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Wednesday Morning Rant

"Coded"

Remember "dog whistles?" A "dog whistle" is, according (usually) to leftists, a form of spoken code uttered by somebody to help subtly inform those in the club - always a bad club, of course - that he's one of them. It's used to signal group membership and alignment. This one used to be bandied around a lot. Talk about "inner-city crime?" Why, that's a "racist dog-whistle." They used to accuse Trump of it a lot before everyone kept making fun of them for being stupid. But no stupid thing can ever be allowed to die, so it has instead changed form. "Dog whistles" are out, but "coding" is in.

Meet "coding:" the new(ish) idiot in town. Now, things are "coded" to mean something - exclusively in the eyes of the observer - that usually isn't really there. Examples abound. Ace uses it humorously but idiots use it seriously. Cartoon characters of yesteryear are "gay-coded" because contemporary gay writers need to contrive a justification for putting sex politics in children's programming. Competent, mechanically-inclined women are "trans-coded" because fake chicks need there to be real women who they perceive as like themselves.

It's delusional, but Variety should win some sort of prize for maximizing the asinine delusion. There's apparently a country music guy called Morgan Wallen who, according to Variety, is distressingly "Trump Coded." I have no idea who this guy is, but Variety's Jem Aswad sure finds plenty of pearls to clutch about him:

While Morgan Wallen has done some very offensive things in public, he's no Kanye West or even Kid Rock ... he broke Covid protocols just days before he was scheduled to appear on "Saturday Night Live," clearly running the risk of infecting the entire show's cast ...
And just a few weeks ago, he returned to "SNL" as a musical guest and abruptly walked off the stage during the traditional show-ending onstage grip-and-grin -- later posting a photo of his private jet with the caption, "Get me back to God's country," tacitly transforming the incident into an owning-the-libs moment, complete with merch.

LOLWUT? Okay, whatever. There's more, of course. Apparently he also got a DUI and did some rock-star stuff like throwing furniture off a roof. So he's living like a rock star. Perhaps not admirable, but how is it "Trump coded?" Well let's see:

But at a time when an unapologetically sexist and arguably racist convicted felon won the presidency after running on a platform based on hatred, threats, intolerance and retribution, it also captures a spirit of this era and is even, arguably, a MAGA-flavored brand of punk rock.

Wallen has never publicly endorsed Trump, but he doesn't need to: His behavior and image are indisputably MAGA-coded. His songs might be about drinking and bad decisions and being a badass -- and defiance about the results of that drinking and those bad decisions and that badassery -- but it's hard to separate them from the very Trumpy, middle-finger-to-the-world spirit that his non-musical actions seem to reflect. Even the video for "I Had Some Help," his airwaves-dominating song with Post Malone, is filled with (comical) bad behavior, drinking, pick-up trucks and American flags, and the song itself is about deflecting responsibility for bad behavior: Someone else is to blame for my current unsatisfactory circumstances, an attitude central to the appeal of MAGA and Fox News.

Let it wash over you. This is pure, straight-up projection by Jem Aswad. "I think MAGA is these bad things. I think this guy's music and attitude reflects these bad things I associate with MAGA. Therefore, this guy's music and attitude are "MAGA-coded." It's pure delusion. But is it, in any way, real? Thankfully, the delusional Jem Aswad already gave us the answer in the above except, but ever the professional and erudite cultural commentator, Aswad provides some more information for us:

Whether or not that's who Wallen actually is in real life -- or whether a superstar's "real" self, as opposed to their public selves, is even relevant -- it still raises a question. Is playing and enjoying his music, and contributing approximately $.003 per stream to him and his musical collaborators and business associates, an endorsement of all of the above?

So no, then. Dude never endorsed Trump. Aswad acknowledges that he has no idea what Wallen believes. Is Wallen MAGA-curious? I have no idea. Neither does Jem Aswad, but that didn't stop him from asserting it and then vomiting out a - no joke - 2,100 word article about what he projects on to Wallen.

After much hemming and hawing over bad behavior - real or imagined - by rock stars throughout time, Aswad finishes with the real source of his trouble:

We live in an era where it feels like we should do a background check before expressing enthusiasm or positivity about virtually anyone or anything ... [i]t's enough to make one consult with a crisis-PR firm just to get through the day.

Or, you know, have an opinion of your own. Like something or don't. Boycott someone's music or don't. Whatever. But when you're as deep in the Hollywood bubble as Variety's Jem Aswad is, there is no ability to have an opinion - at least, not without a focus group and crisis management team.

Is Morgan Wallen's music "MAGA-coded?" No. I have never heard it, but I am confident in my assessment because there is no such thing as "MAGA-coded" or the various other "codes" that people cry about. This "coding" fad, like the "dog whistles" that preceded it, is just a means for delusional leftists to project their own perceptions, prejudices, beliefs and attitudes onto third parties.