We’re Not as Bad as the Nazis, Right?

How Progressive Values Dominated Media and America

There’s no Barbenheimer without Walter Cronkite (made with Midjourney)

On the surface, Barbie and Oppenheimer opening on the same day yesterday is an interesting study in contrasts (leading to the whole semi-ironic Barbenheimer craze no doubt). One is pastel-colored and fun, the other dark and moody. One is female coded, the other male coded. But, being both Hollywood films, they both reflect the ethos of post-World War II progressive values. Barbie more obviously carries the torch here, with its say-it-don’t-spray-it feminism and its diversity of race and body types.¹ Yet, Oppenheimer is the movie about what’s at the root of those values, for it was only after dropping the bomb that America had a crisis of conscience and, for decades, would strive to do everything imaginable to not seem as prejudiced or destructive as the Nazis.

For much of the post-WWII era², the news media and Hollywood had a robust liberal culture, with films like Gentlemen’s Agreement and To Kill a Mockingbird tackling bigotry. There was also a rather strong conservative counterbalance. Westerns and war films had no qualms about trumpeting American triumphalism. Though the news media was full of conservatives and liberals, for much of the forties, fifties, even sixties, you had to check the journalists’ tone for subtle clues about where their sympathies lie.

You even had to do this with Walter Cronkite. And for a while he was the toughest nut to crack. Viewers guessed about his political views the way modern media junkies gossip about a pop star’s ambiguous sexual orientation. Then, on February 27th, 1968, his Report from Vietnam was broadcast. When Cronkite got on the plane to Vietnam for his special report, he was excited; after all, he made his bones as a war correspondent. At the end of the broadcast though, this was what he said:

Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Viet Cong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw.

Though it still does not seem to be overwhelmingly anti-war, it certainly was not pro-war. The most trusted man in American news was not pro-war. February 27th, 1968 was the day the media became overwhelmingly liberal.

In fact, starting in 1968 there was a noted increase in political opinion from entertainers, disc jockeys, and radio talk show hosts. Suddenly everyone on the air, regardless of his or her credentials, was being asked to state a position on issues from Vietnam to the plight of inner cities. The other new trend was for political figures to appear on television entertainment programs, most notably Johnny Carson’s Tonight show but also such shows as Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Before long, issues like feminism and gay rights were flickering on TV screens worldwide. Though the media itself was liberal in the ‘70s, a growing number of Americans were skeptical about the progressive identity politics that were being touted. Especially after Vietnam was over and Nixon resigned. After he got on the helicopter, Americans saw high crime and inflation, drug overdoses, violent radicals. The push for tolerance was so great in the ‘70s, in 1977, philosopher Michel Foucault said the legal age of consent should be 13. Much of the chaos of the ‘70s was laid at the feet of the Granola Generation, paving the way for the Reagan Revolution.

If 1968-1979 was a glorious eleven year streak of pure liberal media that may never happen again³, then 1980-1987 was the greatest era of conservative media dominance. Though news media from print to TV would remain left-of-center (even as it would revert from overt editorializing to subtle inflections like in the ‘50s), talk radio had a conservative revolution after the Fairness Doctrine was gutted in 1987. While Rush Limbaugh and Bob Grant were outwardly right-wing, shock jocks like Don Imus and Howard Stern were more content needling liberal pieties. Hollywood blockbusters were overwhelmingly pro-cop and military. Sitcoms like The Cosby Show shelved commentary on racism and focused on family values.

After the Iran-Contra affair broke in 1986, there was a slight return to leftist values in the media, with a new crop of music (Public Enemy, Prince’s “Sign O’ the Times,” Tracy Chapman, Indigo Girls) movies (Platoon, Good Morning, Vietnam, They Live, Do the Right Thing) and TV (Wonder Years, thirtysomething, Roseanne, The Simpsons). Progressives would gain ground throughout the ‘90s, but, this being the beginning of the culture wars, the conservatives responded with Fox News as well as a prescient focus on new media. Blue state media types were also online, but they didn’t need the outlet the way conservatives did. They already had Hollywood and broadcast news.

The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was not only an actual blight on the Democrats, it even forced many so-called progressives in a bind. While most mainstream feminists at the time wrote the whole thing off as a silly fling, male conservatives saluted Bill Clinton’s swag, unwittingly leading to a rollback on feminist values that would lead to the frat boy Nuremburg rally of Woodstock ‘99.

God, Mo, I’m trying not to plug this into ChatGPT to just get to the point but yeah HOW DID PROGRESSIVE VALUES DOMINATE LIKE THEY DO NOW? WHEN DID THAT START? FUCKIN’ DRUNK HISTORY HERE DRONING ON AND ON…

Much like the liberal media of the ‘70s had the Vietnam backlash as its base, the current Woke Mafia is rooted in the Iraq War backlash of the 2000s. As blogs like Daily Kos and Wonkette increasingly questioned the war, MSNBC had Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow dig their heels in more firmly, raising the bar for the online bleeding hearts. By ‘08, Obama was elected President. Though Bush’s term was over, this was a very clear referendum on how Bush handled Iraq and the economy.

From Obama onward, the media would only become more and more cynical and hypocritical tolerant and progressive. In 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed how Google searches were being monitored, more Americans were reluctant to Google whatever they thought. No wonder virtue signalling gathered extra speed around the time of Trayvon Martin’s death. What better way to appear good and non-threatening to the state than a #blacklivesmatter at the end of your Instagram post, never mind that it’s a picture of a rack of lamb. The early 2010s was also the golden age of Tumblr, the source of much of today’s woke sensibilities (especially the female and LGBTQ side).

While Reagan’s election led to more conservative media, Trump’s victory did the precise opposite. Remember: American culture has been one long, neurotic game of “We’re Not as Bad as the Nazis, Right?” When a candidate that has vocal support from the KKK wins, not a good look. Thus the Great Awokening. With the very real specter of another Trump victory in 2024, there have only been more Pride Month sales, more diverse reboots of comic books and toys, etc.

So after a long tug of war for media dominance that began in the late ‘60s, the progressives own the airwaves. Their values have been widely adopted by mainstream Americans. But, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The ‘50s conservatism was largely borne out of fear of being fingered in a McCarthyist witch hunt. Today, most companies and celebrities that are shit heels IRL play progressive for fear of being canceled.

Also, the progressive media, rooted largely in the New Left of the early ‘60s, has now curdled into the old left of the early ‘20s. Doing a fine job offering us Barbies of every skin tone and size, it does not seem as concerned with working class people of any race. As the strike goes on, expect dirtbag left podcasts like Adam Friedland Show to get more views on TikTok. As Biden and Harris stumble, expect a new left to emerge to challenge the old left. But, for now, watch Barbie and Oppenheimer and rest assured that, no, you’re probably not a Nazi. Are you?

1. To its credit, unlike most ethnically diverse films, Barbie does not have a cast that’s multiracial, but with Kardashian faces and bodies, which is especially interesting because, of all the movies, it could have gotten away with that, being a movie about plastic dolls.

2. The ‘50s mainly had conservatives because of McCarthyism, thus the bland sitcoms, etc. But much of the film and literature of this time was still left of center, especially in the late ‘50s, when McCarthyism died down and The Beats rose in prominence.

3. Even in today’s woke culture, there are conservative news outlets, talk radio shows and so many Twitter accounts, podcast hosts, etc. as opposed to the ‘70s, when movies, news media and TV shows overwhelmingly skewed liberal; with only seven TV broadcast channels at the time, there was no room for risking a conservative network, like you could in the ‘90s