This is one of those times when people see what they want to see and base their decision on that without taking into account that there are folks that would in fact watch The Dukes of Hazzard for more than just the General Lee. The powerful automobile was a big part of the show, to be honest, and the flag painted on top was a part of it, but one has to wonder how many people ever thought of racism until it was brought up a while back? A lot of folks would point out that this flag has been deemed racist for a long time since it belonged to those that were trying to keep slavery as a part of America, but that’s an argument I don’t really want to get into right now. There is another reason why The Dukes of Hazzard might not be available, and it could be that there aren’t a lot of people watching this show any longer for one reason or another. The truth is that when a show isn’t pulling down the ratings any longer it’s not going to last too long since there’s no money in it. True, the show has been featured as reruns for a long time and there have been a few movies made, but thanks to PC and cancel culture, which might as well be the same, a lot of old shows are getting looked at while some of the current and newer shows somehow slide by with the kind of material they’re allowed to have.
What a show can depict and what it can’t is a bit muddled these days, but picking on past shows for content that was allowable back in its day while people puff their cheeks up and get worked up to some insane degree is kind of amusing since it indicates that people have become more than a little thin-skinned these days. It’s even more amusing since the flag used on top of the General Lee is something that a lot of people have claimed is offensive and has been for decades. Yet we didn’t hear much about this when the show was initially put on television and we didn’t hear much about it up until recently, as it’s been with many other shows and movies that have somehow offended someone. The idea that things suddenly became offensive because people are now ‘woke’ is enough to make a person laugh since there are plenty of folks that will act in this manner when it comes to movies and shows that hail from the past and therefore can’t be changed save for the costly and sometimes uncertain ways that are possible through technology, being offended is kind of a waste of time. It’d be better if the reason was that people just didn’t have an interest in the show any longer, and in some cases, this is what happens. People simply don’t want to watch older shows sometimes either because they’re not deemed interesting enough at the moment or for one reason or another. But the fact is that being offended is a very personal choice for a lot of people and getting irritated over something that a person can’t change is a bit silly.
Even more than this is the idea that the Dukes weren’t racist characters and the show didn’t really go into any racist diatribes or show any issue with anyone of another race. Even the car isn’t to blame for the offense that some people take since it’s a car, not an idea, not a lightning rod for racist beliefs, and trying to pin the woes of a single race on an automobile or a show is stepping into territory where the maturity of the offended is obviously in question. One big problem is that it doesn’t take much for people to get offended these days and a lot of folks are almost always ready to jump on one idea or another and call it wrong since they’ve deemed it to be racist in one way or another. The Dukes of Hazzard is one of the many shows that people have slammed when it comes to being dubbed as racist and there have been people that have vilified the show and those that have defended it. One big problem with calling out a show for racism, especially a show that aired decades ago, is that it makes those that are complaining look more than a little foolish. The show could have been taken off just because it wasn’t generating enough views, which would be a good guess and a solid reason. That at least would make a lot more sense than thinking that someone really took issue with the show in such a way that they called for it to be canceled wherever it could be found.
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