I never understood why the people who are beneficiaries of DEI policies don’t feel insulted that the DEI benificents believe them incapable of achievement on their own merits. Still don’t.
Right. When the all-female crew flew in Blue Origin back in April, marking the first human spaceflight without male crew members since 1963 (when the first female Russian Cosmonaut flew solo into space), the event was cast as a triumph of 'girl power'. For what, having money, connections, and fan appeal (i.e PR)? Absent was anything close to hard work, talent, or skills that *could* have made this a meaningful event. It was a big deal because of the *lack* of these things (as seen from the general feedback)...and supports the very view that DEI is supposed to challenge - women and other minorities are incapable of doing hard things, in this case flying a spacecraft.
I think there's a level of arrogance and hubris behind a Whoopie Goldberg or Barack Obama bragging about their achievements and then telling other black people they can't achieve success because of how hard it is.
The egos are stunning, as is the magnitude of disdain they must have for their less well off brothers and sisters whom they think are deficient to require such policies
Agree. I can't imagine ANY scenario where I'd gleefully accept an award (oh, say, the NOBEL PRIZE) knowing full well that i did nothing at all to deserve it...it still blows my mind that Obama did. How can one look at himself in a mirror and be okay with that??
Great example, as it illustrates credibility damage to the bequeathing institution. Obama hoped for peace. He had the audacity to do that (even wrote a book). Went on a worldwide groveling apology tour. Would go on to attack, what, Libya and Syria, and gives plane loads of cash to a terrorist state.
I think many DEI beneficiaries avoid thinking too much about the soft bigotry of low expectations. It's probably too offensive to think they owe anything to bigots of any kind. That includes the liberal bigots who condescended to them and, in the process, helped them get where they are.
I was wondering about that. Banning words and stripping awards, when did that happen? It's hard to take someone seriously when they include factually inaccurate statements in an attempt to support their argument.
But they very self-assuredly type out an email and hit send. They never considered asking the question, "Is this true?" If they were to bother to ask that question all they'd have to do is ask their phone.
I immediately thought the same thing. But these people have been fed so many lies, and believed them for so long, that enlightenment won’t be coming anytime soon, I’m afraid!
You'd think that the entirety of covid would have been the revelation as to the devious level of propaganda we were and still are being subjected to but, as you said, "enlightenment won't be coming anytime soon." The unwillingness to understand what's been and is being said vs. what's the result, is a bizarre disconnect from reality and reason that I will never understand. Fools will always be fools. It's a choice.
What scares me about DEI is applying it to jobs where competence is key, for example physicians. It scares me when American medical schools lower standards for preferred racial groups and those favored cannot pass exams which are then watered down. To be clear, I live in the Philippines and have been treated by great Asian doctors, some of whom have been women.
One of the worst cases of DEI was in the selection of pilots.
Currently, white males account for 90% of the pilots. The "equity goal" for women and minorities was 40%.
Equality of Opportunity
IS NOT
Equality of Outcome.
So, let's think about this, for a moment. I'm making the (silly / racist/ bigoted assumption, Leftists say )
Assumption that the most HIGHLY qualified applicants became pilots.
Therefore, to get to 40% minority or female, almost HALF of more qualified candidates would be discarded, for someone who displayed LESS skill at their job of piloting an aircraft!
“Editor’s Note: America is at war. This is not a traditional war, fought on a battlefield against an external enemy. It is a civilizational conflict against an internal enemy: the group quota regime, a revolutionary threat that seeks to reorganize American society around the principle of outcome equality — what the regime’s partisans call “equity.”
“This cold civil war may go unnoticed by many day-to-day, but its stakes are often as high as life and death. Here, Roger B. Cohen, a celebrated oncologist and professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, explains how the group quota regime has taken hold of the American medical education system and asks urgent questions about the consequences for medicine, for the sick, and for the country.”
I used to love watching the Oscars, but was increasingly disgusted with the "issue of the year" that were associated with the awards shows. I don't go to the movies to be preached and lectured to, and I can tell when something is pretentious or is manufactured to elicit an emotional response from the viewer.
People go to movies to enjoy a story, not be lectured to.
