The Right’s Absurd Fight Against Children’s Entertainment
Meanwhile, the Muppets made headline news on Fox. Despite across-the-board economic and financial woes’ consistent status as hot ticket news items, Fox’s “Follow the Money” host Eric Bolling recently decided to express his issues with the latest puppet picture. Citing the film’s alleged negative portrayal of oil industries and corporations, Bolling deemed it a possible explanation for why “we’ve got a bunch of Occupy Wall Street people walking around.”
Though unfortunately for Bolling and Fox alike, the currently contentious subject did not appear at all in the film. As The Washington Post reports, “Environmentalism wasn’t mentioned in the movie… the Muppets are not trying to hinder the oil industry’s progress, or save the planet.” But to Bolling’s chagrin, the Kermit kool-aid proved to be too tempting for the masses to avoid: the film made over $40 million its opening week.
“You’re a Mean One, Newt Gingrich”
And then there’s Newt Gingrich, who has somehow managed to capture the hearts and attention of the conservative base despite his belief that allowing children as young as 9 years old to be janitors at school is “OK.” Making the offensive claim that poor children lack the “work habits” necessary to succeed in life, his solution is to offer said tots janitorial positions at elementary schools in order to combat the problem directly. Troubling for most, natural for a good portion of today’s GOP.
Though beneath the terribly poor delivery, Gingrich may have a valid point: it is vital to promote good habits to our nation’s youth. However, said habits tend to stop where concern for sustainability and humanity begin. In today’s polarized political climate, promoting care of the environment is akin to hippie voodoo yet promoting “hard work” by repealing necessary child labor laws and handing poor kids mops and buckets for a few menial bucks is potentially enough to win someone a caucus.
The Republican Dream: A Little Less “Happy,” A Lot More Horrific
The conservative vision for the United States is one laden with distortion: they see things that aren’t there, they debunk facts as mere myth, and some of their leaders believe in the implementation of programs that will only harm and humiliate those about whom they claim to care the most—children.
“Cars 2” director John Lasseter offers a potential explanation: “The greatest bad guys, you understand where they’re coming from. They believe they’re doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s for greed, sometimes it’s for other reasons, but they are what they call the center of good. They always believe they’re doing the right thing.”
That is perhaps the most frightening aspect about the GOP today: when “doing the right thing” means attacking fictional characters for promoting environmental awareness in the name of children, one can hardly imagine what doing the wrong thing would be. Furthermore, one wouldn’t really want to; it’s the stuff of bad horror films.
