Cultural Kleptos: How the Left Hijacks Art (and Everything Else) for the Good of Mankind
by Charles WinecoffKids love movies about people who tell lies – because they’re such naughty, little fibbers themselves. During my formative years, it seemed like the same two films were on TV everyday when I came home from school – to remind me of the dangers of mendacity. Perhaps it was a portent of things to come.
William Wyler’s “The Children’s Hour” (1961)
One was Weird Woman (1944), a neglected camp classic that was part of Universal’s low-budget Inner Sanctum series - about a scorned librarian (scream queen Evelyn Ankers) who seeks revenge on her ex- (Lon Chaney Jr.) by spreading gossip about his new wife (Anne Gwynne), an all-American voodoo princess he met on a South Seas expedition (don’t ask).
After several people inadvertently die as a result of Ankers’s aspersions, Chaney and gang steal a move straight out of the Democratic playbook - they devise an elaborate, fear-mongering ruse to guilt her into submission (and make her confess). Here’s a clip of Ankers being browbeaten – with prophecies of gloom and doom – by little-known B-actress Elizabeth Russell:
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Justice is served, but only after Chaney’s deception turns into an eerie, Twilight Zone reality. Moral of the story: like black magic, lies can be a powerful, tricky weapon to demolish your enemies.
The other movie was The Children’s Hour, William Wyler’s 1961 remake of his own These Three (1936). Both Wyler films were adaptations of the controversial play that put Lillian Hellman on the map, about two lady school teachers whose lives are ruined when a spiteful student accuses them of being gay. (What these movies were doing on local TV at 4:30 in the afternoon is beyond me, but they never failed to keep me glued.)
Lying was something Hellman knew quite a bit about. The Children’s Hour was banned in London, Chicago, Boston and other cities, before opening in New York in 1934 to rave reviews – turning Hellman overnight into the darling of Manhattan progressives. The lone sour note was critic John Mason Brown’s pesky observation that Hellman had plagiarized her plot from William Roughhead’s Bad Companions – a novel Hellman’s lover, Dashiell Hammett, had introduced her to – which was based on a 1910 Scottish case concerning a mixed-race girl who charged two schoolmarms with being lesbians, wrecking their lives.
Lucky for Hellman, Brown’s inconvenient fact fell on a society of deaf conformists. But then, Hellman already knew how to play the game: she simply never acknowledged Bad Companions, and bided her time until the truth blew over. The understanding that it just takes a little time for myth to become reality is pure Leftist doctrine.
Lillian Hellman
Decades later, in her memoir Pentimento, Hellman pilfered again, fabricating the self-aggrandizing story of “Julia,” an imaginary childhood friend who allegedly enlisted Jewess Hellman’s help in smuggling funds through Nazi Germany to aid the anti-fascists. The episode was quickly made into an award-winning feature film, starring liberal sex goddesses Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, that solidified Hellman’s sainthood.
The trouble was no “Julia” ever existed – at least not in Hellman’s life. The lie briefly stirred up some controversy, but once more, Hellman sat tight until the clouds of doubt dissipated – and what Paul Johnson hailed the ”Lillian Hellman myth industry” kept spewing smoke into peoples’ eyes.
“Just as south Italian peasants continue to make offerings and present petitions to their favourite saints long after their very existence has been exposed as an invention,” Johnson noted, ”so the lovers of progress too cling to their idols, feet of clay notwithstanding.”
The little girl’s lie in The Children’s Hour is that the two targeted women are lovers. But in order for These Three to pass the Hays Code, William Wyler had to water it down to a heterosexual menage a trois (both women sharing the same man). Dissatisfied with this compromise, the director revisited the story twenty-five years later, restoring the drama’s original content.
Which brings us to the next point: lies are also useful in rewriting history.
Thanks to Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet, a groundbreaking, somewhat skewed chronicle of the treatment of gays and lesbians on screen, The Children’s Hour is often held up as a prime example of old Hollywood’s homophobia – the ultimate in negative gay stereotyping – because the character of Martha Dobie (played by Shirley MacLaine) struggles with her lesbianism and commits suicide.
William Wyler and Hellman
In fact, The Children’s Hour offers one of the most three-dimensional gay characters in film history. Closeted Martha is tormented by the unexpressed love she feels for her bff, Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn) – and by the harsh ostracism they both endure after the accusation. But at no point in the script is Martha ever presented as anything but completely sympathetic.
