OREO: THE COOKIE CRUMBLES

Less than .5% of the U.S. population identify as transgender. And yet the Wizards of Smart at Nabisco’s OREO division decided to tweet “Trans people exist.” Imagine the media feeding frenzy if the cookie company had tweeted “Unborn babies exist” or maybe “Conservatives exist.”

Why would the best selling cookie in the world—with $2+ billion in annual sales—feel the need to say “Trans people exist”? Wouldn’t it make more sense to tweet “Double Stuf Cookies exist”?

Evidently, with President Biden’s pick of a transgender Health and Human Services deputy secretary nominee, cookie company executives thought it’d be sweet to add their affirmation. How’s that working out?

The Twitter-sphere has been buzzing with mixed responses including:

“Why even take a political stance on this? This is why America is so divided. Even cookies have to be divisive.”

“We don’t want propaganda with our snacks.”

“Just make cookies, please.”

“Well it looks like no more OREOS for me & my family. They’re horrible for you with no nutritional value anyway.”

“Yup, and I’m transitioning to @ChipsAhoy.”

Set aside the adverse health risks of ingesting high fructose corn syrup—a core OREO ingredient. Even if a case could be made for double stuffing another handful of nutritionally deficient, overprocessed Double Stufs down your hatch, there are those in the trans community who take issue with OREOS agenda:

“Thank you, large soulless brand . . . I’m sure this has nothing to do with manipulating more trans people into buying your cookie.”

“Trans people exist . . . as a marketing tool for corporations.”

“Thank you for reminding me, I forgot I existed for a second.”

“Pandering cookie brands exist.”

Whether or not you plan to keep OREOS on your shopping list, there are two unshakeable truths. First, in the beginning God created male and female (Genesis 2:4-24). Those are the options. For people of faith, there’s no confusion over that fact. And there’s clear medical science which supports this.

Secondly, Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Notice, there aren’t any caveats. Which means my goal as a follower of Jesus is to love everyone—whether or not I agree with their political or life choices . . . and we can have those conversations with or without OREOS and milk.

Then again, maybe this is much to do about nothing. Maybe we’re all missing the target audience for OREOS tweet . . .

WOKE CULTURE: CANCEL COMBS & COKE?

Country artist Luke Combs is the latest to run into the buzzsaw of The Woke Police.

Social media’s Wonky Wokers blasted Combs, who had a global No.1 selling album in 2020, for the sin of previously having a Confederate flag sticker on his guitar and, worse, for performing in Ryan Upchurch’s video “Can I Get a Outlaw” standing in front of a Confederate flag.

The 2015 music video has had more than 73 million views with no complaints about the rebel flag—until this current volcanic eruption of woke lava, spewing hatred for anything that offends their snowflake sensibilities.

The problem with wokers is that they slept through history class. As Michael Savage has said, they don’t know the difference between tortellini, fettuccine, and Mussolini. If they did, they wouldn’t cherry pick their targets with such gleeful ignorance.

Clearly they aren’t aware that Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, Ted Nugent, Alabama—along with a slew of other bands, used the Confederate flag as a stage prop, or in promo photos and memorabilia. To these artists, the rebel flag wasn’t a racist proclamation—it was a symbol of Southern identity and regional pride. Charlie Daniels put it this way:

“The Confederate battle flag was a sign of defiance, a sign of pride, a declaration of a geographical area that you were proud to be from. That’s all it is to me . . . I know in my heart that most Southerners feel the same way.”

Associated Press, 1971.

The Woke Police judges Luke Combs for his past choices, but will they also hose former Democratic President Jimmy Carter who, as Governor of Georgia, had both the American flag and the Confederate flag flanking his desk in the Governor’s office? Will they require the editors of TIME magazine (May 31, 1971) for featuring Carter against the backdrop of Confederate and American flags to apologize?

Will they ask Sesame Street to repent for featuring Johnny Cash and the Muppets dancing and singing “Ghostriders in the Sky” in front of the Confederate flag on the Disney Channel? Maybe Big Bird needs to do an Apology Tour. Just saying. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander—or the Big Bird as the case may be.

Combs has since apologized saying, “As I've grown in my time as an artist, and as the world has changed drastically in the last five to seven years, I am now aware how painful that image can be. I would never want to be associated with something that brings so much hurt to someone else."

Okay . . . so . . . what will Combs do when the Woke Police take offense at the sight of the American flag on his jacket, shirt, or shoes? Oh wait, Nike already pulled the Betsy Ross flag from their shoes because former footballer Colin Kaepernick was offended by it.

If Luke Combs et al must apologize for their past association with the rebel flag, then by all means the members of the Woke Gestapo, specifically those who drink Coca-Cola products, should be required to publicly apologize for their blatant hypocrisy.

What’s that you say?

If these intolerant, cancel-culture vultures knew their history, they’d know that John Stith Pemberton was a biochemist and the inventor of Coca-Cola. They’d also know he served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate Army. His final resting place is marked by a gravestone bearing a Confederate flag.

