Decius wrote:
] ] For a certain segment of the population, Nascar's raid on
] ] American culture -- its logo festoons everything from
] ] cellphones to honey jars to post office walls to panties;
] ] race coverage, it can seem, has bumped everything else
] ] off television; and, most piercingly, Nascar dads now get
] ] to pick our presidents -- triggers the kind of fearful
] ] trembling the citizens of Gaul felt as the Huns came
] ] thundering over the hills. To these people, stock-car
] ] racing represents all that's unsavory about red-state
] ] America: fossil-fuel bingeing; lust for violence; racial
] ] segregation; run-away Republicanism; anti-intellectualism
] ] (how much brain matter is required to go fast and turn
] ] left, ad infinitum?); the corn-pone memes of God and guns
] ] and guts; crass corporatization; Toby Keith anthems; and,
] ] of course, exquisitely bad fashion sense. What's more,
] ] they simply don't get it.
]
] Instapundit asks if you replaced the word "nascar" with the
] word "hiphop" in this article if it would have run in the
] Times. I agree, this is garbage journalism. Its ignorant. What
] the hell does nascar have to do with racial segregation? On
] the other hand, when the "right" gets all ignorant about
] hollywood or hiphop they do things like declaring cultural
] wars and threatening to ban things. No one has ever threatened
] to ban nascar. Instapundit's point seems to lack legs.
]
] Zell Miller (who is clearly a cultural conservative) on the
] Daily Show recently: "I don't think the first amendment
] applies to hiphop..." Thats not just ignorance. Thats an
] ignorant threat.

I agree. This is shit journalism. Personally... I kinda dig Nascar. And none of the stereotypes apply to me, I just like motorsports... although I'd like to see an electric series.

I recall several years ago, in the trenches of the culture wars, a race I attended at Talladega, chasing off a group sitting next to me with repeated yells of, "Michael Waltrip for GAY RIGHTS!" each lap, after they loudly called him a "fucking faggot." God, that was great.

RE: 'Sunday Money' and 'Full Throttle': Nascar Nation - New York Times