Even after the histrionic “coming out” scene, heterosexual Karen still asks Martha to come away with her so they can start a new life together. Wyler clearly lays blame for Martha’s final, heartbreaking decision on the cruelty of the local bigots – not on Martha’s being a “freak of nature.” If anything, the film succeeds in showing the pain that can come from living in the closet (and from human malice).
But don’t tell that to Shirley MacLaine. In 1976, the staunch Democrat and New Age priestess was one of the first to accuse white male patriarch Wyler of trying to erase Martha’s lesbianism from the film.
“Lillian Hellman hadn’t just fallen out of a tree when she wrote The Children’s Hour in the early Thirties,” MacLaine declared. “She had experienced a lot of it herself [tell that to William Roughhead]. In the play, scenes were developed so that you could see Martha falling in love with Karen and realizing why she was jealous of Karen’s boyfriend… but when Wyler put it on the screen, he cut those scenes out. He thought they would be too much for middle America to take. I thought he was wrong and I told him so, and Audrey Hepburn was right behind me [see next paragraph]…. Even so, I conceived my part as if those scenes were still there…. But Willie Wyler didn’t want that, and that’s why the story didn’t work on film.”
Note: In the 1995 film version of The Celluloid Closet, MacLaine takes her version of the truth a step further, claiming that no one on set had any idea that the movie was about a woman who realizes she’s in love with another woman. She even contradicts her earlier interview, stating on camera that “Audrey and I never talked about this – isn’t that amazing?”
Here’s MacLaine’s big scene:
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Moral of the post-script: lies are a terrific way to hijack reality after the fact, taint the legacy of dead white males – and take credit for their work while you’re at it.
If MacLaine were correct, then why did Wyler, one of Hollywood’s great “women’s directors,” bother to remake the film at all after his first, heterosexual version? Sorry, Shirly, but the moments of Martha with romantic stars in her eyes, and hurt by Karen’s affection for Joe (James Garner), are all there to be seen in glorious black-and-white.
Thanks to Wyler’s direction and, yes, MacLaine’s commitment, no amount of politically correct, post-modern revisionism - blaming a nonexistent whitewash on an evil Anglo – can dull the movie’s emotional impact. And tough/tender Martha remains my favorite MacLaine performance after her sweet-and-sour turn in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment.
The Children’ s Hour was remarkable for 1961 – as was its frequent showing on local TV at an hour that probably should have been reserved for after-school specials. Meanwhile, on the big screen, vigilante films were all the rage in the 1970s - Death Wish, Dirty Harry, Lipstick – stories of ordinary people who were victimized, outraged, and fought back by taking the law into their own hands. There were no lies in these violent films, except the debunked one - that leaving justice up to a bureaucracy works.
These visceral, cathartic films allowed viewers to live vicariously through the avenging characters, and begged the question: How would “I” respond if a random party – that has no respect for me, doesn’t take into account my life experience, my feelings, my personal struggle - decided to force its will on me? Would I, like Charles Bronson, flip that tricky mental switch and turn on the rage full force – or would I cower?
We could still entertain such fantasies then. Speech codes hadn’t tongue-tied us yet. Oprah, Chopra, and Obama weren’t around to tell us we were guilty and deserved to be punished. The thought police hadn’t fully ascended yet to push their good intentions on us, against our will.
Yet despite our national softness, bigotry remains eternal, part of the imperfect human condition. Nowadays, being proud of your flag, your military, your freedom, is the latest love that dare not speak its name. ”Conservative” is indeed the new “gay.” (In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a liberal in New York, San Francisco or L.A. capable of showing the same compassion to a conservative that straight Audrey Hepburn shows to MacLaine in The Children’s Hour – enlightened Bush-basher MacLaine probably included.)
This creeping cultural revolution is nothing new; it’s been in the works for decades. “There was no doubt that there was a vast organization which was making fools of all the liberals in Hollywood and taking their money,” said director Elia Kazan, “that there was a police state among the Left element in Hollywood and Broadway.”
