Read My New Slate Magazine Article on Joe McCarthy, Tucker Carlson, and UFOs

2/12/2021

I have a new article out today in Slate magazine examining Joe McCarthy, Tucker Carlson, and UFOs in light connection with masculinity issues and pop culture.

On a cold December night in 1950, red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy spent a charity dinner at Washington’s Sulgrave Club trading insults with liberal journalist Drew Pearson. McCarthy had attacked Pearson on the floor of the Senate, calling for a boycott of his radio show. Pearson had attacked McCarthy on air and in his newspaper column, accusing the senator of lying about communist infiltration of the American government. McCarthy had recklessly accused the State Department of harboring hundreds of communists, sparking a massive investigation and an ongoing purge. After dinner, the two ran into each other in the cloakroom and their conflict turned physical. McCarthy kneed Pearson in the groin, and Sen. Richard Nixon had to pull McCarthy off Pearson.

Read the rest at Slate magazine by clicking here.

20 Comments

Nerd11135

2/12/2021 01:27:30 pm

Your link didn't work.
This one does.
https://slate.com/technology/2021/02/ufos-mccarthy-qanon-aliens-conspiracy-theories.html
Pretty gosh-darn swell to land such a big platform.

Jim

2/12/2021 01:49:58 pm

Link doesn't work

Well written and nicely done !
I especially liked all the links for background information.
Thanks.

Brian

2/12/2021 05:28:11 pm

Succinctly put in a way that we can hope will spur more attention to the crazy-mushroom cellar that is cable tv's UFO fringe. Although in the US, I have to say, the fringe seems to have overtaken the fabric.

Doc Rock

2/12/2021 05:31:29 pm

The semen theft story never gets old. Would love to see that incident covered in a Drunk History style reenactment.

Anthony G.

2/12/2021 08:19:18 pm

I didn't realize so many college girls were communists. Scary. My wife was a communist until, I married her. It's cool. Due to kent, she no longer reads this blog.

You could have easily woven in the Kennedy assassination. Many of the UFO conspiracy theories also overlap with the assassination theories. You know... He was going to blow the whistle on UFOs so the deep secret government offed him. Or, you could believe the show the History channel got sued over. Where former President Johnson's lawyer claimed, "Johnson was behind the hit". If I remember correctly, he claimed Johnson was seeking to avoid prosecution for white-collar crimes by becoming president. Now that I think about it, I never did hear how that turned out for the History Channel.

Beltane

2/12/2021 09:38:08 pm

Another 1951 film with references to Cold War / McCarthyism / Homosexual sub-text is Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers On A Train".

An extract from Wikipedia sums it up:

"Political subtext

Although its first rumblings came in 1947 with the trial and conviction of the "Hollywood Ten," the so-called Red Scare was gathering steam in 1950, with the espionage-related arrests of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and the trial of Alger Hiss. These events were the background to their work, while Hitchcock, Cook, Ormonde and Keon were preparing the script for Strangers, and film scholar Robert L. Carringer has written of a political subtext to the film.Treatment writer Cook used Guy to make the film "a parable quietly defiant of the Cold War hysteria sweeping America."

That hysteria was targeting homosexuals along with Communists as enemies of the state.... The U.S. Senate was busy investigating the suspicion that 'moral perverts' in the government were also undermining national security — going so far as to commission a study, Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government.

Carringer has argued that the film was crucially shaped by the Congressional inquiries, making Guy the stand-in for victims of the homophobic climate.[20] "To all appearances Guy is the all-American stereotype, an athlete, unassuming despite his fame, conservatively dressed," wrote Carringer; he is "a man of indeterminate sexual identity found in circumstances making him vulnerable to being compromised." Hitchcock, who had drawn gay characters so sharply yet subtly in Rope in 1948, "drafted the left-leaning Cook... expressly because he was comfortable with sexually ambiguous characters."

max

2/13/2021 02:07:44 am

Good article. Pity it is both preaching to the choir and unlikely to change anyone else’s mind.

