Popular Culture IS Politics

Byron York on Breitbart:  In Politics Fight, Breitbart Knew Culture is Key

"...those who write a nation’s songs are more influential than those who write a nation’s laws."


This is something we Libertarians and Conservatives cannot ignore. This is how you win or lose an empire...and a culture.

The Gunslinger
E.O.T.I.S. (Enemy of the Imperial State)

R.I.P. Andrew Breitbart

Goddamnit! This is what I've been trying to say!

We have to make "conservatism" cool.

And, frankly, my dear, that probably means using a different label!

Breitbart wanted Punk Rock Republicans.

I want Metal-Head Republicans. They play better.

The Gunslinger

High Fashion

Just saw a T-shirt that said:

"Mess with me, and you mess with the whole trailer park!"

I want one.

The Gunslinger

MoveON

Speaks for itself.

Cute...

Can you tell I'm sick to death of politics at the moment?

This is just so funny, on so many levels.

"Some people are just lucky in life." Uh....yeah.

Wow!

These are the first pictures I've ever seen of Lady Gaga that I thought were actually interesting.

Who knew?

The Gunslinger

"Christians" Care

Yeah, right. "Christians"....please note scare quotes.

It's amazing what Liberals will do and say to manipulate people into supporting ideas and policies that are bad for them. It's astounding to what extent they will misrepresent themselves, abandon any and all principles in order to win elections simply because being elected gets them more power...Power that they have every intention of using to force others to their own Will.

The question is, just how stupid are real Christians? Will they go for this Liberal Dog and Pony show?

Just because Ayn doesn't believe in God, doesn't mean that God (and Christians) don't believe in her...

Some wise man said something similar about politics...surely the same can be said for God.

The Gunslinger

Raylan Givens' Style

I'm posting this more or less so I can watch it whenever I want. It's just cool. Provoking the bad guy into making it self-defense...and a clean kill.

Nice.

Justified

Yeah..it's sorta like this...

Mario Savio

When I was a kid, the Left convinced me that they were for Freedom. Because they offered libidinous teenagers the wild notions of "free love", "drugs",  "no hangups" like our parents' generation.

"If it feels good, do it"

Most of us bought it because were wanted the perks...and then moved on from politics, and kept that understanding into our adult lives:  that the LEFT were for FREEDOM.

It's wasn't that we paid attention to what they said or did after our initial introduction in the 60's...we just stuck with what we learned when they spoon-fed us what they wanted us to hear in our vulnerable, stupid, impressionable youth.

Eventually, some of us lucky few have an event take place in our lives that shocks us out of that complacency and forces us to re-evaluate. For me it was 9-11, but some of our fellows (most Liberals) have never experienced that Road to Damascus moment.

That MOMENT OF CLARITY...

I think it is my/our job to provide it.

And, at least for "We. Are. Too. Cool" Californians, it's not going to happen with good factual arguments. It's going to happen through art. ART.

Movies, videos, music, performance....

Popular Culture.

Because that's the way California Liberals roll. (sigh)

We need to expose the fact that the Left switched the Labels (see previous post) and help them "get it" by exploring the truth behind the other label...

Oh...and we need to totally stop calling ourselves the disgusting, boring, unexciting: "Conservative".

Would YOU want to hang out with someone who prides himself on being:

conformist
boring
hidebound
unadventurous
modest
plain
stick-in-the-mud
cautious
moderate
conventional
sober
unobtrusive
restrained
square
straight
lame

That, my dears is what CONSERVATIVE means to the rest of the world...

And as much as we might want to change that, in English, those are the many shades of meaning to the word as it appears in the dictionary...and try as we might, that's how it comes across to anyone that does not share our fascination with the idea of "Conserving the Principles of the American Revolution".

Which, honestly, is a stretch anyway.

Time for a new description. Or none at all, so that it can never be used against us.

Just...."we like freedom"...."we're individuals and iconoclasts that want to take out the dehumanizing collective..."

And what healthy human doesn't agree with that?

Sure, there are some totally insane Leftist that actually imagine they prefer the hive/matrix/Borg collective. But most Americans...even those who mistake themselves for Liberals....do not.

They've just got the labels mixed up.

And we need to help them get those labels straightened out.

But we can't do it by the direct approach, they are too wary of us, they've been taught to fear and hate us. So we need to do it sideways... through art, and popular culture.

We need to do the impossible: Influence and change and guide popular culture.

Because we don't need to spend years educating the Liberals...we just need to give them one perfect, single "moment of clarity"...


The Gunslinger

Another One?

Honestly, I didn't find this in the same place or at the same time...and when I saw this one, I'd forgotten that the last post was a picture of Heath Ledger as THE JOKER.

That one was a political comment.

This one is just a great line about his performance.

If you haven't seen it....do.

Egan and Ledger

I just saw a movie preview...with someone named Christopher Egan. Since I'm so pop-culture challenged, I don't know who he is. But at first I thought Heath Ledger had come back to life.

This guy's a dead ringer (sorry) for Heath. But weirder, he sounds EXACTLY like him. It's not just the accent—both are Australian, but it's the timber and tone of his voice.

I checked the credits to see if this kid's name was "Ledger" - thought it might be his younger brother. But there's no indication of it in a quick google search.

Egan is in a movie called "Letters to Juliet" in case you want to check it out. Fair warning: it looks to be a sweet love story "chick flick". Take your woman. She'll love you for it.

