Sunday, January 11, 2015

Kevin D. Williamson: The New Royals

"I have trouble typing these words without pitching my computer across the room in a fit, but: On Wednesday, a federal judge — a by-God federal judge! — was obliged to weigh in on California’s ban on foie gras, and he threw it out on — God help us — constitutional grounds. I do not have an opinion on the legal merits of the case, but I am of the opinion that the fact that the case exists — that we need competing state and federal interventions on chopped liver — is a symptom of national insanity. There was once an expression advising against overreacting: “Don’t make a federal case out of it!” But if you can make a federal case out of fatty duck liver, you can make a federal case out of anything."

"Making a federal case out of it is the new status symbol, the new Cadillac. As in the case of the princess in Hans Christian Andersen’s 1835 story, so sensitive that she could feel the pea under 20 mattresses and 20 featherbeds, acute dissatisfaction with the tiniest, most ridiculous little details of life is how 21st-century progressives communicate to the world that they are indeed the new royalty, with sensibilities finer than those known to mere commoners. No normal, mentally healthy adult human being actually gives a good and sincere goddamn about the “emotional needs of chickens.” But that sort of posing, along with such daft enthusiasms as foie-gras horror, wetting oneself liberally over the fact that Bradley Manning’s Wikipedia page identified him as “Bradley Manning” for a full eleven minutes after he declared that he wants to be called “Chelsea,” sneering at SUVs and roomy suburban homes, insisting that Melissa McCarthy is a comic genius, using the word “mansplaining,” being terrorized by “thigh gaps” in advertisements, fretting about “micro-aggressions” — all of it is a way of saying, “Look at me! I went to a good school! (Or am truly at heart the sort of person who might have!)” There is a term for this that is uncharitable but cannot be improved upon: status-whoring. The old status symbols may have been shallow; the new ones are shallow, destructive, and a great deal less fun to drive."

13 comments:

Unknown said...

There's only one answer:

Nuke Hollywood. Preferably while they are all gathered in one place handing each other golden statues, and slapping each other on the back with endless self-congratulations.

ricpic said...

I was at a chic restaurant in some provincial Frog town, can't even remember the name, and I wolfed down too much foie gras in too short a time ran to the loo and threw up. Memories!

Unknown said...

On a TV antennae, terribly crappy mainstream television is all that is available. As liberal as PBS is, it's actually superior in every way to the vulgar garbage on mainstream TV channels

I prefer cooking, travel, Nova, Nature, and Masterpiece Theater. & my new favorite show - Doc Martin (which is created sparsely and if off for now so I bought all the DVDs) etc...

If you watch football, as I do, which is on mainstream tv, the ads in-between showcase the new television shows upcoming on the alphabet channels:
Vacuous.
These self-promoting ads do not inspire me to tune in: The opposite. Tune OUT. Total rejection. They are filled with violence, meanness, shallow personalities, over-sexualized images and themes that are entirely inappropriate for young people, and political shallowness promotion of one particular political party. It's shameful but I imagine the big wigs in Hollywood are all pedophiles - so for their tastes it's all perfectly normal - you prudes.

Unknown said...

What surprises me most about liberal do-gooder nanny-state royalist know-it-all look-at-me I'm so great and caring - culture is that fact that these do-gooders absolutely overlook actual moral problems that need some actual nannying.
Like, for instance, the undeniable tragic crisis of over-pet population and the killing of hundreds of thousands of pets each year due to the complete lack of regulations on the pet breeding industry.

Unknown said...

according to Drudge - the upcoming golden globes award show might end up a Clinton-pimping session. Will Tina Fey *_________* (rhymes with stay late) Bill right there on stage? find out!

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Williamson the comedian throws a bunch of crap against the wall to see if any of it will shtick.

virgil xenophon said...

Very late here, but April, if you want a taste of the ultimate nanny state, you should have lived on an Israelie Kibbutz
in the 50s and 60s. One of the things that caused the demise of these institutions (or at least a great reduction in their numbers) was that they were so thoroughly soaked in socialism/politics down to the smallest thing, e.g., it required a group decision as to what color one was allowed to paint one's bedroom, etc.) After a while this constant interplay of "group dynamics" (i.e., wrangling) simply wore the average "joe" down and left only the ideologues in control. Sound familiar? Fois Gras anyone?

Titus said...

Don't all these NR writers live in fab blue cities?

Why?

edutcher said...

This is what you get when the perpetually offended are given their way rather than a smack in the head and told to grow up.

Unknown said...

The backbone of many blue cities and states are people like Bagoh. People who work hard, take risks and aren't sitting in cafes with a trust fund.

Unknown said...

Virgil - The Kibbutz sounds a lot like my HOA.

XRay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Methadras said...

Listen, if a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich, you bet the judiciary will have any other foods in its sights for critical review.