House of Cards

The dam is bursting. Kevin Spacey now. Pity. A good actor.

My study of history suggests these things happen fast. Fast enough that a lot of people get caught out self-incriminating.

Another remarkable sign I just noticed. On Facebook, I follow groups of artists and writers. Always resolutely left-wing and political, which has long been discouraging. I do not think artists and writers are really all resolutely left-wing, but those who are not have for many years not dared to raise their heads above the parapet. It is hard enough making a living making art. They, along with students, are probably the one social group most vulnerable to bullying by those in power. Artists, especially in Canada, live on government grants, distributed by bureaucrats.

A recent meeting of writers was billed as “Writing in Dangerous Times: Survival, Resistance, Joy.” You just knew the “danger” was Trump.

But yesterday, for the first time I can remember, someone posted a right-wing illustration on the artists’ feed. It said that if you thought your gender was neither male nor female, your gender was in your imagination. Then another one popped up, less than a day later: a black artist calling out other blacks for blaming all their problems on “whites.”

I’ve never seen one such post on this feed before, let alone two.

I am not really all that surprised. The left had gone so far that you had to be insane to buy into what they were saying. Fifty-seven genders, "white supremacy," "cultural appropriation," and the like. You had to be against just about everything good or true. The remarkable thing is that it took this long.

Once the dam blows, everyone gets wet. A lot of people have probably been keeping a lot of things pent up, not daring to say them. Now, if they think they can, there will be passion and anger behind what they say.

But this is significant. Steve Bannon is quoted as having said "politics is downstream from culture," and he is right. This is where the turn will happen first: among the artist and writers. And it is happening. Next will come the young.