Blaze News original: 'The war against the dumb': Comedian Sam Tripoli says cancel culture was never real

Comedian Sam Tripoli says there is absolutely no reason to think about what is best for the government until the government starts thinking what is best for its own people.

His longtime skepticism of the government not only has earned him a following, but that following has turned into more credibility, as time has only proven that the world of politics isn't all sunshine and roses. See COVID-19 lockdowns, presidential elections, and social media censorship.

Comedians are no longer allowed to be provocative because "stupid people can't digest sarcasm."

Fans of both comedy and podcasts will recognize Tripoli from his work that literally dates back to the beginning of podcasting itself. The early days of "The Joe Rogan Experience" featured Tripoli working alongside podcasting pioneers like Rogan, Ari Shaffir, and Brian Redban.

Now, with a multitude of podcasts, there aren't many topics Tripoli isn't willing to speak on. In fact, it's exactly that attitude that has resulted in the comedian's consistent social media shadow bans and a recent string of walkouts at his shows.

Even with free speech making leaps and bounds with the likes of Shane Gillis and Dave Chappelle constantly pushing the envelope on a grand stage, there are still a few forbidden topics, according to Tripoli.

"There's 'dangerous,' and then there's 'dangerous, dangerous,'" Tripoli told Blaze News. "That's what will get you censored on YouTube, or even on Twitter ... and a lot of that is the true history of America."

"Foreign influences on our politicians, blackmail, these types of topics. Things aren't getting worse, they're just getting more obvious. These are the dangerous conversations that people are afraid to have. Most people don't want to hear about it, either. That would be my answer: the true history of where we find ourselves right now."

In the same vein and with a TikTok ban looming, Tripoli said that it's important to remember that allowing the government to set a precedent about banning any speech or entity is going to come back to haunt Americans.

"In 2024 we honestly should not give a s*** about what's best for the government, nor what the government thinks is best; that's my opinion. If you start to be okay with the government doing things against people you don't like, violating laws and amendments and social contracts ... just know that that will be used against you," Tripoli warned.

"There will be a time where people might want to take to the streets because they don't like something the government's doing and because you've created a precedence in which you're okay with the government doing things against people you don't like, then [those things] will be used against you," he added.

The Californian said he is "very conscious" about how hypocritical positions could be turned on himself, which has led him to be very selective about siding with the government.

As an example of how hypocritical the masses can be, Tripoli pointed to advocates of the phrase "my body, my choice."

"The right-to-choose people, how they believe in body autonomy except for when it comes to vaccinations ... well, now they have no ground to stand on and nobody takes anything they say serious because they completely threw everyone who didn't want to get the vaccinations under the bus," he recalled.

This comes down to needing to be incredibly thoughtful when deciding whether to comprise your morals and your constitution, Tripoli said.

'Cancel culture was never real'

"Nobody has any balls in Hollywood," Tripoli said in response to cancel culture. Comedians are still afraid to color outside the lines in California, the comic explained, because one wrong move or independent thought can result in a comedy club canceling your set.

"It's so hard to get a gig in L.A. that you need 10 green lights to get a gig, and all it takes is one red light and you don't get the gig."

"Are comics still getting canceled?" he asked rhetorically. It's not that simple. The comedian described cancellations as a mirage of sorts, ideas designed to seem like there is widespread outrage among the masses that must be addressed.

"What you'd always hear from the left is that is cancel culture wasn't real. In a weird way it's true. It was just an Astroturf movement by the giant corporations through fascism with the government to control speech. So what they did was they get a couple blue-haired bots on Twitter and on Instagram to be like 'this guy said meanie stuff,' and before we could have a debate on it, corporations would come in and cancel the person, giving the Illusion that these blue hairs were very, very powerful."

"The cancel culture was never real, but the real effects of it is the social contagion of everyone being afraid of getting canceled, and what we've done is weaponized stupid people," Tripoli detailed.

This "war against the dumb" means comedians are no longer allowed to be provocative because "stupid people can't digest sarcasm," Tripoli said. He added that no longer are people laughing at themselves, nor are filmmakers allowed to push provocative art.

Not since the turn of the century has there been a real movement of producers and directors who wanted to force certain subjects in front of audiences, not since since Hollywood "gutted out all the outlaws and brought in all the rich kids" to teach new generations to be "safe."

"Is cancel culture dead?" he asked. Dead in the sense that corporations realized that they were costing themselves so much money that not even "funny money" can fix it, he answered.

At the same time, the "social contagion" has followed Tripoli, as he currently in the midst of a battle over a viral pronoun joke.

"Two weeks in a row ... people got upset with the words I've used and walked out," the comedian remembered. A video of the viral joke showed Tripoli asking an audience member his pronouns, to which the man replied "they/them."

Tripoli then said that his own pronouns needed to be respected and adhered to, which he described as "real/n***a."

"If we're going to play make believe, let's play make believe," the comedian added.

Has the propaganda always been there?

"I don't believe anyone in Washington, D.C., gives a f*** about the children, and they are actually fine with indoctrinating the children. They're just upset when [social media] is indoctrinating them with the wrong information," Tripoli said about the TikTok ban.

"Why haven't they created children's-only phones or adult-only phones? Well, because they want to get to you early. It's indoctrination."

The inability to reach the masses is becoming a real issue in Hollywood, the comedian revealed. "They're freaking out." Not being able to infect people with "cultural Marxism" because attention spans and ratings have gone down has taken a bite out of control for the powers that be, he remarked.

It wasn't always this way. Tripoli explained that the entertainment industry used to have such a tight grip on propaganda that it could play both sides.

"I grew up with metal and '70s rock and roll, which was very much deep in satanism and raging against the church, which we were sold on that was like this kind of oppressive, hating gays, pedophile network. In reality we don't realize that the same people pushing satanism are the same people telling us about the church."

Now at 51, Tripoli said he has become more spiritual and that all roads of research have led to him becoming a religious person.

"Here I am in my 50s more religious than I've ever been through this spiritual growth I've had over the last couple years."

There's a strong push "to indoctrinate you," Tripoli said, adding that everything we are seeing "on campuses, at protests" isn't authentic, and people need to be wary about that.

Find all of Tripoli's podcasts and appearances at SamTripoli.com.

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