To add to the faux-weighty, ostentatiously self-important irony of SVU “tackling the tough questions” — in the instance Darleen notes, the tough questions being: are famous, southern white female celebrity chefs all at once fearful of / intrigued by the savage Mandingos that roam northeastern cities even if said Mandingos are but figments of the white paranoiacs’ innate racist imaginations, no doubt brought on by an upbringing steeped in race hatred, and not the kindly black youths who are holding down jobs (in Obama’s America? Talk about fiction!) and working their way through school to become, say, veterinarians, or physicists? Are all hoodie wearing youth deserving of racial profiling, even if only blacks (or Muslims) are ever used as examples of such profiling, and even then, without any kind of fair and proper contextualization of the “issues” supposedly being examined (narratives are always skewed such that they push a particular point of view; and this is often especially the case when the writers strive to showcase their own objectivity, which, while ironic, is nevertheless the case, and is the mark of the well-paid TV hack) — I’d like to point out the following SVU “formula,” which is, in nearly every way, a complete mapping of the left’s political and social worldview.
On the show, the detectives, led by that one chick with the inflated lips and the tendency toward serial moralizing, are consistently making snap judgments about potential suspects — who nearly always turn out to be red herrings in the end, and so are on offer to (supposedly) add intrigue and complexity to the plot mystery, but who are in fact merely political cutouts for the message of social justice and state-permitted acceptable thought — as they are sneeringly berated for their debased morality, be it their capitalistic avarice or their un-PC worldviews. These are the individuals, who because they pursue their own trajectories and don’t play well with others, are motif villains. Their failure to join the right-thinking community marks them as undesirables, fringe scum, though not always the perpetrators of the specific crime under investigation. But one day they will mess us, and the detectives will be there to bring them down for their thought crimes. This is implied. Constantly.
Next, some sort of “rule” always prevents one of these detective saviors — it is their morality pitted against the cold harsh reality of the corporate-like structure of the politicized police higher ups and district attorneys (who only take cases they can win) — from saving someone who might otherwise have been saved, provided the show’s later rationale for those same detectives having to struggle with their own commitment to the rules of the job, vs “doing the right thing.”
And the right thing, of course, nearly always involves breaking the rules in order to accomplish the goal of saving the victim — the clear message being the ends justify the means.
They are then scolded for doing so, but we are left to understand — as is the political scolder who nevertheless understands why they did what they did — that the ends justify the means, and that when good and righteous cops on the side of the victim class have to choose between following rules and affecting positive social change, and bringing about at least one instance of social justice in world that protects the lesser morality of those who think differently than they (which is what accounts for determining lesser morality in the first place), they are willing to do so and live with the consequences.
Of which there are of course none, generally speaking. Unless you count the scolding, that unfolds something like this: “I know why you did what you did. But we can’t have you out there acting on your own. We have procedures for a reason. And if everyone simply ignored them, the system would break down — and you’d be no better than the criminals you pursue.”
— And which is followed by a bit of contrition married to a poignant, resigned rejoinder: “I understand captain. But sometimes saving a woman who would otherwise be crushed by the avarice, violence, and greed of the patriarchy / racialists / pornographer, supersedes the rules. And maybe one day, in a more just society, we’ll come to figure that out.”
The message of SVU has been, for some years now, the message of the left. In fact, it puts on display their anti-foundationalist self righteousness and their kernel assumption that by their doing something they believe in, they are (it naturally follows) doing something good. And though that means they may run afoul of political and societal norms, they are doing good because they, themselves, are good. And goodness is defined by doing good, creating a perfect circle of self-rationalizing and moral aggrandizement. QED!
I hope somebody DVRs the thing and sends it to me. Because I’m happy to add a commentary track.
And I bet it will be fucking epic, too.
New proteinwisdom category! MST3K style reviews of lefty agitprop!
An Inconvenient Truth
In the Valley of Elah
2012
The Day After Tomorrow
Lions for Lambs
This is one YouTube channel I’d pay to subscribe to…
Nailed it!
The first suspect/red herring is almost always one of those supposed bugaboos of the right/sainted victims of the the left.
If it’s a terror attack, then they first suspect a hardworking Afghan immigrant cabbie, but then later discover it was actually done by some McVeigh type intentionally stirring up hate against immigrants.
If it’s a prep school gal who is raped, they first suspect a black or hispanic scholarship student from the hood, but then discover it’s really the arrogant, WASPy offspring of one of the wealthiest families in Manhattan.
And every time they do this they think it is a surprising twist.
One out of 5 ain’t bad, John.
But it’s not JEFF reviewing the movies. THAT I would pay to see. Particularly if the armored Panzer rat, a bottle of Mezcal, and several peyote buttons were involved.
These greivance mongers will get what they project into the minds of others and will be consumed by it. The thugs doing the beating are not going to be sophisticated enough to understand the difference between a “rich” Democrat contributor and a your average unknowingly rascist passerby when they begin running amok.
And BTW, can we stop with the thinnly veiled allegories. The Faerie Queen was what sent me screaming into the night from the damn English Department.
I guess this means no more cross burnings at the National Night Out.
If I remember to set the DVR, since the episode doesn’t air until October, I’ll record it and burn it to a DVD for you to work with.
This SVU show must be on that TV thinger I have in the den. On one of those channels I know are there; but like anything else that’s theoretically ‘there’ that I haven’t verified personally, I’ll just have to take your well-informed word for it.
And, no, this particular episode of SVU doesn’t make me in the least bit interested in consuming it. I’ve no desire to be crassly manipulated by society’s top-notch influence peddlers in such a fashion, thankyouverymuch…
Next time I see McGruff, I’m kicking the shit outta that creepy-ass cracka.
… and the old guy who always walks his dog right before dark? The one who called the five-o when he noticed our front door was left wide open when we went on vacation and called the cops? I’m sending my son over there with a baseball bat and a message to mind your own white business.
Can’t fucking wait until I have to put bars on my windows, barbed wire on the top of my fence, and a club on my steering wheel again.
All of the Law & Order franchise have to hire a “special breed[er]”* of actor. They have to be able to deliver their lines, with serious looks and tone, without cracking up. Which is what they claim led to Michael Moriarty leaving the show not his political views.
When he left that was the last time I ever watched any of the series.
*
I hope the Cybill Shepard character is named Kitty Genovese.
And in the real world…
Remind me again – Is SVU the one with the pudgy guy who thinks his whisker stubble distracts viewers from his man titties while he pretends to be a genius? Or the female lead who ought to have an Adam’s apple?
I believe it’s the one that stars the rapper who made a name for himself by writing and recording Cop Killer.
That rapper has also admitted that he used to rob banks.
OT, but topping out as the saddest, most infuriating (to me) story of the week: Delbert Belton, 88 years old, shot in the jungles of Okinawa during the 2nd World War, lived; one of the Greatest Generation and one of the ever-dwindling few who still graced us, beaten to death with flashlights in Spokane by two worthless pieces of teen debris, who haven’t a clue as to what they’ve done.
One is in custody, Demetrius Glenn. The other, Kenan Adams-Kinard, still being run down.
Little prick looks a lot like Trayvon Martin.
Little prick looks a lot like Trayvon Martin.
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The message is in the damn title of the show: some victims are more special than others.