I hate the term “Cultural Appropriation” so much.

Why?

Because it’s stupid.

If you’ve not heard the term, it’s the idea that you can’t use something from someone else’s culture unless you’re of that culture. You can’t wear kimonos unless you’re Japanese, you can’t write a black character unless you’re black.

Yes, it’s stupid.

For example, when Iron Fist was in pre-production, the usual idiots complained that “why is a white dude in a martial arts role?” Because they apparently missed the point of the character, caught between two cultures. But that’s all right, everyone discovered the real problem with Iron Fist’s casting was that he was poorly written, and the actor sucked at martial arts, especially next to Charlie Cox’s Daredevil.

And funny thing is, there are multiple cultural icons that wouldn’t exist without “cultural appropriation” as defined by these idiots today.

For instance?

I grew up with classic movies. Sure, Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but that’s right next to The Bishop’s Wife and The Man Who Came to Dinner and Christmas in Connecticut.

So when a friend of mine asked me for the best of Alfred Hitchcock, I was confused. He had only seen Psycho and The Birds. Really? Those are not necessarily his best work. I’m not a fan of either film. And the Daphne Du Maurier story for The Birds is just a touch too dark and unbelievable a conclusion.

It’s time for a quick word on Alfred Hitchcock, who practically invented much of what we associate with modern thrillers, including several camera techniques … but someone else will have to explain those. Hitchcock directed 68 films in his lifetime. But, some of these are silent films, and I have little patience for those (I got through Metropolis, once). Some of them (like Blackmail, for example) are old, and the print is garbage, with poor audio and visual quality. Some of them are like Marnie (1964): too much psychobabble, no real plot, even if it did feature Sean Connery.

One of the things you will see in these films is that Hitchcock did like his women with a spine. Whether it’s giving our leading lady a rifle or putting her at odds with a whole trainload of people, even the damsels in distress are interesting. Granted, Hitchcock’s wife was his partner in crime for most of his career, so that will do it. You could even see that she was his guiding light, because when she wasn’t involved in a project, the film suffered for it.

Michael Crichton stated it well:

“I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks.

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels;"

1/4 it is a way to avoid debate by claiming the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus

2/4