Dr. Vaughn Joy

#060 - Selling Out Santa - with Vaughn Joy by Pod Only Knows Researcher Vaughn Joy discusses the Cold War era evolution of Christmas movies with her book "Selling Out Santa"

This week, @kellyjbaker.bsky.social and @johnbrooks.bsky.social welcome @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social to discuss her book "Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy"

Listen here or wherever you get podcasts!

And it's an excellent argument!!!

The Most Awful Responsibility – Alex Wellerstein

My new book, THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY goes on sale TODAY! It is a NEW argument about TRUMAN AND THE ATOMIC BOMB, from Hiroshima through the Korean War, from HarperCollins. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...

Congratulations!

You know what else the FBI made a list of?

Films they thought were Commie indoctrination including Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), you know, that Christmas movie about two rival heads of financial institutions vying for the best way to do business.

The FBI isn't too good at lists.

Holiday Hot Take Number 8:

All official lists of people, organizations, and cultural works based on ideology are very, very bad except for Santa's.

(Even if you think it's a good list, it can be weaponized rapidly in the wrong hands. Please don't make lists of people, especially marginalized ones)

Really important stuff. I love pointing out everywhere I can that Pledge of Allegiance author Frances Bellamy (who notably didn't include "under God") was such a badass Christian Socialist that he was fired from his Boston-area church for refusing to stop preaching about the evils of capitalism.

The economy is FAR WORSE than the government is acknowledging. This holiday season, if you know folks struggling, don't be afraid to leave a mystery box of groceries or some gifts from Santa for the kids on their porch. Maybe drop a grocery store gift card in their mailbox.

Be the Christmas magic.

No they're completely fair comments and I'm so grateful to be able to think through the implications of my words and especially my arguments! I'm sorry you have to deal with these things so directly. I'm going to rethink some of my framing because of this conversation to be clearer, so thank you!

I also know that that exclusionary narrative has historically been used as a cudgel against people of other faiths or with no faith (like me - I wasn't raised with religion and have none now), and that's why I highlight the vast diversity of how the secular parts of the holiday developed.

I totally hear you, and I agree that that's a perception. I would also say though that it's wrong historically and theologically, and that's why it matters to me to point that out, challenging that exclusionary narrative to argue for the positive values actually historically a part of the holiday.

I'm sorry my framing suggested that. Thank you for asking so I could clarify in longer form!

It works better in the talk, I think.

And any attempt to claim it for one specific group is exclusionary & ahistorical.

You may not celebrate it at all, and that's fully your choice because we live in a diverse democracy. Some people refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving, another civic holiday, and that doesn't make them any less American.

Not at all, but fair question!

Christmas is not historically a Christian holiday. It's an amalgamation of secular, Pagan, and other religious winter celebrations. In the US, winter traditions from immigrant communities coalesced and in 1870 Grant made it a civic holiday. It's an American holiday.+

So, this holiday season, it's actually imperative that you "virtue signal".

Dickens issued us a challenge in A Christmas Carol to be good citizens, neighbors, and people all year round.

So do it. Peer pressure people into kindness.

#DickensianChallenge it.

But the majority of American Christmas traditions have some element of empathy, some place for thinking of the plights of others, some feeling that this holiday actually is about goodwill to your fellow man and visions of a better, kinder society.

White supremacy, violence, and Christian nationalism are part of both America and Christmas in our history.

Some Confederates even thought of Santa as a northern stooge because their brains were so rotten with racism that believing in a generous being felt like an abdication of their hateful hearts

I have this talk that I've been giving a lot recently to promote my book. It argues that

"Christmas equals America."

Christmas is as diverse as the American people and their history.

And these fucks prove it by hiding behind symbols they refuse to understand, both the uniform and the garland.

I meant to say this days ago: "Kevin and Kevinita" is just 10/10. Absolute perfection.

Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy|Hardcover Christmas is not just a day or a frame of mind as Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) imparts in Miracle on 34th Street (1947); Christmas is also a vehicle for national mythmaking as an idealising mirror for ...

My new book Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy is about propaganda in films as a result of Hollywood elites bowing to (or agreeing with) federal pressures to conform ideologically.

It's necessary to recognize how propaganda happens with subtle changes & latent ideas

I'm so sorry to hear that, but thank you for sharing. It's so important for us to remember how much damage can be done by a name showing up in the wrong place.

This holiday hot take comes to you from my expertise on the terrorizing of average people by HUAC, McCarthyism, and the Hollywood Blacklist. You can read more about it in my new book, Selling Out Santa:

Holiday Hot Take Number 8:

All official lists of people, organizations, and cultural works based on ideology are very, very bad except for Santa's.

(Even if you think it's a good list, it can be weaponized rapidly in the wrong hands. Please don't make lists of people, especially marginalized ones)

No, Your Ancestors Didn’t Come Here Legally I guarantee you’ll hear the phrase “My ancestors came here legally” in...

See also this, my first truly viral online piece, for @joshtpm.bsky.social's @talkingpointsmemo.com almost exactly 11 years ago.

talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/no-your...

May this finally, finally put to rest any idea that narratives of "illegal" immigration have anything whatsoever to do with legality, laws, "rules" which individuals can "choose" to follow. "Illegal" has always been about white supremacy & prejudice. 🗃️

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/05/cons...

You can read about it in my book!

Which is still 40% off until December 11th!

You know what else the FBI made a list of?

Films they thought were Commie indoctrination including Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), you know, that Christmas movie about two rival heads of financial institutions vying for the best way to do business.

The FBI isn't too good at lists.

One more time, here’s today’s #ScholarSunday thread. Please share to get all this great work to all the folks, thanks! @hcrichardson.bsky.social 🗃️

A primary purpose of Disaster Films is to provide an opportunity for us to safely explore our collective anxieties together, but now more and more, we are expected to process our collective anxieties alone.

Seems bad?