The fine art of insulting half your audience
[NOTE: I thought it might be a good time to republish this. I’ve revised it a bit, since in its original manifestation the references were to Bush as the object of the trash talk. But other than that, it’s still relevant—unfortunately—although it’s one of the earliest posts that ever appeared on this blog.]
It happens nearly every time. I’ll be reading a short story, let’s say, enjoying myself, lost in the experience—when suddenly, there it is: the gratuitous and mean-spirited and out-of-context slap at Republicans or Tea Partiers or those who support them. It’s not as though the story is even tangentially about politics, either; it can be about anything at all, it doesn’t really matter.
The Republican-dissing will be thrown in when you least expect it, just to let the reader know—well, to let the reader know what, exactly? To let the reader know that the author is hip, kindly, intelligent, moral—oh, just about everything a person ought to be. And that the reader must of course be a member of the club, too—not one of those Others, the warmongers, the selfish and stupid and demonized people who happen to have voted for Republican.
Back when I was one of the gang, too, back when I was in with the in crowd (“if it’s square, we ain’t there”), did I notice when authors dragged in their political credentials from left field? Or perhaps it wasn’t quite as commonplace back then for them to do so?
At any rate, now it seems positively obligatory. I’m reading along, sunk deep within the story, bonding with the characters—and then, suddenly, it’s as though the author has reached a hand out of the pages of the magazine (OK, I’ll confess, sometimes it’s the New Yorker—yes, I still read it for the fiction, just as some people claim they read Playboy for the interviews) and slapped me across the face.
Authors, do you really want to do this? Because, with a single sentence, you’ve managed to alienate and offend (not to mention insult) up to half your audience.
I don’t think this even occurs to you. I think you just assume that anyone perceptive and intelligent and downright nuanced enough to be reading your fabulous work couldn’t possibly—no, say it isn’t so, Joe!!—support those disgusting, repulsive, lying POS Republicans. Or maybe you just don’t care. Maybe you don’t want people like that for your audience.
It’s not just authors. It’s plays, concerts, performances of all kinds, even those given by friends of mine, people I know and otherwise respect, people with good hearts. It’s poetry readings most particularly. It’s gotten so bad that I go to all cultural events girding my loins and waiting for the blow to fall, waiting for my intelligence and judgment and ethics to be insulted. And this from people who consider themselves culturally and morally superior, although this sense of superiority doesn’t seem to reside in their needing to prove themselves to be well-informed or logical or knowledgeable about the issues—just in letting the world know that they’re on the right side of them (which would be the left side, naturalment).
I watch You Tube videos of presentations from the TED Conferences (Technology Entertainment and Design). The presentations are forward thinking: people often presenting the gist of their life’s work. Again, and again … shockingly often … I will be focused in and enjoying interesting content, only to be shocked out of my focused state by a COMPLETELY GRATUITOUS insertion of some political point, i.e., “Bush lied” “Rumsfeld lied”. Such is completely unnecessary, and, under the circumstances, is shocking. The persons who do this are displaying their own ignorance.
I think it’s called Classless Warfare.
YES! This drives me crazy! I’ve even stopped reading authors who are repeat offenders (James Patterson, Kathy Reichs, etc) only because after the 12th or 13th insult per book, I’m far too distracted to pay attention to the story.
On the other hand, I know some authors who are rabidly leftist (George R.R. Martin) but who still manage to leave politics (so far- mostly) out of their stories. I don’t mind supporting Democrat authors, even recommending them- but being serially insulted is frustrating, and, frankly, a downer. Not what I’m looking for when reading a novel.
On the other hand, I’ve watched conservative authors have their work trashed, on Amazon and anywhere else reviews are left, by Democrats who haven’t even read the books. Orson Scott Card is frequently been a victim of these types- though he’s a Dem (an albeit, conservative Dem) he’s also a Mormon and did defend Bush against the BDS crowd during his presidency; making him a prime target for lefty attack mobs. Card rarely talks about politics in his stories, most are Sci Fi in nature. That doesn’t mean much to the negative reviewers.
