Honest Opinion, Or Giveaway?

     I’m told by a Jewish friend that during what he called the “time of the judges,” the great panel of judges that ruled over the Jews had an interesting rule: a unanimous verdict of guilty automatically acquits the accused. The logic of that rule, my friend said, was that unanimity among 77 judges – the size of the panel in those days – suggested that a lynching was in progress. It has the feel of wisdom gained through experience behind it, doesn’t it? After all, when did you last see 77 individuals agree about anything?

     These days, that rule has another application:

     Yes, once again the subject is Jim Caviezel’s surprisingly popular true-story-based movie The Sound of Freedom. Apparently that venerable bastion of truth, justice, and the American way, CNN, has joined the bandwagon:

     These films are created out of moral panics. They’re created out of bogus statistics. They’re created out of fear. And with something like Sound of Freedom, it specifically is looking at QAnon concepts of these child trafficking rings that are run by the high-level elites and only people like Tim Ballard and only people like Jim Caviezel, and by extension, only people like the ticket buyer can help bring these trafficking rings down. So, there’s a very participatory element. You’re not just going to see a movie, you’re just killing two hours on a hot day. You are helping bring down these pedophile rings and save children. Now, it’s not true, but it’s a very comforting and it’s a very warm feeling to have.

     Once again, Oooh, QAnon! Once again, Oooh, that creepy Jim Caviezel! These “critics” are unconcerned with the value of the movie as a portrayal of an underappreciated variety of heroism. They want you to dismiss it – not to take it seriously, and if possible not to see it at all. Why?

     When it comes to “moral panics,” the Left, which has dominated American cultural offerings for some time, has its own priorities:

• Racism – but exclusively by whites against blacks;
• Bigotry – but against homosexuals and transgenders and no one else;
• Xenophobia – but by legitimate American citizens against illegal aliens;
• “Climate Change” – a wholly-fictitious apocalyptic threat.

     Those are four biggies – and all four are promotions of the Left. But an inspiring movie about child trafficking? A movie based on a true story about something that’s actually taking place and is particularly observable around our southern border? A movie that highlights the innocence and vulnerability of children? A movie that suggests that allowing homosexual “groomers” into our schools to propagandize the students might not be benignly intended? And starring a sincere Catholic, at that? Horrors!

     Could these critics be more obviously reading from a politically dictated hymn sheet?

     It certainly doesn’t help CNN’s cause that one of its former producers has just been indicted for kiddie-diddling:

     …but perhaps we should stay on the “moral panic” point.

     The Left not only wants absolute control over everything you do; it wants absolute control over everything you feel, as well. Any “moral panics” in circulation must be in accord with the Left’s agenda. All irrelevant emotion is prohibited:

     The young, strong body, now helpless in sleep, awoke in him a pitying, protecting feeling. But the mindless tenderness that he had felt under the hazel tree, while the thrush was singing, had not quite come back. He pulled the overalls aside and studied her smooth white flank. In the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girl’s body and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.

     [From the Left’s covert instruction manual.]

     Orwell’s unforgettable depiction of a future dystopia might soon prove to be the most important book written in the century behind us.