At the forefront of this morphing social tyranny: blacklist survivor Lillian Hellman. Again, she knew just how to make it work – for her. According to author Paul Johnson, after the release of the movie Julia, based on Hellman’s fake memoir, the aged playwright enjoyed a renaissance as “the queen of radical chic and the most important single power-broker among the progressive intelligentsia and the society people who seethed around them…. She compiled her own blacklists and had them enforced by scores of servile intellectual flunkies.”
Similarly, Karl Marx – the man – extolled the virtues of the working class, agitating for violent revolution, yet “so far as we know,” wrote Johnson, ”never set foot in a mill, factory, mine or other industrial workplace in the whole of his life. What is even more striking is Marx’s hostility to fellow revolutionaries who had such experience – that is, working men who had become politically conscious…. Marx made sure that working-class socialists were eliminated from any positions of influence.”
Today, in America, we have a President who, rather than level with the trusting, hard-working voters who put him in office, plays mind games with them - asking them to believe that increasing the national debt is decreasing it, that less choice in health care is more choice, that standing up to violent savages makes us the savages, that reverse racism is post-racial. He seems to suck the meaning right out of words as he speaks them, always sure to distract with a mechanical smile.
But maybe he’s just stupid.
Meanwhile, this sort of mendacious pacifying has a malignant side effect. In the gay ghetto, for instance, the cult of “equality” encourages resentment towards straight white males, Christians, and other fellow Americans – sending the pampered, short-sighted LGBT community rushing to bolster another two-faced foe, that disguises itself as a kindred, downtrodden victim of Judeo-Christian oppression. And, to riff off Hillary Clinton, you know who I mean.
Word of advice to gays and lesbians: enjoy your comfort zone while you can.
Leftists claim to be die-hard humanitarians, yet they are the continual robbers and stiflers of free expression – always for the greater good - a compulsion that has nothing whatsoever to do with altruism, spirituality, or even with thought. The reality is they loathe people one on one, and prefer the safety of Utopian ideas.
Six months ago, to crib from Martha Dobie, I started to feel so damn sick and dirty I couldn’t stand it anymore. So I declared myself an apostate right here - because, as the New Age slogan goes, you’re only as sick as your secrets. If conservative really is the new gay, then the time for all closet cases to come out, loud and proud, is now.
My phone’s been ringing a lot less since then - a generous tactic better known as the silent treatment. Silence is supposed to be golden. When it’s a personal choice, it can be sacred. But petty tyrants walk among us – at the supermarket, in the gym, at the office, the stoplight – and some of them are your friends.
Once you’re out, some of them may choose to remember you the way you were before you woke up. And I suppose there’s something touching, maybe even flattering, about a loved one who clings to a fond memory of the past.
But make no mistake: there’s nothing considerate, or peace-loving, about silence when it’s used as a muzzle. And for the Left, past and present, the ultimate goal is to keep the lies current, no matter how much denial, fear-mongering - or voodoo – it takes.
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69 Comments
There was a lot to digest in this excellent article, Charles. That the Hollywood left lies and steals in pursuit of their agenda is common knowledge, I suppose, but you have shown some startling examples. A couple of my very first reactions:
1) In the film clip provided, it is interesting how much Ankers and Russell seem to me to be over-acting and not real people having a realistic conversation.
2) The picture of Lillian Hellman reminds me of two things. First, she represents so much of what I dislike about the Hollywood left and 2) How much she reminds me of pictures I've seen of Jerry Lee Lewis (the Killer) as he got older.
When I was an ordinary line mechanic, I never gave political correctness a thought. I later moved into public education where I learned first to distrust the pc police, and then later to fear them. Their agenda is never what it appears to be, and there is no level of skulduggery too low in pursuit of the ends. They are assassins who prefer slow poison to a quick bullet through the head. If they are never honest about their intentions, it's because they cannot be honest with themselves. Introspection and self-knowledge are beyond them.
Lies and distortion of truth are a constant for leftists. I believe homosexuality is also a distortion of truth. Just because you have a predilection for something does not make it right. If I had my way all of my future conquests would be under 25, in perfect physical shape and tied up in leather and hanging by their feet from the ceiling fan 24/7 – but that would be a perversion of what was meant to happen between two people. Not to pick on homosexuals – there are many people with perversions since we do live in a fallen world. But it is currently homosexuals who are constantly trying to force their peculiarities on the general population. Just picture Shirley MacLaine in that above scene crying with much anguish over her secret passion for her 12 year old student or her pet cat for that matter. That will give you a picture of what the next 'edgy' film will try to explore.
