Progressive Views: Allison Kilkenny

Allison Kilkenny is a political humorist, blogger and co-host of Citizen Radio, an often derisive and never indecisive radio program described as being “like CNN, but with WAY more swearing.” Her work has appeared in The Nation Magazine, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, 23/6, and her own blog, http://allisonkilkenny.wordpress.com/. Recently, we discussed topics ranging from overcrowding in prisons to being G. Gordon Liddy’s “Twitter buddy.”

Progress, she says, is “Telling the truth and being truthful with ourselves. It's hard to approach these big questions when you start with a big lie like, ‘America brings freedom to the world.’ We don't. We bomb them and ruin their societies to reach our imperialist goals. We imprison our own citizens at a greater rate then any other country in the world. America has 5% of the world's population, but 25% of the world's prisoners. Most of those prisoners are non-violent drug offenders. We're an imperialist, prison state. That's the truth. Let's start with that truth and work toward fixing it.”

Connelly: Have there ever been moments when you have had trouble finding the humor in a particularly serious situation? Have you ever felt later that you may have went “too far” when talking or writing about a certain subject?

Kilkenny I have a hard time joking about the torture memos that just came out. It's not that it can't be done, but I truly believe Addington, Yoo, Cheney, Feith, Bybee, Bush, Rumsfeld, and Haynes are war criminals and deserve to be in jail. So it gives me pause, and I have to step back and regroup before I can write a punchline. I don't think there's such a thing as "too far," but there is such a thing as "not funny." Any subject can be funny in the right hands, just like pretty much anything can be offensive in the wrong hands. I've heard and read hacky jokes and pieces that I find extremely offensive simply because they're unfunny. See: anything by Maureen Dowd.

Connelly: Bill Moyers recently asked on his program if Jon Stewart gets away with saying things that others in the media can't because Stewart is a comedian. Is this your experience? Does it become easier to make controversial statements if you use humor?

Kilkenny Absolutely. People in power never harass the clowns like they harass serious journalists.. Humor as a form of dissent is an extremely powerful tool because it can only be used by the repressed of a society. You never hear rich people doing shtick like, "What's the DEAL with poor people?" simply because they wield all the power, so it wouldn't be funny. Humor only works if it's the repressed poking fun at other repressed people, or the repressed poking fun at the elite. That's the genius of the Daily Show and Jon Stewart. Stewart's whole gag is based on one little comic poking fun at the entire global establishment.

Connelly: You once wrote that what was needed was someone to carry on George Carlin's torch, someone to thumb the proverbial eye of the establishment. Who do we have like that today?

Kilkenny There are a lot of comics and performers that do this, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert being a couple of them. If I can be wildly bias for a moment, my boyfriend, comic Jamie Kilstein does it… It's not like people are less brave or less clever than they were back in Carlin's heyday. It's just that it's more difficult to hear a diverse range of views because of our corporately controlled media. That's what we call the mainstream media. It's the homogenization of opinion. You really have to go off the grid or think independently to find unique perspectives.

Connelly: Many in the media behaved in what you described as a “hawkish” manner concerning the recent incidents of Somali pirates. You even called out liberal pundit Rachael Maddow. What do you think is being ignored in this story? Why do you think these facts have been under reported?

Kilkenny Western industrial fishing ships have been overfishing Somali waters for years, and also dumping nuclear waste into Somali waters. Somalian fishermen rely on fishing for their survival. Suddenly, the fish were gone. Not only that, but the United Nations reported that over 300 Somalians then developed radiation sickness and died from all the nuclear waste poisoning their water. Many of those fisherman got together and formed what they call a coastguard. We call them pirates. That's one thing that goes under-reported. Another fact that goes under-reported is the age of these pirates. Some of them are quite young (15, 16 years of age).
Now, imagine if China came to the United States eastern coastline and began stealing our fish and dumping nuclear waste in our waters, killing 300 New Yorkers. What would we do? I think forming a coastguard would be a very tame response to such an atrocity.
The caveat I always attach here is that it's never acceptable to take hostages. Never. However, I think it's important to examine the causes of these conflicts, or nothing ever gets better.

Connelly: Your recent article about the Somali incident, “In Defense of Pirates,” has drawn a lot of criticism on the Internet. I’ve read some of the comments, and they are downright threatening. It reminds me of something that Betty Winston Baye once said, "after a while, if they don’t come at you with a gun, you can sort of laugh about it." How do you react to threatening comments? Why do you think that this article angered so many people?

