But in the 1930s and the war years, a liberal-minded film mocking ordinary people would have been a contradiction in terms.
Tom Carson at American Prospect wonders how left-wing Hollywood writers and producers went from being on the side of ordinary working Americans to viewing them with contempt (though he cites Roseanne and The Simpsons as honorable exceptions). He traces it back to Adlai Stevenson and Joe McCarthy, but surely genuine disagreements about race (and later sexual orientation) between Hollywood and Middle America must also have played a role. Further, a disproportionate number of the “wealthiest 1%” live or work in Hollywood, and whatever their politics they usually have little understanding of the lives of working people.
h/t Andrew Sullivan
[Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]
