I would add to Philip's analysis that this nostalgia for a time people aren't old enough to remember is also driven by pop-culture, both the instant availability of old movies/TV shows from when all heroes were White Men, and misreading of newer movies (eg "Wall Street") as paeans to manly virtue. - ThreadSky

petersagal.bsky.social • 14 days ago

I would add to Philip's analysis that this nostalgia for a time people aren't old enough to remember is also driven by pop-culture, both the instant availability of old movies/TV shows from when all heroes were White Men, and misreading of newer movies (eg "Wall Street") as paeans to manly virtue.

Reposted from Philip Bump

Trying different ways of plugging my columns, so: here's an excerpt from and a gift link for today's, which centers on the misogynistic defenses of Trump's tariffs. wapo.st/4jiEAds

Comments

tinyfrightening.bsky.social•14 days ago

All the guys who thought Walter White was awesome, and hated Skyler for getting in his way.

freedom2b.bsky.social•14 days ago

Aww hell, Republicans like slavery. (fewer syllables)

adamrwolff.bsky.social•14 days ago

Ahh, the “good old days,” when men had to wear jackets and ties to the office and died of lung cancer or cirrhosis at 40.

adamgilson.bsky.social•14 days ago

Separate but related: I'm seeing online nostalgia for the 80s as a simpler time before the mess and distractions of today. But do recall that Back to the Future (which also traded in nostalgia for a simpler past) depicted 1985 as a filthy, graffiti-ridden hellscape, even before alt-1985 with Biff.

artcat1.bsky.social•14 days ago

The Godfather films broke whatever American morality might have existed. Gangsters are not generous, caring, empathetic people.

petersagal.bsky.social•14 days ago

You could probably get an PhD by analyzing how "The Wolf of Wall Street" shaped a generation of finance bros.

minndb.bsky.social•14 days ago

The MBA mind is not capable of processing art at anything other than face value

slicksharkey.bsky.social•14 days ago

You just won’t get an NEA grant for your PhD research.

realwoody.bsky.social•13 days ago

Well, Margot Robbie…I mean.

edwardericsonjr.bsky.social•14 days ago

It's been done.

formsla.bsky.social•14 days ago

I don’t think a movie has done much shaping. I think far more important has been the advent of professional management and the notion that management’s sole responsibility is to the shareholders (as per Milton Friedman).

ryangodfrey.com•14 days ago

We have a basic media literacy problem when people watch WALL STREET or THE WOLF OF WALL STREET and don't realize we are meant to understand these characters as absolutely terrible humans.

williamthecat.bsky.social•14 days ago

Are you even going to be allowed to toss dwarves or is that considered a dei thing now?

tracypoe.bsky.social•14 days ago

20 or so years ago I spent an evening with Elon Musk and his entourage, and I have described it ever since as “Like The Wolf of Wall Street, but with boring, ugly nerds”