<p>He implies that a person who goes to Oberlin is brainy and thoughtful. He does it while ripping infamous right wing extremist Obie alum, Michelle Malkin. Here is what was said (in case the link doesn't work):</p>
<p>Michelle Malkin (reacting to Pres. Obama's Speech at the Tucson Memorial for the shooting victims): "You do have to question the timing of it..."</p>
<p>Jon Stewart: "No, no...you don't. Hack do. You're not a primitive nematoad, capable only of automatic stimulus response to outside stimuli. You have a choice. You went to Oberlin." </p>
<p>Hilarious. He mentions Oberlin about 2 minutes into the bit. </p>
<p>Can Admissions/Recruiting use this quote in their marketing materials? :)</p>
<p>I don’t think he implied that people going to Oberlin are brainy and thoughtful. He just implied that they are not nematoads without choice. </p>
<p>I do wonder what it was like for Malkin on the Oberlin campus. Could that be the route of her piping hot vitriol? Probably not, hostility like hers would have taken more than 4 years to brew. (Sorry for the political aside.)</p>
<p>Sure he did. He implied that with an Oberlin education, Malkin shouldn’t be so (fill in the blank) but something akin to “dense” and “reactionary.” To me, that’s “brainy” and “thoughtful.” In other words, she should know better. A nematode does not.</p>
<p>As far as Malkin being on campus, my theory is she got a helluva scholarship to persuade her to go to Oberlin. Maybe Washington and Lee (or some other similarly conservative LAC) offered a poor financial package? Then again, maybe some Oberlin leftie liberal broke her heart, or something like that, sending her in a rage to “the other side.” It’s funny to speculate on. I’ve yet to stumble upon an Oberlin periodical that boasts about Malkin being an Oberlin alum. LOL. </p>
<p>I don’t feel bad about her. She does trash her alma mater publically every now and then.</p>
<p>For unrelated reasons I had the misfortune of reading the blog entry that she posted from the gathering in Tucson. I was amazed at the oozing bitterness and resentment she freely vented about a community that would dare to do all that it could to come together after a violent tragedy and shine a light on the community’s positive virtues instead of all the negativity.</p>
<p>Somehow she got hung up on who was paying for t-shirts that were handed out and felt that Democrats were “branding” the event! (Someone had told me about the t-shirts being offensive and I was trying to understand how they were offensive…and all Internet roads led me to Michelle Malkin’s page which seemed to be the source of the contrived outrage.)</p>
<p>I may have been vaguely aware of her name before – though I wonder if I am confusing her name with Leonard Maltin or Michael Milken or both. Clearly I don’t follow politics closely enough to update my scorecard with all the bloggers who come and go and which team they write for. But I do know that it takes a special kind of insanely bitter predisposition to take up seating space at a community tribute to shooting victims for the purpose of b!tching to the world about how expertly the event was pulled together. I’ve got to agree with Inquisitive Mom: saying that this blogger should know better because she went to Oberlin is not saying much. My daughter knew better than that after her first day at Montessori school.</p>
<p>I have no gripe with this woman’s conservative politics. That’s because what I read wasn’t the least bit political; it was propaganda in support of her political identity. I only take issue with her warped anger and resentment towards a community in shock. As for why Oberlin seemingly shuns her, my guess is that it is not because she has the “wrong” political credentials. Does she do anything more than blog and – possibly – offer up opinions on the occasional cable newsertainment talk show? If not, then I would hope that being opinionated is not something that rises to the level of “notable alum” for any decent college. In other words, I doubt that it’s her politics that excludes her from such a list; just her insignificance. But if that does suffice – and her tone is consistently as caustic as it was in that blog from Tucson – then it’s no wonder that Oberlin doesn’t mention her in its publications. I don’t know more of her beyond that blog post of hers that I read (and now I also know that she went to Oberlin). Unless she has some other claim to fame or she redeems herself in her other commentary, who – besides (possibly) her parents – would boast of a connection to her? Yuck.</p>
<p>Until opening up this thread, I’ve long said that – without exception – each and every Oberlin alum I know is the kind of person I always feel privileged to be in the company of. That statement still holds true – as long as I avoid ever running into this blogger with the vaguely recognizable name. It’s silly to extrapolate from a random “notable alum” to divine the culture of an entire college but Stewart probably did Oberlin no favor in making that reference.</p>
<p>D’yer Maker - I think you are onto something when you said you were only"vaguely aware of her name before…" this commentary. I think this is the point of it all for a lot of these inflammatory commentators: to get attention. The more outrageous their statements the more attention they get, the more attention they get the more money they make and the more their egos are stroked. If they thought they would get attention for screaming that all children should be shot because they are freeloaders, that is just what they would do. They just keep pushing the bar to find out where the limit is. I hope we as a culture stop feeding the most attention seeking and outrageous among us and instead start focusing on the thoughtful people who can help us solve our very real problems.</p>
I have to agree with this comment, although some might interpret it differently. It depends on how much the listener knows about Oberlin. Would anyone think less of Harvard or Stanford, had Stewart said she went there? I don’t think so. It’s more the fact that Oberlin is less well known that might cause some to think more negatively of the college because Stewart revealed to his huge public that Malkin is an alum.</p>
<p>In any event, my perspective comes from knowing a lot about Malkin. I’ve been aware of her hate-filled rantings for years. It may pain some to know that she is the author of no less than three best-selling books, which makes her a little more prominent than a mere blogger. You would think most colleges would want to brag about any alum that is a best-selling author. But how can Oberlin boast of her? The next step would be the return of the prodigal daughter for “the big speech” and a book signing in Finney Chapel. The risk is she’d lambaste the entire faculty and student body as a bunch of commie liberals, destroying the country.</p>
<p>Some quick bio info on Malkin, no judgment, just description: Ironically, she met her husband at Oberlin. He’s not in the public eye but he is conservative. He’s Jewish -hence the surname “Malkin”- she’s Asian, Fillipina to be exact. </p>
<p>The link below will tell you a lot about her background. Apparently, she came to Oberlin as a conservatory student, a pianist, soon realized that she couldn’t cut it, and switched to the college, whereupon she became radicalized RIGHTWARD. Oberlin is mentioned a few times:</p>
<p>Among fellow Obie alums I’ve known and hang with, Michelle Malkin is often regarded as little more than a polemical rightwing pundit. </p>
<p>They’d probably regard her with the same level of contempt as she has regarding our alma mater…along with a large dose of embarrassment that she’s actually one of us.</p>
<p>In short, many of the above mentioned alums would rather pretend to forget that she was a fellow Obie alum.</p>
<p>Aha! Thanks KYHI2010. Professor Volk interpreted Stewart’s commentary EXACTLY the same. At least I know he and I saw the same Stewart clip. I’m not sure what others were watching. Stewart’s comment was good for Oberlin!</p>
Stewart’s comment was good for Oberlin!</p>