The Culture War Is Asymmetrical
02/14/2020
I'm constantly fighting the temptation to spend, or rather waste, a lot of time talking about current events, the perishing republic, and so forth. I believe it was in the very first year of this very long-running blog that I mentioned that urge, and noted that there was not much reason for me to carry it out because other people with much much much larger audiences were saying the same things I would say, and doing it better.
Still, the need to grab the reader and say Don't you see what's going on?!?! is pretty strong sometimes, and I have to do it occasionally. Which is by way of excusing or sort of justifying or at least explaining this post, and also its brevity.
A few days ago I mentioned the sad phenomenon of 'the frenzied rhetorical attacks on white people and "whiteness" coming from the left.' In the comments, Stu replied that "the extremist right are also terrible."
That's true, but it's not the most significant aspect of what's going on. It's not that there are racists or other assorted nasty people on the left, but that the left (using the term very broadly) holds the most prestigious and influential positions in society: education, the media apart from Fox News, entertainment, many of the courts, and most of the non-elected national government. And it tolerates or excuses or actively practices expressions of racial hostility which no one on the respectable right would dream of. Open race-based hostility on the right is marginalized by the right. Open race-based hostility on the left, provided it's directed at white people, is practiced frequently and is protected, at least, and often applauded, by the left.
More or less the same is true for other controversial issues, such as the various sexual causes. The progressive view is overwhelmingly portrayed in media, education, and entertainment as the correct, obviously virtuous and enlightened view. Opposition is very effectively stigmatized as, for instance, "homophobia" and the like.
I'm not going to waste time trying to prove this by citing instances. I think it's overwhelmingly obvious. Rod Dreher provides examples almost every day, like this one, in which a black student (I think it's a student) complains that there are "too many white people" in the Multicultural Student Center, strongly suggesting that they leave. As Dreher says
...if a white student stood and ordered non-white students to vacate a space because their non-whiteness made it uncomfortable for white people, the entire campus would have had a gran mal seizure...
This was at the University of Virginia. Contemptuous and hostile references to white people--especially white men, especially white male Christians--as such, specifically because they are white--are perfectly acceptable at the most influential and prestigious levels of society, whereas the same sort of hostility on the part of white people toward others is mostly relegated to the gutter. It's not symmetrical.
I don't disagree with you at all, Mac. It is certainly unfortunate and I'm not "with" those people. Faced with what is going on due to the POTUS, and what I see as his blatant racism and pushing of racist policies, I don't think about these other things until you write about them. I'm always telling people that the very far left and the very far right are equally abhorrent to me. Many of the folks I'm talking to are liberal, and then I have to give examples. When the supposedly most powerful person in the world is no longer acting in the way the current one acts, I guess I will then be even more appalled over anti-white/anti-man concerns.
Posted by: Stu | 02/14/2020 at 01:55 PM
The Academy Awards this past Sunday were a good recent example of your topic. There was hardly even an indication of POTUS, what there was a lot of was concern over lack of diversity. More women, more people of color, more this more that...everybody but white males, of course. I enjoy the show and I enjoy movies, so I watch and try not to let it annoy me, but there it is. Despite all of these annoying complaints a South Korean director and his film came out on top. Go figure!
Posted by: Stu | 02/14/2020 at 02:00 PM
Trump is a jerk, to use a polite term. The impolite one would be justified. I don't really see how anyone can argue with that. At most you can say "Yeah, but he's good to his friends and family." So what? "Even the heathen do likewise," or however that goes. I don't really see much of a case that he's much of a racist, though. The things that can be used to argue that he is are pretty small potatoes.
Still, there's no disputing that by his personal behavior he is making a bad situation worse in many ways.
I never have been able to sit through those award shows. Too many commercials and lame speeches. But I do give them a little credit, in the sense that if something or someone has won an Oscar I count it as a positive. All I know about this one is that a whole lot of conservatives have been griping about it. Not about that particular movie, which I've seen praised. Have you seen it? I don't actually know anything about it except that the director is Korean and it's called Parasite.
