I found this discussion by Mike Huckabee refreshing. Calm, rational, centered discussion. Not a lot of yelling and name calling. Soothing in a way. A refreshing change of pace from the screaming and cursing of The Left that accompanies all their riots, er, “peaceful protests”…
In it, he simply points out that a full audit of the election will let everyone have faith in our electoral system. So what do The Democrats have to hide that makes them so against such a simple practice, eh?
About 2/3 of the way through, he does one of those “it’s everywhere” bits where you see the same “Talking Point” or thread showing up all over the place. In this case, it is “The Handmaid’s Tale” (or perhaps that ought to be The Handmaid’s Tail given the theme of the “work”…). Being entirely unfamiliar with this fiction, I had to look it up to find out just what The Left were so fired up about and why were they so fixated on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid’s_Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England, in a strongly patriarchal, quasi-Christian, totalitarian state, known as Gilead, that has overthrown the United States government. The central character and narrator is a woman named Offred, one of the group known as “handmaids”, who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the “commanders” – the ruling class of men.
The novel explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society and the various means by which they resist and attempt to gain individuality and independence.
Ah, I get it now. Another self loathing story where a woman wallows in self pity for her fate at the hands of Evil Men. The Left will just love anything that pillories the Evil Patriarchy, even if it is a dystopian fiction. Then it also uses Christianity as a foil for evil. Yeah, right, like the Catholics who venerate Mary will go along with the story line…
No wonder I never paid any attention to it. And never will.
I’m not all that fond of dystopian anything, really. Sure, some make it. Like Blade Runner. But it is more a “cops & robbers” with some Sci-Fi robot / android stuff mixed in. Set in a somewhat dystopian future, but with people doing normal people things and fairly happy with life. IMHO, barely dystopian (after all, the “off planet” areas are supposedly better). But in large part I like my “dystopia” small and as a jumping off point for hope. Like in The Sound Of Music. The invasion of Austria by Germany and the whole W.W.II dystopia is there, but just as a foil for the joy of music and folks escaping to freedom.
Indulge your hatred of Religion by using it as a foil to promote evil, and I’m not interested in your “work”. Throw stones at Christianity (or Judaism) and I’m out the door. No, I’m not very religious. Just a little bit really (in the edge cases where we can have no proof or understanding, what is left but faith and hope?) BUT I do understand the huge benefit the Judaeo Christian heritage has brought to the world. In large part it created the success of the world today and the promotion of liberty and peace. Yeah, lots of religious wars along the way too. Nobody starts out at their best.
I also prefer that any fiction I read have a decent connection to reality. Even Science Fiction, when it wanders off into Fantasy, loses me. So Star Trek, yes, Lord Of The Rings not so much. The notion of the USA turning into some kind of dystopian hell hole in one turn is a bit much. The notion that all the women I’ve taught to shoot would just go along is also a bit daft. Then there’s all those women in the Armed Services who know how to conduct combat. Finally, there’s that unfortunate large percentage of the male population that can’t cook and would die without a woman giving them motivation get up and go to work. Does The Left really think Ted Bundy would survive in a world without family support? So the fantasy world pretext leaves me in the “nope” land.
I mean, really, even in the worst of the Male Dominated History of the West we had Queens ruling countries. Leading armies against Rome. Being Pirates in the Caribbean. Setting up their own businesses in the Wild West. It just isn’t a tenable thesis that their daughters would not have the same strength and grit.
Then there’s the Political Advocacy Style. I don’t care for having any political ideology shoved at me in fiction. Especially when horribly distorted and on steroids. Like painting BLM on the football field or basketball court, it just drives away the audience. So knowing it is there, you can also know that those Just Loving It, are the partisan hacks who were not driven away.
Now, after all that, there’s one minor final point: I don’t loath myself.
So I don’t bother with “stories” that try to set me into a category to be loathed. Painting whole swaths of humanity as something horrible is just “flush” signal to me. Lacking in nuance and ignoring the richness of actual reality. Have an Evil King with a few dozen “handmaids” and a village of strong women getting their men to join them in deposing the Evil King? Now that could be a rich story to explore. The Sociopath vs The Families. But “All men evil” just doesn’t cut it.
OK, enough of that. It was just background I had to soak up to follow what The Left was all hot and bothered about and why they were trying to use Handmaid’s Tale as a touchstone for some evil idea of theirs.
With that background, here’s the Huckabee bit:
