Larry Wilmores show is pretty bad, he isn't very good at the political comedy. But he has been the writer, producer, and creator for a lot of extremely successful and hilarious shows like Fresh Prince, The Bernie Mac show, the PJs, and The Office. He is definitely a funny, I just think his current show is just poorly conceived.

Is it really fair to call him a "slacktivist"?

Yeah I think so. Using 60k of someone else's money to buy some token debt and announcing it to the world on a TV show isn't exactly saint status. His take on the refugee debate also seemed to wreak of holier than thou preachy hot air.

Jesus.

The guy creates and hosts a weekly political comedy show, researches topics, has a network spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on those topics, and you think it's a fair comparison to someone whose activism extends to "clicking the Like button on facebook".

And you're the one calling his attitude "holier than thou".

Ok slow down there. They don't SPEND hundreds of thousands on those topics, they MAKE hundreds of thousands on those topics. Comedy Central/Viacom is not UNICEF and John Oliver is not a career humanitarian. They entertain people. When that is too hard they just pander to the most prominent demographic to gain viewership because that's how they generate revenue.

You're under the impression that all that matters is the final number. They're still spending that money, regardless of whether they make it all back.

Let's say I win some lottery and I MAKE $100k. I decide to SPEND $90k of that by giving it to charity. My gesture doesn't count because I'm still in the net positive by your logic.

Yes, he runs a profitable show. Nobody said he's a career humanitarian. But you said, quoting, "he has just become a left wing slacktivist". Slacktivism is a term that pokes fun at people clicking Like on facebook and signing worthless petitions then feeling like they made a real difference.

That you equate him to that is insulting and offensive to just about everybody.

So you don't question the motivations of a televangelist minister with private jets as long as he spends some money on what appear to be altruistic purposes? If I said that guy is just using peoples emotions and beliefs to generate revenue would that be "offensive to just about everybody".

What is it in your mind that equates a "giveaway" as part of a larger program, to the abuse of impressionable people's donations to purchase expensive leisure items?

Seriously, what the hell?

What's with the swearing and lords name in vaining? Relax. How would you feel if I used John Olivers name in vain?

I don't think it's fair to compare John Oliver to a televangelist minister with private jets.

Well to be fair you're stripping away the context of the discussion I was having. An internet enthusiast believed that I was minimizing John Oliver's work by calling him a slacktivist. I felt like pandering to beliefs and emotions of your target demo without taking any real meaningful action other than talk and throwing around token amounts of money is insincere. Then he said John Oliver and HBO spend thousands of dollars to produce this show and report these stories. I countered that they make many more thousands in return for their effort. The internet enthusiast claimed that no matter how much gross revenue was made that any amount of charitable donation was good enough to be considered a full fledged caring activist. I questioned whether preachers flying in jets where admirable if they spend some small quantity of money on worthwhile causes. In the end neither I nor the internet enthusiast found common ground.

If'd just conceded that 'slactivist' was a poor choice of words (because as it is commonly used it does not match the criticisms you are leveling at Oliver) you both could have saved a lot of typing.

> Comedy Central/Viacom is not UNICEF and John Oliver is not a career humanitarian

His show is on HBO, not Comedy Central.

I didn't make the jump with him and quit watching Comedy Central after Colbert signed off.

Doesn't making all that money also undermine the slacktivist label?

No one's going to tell Oliver that the bums lost...