Did Peggy Noonan complain about Madonna and Britney?

[elfs]

So, I'm reading through the news, and I see this from Peggy Noonan:

It is one thing to grouse that dreadful people who don't care about us control our economy, but another, and in a way more personal, thing to say that people who don't care about us control our culture. In 2009 this was perhaps most vividly expressed in the Adam Lambert Problem. Mr. Lambert's act left viewers feeling not just offended but assaulted.... It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it.

Jesus Fucking Your Christ, Ma'am, but did you ever think that maybe you ought to turn off the channel?

Don't give them the oxygen of your viewership and you won't have to watch it. If enough people do that the entire thing will collapse and you can stop worry about it entirely.

Peggy Noonan's Christianist Culture Warriorship and the Invisible Hand are at war, have been at war, and will always be at war. You cannot be a Christian Conservative and a Free Market Capitalist, the two are mutually incompatible. Because the Free Market will inevitably shift to give the people what they want, and what they want is often sleazy, sexy, and inappropriate for small children.

Whatever happened to Ms. Noonan's personal responsibility?

Comments

[jenk]

did you ever think that maybe you ought to turn off the channel?

But then she'd be left out, because it would still be happening. Or something.

I used to think it was just those who hadn't grown up with TV who seemed aghast at the idea of turning the damn thing off, but I'm seeing it in people younger than I too. Strange.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

I think that the instinct to apply ones own moral judgements upon the rest of humanity is always going to be expressed by some fraction of the species. The flavor just changes with time, fashion, and what authority it happens to wield, or desire.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Whatever happened to Ms. Noonan's personal responsibility?

Being a Christian Conservative and personal responsibility are likewise mutually incompatible. It seems they desire no greater pleasure than forcing their morality on other people.

Either that or everyone is in politics for the express purpose of obtaining power?

[qtplatypus.livejournal.com]

Well that is the point of politics. Its what you do with the power after you have it is what truly matters.

[tagryn]

But, back in '07 when you were confronted by something similar (more tame, actually), you stated:
http://elfs.livejournal.com/674080.html
"...it's the responsibility of the truck's operators to remove or obscure it. It's in bad taste and lacks propriety."

Apparently the "Christianist Culture Warriorship" has a wider membership than we suspected! 8)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

You are mistaken. In both cases, the fundamental issue is simple: with whom lies the responsibility for preventing this vulgar display within sight of others? In Ms. Noonan's case, it lies with her, and her grip on the remote control; in the case of vandalism, while it certainly lies with the vandals, it also lies with the the operator.

[tagryn]

van·dal·ism: willful or malicious destruction or defacement of public or private property.

Since the logo was put there deliberately by the company or driver, I don't think that word means what you think it means.

In any case, I fail to see a whole lot of difference between your reaction to that logo and Noonan's reaction to Lambert's exhibitionism: both are based on violating what the viewer considers their own norms of decency, and that's hard to argue since one person's "vandalism" is another person's "art." You may have found the logo to be 'in bad taste and lack(ing) propriety,' but others may disagree, just as Ms. Noonan found Lambert's performance in poor taste, but you disagree.

If responsibility is dependent on the effort required to avoid it - switching channels is easier than switching lanes of traffic - then Lambert's display would not be obscene to TV viewers, but would be for those in the live audience? Since their effort to avoid the display would be considerably greater (having to get up and walk out)...and by definition, his performance would be more obscene than the sign you took offense to and wanted censored, since switching lanes is easier than walking out. Therefore, if Ms. Noonan had been physically present instead of watching on TV, her criticisms would then be even more valid than yours by that standard, correct?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Now, I find it quite funny that everyone is fixated on Adam Lambert kissing another guy, but nobody is calling him on the carpet for shoving someone's head in his crotch.

Adam, Adam, Adam … there's being, "edgy," and then there's just flat-out tasteless. Simulating sex on stage on a televised performance lacks tasted, no matter who's doing it.