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The present times are inconvenient to engage anyone in a political conversation on the road. The conversation was broadcasted on The Tonight Show with Klepper explaining the near-impossibility of ever changing one’s political views, especially when politics become intertwined with an individual’s identity.
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He went on to explain that trying to find humor and hypocrisy in political dialogue is the ultimate aim for his team, with actual shifts in opinion rarely occurring. One change, however, that is etched in his memory was that of a woman arrested during the January 6 Capitol riot: After some jail time, she changed her views on the MAGA movement to the point that she went into the media and recounted her conversion. Klepper said how odd that was, emphasizing that, in most people, change is resisted mostly because these beliefs are closely tied to who they are.
“It becomes beyond the things they believe—it becomes their identity. The idea of changing your mind means changing who you are as a person,” Klepper said. Because people take those beliefs into such a personal realm, Klepper told his audience, this is why in most cases debate itself is unproductive. But sometimes when the cameras stop rolling, people unconsciously expose their doubts, which can open minuscule windows of opportunity for dialogue. Almost immediately, on stage in front of an audience, this possibility disappears.
This very segment turned “viral” on the web, bringing many to the fore praising Klepper’s brutally honest telling. One s
aid, “You know it’s bad when Fallon is talking about it.” Another applauded Klepper’s approach as truly inspirational leadership. Others completely missed the point, maybe by offering fuzzy and unrelated motivational quotes.
These words of Klepper lend themselves to shining a spotlight upon the conundrum of political discourse, which is largely defined today by the existence of a deep and incredibly rigid set of polarizing beliefs. Be they MAGA supporters, or promoters of certain causes, their unwillingness to reconsider their demos rarely allow for any worthwhile discourse. Besides, as Klepper so eloquently reminded his viewers, those moments when anyone does, are few and far between.
What do we come away with out of this? Maybe that change really does come down in the backrooms, deep in quieter spaces where strangers can entertain doubts about their views in relative safety. Or simply that comedy–at its best–manages to offer a glimmer of understanding into these struggles without any pretense of providing answers. Either way, Klepper’s reflections cast an account of political discourse today which is downright deathly serious yet sets into a strangely intriguing perspective.
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At least a few chuckles came out of it for sure.
This story originally appeared on Celebrityinsider
