Right-wing grievance culture has not yet mounted a case that we should all be watching “Song of the South,” even if the U.S. Supreme Court seems intent that we should all be living “Song of the South.”
Disney essentially locked away the 1946 animated/live-action hybrid 40 years ago like the man in the iron mask; even by the mid-1980s, its treacly depictions of Lost Cause plantation stereotypes were offensive and archaic.
But if the right-wingers calling the nation’s political shots had sat down and watched this film, they might have learned something: It’s true! It’s actual! Everything is satisfactual.
In the abstract: They might have noticed that Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear, hoping to harm Br’er Rabbit, foolishly threw him into the Briar Patch, which is the biggest favor they could’ve given him.
In the concrete: Right-wing loons keep throwing Scott Wiener into the Briar Patch.
In the most recent instance of a high-profile reactionary zealot targeting San Francisco’s state senator and aspirational congressman, the incredibly lifelike Laura Loomer described Wiener on her podcast earlier this month as a “degenerate … BDSM-wearing freak” who has worked to “legalize murder.”
The chyron across the screen read “Democrats Nominate Al-Qaeda Linked Jihadist and Pedophile Protector.” She also tweeted this to her 1.9 million followers.
There is danger here. Unhinged individuals preaching unhinged messages to fellow unhinged individuals can lead to dire consequences in both the real and virtual worlds.
Wiener’s office affirms that, for years, “not a week goes by” without the police being notified because of a salient online threat. Multiple people have been prosecuted for making threats to Wiener’s life.
Being Scott Wiener, or even working for him, entails getting your “fair share of abuse,” as Mick Jagger might have put it.
But there is also a silver lining. You couldn’t procure more effective advertising in San Francisco than being targeted as the bête noire of increasingly deranged and outlandish right-wing commenters — who, chillingly, no longer represent a fringe outlook.
Wiener, in more ways than one, has always been a big target.
In 2015, when Fox News sent then-Bill O’Reilly minion Jesse Watters and others to buttonhole city officials and put them on the spot about the killing of Kate Steinle, Supervisor Wiener went viral with his monotone brushoff: “Fox News is not real news, and you’re not a reporter.”
He delivered this line, repeatedly, like Marshawn Lynch answering every media question by reciting “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.” Except Wiener did it while traipsing down a hallway; you could call it an Aaron Sorkin walk-and-don’t-talk.
After O’Reilly called Wiener a “pinhead” on national television, the Castro supervisor subsequently received thousands of threats and a cottage industry was born.
Since that time, Watters has oozed up his corporate ladder and Wiener, the politician who told him to stick it, has advanced up his political ladder.
The relationship between right-wing media and Wiener is toxic. But it’s also symbiotic.
In life, politics and news infotainment, crass stupidity can explain a lot. But it doesn’t explain the ongoing right-wing obsession with Scott Wiener.
One needn’t be a political Einstein to realize that right-wing extremists attacking a San Francisco centrist plays about as well here as vegan Maoists targeting the institution of Texas barbecue.
Put another way, even stupid people like to win, and clearly the people going after Wiener know they’re not doing that when it comes to San Francisco voters.
Perhaps the best analog here is professional wrestling. The former Worldwide Wrestling Federation is now known as Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment. This is show business. So is right-wing infotainment.
Wiener, for their audience, serves the role of wrestling heel, whether he likes it or not. Think of him as a much taller Andy Kaufman with a law degree.
If the state senator’s right-wing infotainment critics were truly aghast at the prospects of his political matriculation, you’d think they’d have come up with a strategy over the past decade and change that doesn’t symbiotically benefit him with the actual people who vote for him. They haven’t.
And that’s because Scott Wiener is good for the rage-bating business. If he didn’t exist, they’d have to make him up.
“Honestly, keep in mind, these people are scam artists,” says Wiener. “It’s all about the clicks and the engagement. I am red meat for their base.”
Incidentally, San Francisco center-left Democrat Scott Wiener does eat red meat as well as portray it on TV.
There are many downsides to the reduction of politics to entertainment — and wrestling-like entertainment at that. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hit with a folding chair, and the continuing debasement of political discourse by bad actors looking to score some clout is making us all dumber — and that right soon.
It is startling, when you take a moment to come up for air, how dumb it’s all gotten. There is, as we speak, a UFC cage on the White House lawn. The East Wing previously resembled wreckage from Dresden.
But, if you’re hoping to find a pony beneath the mounds of horse manure, there is this: The reactionary culture war issues perpetually enraging the online right remain a nonfactor here in San Francisco.
Former Trump appointee and Republican-turned-Democrat Marie Hurabiell, who felt the best route to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi as San Francisco’s congresswoman was to run on transgender bathroom issues, is polling about 4 percent in the most recent returns.
Hurabiell also traveled to Sacramento last week to inveigh against a Wiener bill to ease lawsuits against LGBTQ-conversion-therapy practitioners. While Hurabiell seems to have received outsize support among angry people on Twitter, actual voters behaved differently.
San Franciscans, for all our superficialities, are not getting worked up about transgender people locking themselves in bathroom stalls and using the facilities. Hurabiell is running neck and neck for fourth place in the congressional primary with a Republican challenger who does not appear to have mounted a campaign.
So, whatever issues Wiener and Supervisor Connie Chan run on in November’s general election, they will, by default, be more substantive and relevant than that.
But, in show business, everyone loves a sequel. Expect more performative right-wing vitriol directed Wiener’s way, and expect the state senator to suffer. But also prosper.
It’s the truth. It’s actual. But everything isn’t satisfactual.
Is this a Wiener endorsement ?
You’re making him into a victim.
He is not a victim.
He is a carnivore of Rent Control property who has devoured thousands of units at every step of his career.
He is a carnivore of the Property Rights of San Francisco home owners.
The laws he has created have driven thousands of artists and writers and musicians out of San Francisco.
Yet, thousands of victims of this Developer driven dinosaur still vote for him every time he runs.
You wanna know why ?
Because the vast majority of San Francisco Media is controlled by the Billionaire Class who want to build whatever they want wherever they want and Scott is their number one boy so they make him look like a hero.
Now, you spend a couple of thousand words making him out as essentially, a victim.
He is not a hero and he is not a victim.
He is a brilliant lawyer who has spent his entire career from corporate shill to State Senator promoting gentrification by writing laws that take away the rights of ordinary renters and homeowners.
Mission Local doesn’t directly endorse.
But they certainly directly and indirectly empower.
Bottom line is that you helped Wiener with this piece.
And, hurt the chances of the City being represented by Connie Chan who does truly represent tradition San Francisco Values.
Let me close with a line from Charles Bukowski …
“The best friend of art is cheap rent.”
Connie Chan for Congress !
and, as always …
go Niners !!
h.
H. —
I’m sorry I made unrelated observations about a candidate you don’t like. You can get your money back at the front desk.
Best,
JE