Julien Benda, some time ago, remarked that we have descended well deep into hell. We have gone from:
Plato’s ‘morality decides politics’
to:
Machiavelli’s ‘Politics have nothing to do with morality’
The Left has managed to stand both the world and Plato upside down in their brave new world with:
‘Politics decide morality’
Not only can one be on the wrong side of history, one can be immoral for being found there.
Carrie Vaughn does this more and more in her Kitty books, sadly.
Different world view, I can accept; a need to inject baseless insults, for no good reason, and give your villains a political outlook when it’s not even a little bit relevant? Grow up, already.
All my female friends and family loved, loved “Eat, Pray, Love.” So when a copy floated by, I grabbed it and started to read. Then slammed it down, wrote an actual protest letter, on paper, and mailed it to the publisher. Such a wonderful story, but I stopped caring in the middle and never will care again, because to the author I am a worthless and stupid person.
Why should I ever again give a moment of my time or a penny of my money to people who hold me in contempt?
Yes – I hate this! It even happens when I’m reading a trashy novel, where there is absolutely no politics. You can’t even escape politics when you’re indulging in an escapist activity.
Reminds me of all of those haughty writers who were so surprised to discover that GWB had selected their works for his summer reading, or who bristled when invited by Laura Bush to speak at the National Book Festival. Their work was just too complex for such rubes to enjoy and understand it. I imagine the feel the same way about the rest of us right-leaning knuckle-draggers.
I used to enjoy reading The Economist, but it has degenerated into the same sort of behavior.
The Economist now routinely takes snide gratuitous swipes at Republicans (e.g., in a recent issue, characterizing Congressional Republicans as “reckless” regarding their stance on raising the debt limit; yeah, opposing drunken sailor in whorehouse fiscal policies are the height of recklessness).
The quality of the magazine has plummeted in recent years. Not long ago an article in The Economist essayed that Bush should fire Cheney, apparently not grasping American politics enough to realize that the VP is elected to office just like the President, and (unlike Cabinet members in the UK) does not serve at the pleasure of the Chief Executive. Shoulda read the Classic Comics of the US Constitution before writing that article.
I often wonder how I can be so stupid as to support conservative positions, believe Jesus rose from the dead, and yet be lauded for my “brilliance” at work.
I guess I’m an “idiot savant”.
Dear Jean,
About a year ago Jay Nordlinger, who I think might be in the dictionary if you look up “Gentle Soul,” said that he thought there really ought to be something like an ideology-free zone and that this zone ought to obtain where ever an artistic performance was involved and proceeded to relate how he had gone to a performance of something that really should have been exempt – classical guitar, was it? – but then there it was:
the audience was (mis)treated to a rant about how they weren’t fit to be there if they didn’t have their minds right and wondered just how crazy some one had to be if he presented his best shot and then ruined the experience by making some members of his audience wish they hadn’t come.
It ought to be grounds for tearing up the theater and lynching the artist. Really. You anticipate a performance and plan for it and pay for it and imagine how wonderful you will feel when you experience it and then the artist leaves you feeling like your kid just got busted for dealing kiddie porn.
“Authors, do you really want to do this? Because, with a single sentence, you’ve managed to alienate and offend (not to mention insult) up to half your audience.”
I believe that many artists live in such an echo chamber that it never even occurs to them that they might be giving needless offense. Unfortunately, I also believe that if these same artists were apprised of the offense, at least half of them would be amused and/or proud of themselves and more than glad to write the conservatives/Republicans off.
The Left has turned into a bunch of thugs. Failure to move in lockstep does not deserve respect, in their minds.
I believe that many artists live in such an echo chamber that it never even occurs to them that they might be giving needless offense.
Let’s face it, artists in general are not towering intellects, despite their self-assessments to the contrary. Musicians and actors in particular typically range from none too bright to downright thick, while writers are all over the shop.
I don’t do this, as an author. Occam B – I resemble that accusation! 🙂 I am not a towering intellect by any means, I just want to tell stories … stories about the 19th century frontier!
My daughter, over and over has lectured me about letting slip that I am a Tea Partier, a libertarian and a free-market believer, when I have book events! I don’t want to alienate half my potential audience, I want to tell them about the American frontier, about our history, to tell them who our ancestors really were and where we came from! And I want to teach people and make a ripping good yarn (athough passingly well-researched) out of it!
