"Do you like this one?" asks Madeleine.
"It makes me happy," says George. "But I'm going to buy the UFO."
This is the view of the urban/rural divide as perceived by cultural curators in media. Madeleine can peddle awful paintings because they will be appreciated ironically by collectors. George is ruled by simple emotions like happiness and even his taste in art is alien.
This is foregrounded by the election in which rural counties voted for Donald Trump. And according to writers like Patrick Thornton, this isn't because urban elites don't understand rural folks. It's the other way around.
"My high school had more convicted sexual predator teachers than minority teachers." Really? Your unionized public school district can't fire convicted sex offenders? And you would tip the scales by what, luring minority teachers out of the suburban districts they would prefer?
"The first gay person I knew personally was my college roommate," Thornton writes. He "me a better person." Hey, me too! But my first gay friend started calling SoCons "Nazis" because we wanted to settle the gay marriage issue by allowing full civil unions. It wasn't enough.
I don't know how you could write about gay marriage from an urban point of view without at least acknowledging Memories Pizza and Sweet Cakes By Melissa. Business owners realized that they could lose their livelihood via a mean-spirited social media campaign or even the power of the state.
Thornton continues, "We, as a culture, have to stop infantilizing and deifying rural and white working-class Americans." Now who's being intellectually dishonest?
Look at this video by Ami Horowitz where he interviews Berkeley students and tell me who has been infantilized.
People have been running to safe spaces on college campuses to avoid harmful ideas. Now they are communicating just how childish they are by wearing safety pins on their clothing. There is no symbol more evocative of crying babies than a pin used to fasten diapers.
Further on, "They need to shake hands with a Muslim, or talk soccer with a middle aged lesbian, or attend a lecture by a female business executive." Lots of Muslims think Westerners are filthy and won't touch them. Lots of lesbians are raising their kids and hoping they will also be gay. And who the fuck wants to be lectured by anyone. Chances are, they are working for a female. Big fucking deal.
Maybe they feel like they don't need to shake hands with a Muslim, or do anything they don't want to, and resent people like Catherine Lhamon mandating that they put boys in girls' bathrooms.
I can understand the fear that some minorities feel right now. I live and work around diverse people, and I see the look in their eyes. But ask yourself, Patrick. Who made them afraid? Trump has said some stupid things but it was people like you who turned it into a moral panic.
No comments:
Post a Comment