Zack Beauchamp
is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. Before coming to Vox in 2014, he edited TP Ideas, a section of Think Progress devoted to the ideas shaping our political world.
John Oliver opened this Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight with a short comment on the Paris attacks. He didn't mince words (if you're at work, you may want to turn the volume down on this one):
First, as of now, we know that this attack was carried out by gigantic fucking assholes. Unconscionable, flaming assholes. Possibly, possibly working with other assholes — definitely in service of an ideology of pure assholery.
Second, and this goes almost without saying: fuck these assholes. Fuck them, if I may say, sideways.
In a media climate full of hyperventilating about jihadism's unstoppable threat to the West, Oliver's remarks are a breath of fresh air. Instead of talking about the "civilizational" threat from "radical Islam," he treated the terrorists as despicable yet weak adherents to an ideology that barely anyone supports. He's right to.
"Nothing about what these assholes are trying to do is going to work" Oliver said. "France is going to endure. And I'll tell you why: If you're in a war of culture and lifestyle with France, good fucking luck."
