"Jon Stewart is an American actor, comedian, and political satirist who has a net worth of $120 million." Has this dulled Stewart's once-progressive and once-rational perspective?
I hate to say it but part of the dumbing down of America happened when people started to listening to comedians for political guidance. Instead of coming to their own conclusions through actual thought. This partly allowed people like Joe Rogan to become popular.
I think objections to comedians as political commentators are misplaced.
Comedians are smart and good at communication; this already makes them probably well above average among political commentators. If their comedy centers on social or political issues, they are probably well-informed on such issues. (Singers, artists, doctors, top athletes, etc. may also tend to be smarter than average, but with a different sort of smartness, less useful in this context.) I certainly learn a lot about political topics by watching, say, John Oliver. In fact John Oliver's "comedy" show gives better insight into issues
that matter than most American TV news shows.
"... coming to their own conclusions through actual thought" is not only condescending but misses important points. Pure thought (whether "actual" or not) does NOT provide facts on the ground. To get the facts requires reading or watching. But WHAT does one read or watch? The "best" writers are often opinionated. News shows without opinions are often vapid. Many political issues involve non-obvious subtleties; forming opinions without understanding the subtleties leads to faulty opinions! It is no surprise that Americans with the stupidest opinions are often the very Americans who proudly say "I do my own research."
Sure, it's possible to end up in a "bubble." But "comedians" like Mark Twain, Will Rogers, H.L. Mencken, Mort Sahl, George Carlin and, yes, even the comedians of post-rational America like Jon Stewart have
contributed to political savvy. To equate their achievements with the "dumbing down of America" is wrong.