The Useful Idiot Dance: The Absurd Arena Live Discussion Board

Live chat at 12pm EST with Katie and Wilson in the Substack app chat!

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Hey Useful Idiots,

Last night I had a dream that I had become the producer of my second-most-listened-to podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (if you’re not already a listener, it’s the perfect antidote for the suckings and terribles you hear here). But in the midst of fanning out over the hosts, Dream Wilson got into an uncomfortable debate with Conan and his sidekicks.

Though Conan mostly has comedians as guests, he recently had on notorious corporate Russiagater and war-cheerleader Jake Tapper. Stupidly, rather than bringing up the hundreds of episodes I loved, Dream Wilson just had to complain about that one.

And they looked at me, as most people do in these situations, like I was coming at Tapper from the right, ready to whine that they should have on Tucker Carlson if they really wanted to be fair. Which meant I had to do the usual backtracking dance of “no I’d say the same thing if you had on Jesse Watters or Laura Ingraham or Jen Psaki or…”

Long story short, Dream Wilson didn’t come out on top. So I woke up with the question: how do you deal with that situation? When friends chat about Jake Tappers and Joe Bidens and MSNBC hosts (check this out), do you do the same awkward dance I do, needing to end every sentence with “and Fox News does the same” to avoid conflict? Or are you stronger than the rest of us and keep it to yourself?

Asking for a friend…aka anyone else who knows the Useful Idiot struggle. Join Katie and Awake Wilson at 12pm est to share your awkward experiences and your tips for these uncomfortable conversations, or to just give all that up and complain some more.