I want to tell people about where we came from, who we are and whom we trust! If I can bring the general public to an understanding of that … isn’t that something of a mission accomplished?
Why should I ever again give a moment of my time or a penny of my money to people who hold me in contempt?
I am admonished to engage with OWS and all their professed openness to be ludicrous. Every voice is import to shape the movement!
I know the people doing the professing, and they’re liars. Or catastrophically unaware. They hate me. Or their caricature of people like me. I man an outpost deep in enemy territory.
Err…the admonishments are ludicrous.
Then there’s PBS and NPR, who advocate only one side of the spectrum, still hit us up for money, four lengthy times a year, and wonder why contributions are falling.
“Authors, do you really want to do this? Because, with a single sentence, you’ve managed to alienate and offend (not to mention insult) up to half your audience.”
I do not limit my appreciation of art, music, or literature to those who fall on my side of the political/cultural spectrum. I take their inane, insipid ideas with a dump truck load of salt that I swiftly throw over my right shoulder. Otherwise (for example) I wouldn’t listen to Miles Davis or Neil Young; watch movies starring Denzel Washington or Kevin Spacey; or read Thomas Berger or Simon Winchester.
Should I no longer look at Picasso’s painting in the museum? No longer listen to Dylan? No longer watch movies? No longer read a good novel because the author is a leftist running dog lackey? To me, this would be tantamount to cutting off my nose to spite my face.
This phenomenon is an extension of maturity levels that ceased in high school. Remember the kids who knew the hippest music and felt the need to admonish anyone who wasn’t cool to it? A taste in music they themselves arrived at under threat of being an outcast.
The whole democrat party boils down to juvenile conformity issues.
I too, dumped the Economist, years ago. They came by it honestly. I remember an announcement of a change in Editor. Almost immediately, they developed what I dubbed Bush Tourettes. Right in the middle of a story having no logical link to Bush, they’d spout off then go back to the story.
I quit following most art, music, TV, and movies years ago. I refuse to give those jackasses my money.
But don’t lump Bob Dylan in that category. He rarely spouts off about politics in public. I’ll still go to see him whenever he’s in my area, which is about once or twice a year since he tours almost constantly.
Sadly, but much of the world’s known authors and artists are from the affluent side of the tracks. The encouragement to pursue your dreams comes at an early age, often with contacts to help you succeed and money amply supplied along in the way.
In short, many (not all) successful artists and writers are spoiled brats who never really had to have a real job. So their politics often amounts to childish intemperate blubbery.
John Nolte has complained about this phenomenon in movies. The one I can remember is Clear and Present Danger. The president turned out to be the bad guy, sitting on his desk was a jar of jelly beans, obviously that was there for one reason.
There was a sea change during the George W. Bush presidency. You could see it in authors with long-established track records, such as Robert B. Parker and Ed McBain, whose characters or narrators often made asides about the dangers of Washington or the bureaucracy. After 2001, suddenly it was the Republicans and George W. Bush.
As a rule of thumb, if a book was written after the turn of the century, if there aren’t any gratuitous or ongoing slaps at the Republicans (for example, in John Sandford’s Prey series, over the last couple of years, it seems that all the villains espouse conservative political views), I assume the author is conservative.
I don’t read much modern fiction, though, preferring stuff that’s safe from this sort of boorishness.
Yup, If I read or hear any politics from a non political book, paper, broadcast I put it down and never go there again.
If it’s about politics then fine I’ll deal with contrary ideas and ideals but if I’m watching a western and the theme hits a point being made about the current state of the world I just shut it down.
It’s what killed Avatar for me and I’ve never seen the disguised and poorly so propaganda piece more than once.
You would think that artists and writers would realize that including current political references dates their work, and makes it less likely that it will become a timeless classic.
I don’t think they can help it. The liberal mind seems to be maintained by an inner emotional rage about life in general and it can’t help but spill out in tourette fashion.
This phenomenon is an extension of maturity levels that ceased in high school.
Bullseye.
You would think that artists and writers would realize that including current political references dates their work, and makes it less likely that it will become a timeless classic.
I’ve wondered about this too. Unless the intent is to make a statement about contemporary politics, and no more, then this observation supports my contention above. (For which I apologize to Sgt. Mom, to whom it clearly does not apply!)
