I’m really fed up with being gaslit. Our whole culture, in the West at least, is rotten through with lying-as-norm.
Pick an example, any example. I’m going with butch Jesus and blue smurf Dionysus because when I posted about this on social media today, a New York Times reading acquaintance tried to correct me with a very sophisticated lie, and it annoyed me enough for me to go fishing on the internet to get to the bottom of things.
As everyone with internet access knows by now, on Friday night the Paris Olympic Games opened with a drag cabaret fashion show interpretation of Da Vinci’s famous Last Supper tableau (la Cène in French). The scene featured LGBTQ+ icon Barbara Butch as Jesus, accompanied by apostles in drag, and with a musical performance by blue smurf Dionysus.
Christians were offended, upset and shocked, tweeting angry things and condemning the scene in statements. American tech company C Spire announced it was pulling its sponsorship of the Olympics. Notably, none of the Christians declared a holy war or shot up the Creative Director’s offices over it.
This was all entirely predictable, unless you’re so embedded in a grievance minority cult that you have lost all contact with the world ‘out there’.
Facing backlash from 2.4 billion Christians (not to mention other conservative cultures, such as in China, whose broadcast commentators were reportedly stunned into silence during the spectacle) and the prospect of further sponsorship withdrawals, Creative Director of the ceremony Thomas Jolly swiftly denied the Last Supper reference.
“It was not my inspiration,” he said in an interview the next day. “I think it was pretty clear, there is Dionysus who arrives at the table… The idea was rather to make a big pagan festival linked to the gods of Olympus,” explained the queer-identified Jolly.
A pagan festival, that should make the Christians and Muslims feel better.
There was “never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group”, games spokesperson Anne Descamps told reporters.
“On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly did try to intend to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence, we of course are really sorry,” said Decamps.
Exactly what one would expect the people responsible for a PR and sponsorship crisis to say in a PR and sponsorship crisis. This is PR spin, folks.
But no one actually believes this story, do they?
Yes, Dionysus arrived on the scene after the tableau was set. But come on.
And if the Last Supper reference was genuinely not intended, then how this scene got past the sensitivity readers without anyone, anyone, saying “hey, you know what, this looks an awful lot like that world famous historically significant religious tableau” is a story for the ages.
But actually, the New York Times wants you to know that “art historians are divided” on which feast was being represented at the ceremony. As though pastiche can only be derived from a single source of inspiration. As though art historians must first reach consensus before Christians can divine whether to be offended or not.
The art historian sophistry prompted educated-sounding people on social media to inform the world that the opening ceremony scene definitely wasn’t inspired by the Last Supper, because can’t you uneducated brutes tell a Dionysian feast when you see one?
The subtext is that anyone who angry-tweeted or pulled sponsorship over the Last Supper imagery is a buffoon who doesn’t know their art history.
I didn’t even angry tweet over this before today but now I’m mad about it, because once again everyone is being told not to believe their lying eyes. ‘Experts’ are being wheeled out to prop up PR messaging. And people who want to appear erudite are furthering the BS by politely correcting their friends on social media.
Perhaps the reason it pisses me off more than others is that I can do it too, but I choose not to. I worked in marketing. I am an English and Cultural Studies major. I fully understand how easy it is to twist a fact, find an expert and apply a reframe to hit the message you want and pull the rug out from under the one you don’t want.
But I refuse to do it because it’s lying. I think the best thing we can do is keep saying what is obvious and put up with the withering looks from our erudite friends who assume we just don’t understand NYT op-eds well enough.
Anyhow, before the great re-write continues on this particular lie, I’m just going to highlight that three days ago, everyone thought this was a Last Supper scene, not just the Christians.
Drag Queens:
Gays:
Leftists:
France TV in a since-deleted post, calling the scene “A LEGENDARY Supper” (again, la Cène is the French name for the Last Supper).
