Dave Chappelle

 There is apparently a heap of controversy over Dave Chappelle's latest stand-up special on Netflix. I've never seen anything but a few clips of Chappelle's work over the years, but I at least know that he specializes in taking his comedy right up to the edge. Much of his targeting is towards White people, but in this special he targets Trans people.

There are two different takes on this. 

The first is that Chappelle represents a broader problem at Netflix, where they produce so much content that some of it is especially hurtful. The article at the link runs through some of it. However, it's difficult to conclude that Netflix itself is discriminatory towards Trans people, since so many Trans people who work for them are upset.

The second is roughly that Chappelle specialize in controversial and largely juvenile takes on gender and sexuality issues, and if you don't want to watch it than you shouldn't. One argument that Yglesias has been making for months now is that activists - especially culturally left activists - have a tin ear for what is actually popular.

I suppose there is a third take - that Chappelle is right - but that's not worth engaging in. He's not.

This is one of those messy issues where basically a lot of people are right. Chappelle targeting Trans people is more or less punching down. Comedians who punch down are verbal bullies. Chappelle seems to get that when he concludes by saying he doesn't have a problem with Trans people, he has a problem with White people.

Yglesias teases this out in a way that's interesting. Basically, Black elites are like White elites in that they largely support LGBTQ issues, but the general support for these issues among Black voters is much, much weaker, BUT it's not non-existent. As Yglesias puts it, Black voters may not actively support LGBTQ issues, but they vote for people who do. Chappelle's quip about White people feels like a targeted barb at the sort of White people who put a "Hate has no home here" sign in their front yard, but vote against building affordable housing that might bring poor or minority groups into their school district.

Polling on Trans rights in particular is all over the place. Generally speaking, progress like this is largely supported, but often if it's done without drawing attention to it. Yglesias shows the polls that show an astonishing 66% of Americans agreeing that Trans people should be allowed to serve in the military, but a similar number 62% believing that Trans people - mostly women - should be required to play on teams with their sex at birth. At the same time, 54% say that gender is determined by birth sex and also 63%  saying that Trans rights are either about right or could be improved.

It's just a mess, and so picking battles over what is exactly important and what isn't is largely impossible. However, coalitional politics suggest that doing work quietly on controversial issues is better than picking loud public battles that alienate median voters.

People like to point to Republicans nakedly brutal power politics, but the reality is that Republicans campaign on roughly popular messaging before pivoting to plutocratic service. They don't tout their unpopular positions, so much as place themselves in opposition to less than popular Democratic positions. No one wins an election on cutting Jeff Bezos' taxes.

Democrats should campaign on popular things but do righteous things.