God bless Paddy Chayefsky.
It’s not only fiction/works of art.
I dropped ‘Scientific American’ and ‘Science News’ after they – particularly the former – began inserting the political positions into articles (and often whole articles). In Science News I remember the trigger was an article reporting climate change on Mars and then at the end there was an obviously attached paragraph asserting this proved some thing or other about man caused climate change on Earth when it was clear the research pointed clearly in the exact opposite direction.
I dropped ‘The Economist’ for many of the same reasons cited above, and some years ago stopped reading a series of mystery novels when the author – someone residing in Europe – started gratuitous rants against Bush/Republicans/Iraq in the middle of what used to be pretty good stories.
Why people behave that way is a puzzle. This author decided it is a mental illness:
http://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Mind-Psychological-Political-Madness/dp/097795630X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319391886&sr=1-1
I have had some doings with an organization called “Enemies of Modern Art” (ENEMA) whose motto is, “If it doesn’t have fat little angels, it isn’t good art.”
My view is that good art stopped, Norman Rockwell excepted, several centuries ago. Loving, say, Jackson Polack’s drunken vomitings is posing as superior.
Ditto music. See renaissance and baroque for quality.
So, anyway, if an arteest tries to insult my intelligence, besides the presumption that his work is any good, I lose nothing by dumping him, if I had had anything to with his stuff in the first place.
IMO, however, it’s more than, or possibly less than, an indication of one’s political superiority. Instead, it may be an attempt to convince the audience that we’re all on the same page, the page content being irrelevant. IOW, if it were a, say, barbershop quartet concert, one might hear a reference to, say, Jesus.
Speaking of barbershop quartet concerts, I went to one. At intermission, the moderator announced that whoever had had the ticket with the winning number could pick his prize up from the podium, left the podium and went wherever. In that crowd, it was a perfectly logical thing to do.
The most tiresome libtard trend to me is the ever-present homosexual agenda.
These perverts are less than TWO percent of the population, yet are allowed to infest every single new movie, TV show, most music and related venues like fashion, art, and even GRADE SCHOOL curriculum with their filthy disorted sexual practices, as if they have some “moral” equivalence to civil rights. (another huge victimhood business for the communist left)
These perverts are less than TWO percent of the population, yet are allowed to infest every single new movie, TV show, most music and related venues like fashion, art, and even GRADE SCHOOL curriculum with their filthy disorted sexual practices
Hear, hear. You’d love California, Motorcyclist, which now, thanks to Governor Moonbeam and his accomplices in the Legislature, mandates (can we still say that?) teaching the contributions of the LBGTWQKXUU “community” in all public schools.
So cash-strapped schools (our local school district just asked all employees to take a 20% pay cut – true story) now has to devote some of their remaining resources to teaching about those “contributions.” (Somehow I doubt that male homosexuals’ contribution to public health – serving as the primary reservoir of the various STDs – will figure very large in the curriculum.)
Apparently they also serve, who patronize the bathhouses and fist each other.
Otiose Says:
October 23rd, 2011 at 1:46 pm
It’s the rovers.
The blurtings only make sense if you consider a form of peer pressure conformity is their aim. They come too matter of factly and devoid of empathy for the opinion of the other to be anything else.
I don’t attend many concerts, plays, etc., but when I do I hope I’ll have the courage to stand up and leave if such a thing should happen. Preferably with a suitable show of disgust and a demand at the box office for my money back. If that happened a few times I think most “artists” would learn to keep their stupidity to themselves.
Most of my entertainment is in reading novels of the type described by Sgt Mom. With access through my iPad I’ve read most of Zane Grey, Max Brand and I’m closing in on finishing Louis Lamour for the third time. Any titles I should be looking for Sgt Mom?
MSG B.
Ed Bonderenka, you made me laugh aloud! I notice that writers who demonize religious people generally reveal ignorance and laziness. Ever notice the Christianity Bad/Buddhism Good trend? It does a disservice to both.
