Good points.Some Schmo wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:34 pmI believe he even makes the point in that special that the people complaining about his specials haven't actually listened to him. It became a prediction for this last one.honorentheos wrote: ↑Tue Oct 12, 2021 4:44 amI watched it. It was ok, not his best set. The controversy makes for views I guess. His point isn't bad, really. I don't think any of the reporting on it I've seen got it right, either, including in this thread.
At some point, people will need to recognize the difference between discrimination and unrelatability. I don't discriminate against trans folks, but I can't relate to where they are coming from (and I don't need to understand so long as I treat them like everyone else and advocate for the same).
Truth is I didn't really think it was a particularly funny set but he seems to have adopted that style now where he talks longer than a joke setup justifies and then drops punchlines. It can seem like someone who is funny monologuing at a party more than a stand up act.
At some level I think much of the issue around these controversies is all parties involved are dealing with legit grievances, including ones aimed at the other parties. But the power dynamics get in the way of humanizing each party to the other. Chappelle is someone with power and influence whose words and decisions as an individual are more impactful than most people. He's privileged. And the voices in the trans community and those supporting them that rise up in protest about a harm felt at something he said take power through numbers and not being shouted down. Using Dave's own words, in-between it all it seems to me that everyone involved wants to be understood as having legitimate human experiences. They just need to recognize how different these experiences are from their own without needing to punch to feel legitimized. Punching being Chappelle's bread and butter, well, things are just going to be what they are. That's his human experience on display, using a platform he earned to point out other kinds of privilege against Blacks in America have been destructive and oppressive. And he is taking aim at what he sees as hypocrisy in a group he doesn't completely relate to because their experience looks more like that of the people he sees as privileged. To the trans community and their supporters, Chappelle looks more like the people they see as attacking or oppressing them from a position of privilege. It's kind of mess. But that's what authentic human experiences actually are.