Saturday, 23 March 2013

Why We Can't Have Nice Things

A quick object lesson in the way that language can be abused.

Hollywood studio chief says, effectively, "let's maybe think about not being jerks."

Jerks respond by calling her a bigot and censor.

Nowhere in Pascal's (admittedly, let's face it, pie in the sky "nice idea") suggestion as to how the pro-equality fellow execs in her audience could use their positions to help the cause was there a call for censorship, or a rule, or even some kind of official position. It's a simple call for studio bosses with their fingers on the greenlight button to incorporate "being less homophobic" into the shaping of screenplays under their production - which is already their job!

Taking a pencil/red-marker etc to screenplays is what they do, and usually for much more cynical/financial reasons - "let's use that power for good" should not be a controversial request. But because it can be made to look like "liberal hypocrisy" in a meant-to-be-skimmed (you've got to read close to find the qualifying "not in so many words" in Nolte's screed) blurb on a site built on confirmation-bias and ginned-up non-issue outrage.

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