Posted by: Mac | 02/14/2020 at 03:38 PM
I haven't seen it, Mac. I want to, don't even think it has made Redbox here in Wyoming, and of course since it won Best Picture it is "long wait" for the DVD through Netflix. I'll see it sometime, I'm sure. Don't even know what it is about.
The weirdest acceptance speech was Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor, Joker). He didn't thank anyone, he was not political really, the long rambling speech seemed to be about animal rights, but it was hard to tell. I may have to find it online and read the text. Laura Dern's was pretty perfect. Don't recall her saying anything political, but maybe she did. At the end of it she said she was so lucky to be raised by her heroes, her parents Diane Ladd (who was seated next to her) and Bruce Dern. If found it classy and touching.
Posted by: Stu | 02/14/2020 at 04:07 PM
I'm still struggling to get that reptilian Laura Dern character in Marriage Story out of my mind. Glad to hear she honors her father and mother. :-)
I knew her father was Bruce Dern (duh) but not that her mother was Diane Ladd. I kind of like these acting dynasty things.
Posted by: Mac | 02/14/2020 at 04:53 PM
Parasite was very good, Mac. I rented it on Direct TV last night for $5.99 and was well worth it. Considering watching it a second time before it goes away tomorrow morning.
Posted by: Stu | 02/16/2020 at 09:46 AM
Hoping to see Parasite this week. I liked the guy's earlier movie Snowpiercer very much.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/16/2020 at 01:04 PM
I was going to see iit yesterday with a famous hypochondriac theologian but I got flu and had to pull out
Posted by: Grumpy | 02/16/2020 at 03:36 PM
Uh-oh. Maybe the hypochondriac was actually sick and gave it to you? Flu is terrible. Hope you feel better.
Posted by: Mac | 02/16/2020 at 08:27 PM
If you like Guy Ritchie's movies his new one The Gentlemen is fantastic. Definite return to the form of his early movies, and the best thing he's done since Snatch. Violent and offensive, of course -- like Tarentino, but much funnier and less....nihilistic? Matthew McConnaughey is excellent as usual, and both Hugh Grant and Colin Farrell are outstanding.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/17/2020 at 05:22 AM
I saw a trailer for that and thought it looked interesting. I'll check its availability. I did like Snatch...well, somewhat. Not entirely my cup of tea but it was kind of brilliant.
Posted by: Mac | 02/17/2020 at 08:42 AM
The movie I saw before Christmas that I enjoyed was Knives Out. I loved Little Women. I thought 1917 was OK, but not a patch on They shall not Grow Old.
Posted by: GRUMPY | 02/17/2020 at 07:29 PM
What I've heard of Knives Out sounds good. It hasn't been that long since I saw a pretty good PBS dramatization of Little Women, so I'm not really in the market for another one. Haven't seen either of the WWI films, probably should.
Posted by: Mac | 02/17/2020 at 09:44 PM
Saw 'Parasite' last night -- liked it, but not sure I'd put it at'Best Picture' level.
Hoping to catch '1917' before it goes away, but am pretty sure I'll have to wait for the DVD of 'Knives Out.'
Posted by: Rob G | 02/20/2020 at 08:39 AM
I saw Parasite last night and both the famous theologian and I thought it was less good than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which we saw together in August.
I thought it was funny for the first half, and pretty brilliant when it first went spooky. But then when it started going on and on and on with the Marxist 'house' metaphor, the human interest was gone and I was just waiting for it to end.
I would give it a 5.5 out of 10 rating, for the first half down to the ascension into metaphor with the spooky stuff.
Posted by: grumpy | 02/20/2020 at 10:36 AM
We saw it with a guy who is apparently a Marxist. Anyway, he thought it was better than Once upon a Time because it was Marxist and that displaying the Marxist truth about reality was much more important than having an aesthetically pleasing plot. He said that.
Posted by: grump | 02/20/2020 at 10:38 AM
Sad!
I'm fairly eager to see Once Upon A Time. I see Netflix has it now so I'll probably see it within the next few weeks.
Posted by: Mac | 02/20/2020 at 11:33 AM