An Ideal Movie for Trump's Inauguration Day

[elanor_x]

"Falling Down" (1993) was described as a contemporary Odyssey, in which the Odysseus is a middle-aged white man, who is threatened by the changing social landscape of America

Comments

[black_dog]

I remember this movie -- the ending was the key, where he can't quite comprehend that he's the bad guy.

Eh, I'm wary of pathologizing Trump voters. I'd be more sympathetic to their grievances (not the nasty ones, the other ones) if they'd shown enough judgment not to nominate a conman and fraudster and dangerous idiot. They're just clueless, for the most part. But they're hurting, and that part deserves attention. D's have gotten much too complacent and have no one to blame more than themselves.

[elanor_x]

\\ Eh, I'm wary of pathologizing Trump voters.

I was not intending to pathologize them. I don't remember details since I watched the movie long ago, but I remember feeling sorry for William Forster throughout.

Also, Forster does reject white supremacy, instead choosing what he sees as the only other option - self-destruction. He is not an inherently bad person, as far as I remember.

\\ D's have gotten much too complacent and have no one to blame more than themselves.

I read a new good blog, whose owner has written on the topic:

The Slogan Gap, pt 2 - Make Political Slogans Great Again
https://cliffarroyo.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/the-slogan-gap-pt-2-make-political-slogans-great-again/

The blogger was born in America, but is currently working in Poland. A very interesting person.

[black_dog]

Fair enough -- we differ, maybe, in finding Forster sympathetic; I confess, maybe based on unfortunate personal acquaintance, to have less patience with his sort of self pity and sense of grievance. So that is perhaps why I saw this as "pathologizing" -- I apologize for misattributing your intention

[elanor_x]

\\ I continue to think "localism/nationalism/solidarity" is not nearly as potentially progressive a thing as it sounds to some who want to imitate it on the left, and not a good thing