Figures in the liberal cultural space tend to go one of two ways. Either they succumb to racist proselytism or they spinelessly go along with the mob. Either way, this process destroys any semblance of creativity or individual merit they possess.
The crusade against Meg Smaker and her documentary Jihad Rehab perfectly illustrates the point. Smaker spent more than a year “exploring what leads men to embrace groups such as al Qaeda and the Taliban,” speaking to four men in Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Nayef Counseling and Care Center, which tries to rehabilitate accused terrorists.
The resulting documentary was brilliant, some liberals thought. It was invited to the 2022 Sundance Festival. Variety called it “an interrogative act of self-defiance.” Abigail Disney was the documentary’s executive producer, and she called it “freaking brilliant” in an email to Smaker. The Guardian called the documentary a “movie for intelligent people looking to have their preconceived notions challenged.”
That should have been the first sign that liberals would hate it.
Michael Powell of the New York Times says, “Film critics warned that conservatives might bridle at these human portraits,” but, as Smaker found out, the “attacks would come from the Left, not the Right.” Smaker is white, so of course this makes her ineligible to “tell the story of Arab men.” Muslim filmmakers lashed out at her solely because of her skin color. Once they laid down the law, spineless white liberals joined in the pile-on.
Now the film was no longer “freaking brilliant” to Disney; instead, it “landed like a truckload of hate,” as she said in her disgusting, groveling, sniveling open letter apology. Sundance demanded an “ethics review” of the film, which it passed. Yet cowardly festival officials still pulled the documentary from its slate. Apparently, “intelligent people looking to have their preconceived notions challenged” are not the festival’s target audience.
As a result, Smaker’s film, which had been so heavily praised until it was deemed problematic, is now “near untouchable” and “unable to reach audiences,” according to Powell. Why? Basically because it was made by a white woman. The racist liberals got their way, and cowards like Sundance and Disney went right along with them.
4/This woman basically dedicated her life to understanding the roots of terrorism in a sophisticated, humanizing manner, and learned Arabic to do so. Now she’s broke and a pariah because a bunch of assholes who never saw the film joined a deranged pileon.This is terrible for art.
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) September 25, 2022
This is the environment liberal culture-makers want to impose on the rest of the country. They are so scared by social pressure that they will turn on a dime, praising a work like this one and then condemning it the moment the herd runs in the wrong direction.
Storytellers must be segregated by their skin color and tell stories only involving people of their own skin color. Those who don’t must be savaged and disowned. All it takes is for a couple of random people who think they are important enough to comment. Creativity and individuality must be destroyed.
This attitude doesn’t end with independent films and documentaries. Liberal racists will continue until they have bullied everyone out of independent thought, as happened here. This is the culture they wish to impose on all facets of our lives — Smaker will not be the last victim of it.