Same thing in sports. It's why ESPN's ratings have gone into the toilet. People want to watch their teAm on the field, not be lectured to about race and gender.
The fixation that Leftist woke people have on this, is ruining movies and sportscasting.
It was a sad part of the Covid thing and the legacy that still pervades. You had cardboard cutouts of people in the stands, masked players in outdoor venues, and basketball and other games with BLM mottos and mantras placed throughout. It brings to mind the line from the Elton John song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"
"We've all gone crazy lately, my friends out there rolling around the basement floor."
It's painful to watch old SNL shows from 2020...and you know they were 2020 because even the material itself feels like it has been "sanitized." The Jimmy Kimmel joke about "vaccinated with a heart attack, come on through" the Colbare sketch with the syringes, Arnold's take on "your freedom." Stern's take on vaccines.
Talk about sustainable...it is not sustainable to walk around and preach how horrible, racist, sexist, and selfish we are 24/7, and virtue signal about "sacrificing the most."
One of the reasons why I love "The Big Lebowski" is although you can see a lot of effort expended in the movie, it has a great organic flow to it. Similar to a ball rolling into pins and knocking other pins down. It's as simple as that. And even though a lot of weird things occur that would not occur in real life, that's part of the fun and escape. "This aggression will not stand...man."
Every time I had a conversation with someone about DEI the past five years, I'd always ask:
...Suppose your child was being wheeled into an emergency room for life-saving surgery. And you had two doors to choose:
- You could choose the black doctor
- Or you could choose the BEST doctor (who may or may not be black).
Which door would you choose?
OR...
- You could choose the female doctor
- Or the BEST doctor (who may or may not be female).
Invariably people would say 'of course, I'd want the best doctor'. But then five minutes later they would still defend DEI to the hilt, because it 'gives people a chance they deserve'.
The soft bigotry of low expectations. Always thinking that a certain group must be given a hand up because they don’t have the ability to compete and succeed.
The Children of the Left: No accountability. Nothing but envy and jealousy. Always blaming others for their miserable lives. Everything should be given to them, no effort required. No one should have something that they don't. They should always be happy and never experience pain . . .
Yes. They are very intolerant of any dissenting opinions.
Conservatives are ALWAYS challenged by the media, so they actually know how to debate. Leftists don't, so when they ARE asked hard, proving questions, they have no idea what to say. Deer in the headlights!
There is also the idea of being curious or at least being open to discussion that comes from conservatives/libertarians than progressives/modern (vs origianl) liberals. We don't teach how to form a reasoned arguments in (public) school anymore, primarily because public schools are being shaped and operated by progressive/modern liberal teachers and staff. Joe Rogan, regardless of what you think of him, is open to all points of views and ideas and is certainly secure enough in his thinking to be exposed to 'other' viewpoints. There is no 'liberal' equivalent to Joe Rogan because part of the liberal 'ethos' is that they are always right and those that don't believe or agree with them are wrong, evil, same at Hitler, and should be silenced.
This a response to DEI I posted. We are out of balance in so many things. If we are not judged by the content of our character, our gifts and abilities we get the mess we are in now.
I'm 68, and the longer I'm alive the more I believe we have been lied to about everything. As far back as the Civil rights movement I can see how we were manipulated and fed propaganda to believe we actually needed the Civil rights movement. We didn't. The politics and reality were very different. I was in elementary school and I could see reality did not match what the TV said. People and communities were changing and they didn't need government for that to happen. When DEI was introduced and adopted by corporations, healthcare, law enforcement, the post office, etc. I realized the civil rights act was meaningless. It never meant anything. Of course I see this in hind sight. The plandemic was a blessing. It was my second awakening. Of course, it's sad to now question what I thought was true.
The pandemic was a blessing, in retrospect, because the far Left Democrats no longer tried to hide who they were. They thought that having the media on their side would make them victorious, but people caught on!
Like the frog 🐸 in the pot of hot water, people realized what was going on. It's still happening. Democrats turned up the heat, too fast!
I actually do believe that in certain jobs men are better at it.
