See the documentary film "Tickling Giants" about Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef.

This will probably not live long on hacker news because people here are basically distracting themselves from the constant barrage of American politics, but it’s pretty clear this regime doesn’t care about the first amendment.

There's a popular aphorism (awkwardly translated French -> German -> English) that I hate:

"Laughter is a power that even the world's most powerful figures must bow down to"

...is that so, after all?!

Kimmel and Colbert both illustrate a big problem. The Trump regime didn't have to arrest Colbert or throw Kimmel in prison, or turn up with troops and dismantle their studios - some faceless executive who is about as funny as cancer made a decision to bow to Trump because it was at least temporarily in their interest and the consequences flow from there.

Satire needs independent grass roots funding. If the satirist you love costs $10M per year, well, people who love satire better be putting $10M per year on the table to pay for that, because if it's just (for example) a Disney product then to Disney $10M of satire which annoys the God Emperor is a bad deal, lets buy $10M of police procedural or whatever instead.

To be clear: It is very possible that an independently funded satirist just means in six months or six years God Emperor Trump decides he's entitled to shut that down and they do get arrested or whatever, this is not a magic solution, but I think a critical weakness in the US is that so much of this is actually funded by giant corporations and thus psychopaths. It's choosing to fight with one arm tied behind your back.

The problem with extreme polarization in a 2 party system is that each party doesn’t police itself, doesn’t rein itself in, and when the other finally gets back in power, it pushes through awful retaliatory measures. The 2 parties are happy with this state of affairs because they’re pretty much guaranteed 50% of the time to be the one in power, in control. Vote 3rd party to break this cycle

That Trump tweeted after Colbert's show was not-renewed that Kimmel would be next - and then gets Kimmel cancelled, said to reporters that licensed broadcasters aren't "allowed" to criticize him, and tweeted after Kimmel that Seth Meyers would be next - and yet still has the support of a majority of republicans, astounds me.

There is no authoritarian line he can cross that turns away his apologists. They pretend that Biden or Obama were somehow worse (which, even if true, is an illogical argument for democratic norms), pretend that these are private decisions not coerced by the state power, or cheer for "retribution" against their idealogical opponents while embracing a diminishing of democratic freedoms. They have no red lines for Trump. He can deny established science; deny access to life saving vaccines; control the media; accept billions in personal investments from foreign governments in return for US policy; kill people in international waters without oversight... that's just this month's list!

It's not a phenomena I could have truly internalized without experiencing it first hand. It has changed me even as a late-middled-aged adult. I wonder what it must be like for those younger, who are assembling the foundations of their political and social opinions.

Fun fact: free speech never existed in the US. In the 50s, one had the right to proclaim oneself a nazi, but bearing a communist card meant the State Dept could suspend your passport anytime.