Escapism is important in our society, and in this day and age, it’s never been more necessary. This is the 24-hour news cycle age of the internet where pretty much everywhere you turn there will be a news report or talking head selling you doom and gloom. It’s a direct turnaround from a time when getting the news outside the borders of your town took a small bit of effort. Every other moment was spent keeping your mind where your feet are.
Not anymore. The news is everywhere and it’s all the time. It’s enough to drive people crazy, and judging by the increased attention to mental health and the willingness of mainstream culture to embrace the insane, it absolutely is driving people nuts. Moreover, it’s so laced with political narrative driving that is so left-leaning that it falls over into lunacy.
People turning to movies, video games, and other forms of art isn’t surprising, but neither should be the left’s insistence that its messaging follow you into these forms of escapism. These messages are things that they typically really want you to buy into. Climate change and feminism are, without a doubt, some of the most forced concepts today. For instance, when was the last time you saw a commercial where the man gets one over on the woman? How many movies force the idea that the world is going to end tomorrow, or is in great danger because mankind wasn’t paying attention to climate change?
These issues typically serve the Democrat party very well and as such, they want you to buy into it whole-hog. They figure that if you can’t escape it, it will become a part of your everyday mental makeup. You’ll just accept that these things are true without much thought. The less critical thinking you do about it, the easier it is to sell you on narratives, and more importantly, the easier it is to make those who resist it into bad guys.
Naturally, the left is looking to expand and if there’s one thing that has served the left incredibly well, it’s been the COVID-19 pandemic. It helped them boot out their most hated enemy since civil rights for black citizens, it’s made American citizens willingly submit to control, and it’s turned those who don’t submit into “others” that has people who listen to the narrative blindly at war with whoever Democrats point at.
Case in point, MSNBC and New York Times writer, James Poniewozik, is angry at the fact that the mainstream arts aren’t focusing more on pandemic related storylines according to Fox News:
Some of the most popular shows on TV or streaming services have not written in the pandemic, or have included it only to eventually write it out of their scripts. Why, for instance, aren’t Carrie Bradshaw and company wearing masks while dining in crowded restaurants in the “Sex and the City” reboot “Just Like That,” the New York Times’s James Poniewozik asked in a recent piece.
“And just like that … Covid is over. At least it is in this show’s Manhattan, as well as in a cohort of other series that try, wishfully, to press the epidemiological fast-forward button,” Poniewozik wrote in his Friday piece.
He referenced several other shows that he suggested “wished” away the pandemic, such as “This Is Us.” The hit NBC drama incorporated the pandemic in its fifth season, but appeared to abandon it in last week’s season six premiere. Last year’s pilot for NBC’s “Mr. Mayor,” Poniewozik added, “yada-yadas the pandemic away.”
Poniewozik expanded on his protest in an MSNBC interview Monday morning.
“It’s kind of an unsettling phenomenon where shows are sort of taking the standpoint of, ‘okay in the world of our show, the pandemic did happen, it existed and was a real thing. But now it’s over. It somehow got fixed, yada-yada, yada, and the rest of you are sort of out on your own,'” the TV critic said on “Morning Joe.”
I have two questions to ask here.
Firstly, what does Poniewozik think the point of escapism is? Does he think that every piece of art ever made has to revolve around politics?
That’s a redundant question. The answer is “yes,” and I know that because the left is very adamant that anything and everything carry their message. Poniewozik is angry that things aren’t and are, instead, focusing on other storylines that help an audience find relatability and don’t bore them with repetitiveness, causing them to tune out.
If the Sex and the City reboot constantly revolved around a virus instead of women loving and lusting in the city, then people wouldn’t watch. They’re there to watch Carrie navigate sexual relationships, not preach about the importance of masks.
Secondly, why does Poniewozik want people talking about the pandemic so badly? It’s not like people aren’t aware of it, and to be sure, people have already picked their corners. I sincerely doubt someone not frightened by Omicron is going to suddenly change his mind after an episode of Blackish.
The answer to that is already answered. They want to drive it so deep into your consciousness like they’ve done with climate change and feminism so that it becomes your norm. They want you to just accept the pandemic and whatever they say about it. Doing so makes you accept a lot more.
It’s disgusting to think about, really. The pandemic has destroyed millions of lives either through the virus itself or through the fallout of lockdowns and regulations. Yet the left wants us to stay mired in it and keep the suffering going.
