I certainly would've laughed harder than I did watching any of his movies or seeing any of his stand-up sets. Over-the-top degeneracy has never appealed to me. But here we are, a decade or so later, and I'm being forced to reevaluate my opinion of him.

Not his humor, certainly. I still don't find him funny. But it's that same provocativeness and vulgarity, paired with a surprising amount of intellect, that's made him such an effective political commentator. He's not a man who tolerates bulls**t and is very good at breaking down the hypocrisy and lies he sees around him. Particularly in media and politics, which are effectively one and the same, these days. Media bias is of particular interest to him, especially now.

Someone being labelled a "conspiracy theorist" doesn't mean much to me. It gets thrown around so often that it barely even registers in my mind. Unfortunately, it's much the same with sexual assault allegations. I'm one of those people who assumes at least half the powerful people in media and politics are sex pests anyway. But combine the two, and it's a different story. When I see someone accused of being a conspiracy theorist and a sex pest, then I take notice.

You see, I'm also one of the people who believes the harder the media tries to crack down on someone, the more you should pay attention to what they're saying. It's funny, perhaps even suspicious, how celebrities who speak out against the media tend to get labelled as "crackpots" and suddenly stop appearing in anything bigger than a made-for-TV Hallmark movie. Even funnier, and more suspicious, is how many of them also tend to have people from their past come from out of the blue to simultaneously accuse them of sexual assault.