The Gunslinger
(Kinda crushing on Christopher)

A Thought While Smoking

I just had one of those random thoughts that happen to me once in a while. Must be the nicotine.

Menopause and Erectile Disfunction are two of the best things that ever happened to civilization. And Cosmetic Surgery, Botox andViagra are among of the worst.

Stay with me here.

As we age naturally, we naturally separate ourselves from our youthful passions, and obsession with vanity, popularity, sexuality.

If left to Nature, our inclinations toward them decrease, our ability to engage in them decreases and the fresh, youthful beauty that once attracted partners with which to engage in them, decreases.

While some American perpetual teenagers find this depressing—a disease that needs a cure—it is really graduation from self-focus to other-focus. When we are able to detach from the immediacy of our passions, from vanity, from self-absorption...we find understanding, of each other, of humanity, of history, of politics, of truth.

This is why the elders of so many civilizations have been venerated.

And rightly.

We celebrate the child becoming an adult. We should also celebrate the adult becoming an elder. We should do it personally, within ourselves, rather than feeling bad that we are "getting old". And we should reflect that new pride in age and wisdom in new traditions, that recognize and honor the citizen that willingly and proudly leaves middle adulthood behind to seek and share the wisdom of experience and age.

We abjure that phase of life at our peril. Both on a personal level and a societal one.

The Gunslinger

Hollywood's Own "Art" Proves Their Politics Wrong

One of my observations about Hollywood is that they keep making "conservative" movies, but they just don't know it, because they regularly mis-identify their heroes and villains.

I love it that Leigh Scott agrees with me.

It takes a healthy dose of cynicism, a dash of historical ignorance, and a lot of gullibility to fully embrace modern statist rhetoric.  Hollywood drinks the kool-aid by the gallon.  Yet, in their pursuit of good story telling and their aspirations towards art, they more often than not end up making really good conservative stories.

When you get right down to it, the reason there are so few “conservative” films out there is because most films are inherently conservative.  Any film that champions the rise and strength of the individual is conservative.  Any story that tells of the triumphs of good over evil is conservative.  The subtext of films that resonate, films that capture our imaginations, are based on the romantic ideals of conservative thought.

We all know the classic romantic comedy formula.  Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.  The backbone of this formula is individual achievement.  Note that it isn’t boy meets girl, then boy gets government to force girl to be with him in the interest of “fairness.”

 Of course, it's not like I needed validation. I knew I was right.

The Gunslinger, EOTIS
Para Bellum

Random Thought

Is it possible ZerØ grew up watching Star Trek reruns?

I just realized he talks like William Shatner (Captain Kirk)—with those same...

...weird pauses.

The Gunslinger

Zerø and Adam

Barack Obama is like Adam Lambert on American Idol: all trying too hard to be as hip as possible, decked out in all the trendiest of trendy duds, etc.

While the very least perceptive of the American Public are incapable of seeing through the shallow facade...and imagine the "image" is the "substance". And believing the guy(s) are actually "cool" when the very best that can be said of either of them is that they are "trendy".

"Trendy" is about how you say things. "Cool" is about what you say.

"Trendy" is how you look. "Cool" is what you are.

"Trendy" is wearing things you think make you "cool". "Cool" is making whatever you wear "cool" because you wear it.

The difference is monumental. And anyone who can't see it...well, may not be very "cool".

The Gunslinger

Eureka Moment

Now I finally have a word for it: "Degredation".

I've been arguing...much less cogently...this point for years. Every time the language Nazis insist we change the words we use to describe things or people, the new word always takes on the old word's negativity.

Nigger became Colored became Negro became Afro-American became Black became African American...and ultimately the only effect was to make most non-blacks roll their eyes every time a "new" designation was introduced.

[I stopped at "Black", and I'm not budging.]

One of my favorite stupid "evolutions" is of words we use to designate crippled people.

[Did she just say "crippled"?]

"Linguistically speaking, this phenomenon is euphemism -- the same prissiness about diction we used to mock the Victorians for. It's based on the illusion that words control reality. Linguists know the truth is the opposite; words take their meaning from how they are used. Merely forcing people not to use an "offensive" word doesn't in itself change their attitudes, so the euphemistic word gradually takes on the associations of the suppressed word. Linguists call this phenomenon degradation (of the word, not of what the word is being applied to).

Once upon a time, "stout" meant "strong" and "portly" meant "dignified," but they have been euphemisms for "fat" for so long that now they primarily mean fat (though "portly" does retain enough of its original meaning that it suggests the would-be dignified Oliver Hardy sort of fat guy). "Homeless" was supposed to cure us of our negative attitude toward bums by portraying them as victims, merely lacking a home, but within just a few years it took on associations of bumhood: lazy, flaky, screwed-up sponger and low-life. This is why liberals have to keep introducing new politically correct terms all the time: to keep ahead of the inexorable degradation."

So there you go. Resist the idiots. Refuse to surrender the language. If we're not careful, their sloppy language will turn us into sloppy thinkers. Language is the medium of thought.

The Gunslinger

"...blowin' in the wind"

There is just something so hilarious, ironic and disgusting about this story, I thought I'd share it...in case you haven't heard.

More proof that class does not necessarily accompany the acquisition of money.

Not that you ever doubted it.

The Gunslinger