Featured image by Bartlomiej Mostek. Follow the link for more of this artist’s work.
Is it me or are we all just looking to start a fight? The United States has lost its collective mind. Everyone is angry, and we’re all looking to blame it on the “other guy.” I don’t advocate violence. As Asimov wrote, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” But it seems more and more like that’s what people want.
In Stonewall, Florida, the folks celebrated Pride with a parade. Unfortunately, there was an incident involving a pickup truck hitting two pedestrians walking in the parade. Dean Trantalis, Mayor of Fort Lauderdale, called the event a “terrorist attack” against the LGBTQ+ community. In the heat of the moment, he believed that what turned out to be an accident involving a 77-year-old Gay Men’s Chorus Member as the driver, and two others as the victims was a deliberate attack against the community at large. From the news reports, the truck had a sudden acceleration. I would hazard to guess that the driver accidentally pressed the gas pedal instead of the brake, an easy mistake for an older person with physical ailments working an event with a lot of distractions.
But that doesn’t stop the Mayor from trying to make the story an intentional act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, from immediately jumping to conclusions about the nature of the perpetrator, and impressing motive on to the actions of the driver. No, no, the driver, being an older white male, was assumed to be straight, and bearing malice toward the victims.
My honest question is, what the hell people? Seriously, what the hell? Have we really become so entrenched in our tribal positions that we must assume the worst possible motives for anything that happens? Have we become so frenzied in our paranoia that someone is “out to get us,” that we find our enemies beneath every leaf and behind every blade of grass? I distrust the people in positions of power. Call me anti-establishment, but I do not believe that they represent honestly the positions that they hold, and for the most part, are constantly seeking higher office with more power and authority.
We see how our system has degenerated into nothing but a constant struggle for power. We speak less and less about our common values, and more and more about our differences. We highlight our “failures” and downplay our successes. We have no tolerance for progress, anything less than perfection is considered failure, so much to the point that it is puritanical.
Lin Manuel Miranda made a movie adaptation of The Heights, and received criticism from the Twitter mob that it wasn’t an accurate depiction of “Afro-Latinx” people living in the heights. Seriously, do we need to start putting long disclaimers at the beginning of movies to remind people that this is a movie, and therefore may not be a completely accurate depiction of real-life?
C|Net has a pretty fair representation of the commentary, and some of the response to the commentary. Jon M. Chu commented that they were looking for the best actors to fill the roles. This of course, is a crime against humanity according to the Twitter mob. Diversity and inclusion trump story-telling and acting quality, and therefore must be placed at the forefront, regardless of the cost to quality or profitability of the final project.
But don’t worry all, this of course is the fault of those nefarious white people again. Allowing for an inaccurate depiction of people living in a neighborhood is another example of White Supremacy, according to the blue checkmarks on Twitter.
A movie that focuses on a majority minority cast being imperfect in its casting decisions by an Asian director and produced a Puerto Rican and a half Puerto Rican, somehow supports White Supremacy? I have to agree with Bill Maher on this one…
I have tried to upload the video of Maher blasting the cancel culture mob for being as cult-like as they are, but YouTube has removed the video. Deadline has a transcript of what he said, but I find it both frustrating and hilarious that the tech overlords have removed the video.
At some point people are going to have to accept that there are things out there that they will not like. But in order to have a tolerant culture, we must accept that there will be things out there we can’t tolerate. I know it sounds contradictory, and to some extent it is. But we make no progress and expose no culture and give no variety to life if the expectation is that only x person should play this role. This ridiculous level of demand will result in two things: projects like In The Heights underperforming in the box office, and the executives not wanting to make more of these projects because it both underperforms and draws criticism from social media and the internet social justice warriors.
The dystopia of the US is coming more and more into focus, and the longer it goes on, the worse off everyone will be.
A Place 4Politics 