>>191809>It's criticism and that's it. It isn't about destroying anythingSee, the problem with that is that it is criticism used to justify destruction. "Critical theory" itself may simply be about picking things apart and finding the underlying tones and themes, but those observations are then used as a justification for censoring or otherwise removing the offending film/book/whatever from circulation. There's no reason to analyze anything under Critical Theory other than to find some kind of fault with it.
A perfect example is the controversy that
>>191672 brought up, the removal of "Baby It's Cold Outside" from a radio station because some SJW faggot thinks it's about rape. Analyzing that song from the perspective of Critical Theory could lead to the conclusion that, although the intent of the lyricist was just to write a song about cutesy flirtation, the patriarchal attitudes of the era that person lived in were deeply embedded into the fiber of his being, and as such the finished song is about rape even though it's not actually about rape. Basically, because the author of the song lived in an era in which these supposedly patriarchal or rapey attitudes were accepted, the song he wrote advocates rape. What does this mean? Well, because in Current Year these "patriarchal" attitudes from the past have been designated as Wrongthink by the social justice club, the song now cannot be accepted as part of our popular culture. The actual intent or meaning of the lyrics is rendered irrelevant because of some faggoty, uptight college kid's personal subjective opinions of both the intent of the song itself and the morality of a past era. From a SOCJUS perspective, there is no other possible view and no other argument matters.
In a nutshell, that's all Critical Theory is: nothing but a bunch of wacky mental gymnastics used to justify censorship. That's its only purpose and that's all it ever accomplishes. It's fundamentally no different than similar arguments made in the past by religious authorities to discredit or censor texts that went against Christian scripture. To say that Critical Theory itself is just an analytical tool that does no damage is missing the point. A hammer is only a tool, but if it's being used to bash someone's brains in then it's destructive.
>the underlying tone of the film is, "Deviation from the norm will be punished unless exploitable."This observation is actually a little ironic, considering that "Deviation from the norm will be punished unless exploitable" is basically the unofficial slogan of the modern left.
>>191810>Also, "now"? These criticisms of Rudolph have been around for a while now. This isn't a new thing; it isn't something Huffpost came up with; Huffpost just condensed the criticisms that were being spread into a coherent video.Also, this point is completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter how long this objection to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer has been around, or whether it was dreamed up last night by some snotty editorialist at the HuffPost or some snotty academic over a decade ago. This is probably the first OP has ever heard of it and likely the first anyone on this board has ever heard of it, since most of us here don't follow the kinds of """""intellectual""""" circles that such observations would likely be discussed in. I know I've never heard any of this prior to reading this thread.
Whether the HuffPost is the author of this asinine criticism or simply the curator of it doesn't matter; it's a moronic, baseless objection to a beloved Christmas special, cooked up by someone with too much time on his hands for no other reason than to take a steamy shit on something that has brought joy to millions of happy children. This analysis, as well as everything else Critical Theory has ever come up with, deserves to be ridiculed as the empty garbage that it is, regardless of who happens to be spewing it at a given moment.