Obama Is a Very Bad Man Open Thread

The scolds and There Are Other Things To Discuss Brigades are out,* so here's their thread.

Question:

Why do you think it is that seeing someone take an interest in something you're not personally interested in causes you so much discomfort? Why is someone else's interest taken as a hostile attack on the self?

Aren't you defining the borders of your selfness a bit over-large, such that no one can take step you don't take without in some way giving offense to you, kicking at your worldview and ego?

Is anyone allowed to take any interest apart from the three or four you share?

Is mere difference a signal of hostility that must be challenged and confronted?

These are important questions.

My problem here is the hostility, as if I've given personal offense by acknowledging cultural phenomena not appreciated by some. True Detective was a big thread on Hot Air; the Dunham thing I got from the top center of Drudge.

These things are going on. This hostility over mere discussion of interests some don't share is a drag, and I'm tired of it.

Both posts qualify as political -- the True Detective one especially. Both are certainly cultural-political.

Some of you are turning cultural rejectivism into a type of cult and it's annoying. You can belong to any cult you like, but those of us not in the cult don't want to hear about it every day.

* Burn the Witch says "Brigades? You're talking about four people."

True.

But hostility is, by definition, hostile. One notices it.

On Rejectivism:

>>> ace, I really don't know what to make of much of the America I find myself in. Much is alien, nowadays. Pop "culture" is mostly irrelevant to me, and junk. Vulgar, and shallow. This, from a guy who rode choppers on the street as a young man. I just sort of stand back in awe about how bad much of America has become. -- backhoe

I get that, and I share, to a fair extent, the cultural rejectivism embraced by many.

But it's annoying to have people constantly harp that you must join them at their exact level of cultural rejectivism. If they've completely tuned out, everyone else must completely tune out.

It's not even expressed as an argument, which would be less annoying, because an argument is always interesting.

It's just expressed as a hostile resentment. And then what do I say in return?

There is an interesting argument as to whether someone should (or even could) completely unplug from the current american culture.

I'd be interested in having it.

But this drive by resentment/hostility shit -- that's not an argument, that's just negative emotionalism.

I think 90% of the right tends to reject most of our current culture. Obviously, we will each make exceptions here and there for things we find meritorious.

Can we please stop treating such minor, trivial cultural preferences as important and status-conferring and Tribal Loyalty Signaling?

I liked True Detective because I like smart detective shows. Period. That's not an attack on someone who has tuned out of current culture. I just happened to turn on the TV, and it was on.

And that's it.

If you're reading more into than that, I would suggest you should probably think about not reading so much political/tribal/cultural import into everything.

I knocked some of the left for being determined to read a narrative of Tribal Flattery into True Detective.

The reactionary version of this -- the simple act of discussing True Detective is an act of betrayal against the right-leaning tribe -- is no less ridiculous.

posted by Ace at 02:08 PM

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