Director Boots Riley — a self-described communist who apparently shops exclusively via the five-finger discount — went on The Daily Show last week to promote his new film "I Love Boosters," which glorifies shoplifting as a legitimate lifestyle choice. Correspondent Jordan Klepper sat there nodding along like a golden retriever being told he's a good boy while Riley bragged about relying on shoplifters to "stay fly" during his broke rapper days.
You cannot parody these people. They parody themselves and then get a Comedy Central segment for it.
Let's set the scene here, because it's too perfect. Riley showed up wearing a giant purple hat — because when you're openly advocating for theft on national television, you might as well dress like a character from a Dr. Seuss book about failed economic systems. This is a man who has openly identified as a communist for years, and Comedy Central thought the best use of airtime was letting him explain why stealing from stores is actually kind of awesome.
The film, "I Love Boosters," is exactly what it sounds like. It's a love letter to organized retail theft, the same crime wave that's been hollowing out cities like San Francisco and forcing Walgreens to lock up toothpaste behind plexiglass like it's a diamond necklace. But sure, let's make a movie celebrating the people doing it. Very brave. Very artistic.
As reported by MRCTV, Riley didn't even try to dress it up in some academic framework about "wealth inequality" or "systemic oppression." He just straight-up bragged about using shoplifters to keep his wardrobe fresh when he was a broke rapper. "Stay fly," he said, like he was dropping a bar instead of confessing to being an accessory to retail theft on camera.
And Jordan Klepper — The Daily Show's designated smirker — just let it ride. No pushback. No "hey, isn't shoplifting a crime that destroys small businesses and drives up prices for everyone?" Nothing. Just the usual late-night comedy show routine where the host pretends a radical leftist is actually a charming eccentric.
This is the same entertainment industry that lectures you about "doing better" and "being on the right side of history" every awards season. The same crowd that puts up black squares on Instagram and donates to bail funds. They're now producing feature films that treat stealing as a fun hobby, and the Comedy Central publicity machine is more than happy to roll out the red carpet.
Meanwhile, in the real world, retail theft cost American businesses an estimated $112 billion in 2022 alone, according to the National Retail Federation. Store closures are gutting working-class neighborhoods. Employees are told not to intervene because corporations are terrified of liability. And the people who actually pay for things — you know, the suckers — watch their prices go up to cover the losses.
But Boots Riley made a movie about it, so it's art now.
Here's what kills me. The left spent years telling us that words are violence. A wrong pronoun is a hate crime. A red hat is a threat. But a communist filmmaker going on national television to celebrate actual theft? That's just entertainment, folks. Lighten up.
The mask isn't slipping anymore. They took it off, set it on fire, and are now making movies about stealing the mask from someone else's face. A self-described communist wore a clown hat on The Daily Show and told America that shoplifting is a lifestyle — and the host's only job was to make sure the audience laughed at the right moments.
If you ever wondered what a civilization looks like when it stops taking its own laws seriously, this is the trailer.
