We see how quickly the warriors of free speech crumble. It’s a shame, really.
The sad truth of the matter is that no one, on any side of the political spectrum, seems comfortable with things existing that they deem unacceptable.
Debates around “cancel culture” are often completely disingenuous, with one side claiming that they’re living under Totalitarianism, while the other side denies that it exists altogether. The truth of the matter, of course, is that everyone, almost every single person on this planet, agrees that there should be a line somewhere.
We just disagree on where that line should be.
Maybe Tim Dillon has it right, in the case of the Case of the Devil’s Lapdance:
“MONTERO” is a catchy little earworm of a song. I’ve listened to it probably a dozen times in the past few days. That’s what new and popular songs are good for, as I’ve outlined in a previous post.
The video itself is amusing. It lasts a whole three minutes. It’s cartoonish and ugly, and not anything super great. The whole thing is silly. It’s throwaway art. It’s also got a direct lines to the amusing, cartoonish, ugly videos of my youth, particularly those of Marilyn Manson, etc.
Many completely disingenuous tweeters, people who are fine posting deeply disturbing memes on a platform that can be accessed by children, are suddenly very upset that kids might see this video. But I’m not being fair: Lil Nas X has been on Sesame Street, and he has stated explicitly that he wants his primary audience to be children.
Look…the dude wants his primary audience to be big. He’s a major recording audience. On one end you have a stripper pole, on the other you have Kermit the Frog. Let’s not lose sight of the goal here (selling ugly shoes).
This is part of such a long line of provocateurs provoking, shit that I really loved when I was ten or eleven, that I can’t in good conscience start wagging my finger now. You see, I was raised by a mother who really cared about me, but once I got to a certain age, there was nothing she could do about it. I was hellbound, baby! That lasted until I was oh, let’s say thirty years old.
It’s been a long journey.
On the other side of the fence, the left (liberals, mostly, but the left too) has done a bang-up job of being the Moral Police for the past four years, shitting their pants collectively whenever someone, oh, I don’t know, questions a dominant narrative? Inadequately condemns a clownish figurehead? That they really don’t have any room to start laughing when their made up enemies start clutching made up pearls.
It’s like looking in a mirror. A dark mirror…and maybe you’re a cat…
Go outside.
Broken River Blog 