February 8, 1915: “The Birth of a Nation” opens in L.A., glorifying the KKK. (More via History.Com.)
110 years ago.
Narrative. This movie was not only a “reflection of the times,” it was a reaction to the fact that progress actually was happening, America was slowly assimilating, and movies like this, along with the erection of statues throughout the south of Confederate generals, was a not-subtle statement, a reminder who was still in charge and, if they had their way, things would stay (if not more so, or less so depending on your skin color and sex).
110 years later, we have our current president (Musk, I mean) and vp Vance–who is married to an Indian-American–ardently defending a 25 year old staffer who *recently* posted “Normalize Indian hate.” The gloves are off, the masks have slipped, and what has, in America, for decades, been off-limits for all the right reasons (or, if you still said things like this, you did so safely from your mom’s basement in online chats with other incels). Why would Vance do this? Well, to own the Libs obvi. To deny the discourse which has allowed Libs to…what, win? Equality, inclusion, diversity? This is what MAGA makes you give; there’s not only no bottom, it’s a spiral that goes beyond what satire intended half a century ago. Once you’re on board this train, it’s impossible to slow down, and no quarter can be given; we now literally have the people in charge of our country telling racists and trolls to let their freak flags fly, with impunity. And yes, if you are still down with this, you’re abetting it; if you were only down–for whatever uninformed, fatuous reasons–with bringing the price of eggs down, you can’t separate yourself from this active and ongoing desecration.
Here’s the thing. So much was wrong when I was a younger dude. In the 80s gay bashing was a standard part of every comedian’s set (think Eddie Murphy & Andrew Dice Clay); our views toward women and “foreigners” were very much a work in progress (which of course was the point), but certain things, even then, were absolutely off limits. You simply could not be an unabashed bigot, without consequences. Not for nothing was ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’–which had enough action to have you rooting for Indiana Jones–a battle against NAZIS. Those were the bad guys; those were the villains a previous generation lost tens of thousands of soldiers fighting; it was over the top to have the good guys in movies fight literal nazis, but it was a rhetorical point: we cheered when the Nazis faces melted.
Imagine not only rooting for the Nazis, in 2025, but fancying yourself as Indiana Jones, partnering up with them to save the world from….DEI? To make sure a billionaire could run the world. Jan 6 would, of course, have been despicable enough if there were only MAGA flags flying, but on that very day we had people rocking Nazi propaganda; there was never a price paid for that; the Dems never consistently connected dots so the public could fully understood what type of rot–way, way beyond political disagreements–were afoot, and against all conceivable possibility, we’ve *literally* normalized Nazi rhetoric. In America. In 2025.
It’s going to take a LOT more than effective Narrative to save us, but without it, we won’t be able to get some of these folks to understand they are bit players in a book that has already been written, and the script is being repurposed, to perfection, by people who understand and endorse a very different history.
