Althouse: "As a kid, I was searching for my tribe of other people who saw through the matrix."

August 1, 2015

"As a kid, I was searching for my tribe of other people who saw through the matrix."

"Even as a kid I could never buy into the status quo. I just thought it was a joke; I couldn't believe other people weren't laughing at it."

15 comments:

madAsHell said...: "people who saw through the matrix"

He has the creativity of a 14-year-old girl with yesterday's edgy notions.; 8/1/15, 9:19 PM
Carnifex said...: Flip Wilson did it better.; 8/1/15, 10:05 PM
Phil 314 said...: Better looking man than woman; 8/1/15, 10:28 PM
Michael K said...: I kind of miss Flip Wilson.; 8/1/15, 11:06 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "As a kid, I was searching for my tribe of other people who saw through the matrix."
And built his very own matrix in his head? Why do so many people in the entertainment industry feel contempt for common people? The people who are really existing outside the matrix are people with religious faith (and yes, that includes Muslims).; 8/1/15, 11:11 PM
urpower said...: Watching a drag show we're seeing the Matrix being torn dow? Right on. Around 1994 RuPaul was fired up to launch a religious revival or something (“Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, and now RuPaul. I'm about the politics of the soul.") Don't think he ever got there. He changes clothes. But seeing through the Matrix, i.e. some mode of a spiritual consciousness, is taking the clothes off.; 8/1/15, 11:35 PM
traditionalguy said...: That there is a matrix is the comforting message to man. Chaos is a contrast to order. Seeing chaos in everything is the easiest thing to do. Seeing order takes an effort and the use of words in language. The clothes are words in a language. Welsh.; 8/2/15, 6:00 AM
Humperdink said...: 1950's Weirdness in the closet.
1970's Weirdness out, but ID'd as weird.
1990's Weirdness accepted, but still weird.
2000's Weirdness embraced as mainstream, ID'd as a variety of genders.
2010's Labeling weirdness as weird prosecuted as hate speech.; 8/2/15, 6:44 AM
Ann Althouse said...: From the link: "The only time you'll see me in drag now is if I'm getting paid a load of money."; 8/2/15, 6:50 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: "As a kid, I was searching for my tribe of other people who saw through the matrix."

I've never seen RuPaul at any of the meetings so I call bullshit.; 8/2/15, 8:35 AM
SGT Ted said...: The narcissism of the misfits is especially annoying and tedious. It's very immature in its failure of imagination of differences and thinking that you have special powers of observation that others do not. Different doesn't mean 'special'. I was a misfit myself but I never thought I was better than others.; 8/2/15, 10:00 AM
Jaq said...: There is a kind of power in the certainty that the way you see the world is the only correct way and that everybody else's view except yours is the phantasmagoria of the stupid. It is solipsism, I guess, and in his case, his money validates it for him. Lots of people let their differences beat them down. He provides value for money, to judge from the way my daughters like his show, so I begrudge him nothing. On the other hand, I don't believe for a second that he has some special uber vision into reality that reveals its true nature, not for a second, people have been inventing shticks from their personal observations and making a good living since way before Groucho Marx.; 8/2/15, 10:42 AM
Jolan.False said...: RuPaul uses that matrix analogy a lot, though usually (somewhat) more effectively:
"For Mr. Charles, fame — like everything — is part of what he calls 'the hoax.' 'There are only two types of people in the world,' he said. 'There are the people who understand that this is a matrix — he knocked on an iron gate, to prove its unreality — and then there are the people who buy it lock, stock and barrel.' To him, drag exposes everything else as a charade." (NYTimes)
And: "the whole punk movement was like: well, how far can we go with screwing up the Matrix and what we're supposed to do." (WTF with Marc Maron)

Given the difficulty, expense, and physical pain required to make a 6'4", 54 year-old man look like, well, RuPaul (the scars from the face tape alone!), I'd demand loads of money too.; 8/2/15, 11:27 AM
Eleanor said...: I've been to a drag queen show featuring the queen made famous by "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", the Lady Chablis. I don't think I've ever seen anything more pathetic in my life than a bunch of guys lip synching and trying to pass themselves off as some kind of divas. I went to be entertained, but I just felt sorry for them. I don't feel sorry for RuPaul. He's made himself a fortune by making himself a freak. I think the difference is he knows he's become a freak. These poor guys were putting their hearts and souls into trying to be believable as women, and they just couldn't pull it off. Well, Chablis may have had his pulled off, but you could see the other guys hadn't through their slinky dresses.; 8/2/15, 12:11 PM
Peter said...: Metaphors based on The Matrix are getting old, could we please go back to Plato's Cave?; 8/3/15, 9:13 AM