I have resisted commenting on the news for several reasons.
One, some of these topics are very unpleasant and don't make for light blog writing or reading. I found the events of the past couple of weeks to be very sad and very tragic.
Two, I am a Southern white male. Because where I landed when I plopped out almost 61 years ago, anything I say on any topic will be greeted with derision and heavens to Betsy I might even get canceled by a Twitter mob.
In other words, nobody really cares what I think. I've entered into that demographic known as "Old Fart". I find myself looking at Prevagen commercials wondering if that jellyfish stuff really works. I pay attention to those Medicare Advantage commercials in which they reverse your mortgage and give you money. Or something like that. I really do need some Prevagen.
However, there have been a couple of events that in the scheme of things are probably not a big deal, but as a phrase, I learned in history classes, we are heading to a slippery slope.
You might have heard that HBO Max, a new streaming service, will not stream the classic 1939 film "Gone With The Wind" because it glamorizes the Old South. Supposedly, they are going to apply a warning label on it saying this film is not historically accurate.
Okay, it is HBO's wagon and I don't have to sign up. I'm not even a "Gone With The Wind" fan, but I think it is odd 80 years after its release we think it is some kind of history lesson.
It's like putting a label on the "Spiderman" movies stating "Getting bit by a radioactive spider will not give you superpowers but it may make you swell and have to go to the emergency room."
If you haven't seen GWTW, I can advise you that it is a long movie filled with some really great acting and some really bad acting. Scarlett O'Hara is a narcissistic shrew who hops from bed to bed trying to find love. Rhett Butler is a hound dog chasing skirts and running guns. Basically, the only character worth a dime in the movie is Mammy who is played by Hattie McDaniel. She won an Oscar for the role. I spent most of my time watching GWTW wishing she would hit Scarlett with a skillet.
HBO Max will show brand new spanking "Looney Toons" cartoons. Elmer Fudd will not be shown "wabbit hunting" with a shotgun. Maybe, he'll use a camera to get photographs. Neither will Yosemite Sam be shown with his six-shooters. I'm not quite sure why this is being done. I haven't read anything in the news about these mass shootings where the shooter was quoting Yosemite Sam.
I haven't heard if the #Metoo movement has issued a report about Pepe Le Pew. I don't know what that cat has to do to let that skunk know she's not interested.
After "Live PD" and "Cops" were canceled, there was some Twitter buzz about a show called "Paw Patrol", which is on Nickelodeon. Here's what the New York Times says
“Paw Patrol” is a children’s cartoon about a squad of canine helpers. It is basically a pretense for placing household pets in a variety of cool trucks. The team includes Marshall, a firefighting Dalmatian; Rubble, a bulldog construction worker; and Chase, a German shepherd who is also a cop. In the world of “Paw Patrol,” Chase is drawn to be a very good boy who barks stuff like “Chase is on the case!” and “All in a police pup’s day!” as he rescues kittens in his tricked-out S.U.V.
But last week, when the show’s official Twitter account put out a bland call for “Black voices to be heard,” commenters came after Chase. “Euthanize the police dog,” they said. “Defund the paw patrol.” “All dogs go to heaven, except the class traitors in the Paw Patrol.”
"Paw Patrol" hasn't been canceled. Yet. The Times article goes on to say, "'Paw Patrol' seems harmless enough, and that’s the point: The movement rests on understanding that cops do plenty of harm." I like that phrase "seems harmless enough". It's like we have to study that a talking dog cartoon that saves kittens out of a tree is "harmless" or "harmful"
It has been reported Amazon Prime may pull "The Dukes Of Hazzard" from their old TV lineup. The reason: the Duke boys hot rod around Hazzard County in a car named "General Lee" and "General Lee" has a Confederate flag on its roof.
If you don't remember "The Dukes Of Hazzard", the show is about Bo and Luke Duke who live in Hazzard County, Georgia, and are brain surgeons. They live with their transgendered Memaw named "Uncle Jessie" and their cousin Daisey is the county's ACLU lawyer. (Editor's Note: Alan really needs to take Prevagen)
In their spare time, Bo and Luke run moonshine in their 1969 Dodge Charger evading the county's sheriff, Roscoe P. Coaltrane. For reasons unclear, the Duke boys are of interest to County Commissioner Boss Hogg. I have lived in the South all my life and never met a person named "Boss".
In other words, "The Dukes Of Hazzard" was basically about poor people sticking it to the man, or rather, Hogg.
The show was wildly popular in the late '70s and early '80s. I don't remember it ever dealing with any heavy topics or any racial stereotypes.
Now it did have stereotypes. For example, all young white Southern males like to drive fast, run moonshine, and their female cousins are hotties that wear shorty-shorts. Sure, the roof of that Dodge Charger had that dreaded symbol on it, but they were just good old boys, never meaning no harm.
I'm not saying "The Dukes Of Hazzard" is a work of art. If you never saw it, you would be fine. I think it is a stretch to think it had anything to do with what happened in Minnesota.
Now, I get it about The Confederate flag. It is a flag of a cause that thought it was a-ok to have free labor. Succession was an amazingly dumb idea only to be almost topped by Jim Crow laws that punished former slaves and their children for being born.
Basically big media companies want to look like they are doing something. What they are doing is saying you are not intelligent enough to watch GWTW or "Dukes" without being transformed into some kind of vile person.
Look, if you object to "Gone With The Wind", don't watch it. If "The Dukes Of Hazzard" offends you, don't stream it. I don't know why this has to be said.
Maybe we all need to take some Prevagen.
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