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Laura Wagner: It's Not About Hypocrisy (Defector)
Laura Wagner: It's Not About Hypocrisy (Defector)
Is this “right-wing hypocrisy,” or is it the right’s coherent vision for enforcing a very specific social order? What is it going to take for liberals to understand that “hypocrisy” is not a charge for which right-wing authoritarians must answer at the risk of losing clout, but a tenet of and testament to their power? It’s really not complicated: Dahm and his ilk don’t care about protecting children; they care about “protecting” certain children from certain things (like books and drag queens) that they consider threats to a white supremacist patriarchal social order. That’s it! With this understanding, what’s even the point of pretending to debate a creep like Dahm on policy particulars?
ointing out so-called right-wing hypocrisy might make the Jon Stewart-watching crowd feel superior to their political foes, but it does nothing to actually build a movement capable of overcoming them. In fact, it does worse than nothing; its smugness serves to flatter the sensibilities of its liberal viewers while obscuring the way political power is built and used in this country.
Charging a person (like Dahm) or group (like Republicans) with hypocrisy, frames the issue (protecting children, for example) as something having to do with appealing to individuals’ senses of reason or conscience and ignores the existence of social and economic systems that help maintain a status quo in which children are not only murdered in their schools and turned into cheap laborers, but are in general considered property of their parents, often to their own detriment. It’s obvious but worth saying: If such problems could be solved by merely pointing out politicians' perceived hypocrisy, they would’ve been solved by now.
·defector.com·
Laura Wagner: It's Not About Hypocrisy (Defector)
Richard Lawson: Is There a Right Way to Come Out? (The Atlantic Wire)
Richard Lawson: Is There a Right Way to Come Out? (The Atlantic Wire)
Ultimately this is a question of what means more right now: The shoulder-shrug of indifference or the clarion announcement. Both have their value, but in the famous person/regular person conversation, we'd argue that the script has been incorrectly flipped. For many (lucky) young people (and older) the case may be that they can just be gay and, whatever, nobody really cares. And good for them. In high schools all across America that is probably the case, that's all that it takes. But for many people that is not the case. And those are the kids (and older) who most need to see examples of gay champions beaming down at them from the hallowed halls of celebrity Valhalla. The brighter the flash from above, the more light might get down to them. There is no right way to come out — you do you, Anderson — but there are ways that are more beneficial, more productive than others. We're happy to hear the news from Mr. Cooper. We just wish he'd said it a little louder. And a lot sooner.
·theatlanticwire.com·
Richard Lawson: Is There a Right Way to Come Out? (The Atlantic Wire)
Steve Almond: The Joke’s on You (The Baffler)
Steve Almond: The Joke’s on You (The Baffler)
We need not give in to sorrow, or feel disgust, or take action, because our brave clown princes have the tonic for what ails the national spirit. Their clever brand of pseudo-subversion guarantees a jolt of righteous mirth to the viewer, a feeling that evaporates the moment their shows end. At which point we return to our given role as citizens: consuming whatever the quacks serve up next.
·thebaffler.com·
Steve Almond: The Joke’s on You (The Baffler)
Steven Hyden: Why being a pop-culture “hater” is okay (and sometimes even necessary) (The A.V. Club)
Steven Hyden: Why being a pop-culture “hater” is okay (and sometimes even necessary) (The A.V. Club)
While I’m loathe to discuss the presidential race or the existence of God with strangers or even close friends and family members, I’ll gladly enter into conversations about whether it’s plausible that Joan did what she did with the dude from Jaguar in that recent episode of Mad Men, or why my beloved Packers will return to the Super Bowl this year. And I’ll do this even if I think the other person disagrees. If we end up jousting verbally for a few hours, it’s still fairly certain that we’ll be friends at the end of the night. I wouldn’t be as confident over a difference in party affiliation or spiritual beliefs.
·avclub.com·
Steven Hyden: Why being a pop-culture “hater” is okay (and sometimes even necessary) (The A.V. Club)
YouTube: Mr. Rogers in the Senate
YouTube: Mr. Rogers in the Senate
"In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War."
·youtube.com·
YouTube: Mr. Rogers in the Senate
The New York Times: The Week That Wasn't
The New York Times: The Week That Wasn't
On why The Daily Show is successful and important: "'This is big because there is this gigantic imbalance and something has got to fill it. ... Young people get the attitude, the deflationary truth-telling attitude of these shows...'"
·nytimes.com·
The New York Times: The Week That Wasn't