The Left is so uncharitable. Whenever I see the multi-symbol “coexist” bumper sticker I think the driver probably really means they want PC book burning.
Take Roxane Gay, for example, writing in the March 29, New York Times, about Roseanne Barr’s new show. Gay introduces Roseanne to the uncharitable slant she will face for as long as Barr uses her star power to humanize the enemies of the Left.
Ms. Gay admits she used to love the original Roseanne show. Back then, Ms. Gay found Roseanne “edgy and provocative”. The 1990s “Roseanne” was “a smart, hilarious and groundbreaking show that covered a lot of important ground in prime-time television.” But now, suddenly, Roseanne is “noxious, transphobic, racist and small-minded,” even “absurd and offensive.” Moreover, “Her views are muddled and incoherent.”
“She is more invested in banal and shallow provocation than engaging with sociopolitical issues in a thoughtful manner. No amount of mental gymnastics can make what Roseanne Barr has said and done . . . palatable.”
And yet, Gay then tells me that one of Roseanne’s granddaughters in the new show is “gender nonconforming” in Gay’s words, and the other grandchild is black. And, Roseanne’s sister on the program hates Trump.
Holy smoke. Looks to me like Roseanne is getting off to a rollicking good start on the “edgy and provocative” angle!
But Gay is wholly unimpressed with these puny and insincere gestures toward diversity. She further criticizes the show for the fact that,
“no mention [is made of the black granddaughter] as if to suggest how at ease the Conners are with difference. But Mary [the granddaughter] has no lines and very little camera time. . . . ”
Ms. Gay—it’s only episodes one and two. You want to chill out and let the characters breathe a bit? Like red wine?
“Young Mary is just there, a place holder, tokenized and straining the limits of credulity.”
Wow… How so? In the silent film era, volumes were spoken by simple images. Sounds to me like Roseanne took a page from the school of “a picture’s worth 1,000 words.”
I can only imagine the shellac of glowing exultation Ms. Gay would lay down for us if Roseanne were not a Trump supporter and the political polarity of the show was used to create yet another tired platform for the further excoriation of Donald Trump and the Anti-Washington movement that Ms. Gay doubtless spoon-feeds off of nightly on CNN, MSNBC et al.
Does anyone share my increasing horror at the way seemingly smart people like Ms. Gay exhibit so little moral and critical consistency in their life when their support of our Washington above-the-law oligarchy is challenged? Her entire assessment of the Good and art is based on whether or not the thing under scrutiny advances the agenda of the Democrat Party and the Washington elite.
Ms. Gay, I guess Roseanne Barr is guilty of two gigantic no-no’s in your world: First, her humor might humanize your “enemy.” Humor is apparently death to Leftist propaganda because at its heart is the assertion that the world is dying and only the Left can save us. World death is no laughing matter. Hence, the Left forbids laughter—unless they are laughing at us.
Second, Roseanne is using her star power to blatantly side against the Left — and the Left, since 1970, has used its Hollywood blacklist to ruin anyone who dares try.
Ms. Gay writes like she herself is an extension of that Hollywood blacklist doing her part to spike Roseanne’s show. And her Times editor will pat her on the head for it.
But I am hoping that Roseanne, like Trump, doesn’t give a damn—so that her show might grow into the watershed moment when finally important figures in show biz begin questioning the authority of the Left’s chokehold on American entertainment.
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See the previous posts in this ongoing discussion about the reboot of Roseanne:
“Roseanne: The Ultimate Reality Show” by David Churchill Barrow
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Photo by andreashierling 
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