Conservatives, Umbrage, and Art Appreciation

Mark of New Jersey

Mark is a Founding Editor of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen, the predecessor of Ordinary Times.

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15 Responses

  1. Katherine says:

    I’d probably like that movie, having always hated pretentious modern art.Report

  2. greginak says:

    Hell if sonny wants to see “Hollywood” satirize itself he should watch the The Player, a great , great film by a somewhat overrated director.

    Do people (conservatives) really think liberals sit around and just go all googlie eyed at post modern art, or are all that tied to it as an idea?Report

    • Jaybird in reply to greginak says:

      I think that the stereotype is more like they sit around saying “let’s freak the normals!” “Yeah, let’s really freak them out!”

      And they put a crucifix in a jar of urine and the normals freak out and then they all sit around congratulating themselves about how brave they are and how transgressive and how glad they are that they aren’t square like those normals in squarestown.

      And, of course, they’d never do something that would offend themselves.

      A friend told me that she was going to give a speech on Discordianism. I said that she should instead give a speech on how abortion is wrong. The conversation went downhill from there.

      Hail Eris.Report

      • greginak in reply to Jaybird says:

        well i think conservatives have a lot of laughable strawmen/ stereotypes about liberals also. usually they seem to believe all liberals live just on the coast, eat nothing but arugala, drive vulva’s….wait no that is just lesbians, drive volvos and such.

        in fact i have no doubt conservatives think they are the normal ones and liberals think they are not normal and live just to piss them off.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to greginak says:

          Well, look at something like this… remember the whole Satanic Verses thing? The Mohammed Cartoon thing?

          The laughable strawman is that the Left retreated into full “we have to be tolerant of other cultures” mode instead of full “speech needs to be free!” mode like they were with, say, Mapplethorpe.Report

      • Freddie in reply to Jaybird says:

        For the record, I give freaking the normals my full endorsement.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to Freddie says:

          As do I!

          But when one finds oneself with a new normal, well, one must get to freakin’ anew. One cannot rest on one’s laurels and continue to fight the last war.Report

      • Chad in reply to Jaybird says:

        You, my friend, are therefore the true Discordian.Report

        • Jaybird in reply to Chad says:

          There is no “true” discordianism. It’s all relative.

          Soon I will be old enough to be outraged by something non-violent done to something inanimate and I will be one of the normals.Report

  3. Sonny Bunch says:

    Thanks for the kinds words. I swear, that CYE kerfluffle was the last straw. This column has been percolating for a while.

    As an aside, I’d be curious to know what the folks behind “(Untitled)” feel about someone making the conservative case for their picture. By that I mean I wonder what they would think if they ever saw the column. I’m not getting my hopes up.Report

    • greginak in reply to Sonny Bunch says:

      what the hell is a “conservative case” for a movie. I don’t get framing movie criticism with a political label. the labels themselves are not always that easy to define. And there is far more to making a good movie, comic book, etc then adhering to politics. can a conservative like modern art or a “liberal” film?Report

      • Sonny Bunch in reply to greginak says:

        Perhaps I spoke imprecisely. The “conservative case” for “(Untitled)” isn’t necessarily what I was arguing. “The case for conservatives to appreciate ‘(Untitled)’ ” might have been better. My argument isn’t with “(Untitled)” but with how many of my friends on the right deem it necessary to view popular culture (which is all-too-often through an explicitly ideological lens). I guess that makes my use of the phrase “conservative case” especially ironic. My bad.Report

        • greginak in reply to Sonny Bunch says:

          makes sense to me. the peculiar need of many conservatives to see every sort of media through an ideological lens is perplexing. but then again, i’m liberal or umm normal…or no wait…i’m not normal…or something or other.Report