I am reminded of a situation with United Airlines. They were so insistant that they get more women pilots, especially women of color that they passed a pilot that kept crashing planes in the simulators. Does that make you feel safer flying? This was an article in Epoch Times.
'I actually do believe that in certain jobs men are better at it.'
Maybe a better way of putting that is 'Men tend to be better at certain jobs.' Because for any job, whether the main requirement is physical strength, or some other sort of strength, some men won't qualify, and a few women will.
Correspondingly, there are certain jobs that women tend to be better at.
I was just thinking about the karma element of DEI too. It's an open secret that academia is almost pathologically biased against men, straight, white men in particular. Former Harvard president Claudine Gay was a near demi-god until a straight white male, Christopher Rufo, called her out on plagiarism. Then there was Francesca Gino, full tenured and one of the highest paid professors at Harvard who got fired and stripped of her tenure when the independent research group Data Colada (consisting of three men) uncovered fraud in her research. You can try to drive out talent and confer titles on the peoples you think should be talented, but one way or another, talent is going to win.
"There is no Oscars site online that was or will ever be as good as the one I built. It is a sad and pitiful claim to fame. I’ll grant you that — like, who cares?"
This is the only flaw in your answer.
My day job is a program that helps mostly early-career people integrate faith and work. It takes most of the program year to help people absorb the fact that their work matters to God, and that their work ITSELF is a way to serve God and neighbor.
The biggest doubts come to those with jobs that don't obviously serve great needs. People in sales and marketing, or financial services, or any number of other positions sometimes struggle. Many, many young people think that they have to be in anti-trafficking or alleviating homelessness or some other not-for-profit work, for it to count. And it's obviously easier for a nurse in pediatric oncology to connect the dots than someone in, let's say, the entertainment industry.
Now, to be sure, life is really about what St. Augustine called "rightly-ordered loves." God above all. All for the sake of God, and the image of God in others. Priorities in life are EVERYTHING.
But here's the thing, once you begin to get a handle on THAT, then you see that everything counts. Everything can be ordered to the elevation of the Good, the True, the Beautiful, above all in the One who made everything because of overflowing love and self-donation.
So, the best Oscars site matters. Because excellence matters. And the best Oscars site is a way to point towards what is best, what is excellent. As only cinema (or whatever) can.
What you're doing now matters, Sasha. Doing it with excellence matters. Ordering any small corner of the world towards love of the most Excellent, matters.
And it is required of a servant—not success, which is never guaranteed—but that s/he be found faithfully trying to do so.
Unfortunately we’ve reached a point in the arts usually reserved for totalitarian societies where “the message” trumps the story; story is second or even third - behind bipoc casting - down the list. This leads to boring, entirely predictable “storylines” & films become an entire - & insulting - snooze fest. The high-handedness of it cannot be hidden; studios/“approved filmmakers” think you’re too stupid to think for yourself so they will tell you how/what to think. All that matters is that you hold - & regurgitate - the “approved” opinions otherwise you’ll be cancelled/fired/shunned.
I believe you are correct in all you say, and, in my opinion, Hollywood is an analog of the whole of progressive society. They have believers who will applaud any garbage they produce as long as it has the right "maker". The same is true in progressive society. Authors like Howard Zinn write slanted prose to make the Illerati feel better about themselves, and he lionized for it. Of course his work has a hard time surviving an honest fact check.
Thank you for your candor and for brilliantly answering what I can only categorize as an ignoramus.
The entirety of the Biden Administration is the best argument against DEI. The results speak for themselves. Karine Jean Pierre, (black, gay, women) is the poster child for everything wrong with meritless employment.
I am 68. I was hoping that in my lifetime we would achieve a society where the amount of melanin in your skin is irrelevant.
Not so.
For decades in this country, skin color has been used to hurt certain people and to help certain people. And vice versa.
So ridiculous. So silly.
But it continues on.
Maybe in my children’s lifetime or my grandchildren’s lifetime we will live in a society where no one cares about the amount of skin pigment that a fellow human being has.
As we all know, Dr. Martin Luther King said it best.
Just glad you mentioned Greta Gerwig because her movies are mediocre at best. Never been blown away by anything she’s ever done and definitely didn’t understand the Barbie hype.
