What if this is what’s wrong with us liberals?

I see a problem.

So I was reading this interview with Seth Myers in The Guardian — I’m a late night groupie, but that’s another post. He was talking about how he grew up watching great humor on television with his parents, and suddenly there’s this sentence: “Once you’ve seen Monty Python, you can’t go back to Full House.” In the next sentence, the journalist proceeded to explain that Full House was the “awful” 90s sitcom that made the Olsen twins famous.

It so happens I am just now re-watching all of Full House on Netflix and I can find nothing awful at all about it. Of course, cuteness abounds, but you know what? Those twins were pretty damn good, they had incredible comedic talent at a very young age. And yes, it is all a bit sugary, but hey, it’s supposed to be a family show. So yes, the problems are all solved, the lessons are learned, in the end everyone loves each other, common sense, goodness and love triumph.

And I ask, what’s so awful about that? Don’t you want to feel good about the world and about people for a while now and then? Does everything have to be Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad? Aren’t there days when our lives are indeed much more like Full House than, say, The Sopranos or Mad Men?

Also, it’s surprisingly modern: it’s premise is an unconventional family situation (three men raising three girls) and it basically promotes the idea that it’s all good as long as the kids get love. ALL the women in the show are professionals, their jobs are more prestigious than the men’s, and they are generally portrayed as much more sensible and intelligent. When Becky has their babies she doesn’t even consider giving up her career, and in fact her husband Jesse is the one mostly staying home with the kids. Marriage and relationships are treated as equal partnerships, there’s a great emphasis on this. Conflicts are solved with conversations where everyone involved listens to one another, and almost always someone admits they were wrong.

What’s so awful about that? Yes, there is not much in the way of what we would call diversity now, and the deep social issues are certainly missing (although there are episodes about school absenteeism, alcohol, adolescent sex etc.), but it’s basically a well-intentioned, really sweet show about how to be a little better. (Also, I think the Olsen twins have done well for themselves and seem to be smart women.)

I’m not ashamed to enjoy a show like that. I don’t think anyone should. And yet, this great serious liberal newspaper is telling me it’s awful, and this great liberal comedian/late-night host is telling me if I enjoy this show, I’m probably too dumb to enjoy him (or Monty Python, whatever).

I see a problem here. This what people have been telling us, and we keep refusing to listen to them. When they say they are sick of the “liberal elite” telling them what to do and insulting them, this is what they mean. Exactly this.

I’m not saying this is why Trump won, of course, but it may be a part of it, and a bigger part than we think. So many people feel diminished and hurt by these comments we make. And we make them all the time. The shows they watch and love are awful. Their fashion is ridiculous and laughable. Their values are outdated. The way they talk is incorrect and they need to be educated. Their views are invalid.

How would you feel if everything you love and believe, everything and everyone you respect, your way of life, down to your clothes and your vocabulary was constantly ridiculed? If no matter how hard you tried you could not be taken seriously?

Like I said, this was just one sentence in one newspaper and it’s not all that important. But it hurt me when I saw a journalist in a medium I respect offhandedly characterize a show I like as awful. It irritated me. I didn’t like it. What if this happened all the time. If all the newspapers I trust suddenly gave me subtle but unmistakable negative evaluations of many other aspects of my life — wouldn’t I finally turn away, look for more sympathetic news outlets elsewhere? Wouldn’t I look for like-minded people to share my tastes with? Wouldn’t I get from irritated to angry?

Yes, it’s just a small sentence, and probably no one even noticed. Probably even those who secretly like Full House nodded, because that’s what we do. And we will keep on doing it.

And that’s the bigger problem.