The preening finger-waggers
The PC crowd tries to ruin Halloween
Halloween used to be a day where kids of all stripes, completely pure of heart, could dress up as whomever or whatever they wanted. But now, in the age of political correctness and social justice warrioring, there’s almost nothing a child can wear that won’t prompt some overly sensitive progressive soul to collapse in offense.
As political commentator Dave Rubin tweeted last week: “If you wear any type of costume this Halloween you are racist. Best to sit in a room alone, eat candy and think about how horrible you are.”
That would seem to be how the great minds at Cosmopolitan magazine feel. Redbook editors, writing in an essay for Cosmo, have now declared that no matter how much your daughters might love Disney princess Moana, you better make sure these children are properly woke toward Hawaiian culture. Seriously.
One passage from the essay: “Moana is a really special character to young girls of Polynesian descent who have never seen a Disney princess who looks like them, just like how Tiana from ‘The Princess and the Frog’ likely resonated with young black women who had waited decades to see themselves represented. White girls have plenty of princesses to choose from — there’s Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty … you get the idea. If your Caucasian son or daughter doesn’t get to be exactly what they wanted for Halloween, encourage them to take a step back and realize that they’re awash in privileges that the real Moanas and Tianas of the world will likely never see, because the world is full of racist (expletive).”
This is all utterly fatuous and ridiculous, a point made by National Review’s Kyle Smith in response to the essay. “The left used to insist on seeing people as individuals, not as members of groups. The goal used to be that kids of different races would play together oblivious to one another’s superficial differences. This was commendable, and many a race barrier has fallen. Now the left is determined to put those barriers back up, to teach kids to obsess over race.”
In fact, the typical kid marching through the neighborhood, knocking on doors for a couple hours on a crisp fall night in search of treats and a little fun with friends, isn’t wearing a costume to make a political statement or offend. As Hotair’s Ed Morrissey wrote, “Those transgressions almost all come from adults rather than kids, who just want to have innocent fun by briefly inhabiting the roles of their favorite characters. The only harm that entails is to the fragile sensibilities of the New Puritans on the Left, who have most definitely spent the last few decades reducing people to their DNA and melatonin structures.”
So if your child wants nothing more than to dress up as Moana — or any other harmless characters — ignore the preening finger-waggers at Cosmo and Redbook.
Happy Halloween!
The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas Review-journal. All other opinions expressed on the Opinion and Commentary pages are those of the individual artist or author indicated.
The Review-journal welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 275 words and must include the writer’s name, mailing address and phone number. Submissions may be edited and become the property of the Review-journal.
Email letters@reviewjournal.com Mail Letters to the Editor
P.O. Box 70
Las Vegas, NV 89125
Fax 702-383-4676 Maybe it will work, maybe not. But the real solution is simply to make the property unattractive or unprofitable to rent.
Just as homeowners put spiked pads on their roofs to make unappealing habitats for pigeons, neighbors can make the rental house unattractive to renters. Turn off the water valve at the street. Turn off electric circuit breakers. Turn off gas valves. Turn off sprinklers. Park cars around the house. Call police for any infraction by renters. The night provides many opportunities — anything to inconvenience the renters or managers and to cause the manager or owner to come to the property to “fix” things.
Certainly, do not resort to physical vandalism. But do enough to make it inconvenient to rent. Get small claims judgments with repeated claims against the owner. Be creative and be willing to compromise. Solve your own problems and leave our politicians alone. They need their rest, too. Mr. Root’s personal attacks on Jim Murren and MGM, wondering what was behind his vendetta.
Then it dawned on me that the vendetta seemed to start around the time MGM and most other Strip properties started charging for parking, especially valet parking. Mr. Root was very vocal and outraged about having to pay for valet parking on the Strip.
As the attacks on MGM continued, I thought on several occasions about writing a letter to the editor opining, tongue-in-cheek, that if MGM wanted to stop these attacks, all it had to do was offer Mr. Root free valet parking at its properties.
Lo and behold, I pick up the newspaper Thursday and what do I see? Wayne Allyn Root offering unsolicited advice to MGM officials on how to save their business. And the price for this unsolicited advice from this self-proclaimed expert in the industry? You guessed it: Free valet parking for Mr. Root and his friends.