Lord of the Wrongs: Cultural Vandalism. By the Z-Man.

When people point out the silliness of having black Vikings or a female Captain America, the usual suspects start chanting “subverting expectations” like an incantation. You see, it is not about their efforts to mock your culture. The real issue is your lack of imagination. …

Just as “subvert expectations” is a magic phrase for the cultural wreckers, “go woke, go broke” has become an abracadabra phrase for their victims. When Amazon rolls out a ghetto version of Lord of the Rings, the conservatives start chanting, “Go woke, go broke!” at their televisions.

The people eagerly defacing these old entertainment products love the “go woke, go broke” stuff because it lets them employ something called fan-baiting. According to internet lore, this is a form of marketing employed by studios to generate artificial controversy, which generates publicity, drawing in people who would otherwise not be interested. It can also be used to dismiss negative reviews.

That last part is certainly true. Amazon has employed this tactic to explain away the tsunami of negative comments from Tolkien fans. The “remake” of the classic is poorly written, poorly acted, and full of insults to the core fans. They have black elves and black hobbits, and the hero is now a strong, independent female who is as appealing as a rectal probe. Everything about the production is insulting and stupid.

Amazon, like all big studios these days, bribed the professional critics to give the show rave reviews, but the fans threw up all over themselves when they saw it. This being the internet age, they went online to announce their displeasure, filling up the ratings with negative comments about the show. This being an autocratic age, Amazon then removed the negative comments and banned further negative comments.

 

Just listen to that bigoted black woman from 11:16. Watch the white guy next to her.

Another feature of this age is that when the oligarchs employ some fan-baiting, the self-appointed clerisy of the new religion gets in on the act. Bigots like Adam Serwer from The Atlantic roll out some vitriol against white people. You see, the reason fans do not like it is white people are afraid of diversity. If they could just get past their racism, they would see it is better than the original product.

The fan-baiting argument explains a lot of this, but it does not address the root cause. The negative response from fans is a reaction to the product. The fan-baiting is a way to capitalize on the negative response and play the victim, but it is also a reaction. Of course, the predicable groveling from conservatives over the cry of racism is another reaction. Everything about this dialectic makes sense except for the origin.

This is where another term is useful: cultural vandalism. This is where non-Western people, who now control the centers of cultural production, have nothing to offer, so they set about vandalizing the culture they acquired.

The people behind the reboot of the Lord of the Rings are engaged in cultural vandalism. The point of the effort was not to improve the original, but to deface it.

More signs of the great tide of diversity washing away merit and white culture. Equality of outcome leads to mediocrity.

“Hello darkness my old friend…” indeed.