French culture website Sortir à Paris, noting the clever pun in staging the tableau on the Seine – Scène de la Cène à Paris sur la Seine:
Literally every single French media outlet that covered the event (English translated from French)
(Above includes Sud Ouest, Le Soir, L’Equipe, Notre Temps)
So, okay fine. We need art historians and the Creative Director of the show to tell us everyone understood it wrong. In any other setting this would be called an artistic fail.
But in our sick AF culture, everyone had better adjust to the expert queer professional opinion or you’re a dumb bigot.
Biden’s dementia cheap fakes, Covid vaccines saved a bajillion lives, ‘democracy’ wars, Ukraine, Palestine, Kamala the Border Czar, men can get pregnant – the New York Times and friends patiently explain with the utmost sophistry why you ought not believe your lying eyes or read any historical literature unsupervised.
Is this what it looks like when your civilisation is in decline? Asking for a friend.
This article was originally published on Dystopian Down Under, Rebekah Barnettt’s Substack newsletter. You can subscribe here.
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I used to like watching pro sport, less so with each passing year, but I’ve never really “got” the Olympics and rarely watched it. I don’t get “opening ceremonies” either, though people seem to expect them. So I didn’t watch, have no doubt it was distasteful and political. I’m a free speech absolutist but how much public money is shovelled into the Olympics and how much of it went to the Satanists who produced the “spectacle”?
Adam Peaty’s swim last night was awesome. He got silver. Very emotional and what a lovely guy. I tend to enjoy the athletics the most, but not the boring long-distance running, but the gymnasts are very impressive. I think being a pro gymnast has anti-aging properties as they all look about 14yrs old but are in fact in their 20s. The Chinese and Taiwanese especially look like young kids. Amazing what they can do though.
I used to follow figure skating and the Chinese, Japanese and Korean figure skaters always looked ageless.
It’s sad that people like you who would otherwise enjoy the Olympics have to endure a politicised event or choose to switch off. I have switched off from most sports because of all the political and covid nonsense, but I suspect in most countries there is some money going from the taxpayer to fund the IOC.
Yes it really is politicized, which does mar it all somewhat;
https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1817617843782832587
https://x.com/MarinaMedvin/status/1817959347370213478
Sadly it is reported that Peaty has “tested positive for Covid”
FFS!
I’ve met some women who, with a practiced gesture, pulled a dirty mask she had below her chin over her face when I approached her while walking in the opposite direction on a footpath on Saturday and a masked serving girl in the “statistical risk zero” age group on the same day who served me without mask just a week ago. The COVID headlines are still there, just on relatively minor and typically ‘lefty’ newschannels, and the COVID zombies are also still everywhere among us.
I did manage a trip to London without seeing a single one. On the other hand my neighbour wandered up our drive while I was sitting in the front garden- he came to tell me his wife had died, wearing a mask as he had been isolating since just after her death, with “Covid”
Yes, he did well, of course – but does all the hype really help people in his situation? Clare Balding et al just couldn’t stop ‘going on about’ him; the coverage was disproportionate – and then he didn’t do quite what it was by now simply assumed he would do. Emotion emotion emotion. Too much. The commentators and whoever train them just seem to like the sound of their own voices too much: watching some of the equestrian events, for example, was very frustrating, such was the pro-Brit hype; of course one expects British commentators to be essentially on the side of British contestants – although arguably they should be scrupulously neutral – but on several occasaions the voice praising the performance of a British round persisted throughout the following non-British round, and actually began to big-up the next British rider, who wasn’t even on the screen at that moment. No information or commentary to enlighten us about the rider actually on screen at that moment! Well done Peaty, but some of the commentators need to remember what they’re there for.
You sound vaccinated to me
Has anyone asked Mr Jolly if he is recreating a scene from the Quran at the closing ceremony? and if not why not? I wonder if he will and will the same people who took part in the mockery of Jesus Christ and his billions of followers be made to play the various parts. I mean its only equitable if you are going to offend one major religion then you have to do the same to the other major religion don’t you.
