Controversy: NR's Theater Critic Kevin Williamson Snatches Phone from Boorish Attendee Who Won't Turn It Off, Throws It Across the Room

Although we tend to sublimate class disputes into "political" terms, class remains a high-voltage current in America, and for that reason I think this simple story is going to get a lot more play that it otherwise would have.

Williamson describes himself as a vigilante against the vulgar. Others describe him as a nasty elitist snob.

His Twitter feed is interesting, because -- if my general read is right -- his supporters and detractors aren't breaking into left/right lines, but into camps of You Should Know How to Behave (Elitism) and Let People Do What They Will and Be Who They Are (Populism), with some on the left peopling either camp, and some on the right similarly distributed into either camp.

There's a Let It All Hang Out ethic in America which is, in some ways, bracing and liberating -- not all traditions are deserving of the same level of respect -- but, on the other hand, Time and Place, guys.

Adam Carolla is always going on about people not being well-dressed on airplanes. I hear this from older people, too; that people used to dress fairly well for air travel.

I don't get that one. Certainly one should be clean, but on a six hour flight... one should also be comfortable. The best way to kill that time is to sleep.

But there are a lot of areas where people have just decided that No One Matters But Me. Movie theaters, for example.

posted by Ace at 02:01 PM

| Access Comments