Year Zero? Abrupt Denormalization? Name This Trend!

08/03/2015

Although one can never be sure about these things, I think I am responsible for having coined at least two neat phrases relevant to our concerns here at VDARE.com: "dissident right" and "narrative collapse."

Now I am casting around for a term to describe what seems to be settling in as a recurrent feature in the public sphere:

Some phenomenon, emblem, or activity ? the Confederate battle flag, big game hunting ? that has been a humdrum part of the social furniture for decades, perhaps centuries, is haphazardly brought to the forefront of public attention.
Major outlets of public opinion declare that this phenomenon, which had barely been remarked on until the day before yesterday, is outrageously insulting or unspeakably cruel ? an intolerable affront to civilized values.
There follows a great public clamor for the offending phenomenon to be utterly expunged from the sphere of what is socially acceptable.

We need a descriptor here; something like "abrupt denormalization," but snappier.

I would also like to hear some guesses as to what will be the next target for one of these outbursts of mass hysteria.

My guess: boxing. "OMG, people are punching each other in the face and getting paid for it? Really? Who knew? This has to stop!"

Speaking as an occasional fan of the Sweet Science, and as one whose only (very modest) success in any sporting endeavor was as a boxer, I'd hate for this to happen. When the Eye of Sauron fixes its eye upon some aspect of our traditional culture, though, resistance is futile.

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