NRI Ideas Summit: The Influence of Popular Culture

All I got from this is that all conservatives secretly watch some show called "Modern Family" and are ashamed to tell. If that adolescent drivel is what passes for conservative punditry, I will take a pass.

TKC1101 (View Comment):

All I got from this is that all conservatives secretly watch some show called “Modern Family” and are ashamed to tell. If that adolescent drivel is what passes for conservative punditry, I will take a pass.

Probably, most comedies could be called adolescent drivel, as also most comic talk. I get the sense that if you had stumbled into the tavern where Falstaff & Prince Hal talked, you'd call that adolescent drivel, too. You need to have some patience with comedy & maybe a liking for unseriousness.

For one, inasmuch as the're professional, these people know at least some of the things whereof they speak--that should earn them credit with the serious people. For another, conservatives really do have trouble with all the music, movies, &c. that are so influential with the young. That's also a serious problem serious conservatives should face.

I don't think anyone would shout you down if you pulled the numbers & pointed out, only so many people watch that show, or any other. It's not that everyone or every conservative watches it--the point seems to have been, these shows matter to Americans as Americans & conservatives cannot afford to abandon popular entertainment & do not know how to deal with it.

I think this notion that tv shows are conservative is wrong. Storytelling can very well be unconservative & still be great art. But especially mediocre stuff can be unconservative, because it flatters people's desire for happiness on the cheap.

TKC1101 (View Comment):

All I got from this is that all conservatives secretly watch some show called “Modern Family” and are ashamed to tell. If that adolescent drivel is what passes for conservative punditry, I will take a pass.

Perhaps Rob was being polite, but he usually makes the point that mass entertainment does not attract the audiences it used to. In this case, Modern Family has ~10 million viewers/week in a >300 million population country.

TKC1101 (View Comment):

All I got from this is that all conservatives secretly watch some show called “Modern Family” and are ashamed to tell. If that adolescent drivel is what passes for conservative punditry, I will take a pass.

I don't think that this brief podcast is trying to be what passes for conservative punditry writ large. Indeed, the subject is the influence of popular culture, so it follows that popular culture is addressed. I have heard some pretty deep conservative punditry on Ricochet. The speakers actually addressed this toward the end when they talk about popular culture throughout history.

TKC1101 (View Comment):

All I got from this is that all conservatives secretly watch some show called “Modern Family” and are ashamed to tell. If that adolescent drivel is what passes for conservative punditry, I will take a pass.

Titus Techera (View Comment):

Probably, most comedies could be called adolescent drivel, as also most comic talk. I get the sense that if you had stumbled into the tavern where Falstaff & Prince Hal talked, you’d call that adolescent drivel, too. You need to have some patience with comedy & maybe a liking for unseriousness.

For one, inasmuch as the’re professional, these people know at least some of the things whereof they speak–that should earn them credit with the serious people. For another, conservatives really do have trouble with all the music, movies, &c. that are so influential with the young. That’s also a serious problem serious conservatives should face.

I don’t think anyone would shout you down if you pulled the numbers & pointed out, only so many people watch that show, or any other. It’s not that everyone or every conservative watches it–the point seems to have been, these shows matter to Americans as Americans & conservatives cannot afford to abandon popular entertainment & do not know how to deal with it.

I think this notion that tv shows are conservative is wrong. Storytelling can very well be unconservative & still be great art. But especially mediocre stuff can be unconservative, because it flatters people’s desire for happiness on the cheap.

Sorry, Titus but I seem to have upset you a bit. My phrase 'adolescent" refers to the punditry and not the comedy. Having been onstage for Shakespeare comedies with a historically anal director, I can attest to you that Falstaff and Prince Hal conversations would have a depth and richness rarely seen on television.

A pundit who refers to Steven Colbert as 'stereotyping" conservatives and then goes on the stereotype conservatives is a level below what I have come to enjoy in Ricochet podcasts. I hear one can watch MSNBC for such entertainment. The pundit exhibited all the qualities of adolescents, certainty, tunnel vision viewpoint and unearned smugness.