{"id":101623,"date":"2016-07-18T12:55:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T20:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=101623"},"modified":"2016-07-18T13:35:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T21:35:55","slug":"wp-i-rejected-my-parents-wasp-values-now-i-see-we-need-them-more-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=101623","title":{"rendered":"WP: ‘I rejected my parents\u2019 WASP values. Now I see we need them more than ever’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comments on the Washington Post article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* “My parents were the kind of polite conservatives who would have been appalled by this year\u2019s Republican presidential campaign. They belonged to that stuffy but understated class of Eastern WASPs who were gently mocked by the late satirist William Hamilton in the New Yorker.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s complete BS. She can\u2019t even write a piece about good, old-time values without taking shots at what she sees as the enemy. She ditched her parents\u2019 values. Her enemy would have wanted her to keep them. If her parents where polite conservative WASPs who would have been appalled by this year\u2019s GOP, they would have had heart attacks if they witnessed the democrats tranny-rights express. The whole country is messed up and it is boomers like this author who rejected her parents\u2019 values that hold a disproportionate share of the blame. Passing it off on Trump and the people who want to restore some semblance of normalcy is disingenuous.<\/p>\n

* Just read an article on Trump<\/a> I found very illuminating, even though the author mostly does his damnedest to make Trump look ridiculous.<\/p>\n

It gives you a good sense of the sorts of ill treatments that might have fueled Trump\u2019s ambitions, financial, social, and political, across his life. One really has to say: the elites dismissed him with the same contemptuous ridicule and snobbery they accord to the rednecks they so obviously despise. This certainly explains much about the ease with which Trump has won over the sympathies of working class whites.<\/p>\n

If Trump were, say, Jewish, and fighting his way into the snooty establishment, he\u2019d be lionized by the media for his chutzpah. He\u2019d be the hero Matthew Weiner might only dream about.<\/p>\n

But what he is, you see, is a Vulgarian. A real, unabashed, honest to God, Vulgarian! Ugh! Yuck! Sniff!<\/p>\n

The author is of course too deep into his cocoon to see the positive in his own portrayal, and to grasp the other angles from which the same events and character traits might be perceived.<\/p>\n

* I went to the Django SAG screening. Most of the actors from the movie were there, to answer questions afterwards. My friend had asked me if I wanted to go to a movie at the last minute, and I said \u201csure,\u201d and didn\u2019t inquire about anything but the title, which meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n

When the opening credits rolled, and I saw \u201cQuintin Tarantino,\u201d I turned to my friend and said, \u201cyou fucking asshole!\u201d He whispers, \u201cwhat\u2019s the problem?\u201d I whisper, \u201cyou didn\u2019t tell me this was a Tarantino movie. Now I have to watch some stupid, crazy bullshit for at least the next two HOURS!\u201d<\/p>\n

As the movie progressed, I whispered to my friend, \u201cwhy would you invite me to a movie in which a white person is executed about every two fucking minutes? what am I to glean from this? what am I rooting for, here?\u201d My friend says, \u201cjust think of them as \u2018the bad guys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I noticed a white millennial, sitting by himself in front of us. I noticed that quite often, when a white person was executed, he clapped, and cheered. When the white southern belle of Candy Land was executed in such a way as she left her feet, he bounced up and down in his seat, laughing and cheering.<\/p>\n

I said to my friend, \u201cwhat do you make of a white kid cheering every time a white guy is killed? Not a particular white guy. Any white guy?\u201d My liberal friend said, \u201che\u2019s just enjoying the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the ending credits roll, my friend jokingly asks, \u201cso how\u2019d you like the movie?\u201d I say, \u201cIt\u2019s going to get a lot of black people killed.\u201d My liberal friend is incredulous. \u201cWhat the hell are you talking about?!\u201d I say, \u201cthis movie will empower the dumbest of the black folks. They\u2019ll be watching it on their flat-screens at home, over and over. Their kids with no dads will be watching it all day, because their mom\u2019s don\u2019t give a shit, so we\u2019ll have a bunch of indoctrinated black asshats, wandering the streets, using every police encounter as their personal, as-yet-unwritten-scene from Django.\u201d My friend says, \u201cyou\u2019r crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