"The Celluloid Closet" is a classic. I mean, can't the gay community have anything for them, without the critique from conservatives? First Harvey Milk, now this.
I don't think showing "The Children's Hour" at the afternoon is harmful. I'd think a Chuck Norris film, featuring a lot of violence and blood, would be much worse. At least, "The Children's Hour" teaches tolerance. Which is something the conservative party is in desperate need.
"Word of advice to gays and lesbians: enjoy your comfort zone while you can."
Similar to what I tell my fellow Jewish bretheren and friends of mine who are gay. Everytime in history, from Stalin to Hitler and then some, that the left comes to total power, the first people they turn on are the Jews and the gays.
The democratic parties line…. Lie until you get caught and then DENY IT ALL!!! LOL
There are several listed in the piece from the link below:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/01/movi...
I have never seen an act of tolerance from the SAD community ever! If the schools had done their jobs then people would be able to read a dictionary and know the true meaning of tolerance. You should look it up sometime.
Since when do we need to learn tolerance? Heterosexual intolerance for homosexuals, in recent years, has been far less venomous than liberal intolerance for conservatives.
I don't have any tolerance issues. I have no problem letting GLBT's be GLBT's, as long as they don't get up in my face about their lifestyle; that's the only caveat I have. Since when have you heard a liberal say that about us? "I have no problem letting conservatives be conservatives, as long as they don't get up in my face about it."
What liberal would ever say that? They think about us the way people used to think about gays: they're EVIL, why should we tolerate them? And I can't get rid of the sneaking suspicion that they long to be able to treat us the way gays used to be treated.
The problem with drawing a moral line anywhere is that the Republicans are expected to jump over it, while the Democrats are content to limbo under it.
The layering of lies is what really amazes me. The fact that history or time allows people to alter their lies to further remove the truth is impressive, and they know that they won't get called out on it. I regularly argue that perception is more important than reality as our memories tend to alter the actual events into what we thought happened rather than what actually happened. This is why when you confront the liar, they feel as if they didn't lie since their version of the truth is what they believe to be true. Whether or not MacLaine is lying or has convinced herself of the new truth is a topic for discussion.
Limbo the lefty…… Jake, very true!
Interestingly enough, it was and continues to be the psychoanalysts who insisted that homosexuality was not necessarily biological in nature and that it could be environmentally "triggered".. Today there is still no clear answer (no "gay" gene found yet) although by and large homosexuality is considered to be a product of genetics as opposed to one of environmental influence. Once the progressives got hold of this they all but crushed the field and replaced it with psychopharmocology, which to this day harms many people and especially children (just take a pill for "x" condition and call me in the morning). I wonder if there is a biological explaination or predisposition for cult followers as well such as the "dianetics" gene?
Conservatives need tolerance? we have tolerance from all of the BOMB that have been thrown by the left….tolerance towards the president moving our country more and more to the left…… tolerance for the country not being capitalist anymore…. my list can go on and on…… tolerance for the president being racist…. the list can go, go, and go on!!!! honestly, you should think before you open your mouth up!
what an impressive writer…
Mr Winecoff continues to amaze with his insightful and intellectually honest posts. He is correct about the Left and the culture of lies. Marx referred to this as 'any means to an end' and that truth and honor were 'outdated' and 'racist' notions meant to oppress the poor.
So, his adherents- many of whom serve in Congress and the administrtion- feel free to lie, obfuscate, and spin the truth so they may achieve their desired outcome. Lillian Hellman, darling of the left was defeated by Richard Nixon (gasp!) in the '48 congressional elections from California…
And they never forgave him. The rest, as they say, is history…
Another brilliant post.
GK Chesterton said it best: Those who refuse to believe in God do not believe in nothing; something must fill the void. The first task of the leftist is myth-making. Thus the hagiography of Stalin, Mao, Fidel, Che,…the list goes on and on. Being moral relativists, there is no compunction to stick to the truth. The moral warts of Leftist icons are air-brushed from the record, while the history of Western Civilization and the USA consists only of the warts.
You walk a brave and lonely path, Charles. God bless you and keep you safe.
