Then it became apparent we could rot even further, as evidenced by the FCC's attempt to squelch the Washington Redskins' name behind an "obscenity" justification.
Now comes this decision from Amazon:
Amazon Prime has placed a warning label on episodes of Tom and Jerry on its instant video service telling viewers that the cartoon contains “ethnic and racial prejudices.”The warning states that these prejudices were “once commonplace in American society,” but they “were wrong then and they are wrong today.”The cat-and-mouse cartoon first played in movie theaters from the 1940s until 1957.Much of the discussion of potential racial prejudice surrounds a black-maid character named “Mammy Two Shoes.”
Other controversial elements include the portrayal of female characters and instances where cigarette smoking is “condoned or glamorized.”
Academics have argued that cartoons created more than 70 years ago should not be judged by modern standards.
Commentator and University of Kent sociology professor Frank Furedi called the caution label “empty-headed” and an example of the “false piousness” that has become common.
“We’re reading history backwards, judging people in the past by our values,” Furedi, a columnist for Spiked Online, told the BBC.
To revisit the gist of a post from earlier today, there are millions of post-American cattle-masses to whom this seems like a perfectly righteous and obvious move.
It is so very late in the day.
Whatya gonna do? Everybody's so scared a dyin yet we still do, here, there, everywhere. Now days it seems if someone can be found liable, well, they certify will. It's all enough to make a man want to live in a cave or at least get away to the desert for 40 days or so occassionally.
ReplyDeleteThe aim of the Freedom-Haters is to get everybody to wear some kind of chip on their shoulder, feel part of some aggrieved demographic group that needs the state's protection against being offended.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need another chip on your shoulder. Why do you blame government for all the prissy pusses in our land? This crap has more than invaded your beloved free market corporations which have quite a bit of power over their workers as they can rwally whallop their pocketbooks by firing us who don't fall in line. As it is, the American workplace is a pretty dammed oppressive and hence depressing place to be these days.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I'm a freelancer.
ReplyDeleteStop blowing the corporate freedom hating horn then. But that is a cop out and probably not near the money you could make on some corporate dole if they'd have you.
ReplyDelete