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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   23443 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 1, 2024

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"Is there any merit in this far-left group's position" seems like an intentionally loaded question.

Cynically, I note that it used to be conservatives who were eager to play up the racism and eugenicism of early feminists. Now leftists will try to "cancel" anything that doesn't center queer BIPOC or imply that white people might once upon a time have done an admirable thing or two. Even Lin Manuel-Miranda's Hamilton, which recast all the Founding Fathers as black, has not escaped such criticisms.

So sure, what they say about Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt is (I assume) true. Does that mean a musical shouldn't be made about them, or a musical shouldn't be made that makes protagonists out of them instead of dragging them for their white supremacy?

Nowadays, I don't think you could make a movie or musical about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson at all that didn't offer at least some criticism of their status as slaveowners. Even Abraham Lincoln isn't immune - he did, after all, say:

I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermingling with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior. I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Of course there is some historical context to that quote, and evidence that he was moving towards a more egalitarian position when he was assassinated, but as much as I struggle to sympathize with the "cancel suffs" group's argument that history should be presented in full (even given the limits of a musical which can't be expected to cover literally every relevant detail), the problem is that that really isn't their argument. I do not think they are, in good faith, complaining about historical whitewashing and agitating for a more complete and accurate historical presentation. For the same reason I don't credit Holocaust deniers with actually caring about truth and historical accuracy even if they might sometimes have a point about specific historical details. The agenda is something else entirely (in the case of "cancel suffs," I strongly suspect that it's some combination of "How dare a musical about white women win a bunch of awards?" and some theater in-group fighting) and the claims of caring about factual history are a mask.

The agenda is something else entirely (in the case of "cancel suffs," I strongly suspect that it's some combination of "How dare a musical about white women win a bunch of awards?" and some theater in-group fighting) and the claims of caring about factual history are a mask.

My personal read for a lot of these cancellation attacks is that the ultimate motive is freeing up a seat at the table for them or their friends. The protestor is here informing the culprits about their moral failings, which puts them in the position of having superior knowledge and adherence to left wing priorities. Obviously the people being protested have to go, and conveniently enough there are some people right here who know what they did wrong, and can recommend a replacement who won't be so problematic.

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