I never understood why the people who are beneficiaries of DEI policies don’t feel insulted that the DEI benificents believe them incapable of achievement on their own merits. Still don’t.
Exactly. I find it insulting. The whole “celebrating women” thing, for example, is unbearably cringey to me…
Right. When the all-female crew flew in Blue Origin back in April, marking the first human spaceflight without male crew members since 1963 (when the first female Russian Cosmonaut flew solo into space), the event was cast as a triumph of 'girl power'. For what, having money, connections, and fan appeal (i.e PR)? Absent was anything close to hard work, talent, or skills that *could* have made this a meaningful event. It was a big deal because of the *lack* of these things (as seen from the general feedback)...and supports the very view that DEI is supposed to challenge - women and other minorities are incapable of doing hard things, in this case flying a spacecraft.
The amusing thing is that these women did absolutely nothing but sit in a seat.
It was a Total Insult to Real Women Astronauts . And to the rest of us who had to endure their idiotic posturing .
👍
Spam in a can.
Megyn Kelly did a hilarious satire of them- practicing locking seat belts etc
Available on YouTube and really funny
Searching now... Thanks for the tip...
Made my day - love it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6awW_ZYtz50
Riding on a cruise ship doesn’t take skill or talent, just money.
I think there's a level of arrogance and hubris behind a Whoopie Goldberg or Barack Obama bragging about their achievements and then telling other black people they can't achieve success because of how hard it is.
They are essentially saying.....
" I got mine through hard work...now go away!"
The egos are stunning, as is the magnitude of disdain they must have for their less well off brothers and sisters whom they think are deficient to require such policies
Agree. I can't imagine ANY scenario where I'd gleefully accept an award (oh, say, the NOBEL PRIZE) knowing full well that i did nothing at all to deserve it...it still blows my mind that Obama did. How can one look at himself in a mirror and be okay with that??
Great example, as it illustrates credibility damage to the bequeathing institution. Obama hoped for peace. He had the audacity to do that (even wrote a book). Went on a worldwide groveling apology tour. Would go on to attack, what, Libya and Syria, and gives plane loads of cash to a terrorist state.
He was greatly embarrassed by it but couldn’t refuse it in any diplomatic way.
DEI. Didn't Earn It.
I think many DEI beneficiaries avoid thinking too much about the soft bigotry of low expectations. It's probably too offensive to think they owe anything to bigots of any kind. That includes the liberal bigots who condescended to them and, in the process, helped them get where they are.
They're too busy celebrating their victimhood.
Some do… You might find this talk interesting, Project Rethink takes a really unique angle.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6srtMb6GuShRke26FURmpo?si=g16PTOEbRcCMTZZO1Xhd1A
Sharyl Atkisson is good
Give Franck Zanu a try... (Project Rethink) short listen and very different perspective... thoughtful.
Brilliant answer to a truly insipid and ignorant post.
Yep she said it better than I could, and I'm a white male...lol.
Truly ignorant and wrong. No one is removing achievements from black people because of their race.
Well apparently you don't read well. The DEI hires are given positions they didn't EARN.
Working hard, failing, dusting off, doing it again and finally reaching a goal is important and not doing it robs one of the achievment.
To whom are you responding to?
JBell agrees as do I.
I was wondering about that. Banning words and stripping awards, when did that happen? It's hard to take someone seriously when they include factually inaccurate statements in an attempt to support their argument.
They cannot be factual. It never supports their case/agenda
But they very self-assuredly type out an email and hit send. They never considered asking the question, "Is this true?" If they were to bother to ask that question all they'd have to do is ask their phone.
I immediately thought the same thing. But these people have been fed so many lies, and believed them for so long, that enlightenment won’t be coming anytime soon, I’m afraid!
You'd think that the entirety of covid would have been the revelation as to the devious level of propaganda we were and still are being subjected to but, as you said, "enlightenment won't be coming anytime soon." The unwillingness to understand what's been and is being said vs. what's the result, is a bizarre disconnect from reality and reason that I will never understand. Fools will always be fools. It's a choice.