Well say what you will, Audrey Hepburn is one of my most favored actresses, And as for Billy Wilder, one of the greatest Directors of all time, a real giant. As for the movie in question, I seen it again a few weeks ago, for the first time in about 40 or so years, I understand it better now than I did then. As for Hellman she was a nut job, who made thing up and said it was the truth, not the first time this has happened, Be it New York Times reporters writing about 12 year old junkies that didn't exist, or a bogus service record of a President, or a bogus story of Green Beret's using Nerve Gas in Viet-nam. One of them was a Major General and another had a Blue Ribbon with thirteen white stars on it. As for this homo business, a very loud, very well funded, very vocal 0.5 % of the population. It was better in the Studio days, you kept those things to yourself, the polite thing is to keep such things private, regardless of whom. What ever happened to just plain Class?
I read John Simon's review of "Julia" that he wrote at the time the film was released. Even though Jane Fonda was one of his favorite actresses, he ripped the movie apart. And he also raised the issue that the character of Julia was a fiction. He said something along the lines of "Julia must never existed, for if she had, such a real-life heroine would no doubt have monuments and memorials erected to her memory. As it is, she was invented to give Miss Hellmann another chance at self-glorification." (Not a direct quote, but as close as I can remember)
Homosexuality is caused by a weak or absent father and overbearing mother.
I bet you're one of those guys who thinks that being fat is from eating too much too huh..
Of all the gifts Big Hollywood has bestowed Charles Winecoff remains first in class. When living in such a partisan time when the call for 'dialouge' is in fact most often a ruse to disarm an audience in preperation for an attack, Charles genuinely pools his insights and experience AS AN INVITATION – to pause and reflect – and allow reason to inform judgement. What is wrong when it comes to Gay suffrage today isn't that Straight Americans are failing to embrace Gay Americans, it's sadly that Gay Americans are failing to embrace the common sense and moderate priorities Charles so elequently articulates. There is a third way beyond some bastardized hijacking of civil rights judical precedent and gloming onto affirmative action. Keep it coming Charles. The silent majority who appreciate your contributions is likewise both vast and complicated and desperate for the wit, humor, and alternative you offer.
How are Conservatives intolerant?
Which party says that black people are somehow less capable than whites, therefore they need special privilages and different tests?
Which party says that not allowing women to abort is a travesty, but an islamic honor killing is none of our business?
Which party is trying to enslave the American People on welfare instead of rewarding good, hard work?
I'll give you a hint: DEMOCRATS/LIBERALS
You know, the Left was wise to Hellman's self-serving lies from the get-go – except the Left never had the guts to admit it. (I remembering Katherine Anne Porter saying that every word of Hellman's 'Pentimento' was a lie, 'including 'and' and 'the', etc.) But the Left still let Hellman publish, still produced her scripts and plays, etc. Exposing Hellman's lies would have exposed their own – not to mention the fact that Hellman's lies also supported the Leftists. The Left let themselves self-righteously sneer at her, but nonetheless they still allowed her to do her dirty work. Which means the rest of us have to drink from the well Hellman (and her ilk) poisoned. Thanks for nothing, Left.
Another brilliant article! Thank you again.
Gay Suffrage?
Tolerance != Acceptance
Tolerating something only means that I have to recognize that it had a right to exist that doesn't mean I have to embrace it and celebrate it and consider it perfectly normal and fine.
There are many things that I tolerate that I think are wrong. I've had friends that refused to marry and started families, for example. I can't force them to do what I think is right; I have to tolerate their decisions, but you won't hear me endorsing their lifestyle, either. I tolerate flag burning. I'd never do it, and I surely don't think highly of those who choose to do it and defend it as "free speech;" however, I recognize that nothing stops them from doing so.
