Silke Jasso
During a recent interview with Rare to promote his bipartisan social media campaign based around promoting positivity, comedian Paul Scheer briefly spoke about his friend Sarah Silverman’s run-in with the Internet outrage machine.
Videos by Rare
“I think whenever you express any opinion, especially in the world of politics or social change, you’re going to get a backlash. The cool thing about Sarah is, she doesn’t suffer fools. You can easily get caught in people twisting your words, or positioning them in a way you didn’t want them to be positioned,” Scheer told Rare.
Silverman was criticized in early February for “calling” for a military coup.
“WAKE UP & JOIN THE RESISTANCE. ONCE THE MILITARY IS W US FASCISTS GET OVERTHROWN. MAD KING & HIS HANDLERS GO BYE BYE,” Silverman wrote.
Nearly as soon as she published her tweet, Silverman drew the ire of many on the right, who felt like she was openly calling for a military coup.
Two days later, Silverman clarified her comments, noting that they may have been a little too emotion-fueled.
“FEAR can motivate even peacenik snowflakes 2 incite violence & last night I felt it hard. Trying 2 keep in check bc damnit I love u America,” Silverman wrote.
Silverman, who has contributed to Scheer’s The Big Hundred campaign, is just one example of countless celebrities who have made headlines for speaking their minds. According to Scheer, The Big Hundred is a place where people don’t need to come and argue politics.
“Social media is a cesspool,” Scheer explained. “If you’re going to weigh in with an opinion, no matter what that is….you’re going to get the same amount of flack.”
With The Big Hundred, Scheer strives to create a digital platform for people to share ideas, or tips about how to live a better life amidst a hot political climate.
Despite his best intentions, Scheer admits that there will always be a certain degree of ridicule for anything online.
“I was getting nasty shit about that,” Scheer says of a post that showed people how to find the names of their elected officials. “I wasn’t telling people to vote for anyone, I was saying ‘know who you’re voting for.’ Anytime you post anything that feels like ‘you’re telling me what to do,’ people go nuts.”
