PC Movies
Kevin Drum notes that, if you think “Brokeback Mountain,” with its gay-cowboys-sans-pudding-eating theme is PC, then you’ll love “Family Stone,” featuring a gay interracial deaf couple and a woman dying of breast cancer. Having seen the latter and having similar thoughts, I agree.
The post has drawn, as time of this writing, 62 comments excoriating Kevin for the use of the wingnut term “PC” to describe these perfectly natural and unremarkable activities. Res ipsa loquitur.
A fairly representative comment from Drum post on Brokeback:
What I object to is the thoughtless and lemming-like use of this term, which by now has mostly become a verbal signal that the speaker has no intention of taking anyone else’s viewpoints into consideration. It’s not a thoughtful exploration of the damage that can be wrought when an attempt to be inclusive and sensitive morphs into a weapon that gets swung indiscriminately.
And one from Free Republic:
The commercials for Gayback are sickening, I really, really, really do NOT want to see guys hugging, or looking forlorn at each other. I do not want to see a gay man “fake it” with his wife, have kids, etc…..
If you’re gay, be gay…don’t screw the rest of us with your stupid lifestyle.
res ipsa loquitur, indeed.
jpe:
My point was that they demonstrate Kevin’s point about the PC message behind the movies. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. My wife and I saw “Family Stone” and liked it just fine. I did, however, find the gay interracial deaf couple thing a bit wry in a trying-too-hard sort of way and thought the dinner table flare-up over same rather obviously trying to get a message across.
Otherwise, I’m not sure comparing the comments on a fairly intellectual moderate-left blog to those on a red meat discussion board for the hard right particularly apt. Freep and Democratic Underground are fair comparison points, I’d say.
If you’re merely trying to point out that there are some inane comments on right-leaning sites, I didn’t need any convincing on that point.
PC PC PC PC PC PC PC i hope the pseudo-intellectual left finds that as offensive as the intellectual right finds the PC game itself.
You have a very good blog and I like your selection of materials and learn a lot by reading it and your comments.
What I find so hard to understand, is given this, why you attract such a poor quality of commenters.