Kilkenny It tells me I hit a nerve, which is a good thing. War resisters drew an enormous amount of criticism during the lead-up to the Iraq war simply because an anti-war position was an unpopular stance to take. When the mainstream media keeps regurgitating the message that Navy Seals are awesome, and dirty pirates are evil men with no sane motivation, then of course some blogger writing about defending pirates looks absolutely batty. It's something they've never heard or read before, maybe. It's upsetting. It radically challenges their world view. So it's good that they are responding so strongly to it.

Connelly: Speaking of angering people, G. Gordon Liddy is apparently not a fan of yours. Please share the story of how you ended up angering the former Nixon-ite.

Kilkenny We're Twitter buddies! G. Gordon Liddy is on Twitter, and he calls himself "Gman," on all his Tweets, which I find really gross and juvenile, so I wrote him to tell him so. I said, "Calling yourself Gman on your tweets makes me feel nauseous," to which he responded with something like, "Well, your writing makes me want to vomit, so we're even." So now I've had a criminal say my writing makes him want to vomit. I hope to continue the conversation one day. I want to ask Liddy what prison food tastes like.

Connelly: Returning to the treatment the story of the Somali pirates has received in the media, one of the reasons you gave for Rachael Maddow not being more evenhanded in the story is that NBC is run by GE, a weapons manufacturer. Hypothetically, if there were an Allison Kilkenny Show on MSNBC, would you have done things differently?

Kilkenny No, because there can't be an Allison Kilkenny Show on MSNBC. Or there could be, but it would be watered-down and pointless. I couldn't talk about anything important because the big, important ideas challenge corporations and the military-industrial complex, two things that are pretty dear to NBC and GE. Even "important, anti-war voices" like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow only criticize war to a point. They never go an extra step and start bashing the corporations making vast sums of money from building weapons. That would be too radical, so it's not allowed. Maddow even alluded to being censored about the conflict in Gaza. She said something about finding it difficult to criticize Israel, and she gave sort of a wink and a nod to the camera. I'd wager she's censored constantly, but what she has as a result is a pretty lukewarm show that occasionally covers an under-reported story. I'm sure it could be groundbreaking and marvelous if it wasn't corporately controlled because Maddow is a brilliant lady.

Connelly: What do you think the most important story going uncovered by the mainstream media is?

Kilkenny There are a lot, but just a few are the pointless War on Drugs, overcrowded prisons, corporate mergers (corporate media,) white-collar corruption, poverty, the failing educational system, the stagnated minimum wage, the death of unions, and American imperialism.

Connelly: You have interviewed, and have scheduled interviews with, some very interesting people, Noam Chomsky and Glenn Greenwald, for instance. Who is the one person you’d most like to have on Citizen Radio?

Kilkenny Amy Goodman, which may happen soon. We have mutual friends, and we're trying to lasso her for an interview. She's a tricky one to get a hold of because she's so busy.

Connelly: Who do you feel the most important thinker in modern society is?

Kilkenny Noam Chomsky. He's almost maddeningly logical, and he's had an "open door" policy about debating anyone for decades. I can't imagine the man has ever lost his temper. I admire that. He's quietly confident with his knowledge. If you want to see some amazing debating, Google Chomsky debating William F. Buckley. Buckley doesn't know what to do with him. It's great.

Connelly: In a recent Huffington Post article, you stated “the most brilliant trick the rich ever pulled over the poor was when they reinforced fractures between the serving class,” and reminded the reader of the railroad strike of 1877. What is preventing unity among the poor today? What could end this disunity?

Killkenny The creation of meaningless categories. The elites are very aware that most of the American citizenry are poor, so it's important to keep them divided and bickering amongst themselves. That's why the issue of immigration is played up so much. Union members aren't losing their jobs because corporations are shipping their jobs overseas to save money. It's those dirty immigrants! Those immigrants are taking your jobs (that no longer exist anyway)! Of course, if those immigrants were legalized, and the unions (along with immigrants) collectively fought for a living wage, then everyone would benefit. But no one thinks of doing that because the media (with an assist from pundits like Lou Dobbs) continue to stoke in-fighting among poor people. The elites thrive on perpetuating the lie that there isn't enough to go around for all poor people. Well, no, there's not enough to go around if 1% of the population hordes 90% of the wealth. But that's not a very moral thing to do anyway.

For more information about Kilkenny and Citizen Radio:
http://allisonkilkenny.wordpress.com/
http://breakthruradio.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-kilkenny

For more information about her boyfriend, the comedian Jamie Kilstein:
myspace.com/jamiekilstein