History shows us that whenever one culture conquers another, the victors take pains to rub out or co-opt their new subjects’ religion. This dynamic has been on full display for years as the twin cults of our rulers have waged an iconoclastic orgy against Christian culture.
One consequence of unfettered Pop Cult iconoclasm that’s seldom addressed is the challenge it creates for the faithful remnant working to rebuild a healthy culture. Dissident artists may do well to study the Catholic Church’s efforts to regain a foothold in Russia. The Soviets afforded the Orthodox some toleration, but they effectively wiped out Catholicism within the USSR.
Western creators who dissent from the Death Cult must similarly start from square one. The Cult’s worldview has permeated pop culture for so long, that many in Gens X and Y may have forgotten what pre-cult culture looked like, and most Millennials and Zoomers have no experience of it.
For a poignant reminder of what has been stolen from us, watch this clip from the 90s X-Men animated series:
That episode aired in 1995, but it already feels like watching a transmission from some parallel reality. Two short years before Cultural Ground Zero, a hit kids’ show on a major network could tell a story with unambiguously Christian themes, and no one batted an eye.
Pay special attention to the Disney watermark.
A mere quarter century later, the same cultural organs are still producing stores with spiritual messages, but instead of preaching the infinite mercy of Christ, they shriek the Death Cult’s insatiable malice.
Take what comfort you can in the fact that the Death Cult cannot build, but only destroy. Its zealots’ frenzy will one day burn itself out, along with the wreckage of Western civilization.
We must draw close to Christ that we may be ready to begin the slow work of rebuilding.
The only thing I didn't care for in that episode was that they made Gambit the atheist when he's canonically Catholic. But since they had a limited pool of X-Men to work with I suppose they had to choose him.
There's another episode where Nightcrawler confronts the mother who abandoned him and forgives her because of his faith. He's speech is quite touching. You would never have something like that now, especially since there is no one in the comic industry who isn't a death cultist urbanite.
I do think that divide is a major part of the reason that you will never have '00s nostalgia. It's not solely about childhood, but about an entirely different world that no longer exists.
Brian Niemeier
January 22, 2021,
Consider that they were in such a bind to find the atheist foil the plot needed, they had to pressgang a believer into service.
xavier
January 22, 2021,
Brian,
I'm watching the old black and white movie channel sometimes and the amount of Christian themes aesthetics naturally expressed can be a little jarring even for me. And I really don't watch that much TV as the current show quality is just awful and insulting.
Yet I really enjoy those old shows. If I were a TV/movie maker, I'd be asking JD and Jon (del Arroz) for advice.
xavier
A Reader
January 22, 2021,
I watched this series from time to time when I was a kid, but I think I missed more of the series than I saw. I had no idea they did an episode like this.
Part of the nostalgic obsession with pre-1998 is not just the things: it's the world itself. There will be no nostalgic movement for the '00s because rolling back the clock is not the same as wanting to return to a completely different world.
There was '90s nostalgia before the body was even warm. The '00s ended over a decade ago and people still make fun of nu metal and Dreamworks cartoons. It's not going to happen.
JD Cowan
January 23, 2021,
*body was even cold
Brian Niemeier
January 23, 2021,
Lots of confusing, "There won't be an aughts nostalgia movement," for "Nothing good came out of the aughts," in the replies.
Don't you love it when people address what they feel you said instead of what you said?
JD Cowan
January 23, 2021,
That's social media/the internet for you.
Chris Lopes
January 23, 2021,
On the Mouse Lord's streaming service most of the movies and TV shows older than a couple decades or so come with warnings about culturally inappropriate images. So much of what Uncle Walt did is now considered wrong think. Yes times change, but The Word is timeless.
Brian Niemeier
January 24, 2021,
Amen.
M. L. Martin
January 25, 2021,
Recent news is that some of the politically incorrect Disney films–Dumbo, Peter Pan, and The Aristocats–are now off-limits to children under 7 in some markets.
I am now more or less certain that the one thing I said might have tempted me over to Disney+–a chance to watch the old Guy Williams Zorro series now that I can properly appreciate it–is never going to happen.
Brian Niemeier
January 25, 2021,
Some advice: Make resolutions, not weather forecasts.
Jay DiNitto
January 23, 2021,
Why don't the "representation matters" folks ever care about the portrayals of Christians in fictional media? I barely see any open ones in TV/movies where the story is based in America, and Christians make up roughly 70%. Silly question, because we all know the reasons why.
Cantus
January 24, 2021,
Indeed. TVTropes (that leftist hive) even has "Token Religious Teammate" as a trope, because modern American media massively underrepresents Christianity. In any case, the hypocrisy can be seen clearly in the way that most Democrats voted around the laws that exempted Native American religious ceremonies from anti drug laws regarding peyote. That was bipartisan, but most of the Democrats who voted for that also supported making the Little Sisters of the Poor pay for contraceptives. Some Republicans who were there at the time thought this was hypocritical, but it actually wasn't. For those Democrats, it had never been about religious freedom, it had been about protecting the Poor Little Indians from the Big Evil White Christians, and the Little Sisters vote was about hurting the same Big Evil White Christians.
Rudolph Harrier
January 23, 2021,
Isn't the reason for the confusion adherence to the pop cult?
What I mean is that the difference between pre-00's nostalgia and "00's nostalgia" is that the earlier stuff is nostalgia for a world that is gone, and "00's nostalgia" is nostalgia for specific products. "I miss when kids could spend all day riding around town on their bikes" vs. "Half-Life 2 was a good game."
