Evan McMurry at Mediaite reported on the latest cultural criticism at the RightOnline Conference in Orlando this weekend. Conservative blogger and screenwriter Bill Whittle diagnosed Seth MacFarlane’s cartoon “Family Guy” as a symptom of America’s decadent liberalism, and said that conservatives are losing the narrative needed to win elections due to “entertainment” like this.
Whittle charted the decline and fall of American values on our TV screens:
“Any audience of people that grew up with classical Superman automatically love this country, because Superman is about the best America we can be,” he said. “When Superman was all over the pop culture, we were a nation that loved this country. Now, twenty years after the peak of Superman‘s popularity, along comes Gilligan’s Island. That’s pretty neutral in terms of politics..."
"But if you’re a young person out there today and you can finish the theme song from Family Guy, then all the anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Christian, anti-morality messages of Family Guy are in your head as completely and thoroughly as that theme song is,” Whittle said.
He argued that conservative electoral success was tied to the ability to successfully weave narratives around conservative beliefs. “You’re programmed by the pop culture, you’re programed by story,” he said. “It’s all about stories, and if we’re the villain in all of the stories that are told, we’re never going to win another election again.”