Whatever he is, he doesn’t have a death-wish.
Even for those of us who aren’t religious the whole debacle was atrocious and far more befitting of a Pride parade, although I would’ve removed that young girl at the front of ‘The Last Supper’. Isn’t it interesting that the Leftards can’t stop gushing about it? Jill Biden was particularly impressed. I think this speaks volumes about how we view and appreciate our values, culture and the state our society is in and the direction it’s going;
”Ultimately, the issue is not even a religious one. Some have pointed to the existence of a famous ‘right to blasphemy’ that has supposedly been defended by the French constitution since the Revolution. But the problem is not limited to religion and it is not a ‘simple’ question of blasphemy. Clearly, no one would have dared to propose a representation of Mohammed’s paradise surrounded by his virgins, all performed by drag-queens, to celebrate the opening of the Olympic Games. The offensive is political, and the entire ceremony was conceived as a political project. In an interview with Le Monde the day after the second round of the legislative elections, Thomas Jolly said that, in the event of a Rassemblement National victory, the Olympic Games ceremony he was finalising would become “a sort of resistance ceremony.” One can not be more explicit.
Some commentators on the ceremony from the Left congratulated themselves on having “put the reactionaries to shame,” or on having “brought tears to the eyes of the far right.” That was the essence of their project: not to celebrate France and sport, but to settle scores with a mouthful of hate and bile. According to them, the success of the ceremony would be measured by its ability to trigger heartburn in conservatives. How else to justify the choice of this parody of the Last Supper? How else can we understand the unhealthy, bloody indulgence in revolutionary madness shown during the part of the ceremony where we see a silhouette of Queen Marie-Antoinette decapitated, shrouded in blood red, against a backdrop of death metal?
But the paradox is that these mediocre characters are nothing without the culture, history, genius and soul of this eternal France that they abhor and vomit.”
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/paris-olympic-games-an-opening-ceremony-of-blood-and-tears/
Thanks for the link. Good article.
More on the Southport stabbing of children. This is getting depressingly predictable now;
”Police will this evening issue an update after a major incident in Southport was declared following a stabbing involving a “number of casualties”. Police were called to a property on Hart Street at around 11.50am today, Monday, July 29.
The ECHO understands that one person – believed to be a child – has died, while possibly more than ten others – both adults and children – have been taken to hospitals around the region with major traumas. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has now declared a major incident.
A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: “We can confirm that a 17-year old male from Banks, who was arrested in connection to the stabbing in Southport this morning, Monday 29 July, remains in police custody and will be questioned about the incident.
“At this early stage, enquiries are ongoing to establish the motive for this tragic incident and we would urge people not to speculate while the investigation is ongoing.
“We can also confirm that the incident is not currently being treated as terror-related and we are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.”
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/live-updates-major-incident-southport-29634202
”I’ve seen the name of the person who murdered at least one child in Southport. He is alleged to be MI5’s watch list, had “mental issues” & was a Channel migrant.
He appears to be a Jordanian Palestinian from his name. Certainly a migrant house was raided.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1817973647296053578
Now 2 kids reported dead. And now the confirmation of our suspicions we knew was coming;
”At least two children are dead, and eleven others, including nine children and two adults, have been hospitalized with serious injuries following a stabbing incident in Southport.
The attack initially occurred at a property on Hart Street but subsequently spread to the surrounding area.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital declared a major incident to manage the influx of patients.
A 17-year-old Ali Al-Shakati from Banks has been arrested in connection with the Southport stabbings and is currently in police custody.
The suspect in the Southport stabbings, Ali-Al-Shakati, was on the MI6 watch list and known to Liverpool mental health services. He was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat last year.”
https://channel3now.com/2024/07/29/17-year-old-ali-al-shakati-arrested-in-connection-with-the-stabbings-in-southport-england/
Makes my blood boil. No doubt he’s on benefits with free housing – while millions of pensioners are to lose their winter fuel payments, courtesy of the labour government.
