Stephen Colbert, like his late-night peers, opened his show Monday with his sober thoughts on the murders of 49 people at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning. "Naturally, we each ask ourselves, what can you possibly say in the face of this horror," Colbert said, "but then sadly, you realize you know what to say. Because it's been said too many times before. You have a pretty good idea what most people are going to say," be it the president, politicians from both parties, gun manufacturers, even Colbert, because he's said it before, too.
"It's as if there's a national script we have learned," he said, "and I think by accepting the script we tacitly accept that the script will end the same way every time, with nothing changing — except the loved ones and the family of the victims, for whom nothing will ever be the same. It's easy — it's almost tempting to be paralyzed by such a monstrously hateful act, to despair and say, 'Oh, that's the way the world is now.' Well, I don't know what to do, but I do know that despair is a victory for hate. Hate wants us to be too weak to change anything." The antidote to hate is love, Colbert said, but "love is a verb. It means to do something." Watch below. Peter Weber
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