Since I generally read library books, I’m less upset about authors than I am by screenwriters, because I start to tune in regularly and then whammo! I gave up watching anything CSI when I realized it really stood for “Conservatives Slay Innocents.” Although sometimes the intended audience doesn’t like it any better. I was watching a Josh Whedon show with a friend who doesn’t care for religion (not even Buddhism) and he left the room because the anti-Christian episode was so cringe-inducing (we were watching a space western when suddenly it turned into The Crucible In Space).
As for art, a subtle dig is better. Bruegel the Elder’s Wedding Dance is intriguing even if you don’t know about or notice the black-wearing spies. And there’s something charmingly sly about Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals because the Communist star was also a company logo, and the bourgeois onlookers resembled cartoon characters he liked in American “funnies”. Picasso’s Guernica is the other extreme: emotional and anti-war, any war.
May I suggest you read David Mamet’s book, The Secret Knowledge, On the Dismantling of American Culture, “The struggle of the Left to Rationalize its positions is an intolerable Sisyphean burden. I speak as a reformed Liberal.” David Mamet is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. It’s nice to know that you are not alone. Commentary magazine is also good to read.
“Moneyball” is a very good movie to see. Also a new movie, “Margin Call” got a good review at Big Hollywood. It’s about a company trying to save its self during the financial panic of 2008. The screenwriter had some trouble getting this film made because this isn’t the usual Hollywood demonization of big business and there is no sex. In fact I don’t think there is a woman in the movie. Unfortunately it isn’t playing in a theater anywhere near me so I’m going to have to wait until I can buy it on DVD.
I’m new to your website. It’s great and so are your commenters. Thanks.
For reading….Patrick O’Brian’s sea stories are excellent. Besides naming his hero Aubrey, I mean. Richly detailed and with full characters. Mostly in and about the Napoleonic Wars, although there are others.
Dorothy Dunnett. What can you say? Two series, in addition to her various singles such as a retelling of MacBeth.
One starts with a jumped-up dyemaker’s apprentice in late fifteenth-century Bruges, who gets all over the world of that time, from Africa to Trebizond to iceland. The second is equally densely plotted, featuring a minor noble of the Scottish Lowlands in the early sixteenth century.
The oh-so-superior fakes…? Scroom
Mary Wilbur: Welcome.
See this.
Read Vince Flynn books. You’ll be pretty safe 🙂
Wm Lawrence:
I suggest the books of Janice Giles Holt, starting with Hannah Fowler. I bet Sgt. Mom has read that series.
I too have decided to stand up and leave any performance tainted with an insulting political slant. I don’t need it and won’t miss it. As a bonus, striking that author/performer from my list will lower my blood pressure a tad.
Oops! Forgot to mention the citizen production company, Declaration Entertainment, which aims to write and produce movies with a point of view of the American citizen and his basic rights under the US Constitution. Here is a synopsis from Declaration Entertainment’s website (declarationentertainment.com) for the first movie in production, The Arroyo:
40 miles north of America’s southern border, nightfall marks the beginning of a mass migration of men and drugs the likes of which the world has never seen. For the ranchers whose acreage is in the path of this exodus, the horror of finding the dead bodies, raped women, and destroyed property is second only to the feeling of betrayal by a government that is happy to take their money, but not to guard their rights and land. Jim Weatherford has taken horror and betrayal alike in stride, but there are some things a man simply cannot abide, and some lines that must be defended.
Neo,
Perhaps they keep doing it because people like you, who apparently recognize it, keep buying and reading the risible New Yorker. Just a thought.
I’m an artsy type myself, and it’s always depressing to me how many of my fellow writers, artists, actors, etc., while thinking themselves free-thinking free-spirits, are pretty much lockstep memebers of the Cult of the State, and pretty much parrot the Hive’s off-the-rack party-line on any topic at hand.
Ann Parker has series of historical mysteries set in Leadville, Colorado, in the 1880’s. The protagonist is a female saloon keeper whose husband left her.
Try ’em. The only politics I’ve noticed are of the type common to that period–the battle between railroads and silver barons.
“I don’t know ANYBODY who voted for Nixon!”
TV, too. Some lawyer show with Cathy Baits, right out of nowhere, launched a gratuitous slur on Sarah Palin.
I actually sceramed a curse at the TV, something I never do in front of my wife.
So, here’s my suggestion. At any live performance where this sort of despicable behavior pops out of the rat hole, just boo as loud as you can.