I got to see Oppenheimer in IMAX, the way it was meant to be seen, and what a joy it was to hear and see the full movie in the form it was meant to be.
But this time, I was deeply annoyed. Of course we know that the country went through an anti-Communist (red scare) period. But through the entirety of the movie, most characters are on the defensive about being liberal, leftist, progressive, or communist. The only one who isn’t is Florence Pugh (Jean Matlock is her character’s name, I think.) If they’re not trying to defend having been a member of the communist party, or even being interested in their ideas, then they are almost always on the opposite side — participating in a witch hunt to root out communists and communist sympathizers. That’s why Emily Blunt, (a powerhouse, albeit an alcoholic and terrible mother), repeats “16 years ago, sorry 17, no sorry, 18. 18 years ago.” Trying, in vain really, to point out that her communist party membership was so long ago it was irrelevant.
But it’s not irrelevant to people who have a vendetta or who are on a witch hunt or, for whatever reason, think that DEI is the root of all evil. This is what’s happening now — with the Trump government going after anyone and everyone who might have worked on DEI projects, etc.
Lost in both the communist witch hunts of the post atomic bomb era, and the current witch hunts for DEI sympathizers and policies, is the freedom to think AND, I would add, the notion that conservatism is identical to patriotism, which it is not, at all and that leftist ideas are anti-American. This has been going on for decades — even before McCarthy — and yet I doubt a single person in this government or past governments could even describe Marx’s “Capital,” or the contents.
It’s like the word Woke, that John McWhorter recently wrote about because it is one of the words that has transformed within a matter of years from meaning: “politically aware,” to “anti-white racism,” I guess, and basically “liberalism.” When DeSantis said, about Florida, “This is where Woke comes to die,” he was basically saying, stupid and uninformed people are welcome here.
It’s really just too sad to be going through this again. You have to wonder who’s going to be the next sacrifice.