There are two porblems with the idea of homosexuality being genetic. The first is that true homosexuality is logically a genetic dead-end. If your genes' main purpose is to pass themselves on, a genetic predisposition to only mate with those of your own gender is extremely counter-productive to that. The second is that if the first is true, then likely homosexuality is the extreme expression of a set of genes that is advantageous to the individual so long as you only have one set of the genes involved, similar to cystic fibrosus and sickle cell anemia. Obviously, the problem with that is that it makes homosexuality a genetic disorder, and I'm not entirely comfortable with that classification given that for all practical intents and purposes homosexuals are normal, functional human beings except for mate selection where those who get sickle cell and cystic fibrosus tend to be sickly and live physically limited lives.
boy, are you speaking the truth…
The Jewish guys in our outfit were VERY aware of the false lure of liberalism and how it ends up hurting Jews more than anyone else; look at the counter-intuitive desire for approachmant' with the same who have sworn to your demise. More than anyone else liberty and vigilance are cornerstones for the most historically oppressed people in modern history… these 'comfort zones' are very temporary unless patrolled by the likes of us…
Excellent article. It constantly amazes me how easily people can get away with lies even when they're in positions where they shouldn't be able to. I understand that she likely managed it with the aid of a complicit audience, but still. Whatever happened to integrity?
The only thing "genetic" about homosexuality is that there is usually a sensitive temperment involved that makes someone more vulnerable to deviating that way. But the clincher is an absent or distant father and overbearing mother. Scratch under the surface of any homosexual male and you will find this dynamic. Also, there are many normal, functional alchoholics but that does not mean it is a condition we want to encourage.
Well said, amigo.
My belief, which is not necessarily scientifically based is this: Being homosexual is another of nature's clever ways of keeping the population down. Aside from the fact that human beings are smart enough to figure out IVF, it does technically work. If about 10% of the population is gay, that is 10% of people that cannot reproduce and therefore controls the population.
And when that doesn't work, our own violent tendencies and disease take care of the rest.
Just a thought.
Charles,
THEY may be giving you the silent treatment, but we absolutely adore you here at Big Hollywood. I know I do!
And like an old flame, the more time spent away from that person offers 20/20 hind sight. It's a good thing you didn't stay in love with the old people. Come into the light and be loved by us.
We'll call you any time of day.
Keep thinking. 10% of population is not homosexual. It is more like 3% male and 1.5% female. So is pederasty nature's clever way of introducing children to sodomy?
Excellent Charles. I find it fascinating that the left when they lose a battle, sort of go to ground, lick their wounds and then come back, without batting an eye lash armed with lies about things they already lied about…..
People think Pol Pot and the Gang of Four type cleansing of intelligentsia can't happen here, but done subtly, it IS happening. The saving grace in America is there are pockets of intelligence, areas not under government control, and plenty of fighters with common sense. What we HAVE to do is get the power of the purse away from the Left. Without money they are nothing, because they don't have the guts for a direct fight.
Charles,
Another brilliant piece, old boy! You have a dizzying and somewhat terrifying gift of communication. I am so glad that you use your powers for good.
what an impressive writer…
Mr Winecoff continues to amaze with his insightful and intellectually honest posts. He is correct about the Left and the culture of lies. Marx referred to this as 'any means to an end' and that truth and honor were 'outdated' and 'racist' notions meant to oppress the poor.
So, his adherents- many of whom serve in Congress and the administrtion- feel free to lie, obfuscate, and spin the truth so they may achieve their desired outcome. Lillian Hellman was such a person as well. She is not remembered fondly by any, and was considered such a liar that it included the words 'and' and 'the'…
A notorious hater as well, she particularly loathed Elia Kazan for not being a lockstep Communist. All in all, an execrable human being…
Charles Winecoff wrote:
But make no mistake: there’s nothing considerate, or peace-loving, about silence when it’s used as a muzzle. And for the Left, past and present, the ultimate goal is to keep the lies current, no matter how much denial, fear-mongering – or voodoo – it takes.
Too true. Even the blogosphere isn't immune to the use of silence to promote liberal tyranny.
For example, at "What About Our Daughters?," guest commentator Faith decried how the whole Gates arrest debacle is a distraction from crime against everyday Black girls:
http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/2009/07/dont...
I applauded the post since it bucked the MSM's myth that ALL Black people think Gates is a victim of racial profiling.
However, things changed when some posters noted that crime in the Black community would decline if Black children were raised in stable traditional families. I posted a TIME article that backed up this position. (My screen name in the blog post above is "Fred"):
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,19...
That's when Faith went off, accusing me and other posters of "intolerance" for same-sex marriage, which wasn't even brought up.
(cont.)
Since then, Faith has shown her Far Left bias by posting responses of who share her SSM views. Those who support traditional marriage have their responses deleted and are then crucified for their "bigotry" by Faith. See below:
http://www.whataboutourdaughters.com/2009/07/when...
