The Daily Late Show (Culture Wars)

Douthat today (no I won’t link it, the man’s a total asshole and a moron to boot) laments the rise of “social liberalism” and the loss of the Culture Wars by which he means the freedom to be as bigoted and offensive as you want to be in public protected by your exceptional privilege.

He mourns even bastions of racism and sexism like professional sports are now polarized by the intolerance of leftist interlopers to stereotypes and bullying and calls it indicative of an unwillingness to compromise and leave the poor 1% alone to run the nation from their safe havens in which ignorant proles and (say it ain’t so Joe) “minorities” (damn Jews, I told you we should never have let them in the Club, them and the Catholics) can be excluded so our betters can decide our fate without interference or annoying self reflection.

We have come so far that’s it’s not even safe to call yourself a “Republican” without being identified with a group of inbred, gun toting, vulgarians when our brand of “pull my finger” humor is so much more arch and sophisticated. Did you hear the one about the trophy wife who can’t tell the difference between a Louis Vuitton and a Gucci? What makes it funny is that they’re both so declasse and everyone knows you should be carrying Hermes. Ha, ha, ha.

What are you? Some kind of joyless Femi-Nazi? Do you even shave your legs? I’ll bet you do all your shopping at Nordstrom.

Sorry Ross. The problem is not that “political correctness” makes it so that you can’t be gratuitously rude in public, it’s that so many mistake it for genuine progress and change.

It is not sufficient to win the Culture War, that’s merely a bright and shiny object used to divide and distract us. What needed is to break the Neoliberal grip of the 1% over the economy and the NeoCon grip over foreign policy. It’s not that Stephen Colbert and Colin Kaepernick are too strident, it’s that they aren’t nearly strident enough.

Things that didn’t suck

What can I say? I like Skittles.