Take that last post with a pinch of salt because I’m not sure if it’s legit. It’s just getting shared around an awful lot on Twitter and you know what it’s like at times like this, everyone’s a citizen journalist, but there’s inevitably fake news in there somewhere too. In the police conference they mentioned in passing that the attacker is originally from Cardiff. I’m with 99.99% of people online who think they’re full of crap. Yes, maybe he lived in Cardiff but it’s not like Wales don’t have their fair share of migrants so he could well have still come across on a boat, as the post says. Also, many aren’t buying the fact he’s 17yrs old. This conveniently means he’ll be afforded anonymity as a minor but it could well be he has no documents and it’s the oldest trick in the book for migrants to try and pass themselves off as ‘children’ as they can’t be deported.
I’m sure more details will come out in due course but I do find it unusual that nobody caught any footage on their mobiles, even if it was when he was arrested. No eye witness descriptions of his appearance either. All other attacks similar to this there’s always some sort of vid/photo footage knocking about online. Not sure if witnesses are being silenced, or perhaps I’m being paranoid.
The Telegraph mentioned that his family are Rwandan and that they moved to the UK when this POS was aged 6. The 17 year old thing made me wonder too. How convenient. At some point someone will decide what truth we’ll be allowed to be told.
I’m confused. Reports say he is the son of immigrants from Rwanda. So is he or is he not?
Nice article.
To answer the question: I think that’s what it looks like when the counter-culture (let’s not call that civilisation) of our ruling castes is in (hopefully terminal) decline. We’ll still be there after they’re gone, although amidst what kind of devastation remains to be determined.
Christians should have no surprise at this if they paid attention. As Jesus of Nazareth told his disciples, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you”.
There’s no need for Christians to be offended when they see evidence of the truth their Lord has told them in advance. Instead they have been told to rejoice.
The connection between the table of the Last Supper and the table of Dionysus is made clear to his formerly pagan converts by the Apostle Paul, “Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils”.
Though to be charitable to the Greek pagans it’s worthy of note that C S Lewis, the ‘apostle to the sceptics’, thought that the Greek myths were intended to convey ‘gleams of celestial truth and beauty’ to the human race but, ‘falling on a fallen world, were corrupted into filth and imbecility.’
And now, having fallen on a France celebrating an athletic contest that originated in the ancient Greek world, there’s not much space between La laïcité and the imbecility.
Of course, it’s the lying that upsets Rebekah Barnett. Though Jesus of Nazareth did make an observation about this too.
When they decided to go with the BS counternarrative, X was flooded with bots for hours informing people that they’d got it all wrong.
The sad thing is that there are now too many people in this country and in France who would not be able to recognise The Last Supper or indeed understand its symbolism. Famous paintings are simply backdrops for selfies.
How does anyone still find this shocking? Nothing’s more eye-rollingly predictable than the promotion of sexual degeneracy and blasphemy in public spectacle and entertainment. Everything from opera productions to Eurovision to Doctor Who is pozzed. Turn off the TV and ignore it.
The opening ceremony was not inclusive where was Muhammed
“Is this what it looks like when your civilisation is in decline?”
No – it IS what it looks like when your civilisation is being deliberately destroyed.
One of the most annoying things about this was that, having read a huge fuss about it on X, when I looked at the British newspapers the next morning there was hardly a mention, although lots of articles about the ceremony itself. Did they not see it? Or did they think nobody would be interested? The BBC website led with ‘Opening ceremony wows Paris’ or something along those lines. Why did they have to wait until the next day before they rather sheepishly acknowledged that it had caused offence?
The “everyone is accepted in the house of God” is a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel – it is an error. It is everyone ‘who accepts Christ as Lord and Saviour’ who is accepted into the house of God. Completely different. The sexual depravity depicted in the Olympics opening debacle was as unacceptable to God as could be.