Legendary musician Jack White of the White Stripes excoriated Trump-loving celebrities by name for buddying up to Donald Trump in public at a UFC fight in Las Vegas over the weekend. Trump was spotted glad-handing and chatting with Joe Rogan, Guy Fieri, Mark Wahlberg, and noted antisemite Mel Gibson. Jack White took to Instagram to share his thoughts:
"Anybody who ‘normalizes’ or treats this disgusting fascist, racist, con man, disgusting piece of shit Trump with any level of respect is ALSO disgusting in my book. That’s you Joe Rogan, you Mel Gibson, you Mark Wahlberg, you Guy Fieri. This is a statement from me, not a discussion/debate.” —Jack White III
“I’m not entirely sure why we need an anti-woke comedy club. It seems like the biggest comedians around are also ‘anti-woke’, whatever that really means. Louis CK, a white man who repeatedly says the n-word on stage and who has been accused of multiple counts of sexual harassment, still tours. Dave Chapelle, for all the noise of transphobia whenever he performs, is one of Netflix’s biggest stars and has leaned harder into being anti-woke since his first controversy.
“...The answer, when the discriminatory nature of their act is laid bare, is always that it’s a comedian’s job to challenge things. But if you’re playing at a club where you know you’re preaching to the choir, you’re not challenging anything. If you’ll only tell jokes about trans people to a crowd that already hates them and with no ‘threat’ of being recorded, what do you believe you are challenging, and how? You’re preaching to an echo chamber when your humour and views never have an opportunity to be challenged in the first place, and if they ever are, you have the face of the person who did it on file, which feels like a threat in and of itself.”