Feelings as a Compass & Other Foolish Ideas

Easily Entertained

I love reading fiction. I love well done movies. I say “well done,” but the truth is that I am easily entertained. I rarely abandon a book or film once I get curious about the story’s outcome even when the product is less than stellar. I even enjoy Hallmark movies. I can’t believe I typed that out loud. I’m so embarrassed.

Good lessons from Bad Art

While it is easier to abandon a bad book because of the labor and time involved in keeping going, I actually study bad movies to understand what exactly makes a movie good or bad. I desire to produce all forms of art and storytelling, so everything good or bad is a lesson for me.  

Enough is Enough

Lately, however, I’ve been abandoning a lot of material once the creators reveal themselves as Critical Theory advocates.

I stopped reading a favorite author altogether over his introduction of a radically woke new main character.

I’ve almost given up hope on another because, for every two things he writes now, one is saturated with woke themes.

So That’s How It’s Gonna Be

In fiction, almost any warped reality is tolerable so long as THAT world is consistent and basic psychological integrity is in play. “In this world, animals can talk.” “In this world, everyone gets one superpower when they hit puberty.” “In this world, there are two opposing planets and each has opposite gravitational pulls and the planet you are born on determines whether you go up or down on each planet in response to it’s unique gravitational force.” Each time, I’ll be like, “Okay, I accept that reality for the time being… I will suspend disbelief until the piece is over.”

BUT… People must act like people, think like people. Defy that and I lose tolerance quickly.

Dim Wits at Twilight

For example: Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame has a fixation on characters being not only willing, but seemingly eager, to throw their lives away to save others when something less sacrificial might just as well do the trick… like trying to sidetrack a vampire from killing a loved one by cutting her own throat to draw its attention and give their loved one a distracted moment to kill the vampire. Of course, they could have gotten the same effect by cutting their hand and survived the ordeal… but how romantic would that be? Not very, imagines Meyer, who replays similar scenes several times in her books. A person might be willing to die for another, but people don’t easily cast their life away, so this comes off as cheap and psychologically dishonest.

Two Kings are a Problem

Another example: Stephen King’s book, Sleeping Beauties, which he wrote with his son, is built on a single premise which they both actually advocate for because it is a primary Critical Marxist theme… men are responsible for all the ills of the world and if only women populated the world they would build a perfect society. I’m actually really embarrassed to say that I read to the last word, waiting all the while for the Kings to flip it all on its head and say, “Gottcha! We were just kidding.” They didn’t.

If Pychological Dishonesty Were a Philosophy

Since, Critical Theory has an appalling understanding of almost all aspects of reality… gender… sexuality… history… economics… health… human psychology… basic cause-effect, I can’t abide watching any of it play out on screen… or in a book. Critical Marxism is the ultimate psychologically dishonest performance.

A character might represent these useful idiots in their folly, but, once the movie itself supports these themes, I click off.

No, Seriously, Enough is Enough

A poorly done film can still entertain, but I cannot abide the dark villainy of Critical Theory in all its forms and its projection of a world a lot less believable than two near planets with opposing gravitational fields that both pull AND repel.

In fact, I’ve abandoned as many films in the last few years as I have in all the years of my life combined previously… nay… I’ve abandoned exponentially more, even when the technical aspects, writing, and story structures are well done. Hollywood has a lot of technical expertise in storytelling.

And Why Am I Talking About This?

Now, I’ve just said all this, thus far, as a set up for a big reveal. Here it is. I actually made it all the way through one of these hideous wokey woke shows lately because I was determined to discover a killer hidden within a story in which every character was advancing one or more aspects of the travesty that is Critical Theory.

It became a bit of a game to document the horrible ideas about reality that drove the lives of these many, highly dysfunctional, people… who, because it’s a script and not reality, are stable and successful in all their endeavors. My only consolation was that one of these psychologically disingenuous souls would more than likely be the killer. Most likely the one who ticked off the most “oppressor” boxes, but I had hopes it would be one of the others.

The Big Reveal at the End of a Poorly Conceived Show

In the final episode, the killer is revealed, a little disappointing for many, but for me the greatest disappointment was the speech that a mother gives to her son when he is upset over his own role in certain events.

He bawls. She holds him tight. She says, “Remember what I told you about feelings. They’re our compass. If we let ourselves feel them, they tell us what direction to go and why.”[1]

That’s it. That’s the true big reveal of the story over several episodes. After bathing the audience in Leftist propaganda about the nature of reality for many hours, the final lecture comes home. Don’t think. Don’t reason. Don’t look for truth in facts. Accept the narrative given to you on an emotional level and let those feelings guide your actions.

When Psychological Dishonesty Seeks to Kill the World

In Critical Theory, moral claims, knowledge claims, ethical claims, logic, reasonability, manners, politeness, cultural norms, rules, laws… are all “oppression.” The whole world is divided into oppressors and oppressed, and all outcomes are the product of oppressors and the systems that oppressors build.

These individuals and their systems act to suppress the natural perfect order that unrestrained human beings would produce naturally if left to their own devices. Greed and selfishness are not innate, they believe. They are learned and only socialism leading to communism can put collective humanity onto the path to realizing this potential Utopia. Of course, we must, in the process, eradicate the oppressors from the world and burn down the systems they’ve built. Then Utopia will rise like a phoenix from the ashes spontaneously.  

Thus, oppressors are responsible for all the evil in the world (mostly represented by unequal outcomes) and the oppressed have no obligation to any behavior pattern except violent activism. No act is tolerable when performed by a person from the oppressor class, and no act is evil when committed in the pursuit of “Social Justice” by oppressors… i.e Equal outcomes & equity (which means payback against those deemed oppressors).

We Don’t Need No Stinking Logic

In Critical Theory, there is no room for thinking. Facts and logic are the tools of oppressors. Only feelings shaped by the outrage of unequal outcomes are valid. Don’t reason… feel. The only fact checking needed is whether or not a particular explanation for outcomes follows the prescribed narrative of predetermined oppressors and oppressed, villains and victims. Actual events don’t matter… real reasons don’t matter… those are just the kinds of excuses oppressors make to defend themselves against the rightful charge of being oppressors.  

Anyone who tries to limit the free expression of human desire as it comes from those in the victim classification is an oppressor… unless that victim sides with the oppressors. Then it’s Stockholm syndrome and they must be turned or destroyed with the rest.

Feelings are great. They spice up our lives. Decision making, however, should never be driven by feelings. Feelings make a terrible moral and ethical compass. He who lets feelings lead is led by a fool.

~Andrew D. Sargent, PhD

[1] Final episode of A Murder at the End of the World. Don’t watch it. Not worth it.