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<blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 221226" data-attributes="member: 27">In some cases you end up with bizarre shows like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.&nbsp; It created a world of 1990s PC attitudes in characters set in the 1800&#039;s Old West.&nbsp; It was unbearable to watch at times as they attempted to apply modern sensibilities to history.&nbsp; TV westerns had never been true to life, I know, but Dr. Quinn went too far in trying to re-interpret the reality of frontier life.&nbsp; It&#039;s hard to adequately describe how cringe-y it got before I abandoned it.I think the (temporary) pulling of &quot;The Germans&quot; (as well as the pulling of Gone With The Wind) is just the other end of the pendulum that always swings in these situations.&nbsp; People with legitimate reasons to be upset get drowned out by the &#039;outrage mob&#039; (whom I affectionately call The Cult of the Perpetually Offended) who have to outdo one another to seek out new and unique sources of outrage.&nbsp; So the pendulum swings toward listening to their objections, and actions are often taken to (supposedly) quell their outrage by removing that TV show, firing some actor with problematic tweets in their past, or &quot;cancelling&quot; someone who isn&#039;t sufficiently toeing the outrage line. Those in charge try to predict what might &#039;trigger&#039; them and goes out of their way to remove them or otherwise take them out of the (possible) mix.&nbsp;&nbsp; Pacifying the outrage mob by pulling a TV episode or firing a studio exec never satisfies, though, since the feigned outrage isn&#039;t true outrage as much as it is an addiction to wielding power over people.&nbsp; Are they really angry about a callous depiction of slavery in GWTW, a movie from eighty years ago?&nbsp; No, it&#039;s more about firing the gun and making people dance to the tune. But inevitably the cultists go a few steps too far.&nbsp; The search for new, unique sources of outrage becomes an exercise in diminishing returns.&nbsp; I recall people calling for the removal of reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard from syndication a few years ago because the Duke boys had a Confederate flag painted on the roof of the car they drove, &quot;General Lee&quot;.&nbsp; The show was basically a live-action cartoon; why would anyone take it seriously?&nbsp; To me, this was the &#039;jump the shark&#039; moment for the perpetually outraged.&nbsp; But I was wrong; it occurred a few days later when a correspondent on ESPN was targeted by the outrage mob because his name was Robert Lee--and ESPN actually removed him from covering a football game for them to appease the angered.&nbsp; The man is Asian, but ESPN bowed to the pressure anyway....and then, when the dust settled they became a laughing stock.&nbsp; But it was ESPN who got dragged for not standing up for their employee (or just publishing a photo of him and assuring everyone he was not trying to re-start the Civil War), not the idiots who were searching high and low for another excuse to show how &quot;outraged&quot; they were and latched onto some poor Korean guy who just happened to have a common last name.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Daniel Avery, post: 221226, member: 27"] In some cases you end up with bizarre shows like [I]Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.[/I] It created a world of 1990s PC attitudes in characters set in the 1800's Old West. It was unbearable to watch at times as they attempted to apply modern sensibilities to history. TV westerns had never been true to life, I know, but [I]Dr. Quinn[/I] went too far in trying to re-interpret the reality of frontier life. It's hard to adequately describe how cringe-y it got before I abandoned it. I think the (temporary) pulling of "The Germans" (as well as the pulling of [I]Gone With The Wind[/I]) is just the other end of the pendulum that always swings in these situations. People with legitimate reasons to be upset get drowned out by the 'outrage mob' (whom I affectionately call The Cult of the Perpetually Offended) who have to outdo one another to seek out new and unique sources of outrage. So the pendulum swings toward listening to their objections, and actions are often taken to (supposedly) quell their outrage by removing that TV show, firing some actor with problematic tweets in their past, or "cancelling" someone who isn't sufficiently toeing the outrage line. Those in charge try to predict what might 'trigger' them and goes out of their way to remove them or otherwise take them out of the (possible) mix. [LEFT][FONT=Georgia][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Pacifying the outrage mob by pulling a TV episode or firing a studio exec never satisfies, though, since the feigned outrage isn't [I]true[/I] outrage as much as it is an addiction to wielding power over people. Are they really angry about a callous depiction of slavery in GWTW, a movie from eighty years ago? No, it's more about firing the gun and making people dance to the tune. [/COLOR][/FONT][/LEFT] But inevitably the cultists go a few steps too far. The search for new, unique sources of outrage becomes an exercise in diminishing returns. I recall people calling for the removal of reruns of [I]The Dukes of Hazzard[/I] from syndication a few years ago because the Duke boys had a Confederate flag painted on the roof of the car they drove, "General Lee". The show was basically a live-action cartoon; why would anyone take it seriously? To me, this was the 'jump the shark' moment for the perpetually outraged. But I was wrong; it occurred a few days later when a correspondent on ESPN was targeted by the outrage mob because his name was Robert Lee--and ESPN actually removed him from covering a football game for them to appease the [I]angered[/I]. The man [B]is Asian[/B], but ESPN bowed to the pressure anyway....and then, when the dust settled they became a laughing stock. But it was ESPN who got dragged for not standing up for their employee (or just publishing a photo of him and assuring everyone he was not trying to re-start the Civil War), not the idiots who were searching high and low for another excuse to show how "outraged" they were and latched onto some poor Korean guy who just happened to have a common last name. [/QUOTE]

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