Tired of Culture Wars? It will only get worse

Do you ever feel like we are at war with Hollywood and the world around it?

Without a doubt, we are fighting for Florida over gender education; You’ve heard of it from the hosts of the Oscars at Disney’s ABC.

And we’re fighting Texas for abortion. Reese Witherspoon and hundreds of other stars hung flags on it.

In Georgia, this is suffrage/ballot integrity. I’m so old that I remember when Will Smith starred there with Antoine Fukua.

Beth Midler then challenged West Virginia. The problem was Joe Mancini or Philibaster or something.

In fact, the film industry is almost as embroiled in political and moral strife as the city and county of San Francisco, which has banned official travel to 28 states, a policy deemed unacceptable to the once-free city. Baghdad, Gulf. (We’re also crazy about Russia. But almost everyone is, so it’s not considered.)

In short, we are immersed in culture wars. Led by activist filmmakers and celebrities who were particularly active on social media during the long months of the Covid quarantine, the industry has clearly coincided with progressive positions on inclusion, racial equality, gender and transgender rights, gun control, border control. Abortion and other guaranteed issues will divide both politics and audiences.

When Disney CEO Bob Chapek was forced to shift from public neutrality to open opposition to Florida’s new education laws: don’t call his opponents “gay”, his supporters “anti-correction”, battle lines were eventually drawn. . . December is gone. Even Disney wasn’t big enough to leave. Florida and its governor, Ron de Santis, fought and planned for the Reedy Creek Improvement District near Orlando to reclaim the company’s self-governing privileges. So justified outrage suddenly comes at a cost and can reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hollywood’s sociopolitical bias has probably cost him dearly over the years. But if you call it a “wake-up tax,” it was nearly impossible to measure and was covered in cross-currents: power outages, audience fragmentation, streaming revolution, shifting tastes. Who can say if the collapse of the awards ceremony was more due to the apathy of the contestants or the audience’s reaction to the lectures and political turmoil? It had a relatively weak opening. Fantastic Beasts: Mysteries dumbbells Does it reflect franchise fatigue or discomfort with his gay past? If the viewer is turned off by left-leaning content, do Netflix subscriptions stumble due to competition and password sharing? Everything is mixed.

But the cultural struggle as a whole does not add to the fun. The intensity of those who applaud “progress” is rewarded against those who feel that they or their children are being reprogrammed by movies and television. The net effect was to emphasize the tension and attention that was once a comfortable viewing experience. If you sponsor a Disney movie, do you support a position about transgender people in schools? If you’re watching Netflix, are you making a statement about climate change or are you supporting Obama? A laugh for supporting Amy Sumer against Rowe Wade?

For better or worse, we are here. And conflicts only escalate when Florida Disney violates Supreme Court and midterm rules.