How is Wesley Morris so patient with him?
I just listened to the Oscars preview, and about fifteen minutes into his segment with Wesley out of nowhere we dive into Bill whining about how there is blowback to criticizing certain movies that have socio-cultural significance through their representation of minorities. Bill: ‘There are probably people out there who are afraid to be critical of movies the way they used to be...they are afraid to be critical because if you are critical then you’re a fucking asshole.’
Wesley didn’t answer the point directly except to counter Bill’s point that movies having ardent, vocal defenders is new. His elegant evasion of Bill’s point surprised me because Bill was clearly trying to suggest that certain movies weren’t as good as their hype and horrible things would happen if Bill criticized them because of the movies’ social significance. Evidence? None. Wesley then broached ‘Trial of the Chicago 7’ as a pivot, at which point Bill dragged the convo to ‘Judas and the Black Messiah.’ Maybe Wesley knows debating Bill is pointless? Doesn’t want the convo to get hairy? Both?
Bill didn’t like it, as he explained, which is fine. Hell, Wesley didn’t seem to love it, though unsurprisingly his take was much more engaging and included observations that frankly didn’t occur to me. But Bill’s whining about persecution that doesn’t exist tinged with an undercurrent of resentment is insufferable. Something tells me precisely nothing bad will happen to Bill because he expressed that opinion.