The Writers’ Strikeout

I hear there’s another writers’ strike about to hit Hollywoke. Once upon a time this was a big deal. When the entertainment business actually entertained. When people of different ideologies could share movies and television shows that tilted left but still had crossover appeal. When you could enjoy a late-night comedy talk show like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brien and laugh, even when they made fun of your side, because they were comic purists, who lampooned the other side as well.

I still remember a classic Carson skit mocking Joe Biden’s first ill-fated run for president in 1987. The then semi-articulate yet empty-suit senator was accused of plagiarizing speeches by genuinely eloquent politicians, like UK Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock and RFK. Carson joked, “And Biden said not to worry. He reassured his staff, he said, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’”

A vast portion of young people today — which includes many TV-film writers — wouldn’t get the gag. They weren’t taught actual American history, such as FDR’s 1933 speech uplifting citizens during the Great Depression, when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But they might believe the country began in 1619, with the arrival of the first slave ship. Because Critical Race Theory bunk like Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project is being taught in schools.