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history of higher education

The Conservative Long Game in Higher Ed, Part 4: Weaponized Humor – Spoof Clubs, Publications, & Theater

In Resistance from the Right, Lauren Lassabe Shepherd shows us how conservative campus activists understood and marshaled the power of emotion. They realized that both humor and victimhood could be weaponized—used to manipulate the campus mood and perceptions of their commitments. Humor and victimhood afforded them the opportunity to gain listeners. Both involved theater and an audience. Shepherd dedicates a four-page section in chapter three to the topic of “Conservative Humor” (pp. 68-71), and that is the focus of today’s reflection. Members of YAF mimicked, borrowed, and stole the ideas and “strategies of their adversaries”—of campus leftists and Students for Read more