In short, Faith is being a Black female version of Perez Hilton and could meet the same fate. The sad part is that Faith's heterophobia will likely scare off regular WAOD posters, who previously could express their views (liberal, conservative, moderate) without being silenced.
That's why Big Hollywood is a refreshing alternative. Everyone can express their TRUE opinions without having to deal with online "tolerance" and other forms liberal tyranny.
Another great one, Charles.
The last three paragraphs really hit me. A SoCal conservative in and around the art world, I have been stuck my head out of the closet one too many times and have been hit on head with cruel words by some very good friends. The Statists that occupy this land are very hard on those not going the "party" line. Thanks, Charles, for the very insightful article.
How are Conservatives intolerant?
Which party says that black people are somehow less capable than whites, therefore they need special privilages and different scholastic tests?
Which party says that not allowing women to abort is a travesty, but an islamic honor killing is none of our business?
Which party is trying to enslave the American People on welfare instead of rewarding good, hard work?
I'll give you a hint: DEMOCRATS/LIBERALS
This is very interesting. I would note that the power of the lie, as depicted here, only has that power in a culture that holds truth as a premium. I think the Clinton years and a constant drumbeat of conspiracy movies constantly undermining truth, have watered down the effects shown here. I'm not completely dismissing the effect, but that should be taken into account. This is no longer 'Leave it to Beaver'.
Thank you.
Thanks very much, I appreciate it.
Glad u enjoyed it.
Sounds like you have some interesting stories to tell….
I could swear I watched a movie with Mclean and Debbie Reynolds where they ran a children's dance studio and it went all according to this scenario. Could someone supply me with the correct memory please? LoL
Charles I have a great deal of respect for you. it cannot be an easy tightrope to walk…
Charles, having grown up in Los Angeles, I claimed myself a liberal for many years, rather mindlessly now that I look back on that time of my life. I have always and continue to be a great supporter of homosexuals because I know first hand that theirs is not a "lifestyle choice", but rather simply who they were born to be. I am still amazed at the homosexuals who continue to think that Barack Obama and the Democrats are pulling for their rights. What you wrote here finally allowed me to understand a bit of the plight of my homosexual friends. The comparison between coming out as gay vs. Conservative is so amazingly obvious to me now. As I have said many times before, I would never make that sort of choice to rid myself of someone based on their political views, but I endure this sort of treatment constantly. Ironically, my homosexual friends are more accepting of my conservative views, maybe as a favor in turn for my being more accepting of who they are…or maybe because they know what it's like to be "silenced" simply for being who you are.
Just an amazing article!! Thank you!
Just because someone has an unchosen predilection for something does not mean you need to be a "great supporter" of it (see pedophilia, alchoholism). Is somone "born to be" a transgender? There are many people with problems that need our compassion. That compassion does not need to be endorsement. This is a very illuminating article about the mendacity of the left. Keeping his intellectual integrity has placed Mr. Winecoff in the lion's den and given him a unique position to expose the left. For him to hang on to his integrity despite the possible cost to his career and friendships is admirable. But why is there such pressure to conform to the left's distorted view in homosexual circles?
Don't you think "enjoy ur comfort zone while it lasts" can be seen by some as a threat to their safety?
The Childrens Hour was on lots when you were young? um, right. I'm sure that was a ratings hit for that station. Conservatives are the new gays?? What are you smoking – the far-right has been in control for the last decade and run the country off the cliff – now you wallow in self-pity and are the new downtrodden and scorned doormats. You wingnuts have only yourselves to blame – hiding behind the flag and bible while enabling Cheney/Bush to rape this country silly. Like you idiots said about 8 years ago, Get over it – you lost! And with Limpbaugh and Balin Palin now the head of the Rethugs, good luck in the future.
Charles, thanks so much for appearing on Shire Network News to talk about "conservative" being the new "gay". I'm sure our listeners appreciated your story.
Those who refuse to believe in a god refuse to believe in a 2000 year old bronze age myth. I don't believe in Scientology or Bastis or Thor or Ra – I really don't need a fake story to wrap my life around and waste time worshipping nothing. You pious idiots can trot out Stalin all you want – Hitler was a christian -"Got min uns" – on the Nazi belt buckles – google Hitler and Pope and see lots of fine shots of Catholics with their arms up in salute. I believe in not believing lies told by ancient liars.
