Watch the dinner scene here, starting about 5:50 until Hitler's latest freak out. Notice the normality of it. I'm sure you've heard about the banality of evil a time or two but still; a nice civilized dinner. The patriarch sits at the head of the table and directs conversation. Think of how those who don't feel comfortable with doubt or peering too far into things would accept what he has to say matter-of-factly, dutifully. 'You know Myrtle, I've never allowed myself to feel compassion, and you know wild apes just kill all the weirdos among themselves. Reckon ain't that what we should be doing?'
I'm reminded of something from my childhood, in the nineties the NBC affiliate in North Platte would show a daily syndicated short from Focus on the Family between the national and local news. James Dobson himself, smiling in his nice fatherly suit, speaking in a soft friendly voice, and giving blandly, generically authoritarian advice for raising children along the lines of 'have dinner together'.
These broadcasts to the general rural American public mentioned nothing about the time Dobson flogged his pet dachshund with a belt to force it to obey an arbritary command. or his belief that children will grow up to be criminals unless they are treated the same way. Nor did Dobson ever use one of these shorts to suggest that fathers and sons shower together, so that Junior can gaze upon Dads adult-sized penis, and learn to respect the awe-inspiring power of the penis so that he doesn't grow up to be gay. Yes, really. No, just this old, wise seeming and perfectly normal man, with only the slight hint of a cracked accent, giving common sense advice to millions of rural homes in the the knowledge that a small percentage would buy his humble books, (imploring them to be brave warriors against feminists and queers), and his humble newsletter, (Telling them of the latest outrage from pro-abortion radicals.) All in the quiet certainty that his profits would be ample, and that he would never have to get his suit dirty doing any real work out there among the damned.
Sorry for the mild Godwin here, it was just a fancy I had.
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