But for adherents to the pop cult consuming products IS their world, so they can't tell the difference.
Rudolph Harrier
January 23, 2021,
This was meant to be in response to JD Cowan's comment above.
JD Cowan
January 23, 2021,
You have it dead on.
Every nostalgic movement has existed for more than mere products. The '50s nostalgia in the '80s has jokes about pop culture but they mainly mention the lost mood and times that no longer exist.
We literally can't have that because society is exactly where it was in the '00s. Vicious political climate? Still have it. Forever wars? Still raging. Secular hatred of tradition and religion? Still going on. Nu atheist bugmen? Still proclaiming the same stupidity. The internet? Social media is still heavily used. Comedy? Still snarky gamma gotchas. Fashion? The same. Architecture? Cars? Music? Still the same garbage put out by the same people.
Other than random products you enjoyed, what is there to be nostalgic over? The best I hear is that "it wasn't so bad" at the time compared to now. I understand the desire.
But that's not nostalgia. That's just wishful thinking.
The only thing I didn't care for in that episode was that they made Gambit the atheist when he's canonically Catholic. But since they had a limited pool of X-Men to work with I suppose they had to choose him.
There's another episode where Nightcrawler confronts the mother who abandoned him and forgives her because of his faith. He's speech is quite touching. You would never have something like that now, especially since there is no one in the comic industry who isn't a death cultist urbanite.
I do think that divide is a major part of the reason that you will never have '00s nostalgia. It's not solely about childhood, but about an entirely different world that no longer exists.
Consider that they were in such a bind to find the atheist foil the plot needed, they had to pressgang a believer into service.
Brian,
I'm watching the old black and white movie channel sometimes and the amount of Christian themes aesthetics naturally expressed can be a little jarring even for me. And I really don't watch that much TV as the current show quality is just awful and insulting.
Yet I really enjoy those old shows. If I were a TV/movie maker, I'd be asking JD and Jon (del Arroz) for advice.
xavier
I watched this series from time to time when I was a kid, but I think I missed more of the series than I saw. I had no idea they did an episode like this.
Related, I also wanted to point out this tweet rankled a few Millennial followers: https://twitter.com/wastelandJD/status/1352751476746166276
Part of the nostalgic obsession with pre-1998 is not just the things: it's the world itself. There will be no nostalgic movement for the '00s because rolling back the clock is not the same as wanting to return to a completely different world.
There was '90s nostalgia before the body was even warm. The '00s ended over a decade ago and people still make fun of nu metal and Dreamworks cartoons. It's not going to happen.
*body was even cold
Lots of confusing, "There won't be an aughts nostalgia movement," for "Nothing good came out of the aughts," in the replies.
Don't you love it when people address what they feel you said instead of what you said?
That's social media/the internet for you.
On the Mouse Lord's streaming service most of the movies and TV shows older than a couple decades or so come with warnings about culturally inappropriate images. So much of what Uncle Walt did is now considered wrong think. Yes times change, but The Word is timeless.
Amen.
Recent news is that some of the politically incorrect Disney films–Dumbo, Peter Pan, and The Aristocats–are now off-limits to children under 7 in some markets.
I am now more or less certain that the one thing I said might have tempted me over to Disney+–a chance to watch the old Guy Williams Zorro series now that I can properly appreciate it–is never going to happen.
Some advice: Make resolutions, not weather forecasts.
Why don't the "representation matters" folks ever care about the portrayals of Christians in fictional media? I barely see any open ones in TV/movies where the story is based in America, and Christians make up roughly 70%. Silly question, because we all know the reasons why.
Indeed. TVTropes (that leftist hive) even has "Token Religious Teammate" as a trope, because modern American media massively underrepresents Christianity. In any case, the hypocrisy can be seen clearly in the way that most Democrats voted around the laws that exempted Native American religious ceremonies from anti drug laws regarding peyote. That was bipartisan, but most of the Democrats who voted for that also supported making the Little Sisters of the Poor pay for contraceptives. Some Republicans who were there at the time thought this was hypocritical, but it actually wasn't. For those Democrats, it had never been about religious freedom, it had been about protecting the Poor Little Indians from the Big Evil White Christians, and the Little Sisters vote was about hurting the same Big Evil White Christians.
Isn't the reason for the confusion adherence to the pop cult?
What I mean is that the difference between pre-00's nostalgia and "00's nostalgia" is that the earlier stuff is nostalgia for a world that is gone, and "00's nostalgia" is nostalgia for specific products. "I miss when kids could spend all day riding around town on their bikes" vs. "Half-Life 2 was a good game."
But for adherents to the pop cult consuming products IS their world, so they can't tell the difference.
This was meant to be in response to JD Cowan's comment above.
You have it dead on.
Every nostalgic movement has existed for more than mere products. The '50s nostalgia in the '80s has jokes about pop culture but they mainly mention the lost mood and times that no longer exist.
We literally can't have that because society is exactly where it was in the '00s. Vicious political climate? Still have it. Forever wars? Still raging. Secular hatred of tradition and religion? Still going on. Nu atheist bugmen? Still proclaiming the same stupidity. The internet? Social media is still heavily used. Comedy? Still snarky gamma gotchas. Fashion? The same. Architecture? Cars? Music? Still the same garbage put out by the same people.
Other than random products you enjoyed, what is there to be nostalgic over? The best I hear is that "it wasn't so bad" at the time compared to now. I understand the desire.
But that's not nostalgia. That's just wishful thinking.