What scares me about DEI is applying it to jobs where competence is key, for example physicians. It scares me when American medical schools lower standards for preferred racial groups and those favored cannot pass exams which are then watered down. To be clear, I live in the Philippines and have been treated by great Asian doctors, some of whom have been women.
One of the worst cases of DEI was in the selection of pilots.
Currently, white males account for 90% of the pilots. The "equity goal" for women and minorities was 40%.
Equality of Opportunity
IS NOT
Equality of Outcome.
So, let's think about this, for a moment. I'm making the (silly / racist/ bigoted assumption, Leftists say )
Assumption that the most HIGHLY qualified applicants became pilots.
Therefore, to get to 40% minority or female, almost HALF of more qualified candidates would be discarded, for someone who displayed LESS skill at their job of piloting an aircraft!
REALLY MAKES YOU want to fly, right? 🤔
.... Gulp .....
“Editor’s Note: America is at war. This is not a traditional war, fought on a battlefield against an external enemy. It is a civilizational conflict against an internal enemy: the group quota regime, a revolutionary threat that seeks to reorganize American society around the principle of outcome equality — what the regime’s partisans call “equity.”
“This cold civil war may go unnoticed by many day-to-day, but its stakes are often as high as life and death. Here, Roger B. Cohen, a celebrated oncologist and professor in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, explains how the group quota regime has taken hold of the American medical education system and asks urgent questions about the consequences for medicine, for the sick, and for the country.”
“The End of Merit in Med Schools Will Be Deadly.”
Real Clear Politics. Roger Cohen. Apr 2, 2024
https://tomklingenstein.com/the-end-of-merit-in-med-schools-will-be-deadly/
“I’m a Surgeon, and I’ve Never Been More Alarmed About My Profession.” City Journal.
“Today’s surgical residency graduates are increasingly unprepared for professional practice.”
Real Clear Politics. City Journal. Feb 26, 2025
https://www.city-journal.org/article/surgery-safe-american-college-of-surgeons
I used to love watching the Oscars, but was increasingly disgusted with the "issue of the year" that were associated with the awards shows. I don't go to the movies to be preached and lectured to, and I can tell when something is pretentious or is manufactured to elicit an emotional response from the viewer.
It's gotten totally disgusting.
People go to movies to enjoy a story, not be lectured to.
Same thing in sports. It's why ESPN's ratings have gone into the toilet. People want to watch their teAm on the field, not be lectured to about race and gender.
The fixation that Leftist woke people have on this, is ruining movies and sportscasting.
Have to agree.
It was a sad part of the Covid thing and the legacy that still pervades. You had cardboard cutouts of people in the stands, masked players in outdoor venues, and basketball and other games with BLM mottos and mantras placed throughout. It brings to mind the line from the Elton John song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"
"We've all gone crazy lately, my friends out there rolling around the basement floor."
It's painful to watch old SNL shows from 2020...and you know they were 2020 because even the material itself feels like it has been "sanitized." The Jimmy Kimmel joke about "vaccinated with a heart attack, come on through" the Colbare sketch with the syringes, Arnold's take on "your freedom." Stern's take on vaccines.
Talk about sustainable...it is not sustainable to walk around and preach how horrible, racist, sexist, and selfish we are 24/7, and virtue signal about "sacrificing the most."
One of the reasons why I love "The Big Lebowski" is although you can see a lot of effort expended in the movie, it has a great organic flow to it. Similar to a ball rolling into pins and knocking other pins down. It's as simple as that. And even though a lot of weird things occur that would not occur in real life, that's part of the fun and escape. "This aggression will not stand...man."
Oh, that is one of my favorite movies!
"Yeah, well, that is just like, your opinion, man..."
I've got long hair like that, and have had a couple people call me "the Dude." 🤣😂
None of this nonsense ties the room together.
That rug really tied the room together, man...
Every time I had a conversation with someone about DEI the past five years, I'd always ask:
...Suppose your child was being wheeled into an emergency room for life-saving surgery. And you had two doors to choose:
- You could choose the black doctor
- Or you could choose the BEST doctor (who may or may not be black).
Which door would you choose?
OR...
- You could choose the female doctor
- Or the BEST doctor (who may or may not be female).
Invariably people would say 'of course, I'd want the best doctor'. But then five minutes later they would still defend DEI to the hilt, because it 'gives people a chance they deserve'.
People are so illogical about this issue.
That is why many see wokism, which includes DEI, as a great example of cognitive dissonance or more obviously hypocrisy.
The soft bigotry of low expectations. Always thinking that a certain group must be given a hand up because they don’t have the ability to compete and succeed.
Said Rush a million times!
Once again he was right. RIP El Rushbo
The Children of the Left: No accountability. Nothing but envy and jealousy. Always blaming others for their miserable lives. Everything should be given to them, no effort required. No one should have something that they don't. They should always be happy and never experience pain . . .
Victims.
Not Victors.
Great one-liner that sums up all of this...
I saw a meme (attributed to Ricky Gervais) that said:
How arrogant are you, to think that you deserve to go through life with no one ever saying anything that you don't agree with or like?
That is what the left appears to believe. And their little heads explode when one of their own says, does, or believes in something out of lockstep.
Yes. They are very intolerant of any dissenting opinions.
Conservatives are ALWAYS challenged by the media, so they actually know how to debate. Leftists don't, so when they ARE asked hard, proving questions, they have no idea what to say. Deer in the headlights!
There is also the idea of being curious or at least being open to discussion that comes from conservatives/libertarians than progressives/modern (vs origianl) liberals. We don't teach how to form a reasoned arguments in (public) school anymore, primarily because public schools are being shaped and operated by progressive/modern liberal teachers and staff. Joe Rogan, regardless of what you think of him, is open to all points of views and ideas and is certainly secure enough in his thinking to be exposed to 'other' viewpoints. There is no 'liberal' equivalent to Joe Rogan because part of the liberal 'ethos' is that they are always right and those that don't believe or agree with them are wrong, evil, same at Hitler, and should be silenced.
Joe Rogan is great...
True, there isn't an equivalent...but funny thing is, there "used" to be a liberal equivalent to Joe Rogan.
It was Joe Rogan! He wised up!
Every constituency of the Democrat party is a "victim," and portrayed as such, by the Democrat party.
And, "take our word for it, the Democrats will work to get you justice," they say. 🙄
This a response to DEI I posted. We are out of balance in so many things. If we are not judged by the content of our character, our gifts and abilities we get the mess we are in now.
I'm 68, and the longer I'm alive the more I believe we have been lied to about everything. As far back as the Civil rights movement I can see how we were manipulated and fed propaganda to believe we actually needed the Civil rights movement. We didn't. The politics and reality were very different. I was in elementary school and I could see reality did not match what the TV said. People and communities were changing and they didn't need government for that to happen. When DEI was introduced and adopted by corporations, healthcare, law enforcement, the post office, etc. I realized the civil rights act was meaningless. It never meant anything. Of course I see this in hind sight. The plandemic was a blessing. It was my second awakening. Of course, it's sad to now question what I thought was true.
The pandemic was a blessing, in retrospect, because the far Left Democrats no longer tried to hide who they were. They thought that having the media on their side would make them victorious, but people caught on!
Like the frog 🐸 in the pot of hot water, people realized what was going on. It's still happening. Democrats turned up the heat, too fast!
I actually do believe that in certain jobs men are better at it.
I am reminded of a situation with United Airlines. They were so insistant that they get more women pilots, especially women of color that they passed a pilot that kept crashing planes in the simulators. Does that make you feel safer flying? This was an article in Epoch Times.
Ever see a woman try to move a 1200 lb. piano up a flight of stairs?
😂😂
'I actually do believe that in certain jobs men are better at it.'
Maybe a better way of putting that is 'Men tend to be better at certain jobs.' Because for any job, whether the main requirement is physical strength, or some other sort of strength, some men won't qualify, and a few women will.
Correspondingly, there are certain jobs that women tend to be better at.
Why does sex have to enter into it at all?
