It was with glee usually reserved for major personal accomplishments or new Kelly Clarkson albums that I heard the news that Glenn Beck's show on Fox News was being cancelled. Beck is one of an exhausting number of political â┚¬Ëœpundits' who depend on shrieking polemic and manipulative spin to advance their agenda. Like some sweaty, over-aged frat boy, he belittled his opponents not with the power of his brain, but with the volume of his voice, unsubstantiated rhetoric and name-calling. But he is by no means alone. Bill O'Reilly. Ann Coulter. Donald Trump. And it's not just Republicans. I might agree with most of Keith Olbermann's points of view but he delivers them in the same infantile, garrulous manner as those he disagrees with so violently. Add to these the proliferations of gossips sites and â┚¬Ëœentertainment' news programs that have encrusted themselves like mold on the side of a fish tank into our national consciousness, making Charlie Sheen's arrested development headline news.
What isn't enormously mean-spirited and red-faced is downright insipid. Snooki speaking at Rutgers. Perez Hilton drawing penises and farts on pictures of celebrities. The inexplicable ubiquity of Paris Hilton, Spencer Pratt and all things Real Housewife. In sum, all of these media images represent a massive, assaultive dumbingdown of our discourse, where verbal bullying, so reviled in our high schools (of late), and the celebration of the stupid, have become the baseline of communication in our democracy.
There was a time not that long ago when news agencies presented the facts, and, as Betty White recently said, celebrities behaved themselves in public. Americans were allowed to draw their own conclusions without Sarah Palin condescending to them and stoking their fears into vote-getting (mis) directed anger. I don't need Katie Couric telling me what to think about happenings in Egypt. I just want her to tell me what's going on, and for her to trust that I'm smart enough to figure the rest of it out myself, thank you. When I was in journalism school in the 90s, that was the basic tenant: It's not about you. It's about the story, stupid. Now everythingâ┚¬â€Âfrom the Jersey Shore and Andy Cohen (bleh) to Anderson Cooperâ┚¬â€Âis a vanity play.
These days, 90% of the programming on â┚¬Ëœnews' networks isn't news. It's punditry and advocacy journalism. Fox News isn't a news network, it's the hometown newsletter of the Republican Party. On Election Night 2008, Fox had a blinding phalanx of archconservative Republicans as their analysis team for the night. There wasn't a dissenting view to be found. CNN, meanwhile, which scores higher on my list but still barely would get a passing grade for genuinely objective journalism, had William Fucking Bennett ontheir panel. The Fox News tagline has been â┚¬Å”Fair and Balancedâ┚¬Â for more than a decade. So I'm the only one who thinks that's the
single most farcical piece of marketing ever? But, shhhh. Don't frighten the bully!
In her song â┚¬ËœStupid Girls,' P!nk asked: â┚¬Å”Where have all the smart people gone?â┚¬Â It's an excellent question. And it's easy, as a free thinker and a Democrat, to call all of this some right-wing attempt to prop up antiquated beliefs into a party platform. But unfortunately it goes far deeper. Our very own community engages in behavior that is counterproductive to grace and a measured discourse. Gay men for a long time have depended on superficial archetypes to define what is considered sexy. â┚¬ËœYoung, dumb and full of cumâ┚¬Â is held up as a sexual ideal and men of substance, but with less than a 6 pack, are not as valued.
So where have all the smart people gone?
And more to my point here, where have all our smart people gone? They're still around, but too many cloak themselves in far too defined stereotypes so they may be deemed â┚¬Ëœhot.' Where their sexuality is driving their appearance, and driving it to extremes. I'm all for freedom of expression (Duh! Writing!), but someone who has swallowed whole the leather template, for example, complete with outsized facial hair and excessive body jewelry and tattoos, would be a hard hire for me as a manager in a business context. If you ghettoize yourself, don't be surprised when that's where you end up. The â┚¬Ëœbear' who dresses like a trucker but who is actually a programmer. â┚¬ËœTwinks' who obsess over appearance instead of accomplishments. Older gay men desperately clinging to clothes and attitudes that aren't age-appropriate. The same tattoos and the same piercings in the same places. It's all depressingly unoriginal for a group of people who should know better, and have the mental and creative faculties to be unique individuals instead of just another bear, twink or jock.
With the mind-numbingly endless and unedited stream of information available in contemporary America, it's easy to get lazy. You have to be careful and thoughtful about the information you let in. But gay Americans are uniquely positioned to be thought leaders in this area. Times have a'changed, my friends. Yes, gay slurs still exist, but that's how they are referred to in the press now. Slurs. This is our window to show them how it's done. We can show everyone that we are people of substance in an undisciplined world. We can elevate the discourse again. Starting with ourselves.