So then the actors come out, and the question-answer session begins. All the audience members who volunteered questions agreed that Django was Tarantino\u2019s best movie since Pulp Fiction. The actors carry on about how Quintin Tarantino\u2019s words are sacrosanct, like \u201creading words from the bible,\u201d according to one.<\/p>\n

Then the lead actress went on about her rape scene, and how it was hard for her to do, and she finally acquiesced because she felt she was doing a service to black people to \u201cshow it like it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this I stifled an unintentional laugh. Nothing anyone would notice\u2013except James Remar. He looked over at me from the stage, and began glaring with intent. I broke eye contact with him, figuring it was a coincidence that he was looking my way with a concentrated furrowed brow. I looked back to him about 10 seconds later, and he was still glaring directly at me. I glared back directly at him.<\/p>\n

His glare clearly implied, \u201cI\u2019d like to beat your ass.\u201d My glare, I hoped he inferred, communicated, \u201cI\u2019d love to beat the shit out of YOU, ya chicken-shit ex-junkie.\u201d As I was doing this, I was vividly imagining punching him square in the jaw. To this day, whenever I\u2019m feeling low, I imagine punching James Remar in the face at the Django Question and Answer Session, and it always seems to lighten my load a bit. Because he\u2019s a chicken-shit ex-junkie, who needs it.<\/p>\n

This glare contest went on for at least half a minute. Very strange, but it happened. Any other time, I just go to SAG screenings, watch the movie, and leave.<\/p>\n

Django was special to me, because I was sure it was going to get a lot of people shot, black and white. I didn\u2019t want it to happen to either side. But I felt it was inevitable. I was the only one in the theater, apparently, who believed this. Everyone else was in victory mode.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not happy to see exactly what I said would happen transpire exactly as I said it would. It just makes the world a little more shitty, and boring to me. I prefer pleasant surprises.<\/p>\n

I guess I should have stood up during the Q&A, and asked a question. I had plenty I could have asked. I just wasn\u2019t interested in casting myself as the focal point of an angry, aimless shitshow, as if I mattered in that context.<\/p>\n

* Here\u2019s what his childhood was:<\/p>\n

In a recent interview promoting his new film \u201cDjango Unchained,\u201d Tarantino revealed that his mom dated the NBA great and let it slip that she was one of the many notches on the Big Dipper\u2019s bedpost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the \u201970s and I was living with these three hip single ladies, all always going out on dates all the time, dating football players and basketball players,\u201d Tarantino told Terry Gross of NPR\u2019s \u201cFresh Air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional ones,\u201d Gross asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, my mom, she dated Wilt Chamberlain. She was one of the 1,000,\u201d Tarantino quipped about his mom, who split with his dad, Tony Tarantino, before he was born.<\/p>\n

The filmmaker, of course, short-changed Chamberlain, whose self-proclaimed conquests in the bedroom are the stuff of legend.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s proud that his mother was batting practice for assorted jocks. This guy is f\u2019ed up<\/p>\n

* It has been 22 years, and (after multiple viewings) I still have no idea why anyone likes Pulp Fiction. It is ugly on so many levels.<\/p>\n

I found myself sitting though it several times because it was popular with my coevals. More depressing to me than the movie was the enthusiasm that people had for it.<\/p>\n

The first time I saw it was at a late-night showing in Richmond, California. Parents had brought their children to see it. I felt sorry for the children. The adults thought it was hilarious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comments on the Washington Post article: * “My parents were the kind of polite conservatives who would have been appalled by this year\u2019s Republican presidential campaign. They belonged to that stuffy but understated class of Eastern WASPs who were gently … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21791,29620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-wasps-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101623"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101634,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101623\/revisions\/101634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}