One Worry

Apropos the great Yglesias-Sullivan debate that's been playing out on Tapped and The Washington Monthly, I think one thing the anti-culture liberals are tending to neglect is the risk that politicized denunciations of popular culture could easily get out of control. Most Americans are vaguely troubled by the imagery and so forth surrounding Britney Spears and that's a disquiet that most liberal intellectual types sympathize with. It's also the case, however, that most Americans are disquieted by the message of pop cultural products which indicate that gay people are okay. I think very few liberals will be happy when what starts with a pretty anodyne campaign against "garbage" in the culture turns on things that we think are worthy. Atrios has finally gotten wise to The Decemberists "16 Military Wives" video. Well, I bet that if most Americans saw that video, they would say it sends a bad message. It's a bit, well, anti-American. But I'm quite sure none of the folks urging Dems to stop standing up for the autonomy of the cultural sphere are going to be happen when the stampede turns into an attack on unpopular political views. I'm pretty sure the lyrics to "FYR" don't play well among married couples in the suburbs:

Ten short years of progressive change, fifty fucking years of calling us names. Can we trade title nine for an end to hate crime? RU-486 if we suck your fucking dick? One step forward, five steps back. One cool record in the year of rock-rap. Yeah we got all the power getting stabbed in the shower and we got equal rights on ladies night. Feminists we're calling you. Please report to the front desk. Let's name this phenomenon. It's too dumb to bring us down. F.Y.R. Fifty years of ridicule. F.Y.R. take another picture. . . . . Mrs. Doubtfire on mother's day. On-the-job stalker for equal pay. Toss us a few new AIDS drugs as national healthcare bites the dust. While you were on vacation black people didn't get reparations. You know these days no one's exploited. Sorry dude can't hear ya with my head in the toilet. Feminists we're calling you. Please report to the front desk. Let's name this phenomenon. It's too dumb to bring us down. F.Y.R. Fifty years of ridicule. F.Y.R. take another picture. . . . . . You've really come a long way baby. It's you, not the world, that's totally crazy. Cuz we really rocked the fuckin vote with election fraud in poor zip codes. Celebrate gay marriage in Vermont by enforcing those old sodomy laws. One step foreward five steps back. We tell the truth they turn up the laugh track. Feminists we're calling you. Please report to the front desk. Let's name this phenomenon. It's too dumb to bring us down.

And I'll myself say that I'm not 100 percent down for the Le Tigre political agenda, but in large part that's the point. Once you abandon the principled position that it's not the appropriate role of a politician to be telling people what music they should be listening to, it becomes impossible to defend the existence of anything without endorsing it's point-of-view. That, then, becomes an untenable view. Now what I am on board for is things like the V-Chip which are aimed at making it easier for parents to exercise control over what their kids watch. It seems to me that it's wise to acknowledge that there's a lot of stuff out there that various people have various problems with, and also to acknowledge that we all disagree about what the problematic stuff is. Public action aimed at facilitating private action seems to me to be the appropriate response.