Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Finding the Truth in People Magazine

Sometimes the truth jumps out at you from places where you least expect it and it can be pretty jarring when it does. That's what happened to me today as I was browsing through the magazines in Walgreen's.

I'd picked up this week's--October 8--issue of People and was casually flipping through its pages when I came across a review for the movie "The Kingdom". Now you know that liberals always insist that they support the troops and act indignant when their patriotism is questioned. But often their true feelings slip out in spite of themselves, and that's what happened in People.

I haven't seen "The Kingdom" (TK), but it must really be a good movie because People's movie reviewer Leah Rozen gave it three out of four stars. However, she mixed some revealing criticism in with the praise. While calling TK "a gripping action-thriller", "smart", and "exciting", Rozen also complained that the movie had "a hyperheroic Hollywood...ending" and that it "pander[ed] to [Americans'] most jingoistic instincts". What was it about "The Kingdom" that so upset Rozen? Apparently, the movie was too pro-American. That's right.

In "The Kingdom" the Americans, at least the FBI team that's sent to Saudi Arabia, are the good guys, and they kick terrorist ass in a way that had the audience cheering, Rozen admits. That was too much for her. She must've been in a tizzy about how to review the movie. Intellectual honesty apparently forced Rozen to give "The Kingdom" a good rating, but she threw in her disclaimers as a sop to her liberal reading audience. It was as if she were saying, "Ok guys, I have to admit that "The Kingdom" is a good movie, but I want you to know that I didn't fall for all its pro-American stuff."

Rozen's review revealed the corrupt version of "patriotism" that prevails among today's liberals. Routing for America is "hyperheroic". Cheering when America destroys her enemies is "jingoism". For liberals such things are BIG no-nos. Therefore, since they can't route FOR America the only option left is to route AGAINST America, which liberals do with relish. Whether it's Harry Reid declaring the Iraq War lost, Cindy Sheehan calling America evil, or Sean Penn cozying up to America-hating dictator Hugo Chavez, liberals have declared war on their own nation. They consider their self-hatred and investment in defeat as a "sophisticated" form of patriotism. Real patriotism--loving America, defending her, routing for her to win--is disavowed as racist, militarist, imperialist or, as Rozen put it, jingoist. The truth slipped out. And you thought People printed only fluff.

1 comment:

JMK said...

Journalists like to pretend to be "citizens of the world," to appear "above petty bourgoise pretensions," but the irony is that this "citizen of the world" act IS the pettiest of all the petty pretensions!

What are "journalists" but glorified English majors?

And what are English majors except College students who aren't that good at Math, and logic and reasoning?