Have I Got Ruins For You (IV. Ian Hislop's Stupidity)

(Note: this is one instalment of a multi-part essay.)

Of the two men who now helm Have I Got News For You, I think Paul Merton is the wittier, and probably the nicer, but like most comedians he is a very shallow thinker. Ian Hislop is “the brains of the operation” and the one who seems to think more seriously about things. So we can look to him for some explication of how he sees his work as a satirist.

In a 2016 article trying to digest the electoral victories of Brexit and Trump, Hislop is thoughtful and makes some interesting points including about the inconsistency of many politicians, but he demonstrates his own bias throughout. Here is a particularly ironic example:

A great deal has been written recently about the influence of social media in helping people to become trapped in their own echo chambers... When confronted by a dissenting voice, people get offended and then angry. They do not want to argue, they want the debate to be shut down. Trump supporters are furious with anyone who expresses reservations about their candidate. Pro-Brexit supporters are furious with anyone who expresses doubts about the way the process of leaving the European Union is going.

What is amazing about this is it shows that somebody can be aware of the possibility of bias, while apparently being entirely unaware of his own bias. Hislop’s two examples of people being in echo chambers just happen to be groups he disagrees with - Trump supporters and Brexiteers. What about their opponents - Hillary supporters and Remainers? Were they not closed to opposing points of view and facts which were inconvenient for them? Hislop must know that they were, but he neglects to acknowledge this even as a nod to neutrality. Laziness, complacency, complete disinterest in self-reflection… these are the mental habits of a man who has been of the Establishment for so long that he has forgotten what intellectual rigour actually is - if he even knew in the first place.