Good stuff. Bravo for you trying to 'stick it out' in LA. I did for 19 years and just couldn't stomach the retarded qualities one must exhibit to be socially prosperous. At least I had no ambitions in the entertainment industry.
So, you spend your time actually worshipping yourself. Honestly, the hubris of the atheist amazes me. I get the agnostic, but the narcissism inherent in atheism is truly staggering. Even the fervently religious acknowledge doubts – that's why there's a little something called "faith". But, it's all clear to rastabob – he knows the secrets of the universe. Heck, scientists don't even know what 94% of the universe is made out of. But, rastabob has the answers.
Good for you rastabob.
The enlightened atheist is actually agnostic, and worships/embraces not himself, but the mystery and wonder of life.
Martha being a lesbian wasn't the point. The tragegy of the story was that a horrible brat's lie snowballed into the ruin of two good lives. And the brilliant part was how easy it was. How the lie blew up beyond what the liar originally wanted. My favorite scene is when Audrey tells the grandmother that her grandddaughter is a monster and that she has to live with her.
So Shirley McLean couldn't say she was sorry about her performance in the movie because she felt her acting lacked emotion? Don't worry, our president, Barack Hussein Obama II, has trouble saying he's sorry too. Odd how a Carrie Prejean can say "no offense" but all anyone wants to hear or discuss is how sorry she is.
Nowadays, being proud of your flag, your military, your freedom, is the latest love that dare not speak its name. ”Conservative” is indeed the new “gay.”
If the conservatives would have put their money where their mouths were and voted to fund the recent wars instead of passing the first wartime tax cut in our nations history, maybe conservatives wouldn't come off as a bunch of limp wristed sissies. Thanking our brave men but refusing to sacrifice here at home deserves the slangy appellation of "gay."
Nice of you to demonstrate my point so succinctly, rastabob. You trot out a fair sample of the myths and factoids concocted within the last 50 years and parrotted as "facts" by those who are so confident of their moral and intellectual superiority that they never feel the need to do their homework to determine their veracity. For instance:
-If you had actually read MEI KAMPF, you'd discover that Hitler, while baptized Catholic, was virulently anti-Christian, denouncing the Catholic Church and Christianity as "a conspracy founded by a Jew"–by whom he meant St. Paul. His hatred of Jews was clinical; it played into his politics and his racial theories. His hatred of the Catholic Church was much more visceral.
-The canard of Pope Pius XII was begun in the 1960's with Rolf Hochluth, a Communist and former Hitler Youth whose play "The Deputy" posited easily-disproved insinuations of Vatican collaboration with the Nazis. Continued—
The facts are that Pius, within Fascist and Nazi-occupied Italy during the entire war, acted with greater vigor to save the Jews than either Roosevelt or Churchill. More than 800,000 Jews were saved through efforts directed from the Vatican, sheltering refugees in convents and monasteries, providing official baptismal certificates, and out-and-out bribing Nazi officials with Vatican gold. His efforts were recognized and praised by contemporary Jewish leaders like Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir; the Chief Rabbi of Rome was so moved by the Pope's efforts that he later converted to Catholicism.
Leftists like Lillian Helman, meanwhile, dutifully remained silent about Nazi agression as long as his Non-Aggression Pact with Stalin was in place, and only later concocted the myths of their fearless "anti-fascist" activism.
I don't believe in myths told by liars of any vintage.
P.S. BTW, You mislaid the Bronze Age by a couple of millenia.
The enlightened atheist is actually agnostic, and worships/embraces not himself, but the mystery and wonder and reality of life.
Rastafarians worship God/Jah, and think/thought Haile Selassie was God/Jah.
"If anything, the film succeeds in showing the pain that can come from living in the closet (and from human malice)"
Any pain that comes from living in the closet, is due societal pressures pushed by social conservative (i.e. real amurricans!!!1), and that batshit culture of bigotry you promoted and defended well into modern times. Sorry Big Hollywood, you can't condemn homosexuals, and then turn around and wag the finger at society for being homophobic. Old fashioned values = good gay is a dead gay .
Fabulous piece, well written and astute. You're pop culture's Paul Johnson.
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