I was just thinking about the karma element of DEI too. It's an open secret that academia is almost pathologically biased against men, straight, white men in particular. Former Harvard president Claudine Gay was a near demi-god until a straight white male, Christopher Rufo, called her out on plagiarism. Then there was Francesca Gino, full tenured and one of the highest paid professors at Harvard who got fired and stripped of her tenure when the independent research group Data Colada (consisting of three men) uncovered fraud in her research. You can try to drive out talent and confer titles on the peoples you think should be talented, but one way or another, talent is going to win.
"There is no Oscars site online that was or will ever be as good as the one I built. It is a sad and pitiful claim to fame. I’ll grant you that — like, who cares?"
This is the only flaw in your answer.
My day job is a program that helps mostly early-career people integrate faith and work. It takes most of the program year to help people absorb the fact that their work matters to God, and that their work ITSELF is a way to serve God and neighbor.
The biggest doubts come to those with jobs that don't obviously serve great needs. People in sales and marketing, or financial services, or any number of other positions sometimes struggle. Many, many young people think that they have to be in anti-trafficking or alleviating homelessness or some other not-for-profit work, for it to count. And it's obviously easier for a nurse in pediatric oncology to connect the dots than someone in, let's say, the entertainment industry.
Now, to be sure, life is really about what St. Augustine called "rightly-ordered loves." God above all. All for the sake of God, and the image of God in others. Priorities in life are EVERYTHING.
But here's the thing, once you begin to get a handle on THAT, then you see that everything counts. Everything can be ordered to the elevation of the Good, the True, the Beautiful, above all in the One who made everything because of overflowing love and self-donation.
So, the best Oscars site matters. Because excellence matters. And the best Oscars site is a way to point towards what is best, what is excellent. As only cinema (or whatever) can.
What you're doing now matters, Sasha. Doing it with excellence matters. Ordering any small corner of the world towards love of the most Excellent, matters.
And it is required of a servant—not success, which is never guaranteed—but that s/he be found faithfully trying to do so.
Beautiful perspective. Thank you.
Unfortunately we’ve reached a point in the arts usually reserved for totalitarian societies where “the message” trumps the story; story is second or even third - behind bipoc casting - down the list. This leads to boring, entirely predictable “storylines” & films become an entire - & insulting - snooze fest. The high-handedness of it cannot be hidden; studios/“approved filmmakers” think you’re too stupid to think for yourself so they will tell you how/what to think. All that matters is that you hold - & regurgitate - the “approved” opinions otherwise you’ll be cancelled/fired/shunned.
This isn’t entertainment it’s propaganda.
The most recent "Snow White" by Disney comes to mind...
How about the musical, where they cast a gay black woman as Jesus? WTF? Who watches that garbage?
(Hmmm, Dems... Isn't that cultural appropriation? 🤔)
I believe you are correct in all you say, and, in my opinion, Hollywood is an analog of the whole of progressive society. They have believers who will applaud any garbage they produce as long as it has the right "maker". The same is true in progressive society. Authors like Howard Zinn write slanted prose to make the Illerati feel better about themselves, and he lionized for it. Of course his work has a hard time surviving an honest fact check.
Thank you for your candor and for brilliantly answering what I can only categorize as an ignoramus.
Progressivism is a religion, unto itself.
They gotta preach, and you gotta shut up and listen.
Amen to that, although I don't do shutting up real well...
The entirety of the Biden Administration is the best argument against DEI. The results speak for themselves. Karine Jean Pierre, (black, gay, women) is the poster child for everything wrong with meritless employment.
Great post Sasha.
I am 68. I was hoping that in my lifetime we would achieve a society where the amount of melanin in your skin is irrelevant.
Not so.
For decades in this country, skin color has been used to hurt certain people and to help certain people. And vice versa.
So ridiculous. So silly.
But it continues on.
Maybe in my children’s lifetime or my grandchildren’s lifetime we will live in a society where no one cares about the amount of skin pigment that a fellow human being has.
As we all know, Dr. Martin Luther King said it best.
CHARACTER NOT COLOR
Just glad you mentioned Greta Gerwig because her movies are mediocre at best. Never been blown away by anything she’s ever done and definitely didn’t understand the Barbie hype.