gobsmackedAs the credits for ALVH were rolling, I turned to Kathryn and said, "The Professional Outrage crowd is probably gonna make a fuss about this film because, you know, the whole Abraham Lincoln working to abolish slavery thing must be racist." Now, I was joking. JOKING, as in making with the funny ha ha. But she said, "Oh, it's already started. People are screaming it's just more 'Mighty Whitey.'" My expression was likely what is meant by gobsmacked.
Did I miss something? Yeah, okay. The American Civil War is – like all wars — a complicated matter. Saying that it was a war over slavery is, indeed, a simplification. Just like saying World War II was all about Hitler's murderous anti-semitism is a simplification. And, yet, Hitler was a murderous anti-semite, and Abraham Lincoln did champion the cause of abolishing slavery. History, people? You've heard of that, right?*
For the hellish sake of fuck all. Near as I can tell, being a moron who maintains a constant level of outrage – even when they're so demonstrably wrong it's just funny – has become hip. Or the new pink. Or whatever.
Or maybe it's just the internet's official sporting event.
And never mind the way they band together into electromagnetic self-perpetuating bully clumps (EMSPBCs; pronounced emspecks). Disagree with these clumps, you're instantly branded One of the Bad Guys. The same way McCarthyism worked. Oh, wait. More history.
Hating on the Morons,
Aunt Beast
* Also, vampires are just pretend.