Days of Change

Day 1195 – The Talent Gap

The claim that CPAC is a KKK rally came up again when Steven Crowder and Chris Loesch made a video called “Mr. America” as the Powdered Zombies.

There’s a line about the “knickers” worn by Crowder, dressed as a Colonial-era American. Apparently, the site Gawker intentionally took a part of the video and misrepresented it. It was certainly intentional, since the video stops for about 15 seconds to explain in the recording studio that he’s talking about his pants. Then there’s the line after “you think I said that?” The Gawker writer chose to “explain” that the “shitty” music video was of such low quality that he could be excused for running like a bat out of hell and blogging the “story” before he could isolate the evidence.

Steven Crowder is a terrible rapper. That’s probably why he usually operates as a documentarian. Conservatives have taken hold of the field, since liberal documentaries do little groundwork and rely on “studies” published by universities that are usually de-funded by and hostile to conservatives. Still, guys like him and Karl Rove continue to throw down raps like the guys who got clowned by Rabbit in 8 Mile.

What I found amusing was the claims by Gawker commenters about the lack of talent among conservatives and, apparently, non-gays. The closest entertainment industry the right has is country music, and plenty of those guys are liberal. Other industries like political talk radio and Christian rock were basically carved out by conservatives. Christian music is getting pretty good in a technical sense, but you probably won’t like it if you don’t want to hear about God.

Are there niche talents as good as a Whitney Houston? There may be, but they may not take to the Hollywood sausage grinder as well. Amy Grant crossed over for some amount of time, but making it big in the industry sometimes requires becoming a puppet of higher powers. 99% of talent is being run by 1% management who are taking 10%.

Kylie Bisutti is a model who won a Victoria’s Secret model search in 2009 and decided recently to quit modeling what is largely sexually provocative clothing becaus eof her Christian faith. She couldn’t handle what it takes to be famous in this society. Then there are women like Leeann Tweeden who is politically conservative and willing to pose in Playboy.

I think the conservative talent gap is two-fold. Fame is a secular form of worship. If celebrities are the most important thing to you, it is more likely you will seek that kind of fame out. People who need that validation put it before faith and family. On the other side is the way the entertainment industry enforces the sacrifice of self in the furtherance of career. It includes the orthodoxy that liberal tenants of self-enjoyment and self-importance is strictly enforced.

Sometimes conservatives feel badly that more people in Hollywood aren’t like them. They should be glad Hollywood hasn’t corrupted more of them.

---