Overthinking Rudolph
A lot of serious stuff happened this week, but the silliest controversy was the uproar over a stop-motion cartoon from 1964.
Though silly, the notion that Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer cartoon is “seriously problematic” serves as a microcosm of something that truly is problematic: people who constantly pick at every little thing and basically tear the country apart.
Imagine being a working-class American who is worried about how the world is changing—who is also susceptible to warnings about a “war on Christmas”—how are you going to respond to an inundation of retweets that attack your beloved childhood cartoon?
Now, let me be honest. I am a much bigger fan of A Charlie Brown Christmas (with Linus reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke).
And, truth be told, there are some issues with this cartoon: Santa IS a jerk! Rudolph's father, Donner, teaches him horrible life lessons. Thank goodness Twitter can be a safe space for viewers to process their feelings about this “parable on racism & homophobia” that elevates elf slavery, verbal abuse, and bullying. [/sarcasm]
But here is where I think this HuffPo thing goes off the rails. It's at the end, where it endorses the view that "deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable." That is a very dark and explicitly Marxist interpretation of the ending (inasmuch as it reduces everything to a question of labor).
The more standard interpretation would be that Santa, Donner, and the rest recognize that they were wrong, and their hearts soften.
Some people just can't accept a happily ever after ending. Rudolph and Hermey are happy. Why can't these critics be?
The Beast in Me
Over at the Daily Beast, I argued that Republicans wish they had a House Speaker as tough as Nancy Pelosi. I also urged conservatives to prepare ourselves for Robert Mueller's report.
On the Podcast
Beth Macy talks about her book, Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and The Drug Company That Addicted America.
Also, Jose Antonio Vargas talks about his book, Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.
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