<
https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/03/19/hypocrisy-and-projection-the-rights-cynical-culture-wars/>
"After months spent denying and trying to overturn the results of an election
that went quite smoothly considering the ongoing pandemic, many on the American
right have now turned their attention back to the culture war messaging that’s
substituted for non-existent conservative policy ideas on both sides of the
Atlantic for many years. Talking about tax cuts for corporations and the
wealthy just doesn’t work up the base in quite the same way as condemning slow
moving social progress.
While the United States has been making great strides in terms of Covid 19
vaccinations and Democrats in the country’s Congress passed a stimulus bill
with no help from the opposition, pundits who portray themselves as populists
like Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his online imitators are focused on
defending such cherished institutions as plastic toys based on sentient
potatoes and an animated skunk whose antics were seen as unacceptable 20+ years
ago.
“The cultural vandals in charge of our own cultural revolution have censored
everything from cartoon skunks to Peter Pan and Dumbo,” the opinion host said
just this week prior to a segment criticizing the Grammy awards for
‘vulgarity’. Just prior to this, another bout of rightwing hysteria followed
the announcement on March 2nd by the estate of Theodor Geisel that it had
decided to stop publishing 6 titles he wrote under his Dr. Seuss pseudonym
because these works contained illustrations that depict racial stereotypes.
As explained by some of those who knew him, Geisel came to regret this early
work later in life and is mostly remembered for the progressive he became,
overcoming the prejudices that were widely accepted during his youth. It’s been
reported that he wrote and illustrated a later children’s book “Horton Hears a
Who”, as an apology for the early works that have now been pulled from his
catalogue.
From at least Gamergate in 2014 until the present, the populist right has been
quite successful in bringing their reactionary politics into the arena of pop
culture. While the right in the past attacked popular films and other media
for portrayals of sex and violence, the contemporary approach is to castigate
media conglomerates for films like Black Panther and the all female version of
Ghostbusters for trying to broaden their appeal to different or wider
audiences.
Not to be outdone by rightwing media or online culture critics, Republican
politicians who embraced the last president’s ‘populism’ have picked up the
cancel culture message and turned it to their own cynical ends."
Via
libramoon@pluspora.com.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
