Sunday, January 1, 2017

It's the Culture, Stupid!

George Will, who counts among those who got a few things wrong in 2016, has written a not-so-fond farewell to last year. (Come to think of it, how many people can honestly say that they will miss 2016.)

Will does not mention his own failures at political prognostication, so we will not mention our own.

Instead he offers scenes the culture wars. Or better, from the cultural tyranny that has characterized the Obama years. If you want to understand why Trump won, look at administrative overreach and the government's will to force people to follow rules that made no sense. As I and several others have noted, most of these rules defy or ignore reality. And yet, no one seemed to care… except the American voters who said: Enough.

It was not as bad as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution—American students were not cannibalizing their teachers—but, led by student Red Guards and their bureaucratic enablers the Great American Cultural Revolution invaded far too many lives.

Will begins his compendium, thusly:

One day a year — Lemonade Day — children in Austin, Texas, can sell the stuff without spending $460 on various fees, licenses, and permits. Twelve-year olds in a Tampa middle school, learning about “how much privilege” they have, were asked if they were “Cisgendered,” “Transgendered,” or “Genderqueer.” Two years after Emma was the most common name given to baby American girls, the trend was toward supposedly gender-neutral baby names (e.g., Lincoln, Max, Arlo) lest the child feel enslaved to stereotypes. A New Jersey mother says a police officer interrogated her nine-year-old son after he was suspected of a racial slur when he talked about brownies, the baked good. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission pondered whether a worker committed racial harassment by wearing a cap emblazoned with the Gadsden flag (depicting a coiled rattlesnake, with the words “Don’t Tread on Me”). A University of Iowa professor complained that the Hawkeyes’ mascot, Herky, a fierce bird, is “conveying an invitation to aggressivity and even violence” that is discordant with the “all accepting, nondiscriminatory messages we are trying to convey.”

The mania even touched the Founding Fathers—the phrase was discovered to be sexist—and even to North Carolina’s restrooms:

As President’s Day approached, San Diego advised city workers to use “bias-free language” by avoiding the phrase “Founding Fathers.” A National Park Service employee giving guided tours of Independence Hall in Philadelphia told tourists that the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were produced by “class elites who were just out to protect their privileged status.” The employee praised herself for her “bravery.” The NBA, which plays preseason games in China, home of forced abortions and organ harvests, moved its 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte because of North Carolina’s law stipulating that transgender individuals should use bathrooms appropriate to their physiology.

According to the NBA and our bureaucratic overlords, it’s a just cause. Apparently, the American people demurred. Naturally, this has caused culture warriors across the nation to fall into the slough or despond or to go into high dudgeon… or both, depending on the day.

And then, Will reminds us of another great Obama administration failure, this one the signature issue of Michelle Obama. As we know, Mrs. Obama has been praised to the rafters in the last days of her husband’s administration. Were she to run for office, we are assured that she would be a shoo-in. And yet, how did her school lunch program work out? Or should it be called: Starve the Children. 

We have followed it on this blog, but Will provides us with some needed perspective:

By 2016, six years after the president’s wife agitated for federal guidelines limiting sodium, sugar, fats, and calories in school lunches, 1.4 million students had exited the National School Lunch Program, and students had a robust black market in salt and sugar. A tweet with the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama said, “The first lady can have a personal chef, but I can’t have two packets of ketchup?” 

Apparently, no issue was too trivial for the administrative state and its armies of bureaucrats. It was not just a hint and a nudge. It was an imposition. If you imagine that American parents, seeing their children forced on to a starvation diet in school, were going to take it lying down… you were wrong.

I mention it, and perhaps Will was thinking of it, but the accumulation nof these details tells us why people voted for Donald Trump.

6 comments:

Sam L. said...

"A University of Iowa professor complained that the Hawkeyes’ mascot, Herky, a fierce bird, is “conveying an invitation to aggressivity and even violence” that is discordant with the “all accepting, nondiscriminatory messages we are trying to convey.”"

Every school, every college, every single team in the US should have as its mascot symbol, a rug or a welcome mat. TOTALLY not offensive...except for those who think a rug is insufficiently welcoming.

Stuart wrote, "I mention it, and perhaps Will was thinking of it, but the accumulation of these details tells us why people voted for Donald Trump." Which was TOTALLY UNEXPECTED and TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE by those who think themselves to be our "superiors". (Many of whom can't cope with dissent/difference of opinion.)

Unknown said...

The Left is full of smug and egotistical fools who believe erroneously that they are the "smart" ones who know what year it is. There calendar may as well be the Flintstone's. Their irrational hatred for technology and their fetish for primitivism is the kind of lunatic we used to send to State Hospitals. Its no coincidence that the left became ascendant around the time these Hospitals were closed. Only when the inmates were let out were there enough lunatics to vote for these absurd delusions.
The left is basically a bunch of freaks who see freedom as an excuse for their dysfunction. Their version of "rights" is the right to be crazy without anyone arresting them or intervening. Some have said its a case of them criticising their betters, but its far worse than that. Their overly emotional views makes them see any opposing opinion as "hate" and any dissent from their "insanity" is standing in the way and being on the wrong side of history. Let me tell you, if history does have a side, these idiots wouldn't be on it. Their version of history is just fetishizing primitivism and failure, and blaming normal people for finding it odd or disgusting.

Ares Olympus said...

Hey, I found a smug new Left egotistical tool that analyzes text, up to 500 words for free. Stuart and George get some good marks, but Joshua Sinistar not so much...

https://labs.receptiviti.com/
----
Insecure May have difficulty trusting others. Likely to seek the approval of others, and may try to do what they think others would like rather than act in their own best interests.

Socially cold May appear aloof or emotionally unresponsive and unapproachable. May have trouble empathizing with others.

Risk avoidant Primarily driven by the idea of avoiding negative outcomes and threats of failure, and works particularly hard to prevent bad things from happening. Generally pessimistic.

Authenticity Detector: Likely inauthentic (lowest score)
----

I wonder what the authenticity score is about?

I'd better pre-check my future blog comments to make sure I'm not communicating who I really am. I recall Stuart previously warned us against authenticity.
http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2016/06/beyond-authenticity.html

Olympus Ares said...

"I'd better pre-check my future blog comments to make sure I'm not communicating who I really am."

Don't worry. No one cares.

Adam said...

I also came up with this title for an article on why Trump was elected. I am very gratified to thus be in your company, if only in a very wide and momentary orbit.

https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/2016/11/11/its-the-culture-stupid/

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Thank you for the link, Adam. If I had known about your fine post I would certainly have cited it.