The Modern Gadfly

A gadfly is a pest which bites the hides of other, larger animals when they are moving too slowly. A gadfly can be a person who is constantly hovering around you and others in an annoying manner provoking you. A gadfly does this through requests, schemes, and criticism. Socrates was a gadfly back in his day. He would spend almost all his time going around Athens poking holes through people’s false beliefs and ideas. He would do this by playing the part of the ignorant and questioning the individual without rest until he got to a question that the people couldn't answer themselves. The point of this was to force the person to doubt or at least relook at his or her ideas and start thinking about whether or not they are the right ones to have. A modern day gadfly is Stephen Colbert. He invites radical republicans to his show and talks to them until he finds a way to make them slip up and stumble around for an answer to a difficult question. He also pretends to be radically republican himself on the show which is similar to pretending to be ignorant. Colbert has described his correspondent character as "a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool – one who is able to cover it at least well enough to deal with the subjects that he deals with."   Colbert has made use of humorous fallacies of logic in explaining his point of view on any topic. In 2006, he delivered a routine at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Colbert satirized the George W. Bush Administration and the White House Press Corps with such lines as: "I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound—with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.” Colbert received a chilly response from the audience. His jokes were often met with silence and muttering, apart from the enthusiastic laughter of a few in the audience.  To me this is like how Socrates had his followers who would laugh at the audience Socrates was talking to.  It's not quite the same but it is pretty similar. I definitely consider Stephen Colbert one of many modern gadflies.