I will probably never get tired of watching the left go to war with members of the left for committing some minor transgression of leftist thought. This is, in part, because I'm easily amused. But it's also because, well, they created this hypersensitive world filled with ever-shifting norms about what is appropriate and what isn't, and it's kind of fun to watch them try to live in it. Here're just a few of the people and things that are "problematic" today.
Meryl Streep
Oh boy. Meryl, you really need to stop making yourself available to the press. Remember when you wore a shirt that said "I'd rather be a rebel than a slave," forgetting that literally the only context for the words "rebel" and "slave" is the antebellum American south? And now you're asked about the lack of diversity on a film festival jury and you reply—seriously—"we're all Africans, really"?
Someone should really take away all sharp objects from her publicist.
Hipster Homophobia
First there was "hipster racism," ironic attempts to defuse racism's power by engaging in stereotyping and the such. Then there was "hipster sexism," like hipster racism just, you know, about sexism. "Hipster misogyny" is the kissing cousin of hipster sexism. And now, naturally, we have "hipster homophobia":
One movie stood out among the rest. In its most recent report, GLAAD singled out the 2015 comedy Get Hard as the "one of the most problematic films we’ve seen in years." The Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell vehicle focused on James (Ferrell), a clueless hedge-fund manager who is sentenced to prison for embezzlement and fraud. After a chance meeting with Darnell (Hart) in a parking lot, James assumes—because he’s black—that Darnell must have served time and pays him $30,000 to help him prepare for life behind bars. Oh, and to keep him from getting raped.
Emphasis mine because I want you to shake your head at the horror of it all. I know I am. SMDH. S.M.D.H.
Beyonce
Obviously, you should ignore the critiques made by (probably racist) folks at Fox News that Beyonce's new song is bad because it borrows imagery from Black Panthers or whatever.
Equally obviously, you should still shun Beyonce's new song because it is totes problematic and those totes problematic aspects are far, far more worthy of your attention.
What's the only thing worse than "erasure"?* That's right: appropriation. And Beyonce's new song does a whole lot of appropriatin':
This is not the first time in recent weeks that "Queen Bey" has been accused of the dread appropriation:
If Beyonce—the greatest performer OF ALL TIME who SLAYS everyone in her path—can be problematic, who can't? As a wise man once (kind of) said: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become problematic." So sad.
*I'm not here to enact the labor of explaining basic concepts like "erasure" to you; educate your own self.