Arguably, by drinking a Coke, the Wokes are perpetuating the legacy of someone who not only stood in front of a Confederate flag strumming a guitar, but put his life on the line fighting for the Confederacy. We can’t have that now, can we?

Maybe Wokes should pay reparations—they should be forced to switch from Coke to Pepsi.

To be clear, I am not a fan of that historical symbol. Nor am I suggesting that the aforementioned companies and artists should be sanctioned over the rebel flag. In a free society, I can respectfully agree to disagree with my neighbor.

But, unlike the woke’s rush to judgment, I’m with James, the brother of Jesus, who rightly pointed out, “because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (2:13).

Imagine a world where we were quick to extend to one another mercy—not judgment.

LucasFilm Cancels Gina Carano: This is the Way

She survived the Empire’s Death Star blast on planet Alderaan. Here on Earth, #Mandalorian mercenary and fan favorite @GinaCarano took a direct hit when LucasFilm and Disney+ vaporized all future appearances of the actress in any Star Wars projects. Her crime?

Was she arrested for reckless and drunk driving like Bruce Springsteen—causing JEEP to put the brakes on his Super Bowl Ad? Did she advocate explicit sex acts with multiple men like Cardi B does in her new No.1 Spotify single UP? Was she glorifying smoking pot and oral sex like CJ does in Whoopty? Nope.

The Gatekeepers of Diversity and Tolerance at LucasFilm were ironically intolerant and impatient with Carano’s pattern of “controversial” and “abhorrent” tweets including her:

  • Support of President Donald Trump

  • Refusal to include pronouns in her Twitter bio

  • Anti-mask beliefs and stance against the prolonged COVID shutdown

  • Call to open up churches and businesses

These tweets prompted LucasFilm Overlords to privately begin plotting a course to drop the rising star. But her post yesterday on Instagram was the final straw:

“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors … even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views.” [Emphasis added].

A thoughtful person understands Carano’s point: Having neighbors turn against their neighbors—as was the case under Hitler—is a bad thing and spawned the rise of fascism. It happened then. It could happen again. How is her observation of history anything but factual and logical? Clearly Carano is concerned about the rise of covid-snitching neighbors as evidenced in San Diego, Akron, Chicago, and Austin among many other cities.

Alas, LucasFilm and Disney+ executives fail to understand, as has been said elsewhere, there is a “distinction between banning hate speech and banning speech it hates.”

Ironically, liberalism portrays itself as being compassionate, loving, and quick to embrace diversity—except when you disagree with them. The adjacent sampling of hate-filled, profanity-laden tweets aimed at Carano by a fleet of “tolerant” Woke Commanders is an example of “Allodoxaphobia”—the fear of hearing other opinions.

Civil rights activist and author John Perkins is rightly concerned about a country “marked by the sins of racism, sexism, and all the other –isms, where we can’t disagree without also hating one another.”

He’s right. We can lob verbal grenades in social media all day long and even fire them from their jobs—or, preferably, we can follow the Lord who said, “come and reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).

This is the [better] Way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is On Your Screen

I never met New York magazine columnist Jonathan Chait. If I have the opportunity to meet him one day, I’ll be sure to buy him lunch. After all, finding an honest liberal commentator on pop culture these days is about as rare as sighting an albino crow.

In his piece, The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen, Chait admits what conservatives used to argue, namely, that TV programming is a vast wasteland of liberal indoctrination.

Regarding Hollywood’s impact, he notes that “A trio of communications professors found that watching Will & Grace made audiences more receptive to gay rights.” Furthermore, “When Joe Biden endorsed gay marriage in May, he cited Will & Grace as the single-most important driving force in transforming public opinion on the subject.” Although I’d suggest Glee made Will & Grace look like a couple of lightweights by comparison.

If conceding that a connection exists between extreme liberal values on TV screen and a values shift in the culture wasn’t brave enough, this self-proclaimed “liberal hawk” does something I can’t say I’ve ever witnessed any liberal journalist do—he invites his reader to empathize with conservatives:

“…think of it from the conservative point of view, if you don’t happen to be one. Imagine that large chunks of your entertainment mocked your values and even transformed once-uncontroversial beliefs of yours into a kind of bigotry that might be greeted with revulsion. You’d probably be angry, too.”

However, he rightly points out that conservatives have largely stopped publicly holding Hollywood accountable for the daily dose of excrement they shovel into our living rooms via TV. Which begs a question: Why do millions of people in fly-over country wear a muzzle when Follywood producers mock, trample upon, and vilify their core beliefs?

Chait confessions “The more uncomfortable reality is that the culture war is an ongoing liberal rout. Hollywood is as liberal as ever, and conservatives have simply despaired of changing it.” Some might argue that we shouldn’t impose our values on others. Ah, yes, but clearly Hollywood doesn’t have that issue, do they?

That said, it’s decades after the fact—but hats off to this brave soul for having the hutzpah to say we conservatives are right about Hollywood’s role in corrupting our culture. I wonder if he saw the light because he got married and had two children . . . funny how that works.