you’ve done so deftly through your comedy is that you, I think, agree with Roxane Gay who wrote a piece back in September where she said that the MAGA right wants the left to always be civil as if there’s this perfect, polite way to debate humanity,” Abrams said. “She calls it a fantasy and argues that when people’s rights and lives are on the line, we don’t have to play nice.”
Abrams asked Bee what role she thought civility played in political comedy and discourse. Bee suggested civility shouldn’t be a factor.
“It’s always people telling you to just, like, be quiet and be nice and, you know, compromise yourself,” Bee said. “If you’re compromising everything and the people with the power and control are giving up nothing, then I just don’t see…I think that civility feels quite worthless in those.”
She continued, “So sometimes you do just need to stand up and scream. If not, you know, whether it has an effect on the outcome or not, at least everyone who feels the same way that you do is achieving some type of catharsis. Maybe it’s motivating in some way. I think civility is pretty overrated.”
Bee quickly clarified that she was not advocating for political violence and was only referring to “discourse.”
During the podcast, Bee added the situation for late-night comedians was “really scary” in light of Stephen Colbert’s cancellation and Jimmy Kimmel’s brief suspension. She called out wealthy people for failing to stand up to President Donald Trump despite having the financial means to do so.
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“What is the point of having like f— you money if you never say ‘f— you’ with your money?” Bee said. “Like all the people with f— you money should be standing up right now and directly saying ‘f— you’ across every industry. And they are actually not doing that because it appears that no amount of money is f— you money now for a lot of people.”
Bee’s show, “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” premiered in 2016 and ran until 2022. She was known for having controversial rants, including a 2018 segment where she called Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, a “feckless c—.”
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