Tom M

2/14/2021 12:51:30 am

Maybe I’m missing something here, but sometimes a bad movie is just a bad move. And Tucker Carlson taking about UFO’s is just a ratings grab and not some complicated right wing conspiracy theory trying tie into 1950’s low budget science fiction movies.

Joe McCarthy didn’t invent the red scare. But he sure capitalized on it. Playing off the fear of the masses. But the general population wised up to his witch-hunt and he died a broken, forgotten alcoholic. By the 1950’s the planet had survived two world wars in the span of about 35 years where 100 million people died. The two remaining super powers had atomic weapons. The threat of a third and final war was real. Of course it would show up in movies of the day in one form or the other. It was relevant.

Most sci-fi and horror movies of the 1950’s were made on a shoe string budget. They were usually second billing on a matinee double feature or drive-in movie fodder. They appealed to a young audiences and credible actors wouldn’t touch the genre with a 10 ft pole. They were made by guys like Ed Wood and Harvey Corman. Who were out to make a quick buck and couldn’t careless about making a political statement or gay bashing.

Yes, many times the aliens were an allegory for the Russians. But nearly as often they addressed the horrors of atomic radiation. Battling giant mutant ants (Them!), giant tarantula’s (Earth vs The Spider) and a giant man (The Amazing Colossal Man). And just to show that 1950’s America could be politically correct, there was also the “The Amazing Colossal Woman.” I watched many of these movies on TV in my youth and most were truly awful, even down right comical. And while they often portrayed the military in a positive light. I never sensed any homophobia. I know it’s easy to bash the military. But without the military there’s no defeat of the Axis powers in 1945. And therefore no gain in civil rights, gay rights, and women’s liberation in the decades that followed.

As far as your reference to these so called abductions where “they’re taking my semen” and “they control my genitals, there’s a cup on my cock!” as some sort of right wing homophobia. It seems to me your cherry picking your facts to support your own conspiracy theory. You fail to mention they’re are far more stories where women confess to these elaborate fantasies where their eggs are removed and alien/human hybrid babies are genetically engineered and then they’re returned to nurture the offspring. That’s the recurring theme. Not guys getting jerked off by aliens.

Finally, crazy knows no political affiliation. While the majority of the ancient alien supporters may lean on the conservative side of the the isle. It by no means is exclusive to it. Consider liberal Hollywood. Many staunchly believe in the paranormal, channeling, Indio children, and all manner of new age quackery. There’s enough crazy and conspiracy to go around for everyone.

Kent

2/14/2021 11:57:15 am

"he died a broken, forgotten alcoholic" Ah, the Giuliani gambit, decades before Ted Kennedy.

"credible actors wouldn’t touch the genre with a 10 ft pole"
So you say. The guy who did The Day the Earth Stood Still went on to direct West Side Story and The Sound of Music and had previously edited Citizen Kane.

“The Amazing Colossal Woman”
Giant Woman is a known sexual fetish.

"Who were out to make a quick buck and couldn’t careless about making a political statement or gay bashing."
I personally couldn't careless.

T. Franke link

2/14/2021 04:47:15 pm

OK, Tucker Carlson is more into this than I initially thought. Good to know. It has all to be brought to light.

I remind of earlier talks on this blog, that the 1968 movement played a role in the UFO wave by questioning authorities of all sorts including science. Erich von Daeniken's roots are rather in this anti-authoritarian time of 1968, despite some racist statements. Spontaneously, I remember Juan Posadas and Paul Schulz, two Marxists, believing in UFOs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Posadas

Granted: Currently, the left side of the political spectrum prefers to believe in other things than UFOs to spiral up emotions, credulity and loyalty. The UFO thing is currently a right-wing thing.

But why?

Maybe it's because the anti-authoritarians of today are right-wingers. My attempt of a broader UFO sociology would be: Whoever feels himself in fight with the authorities, with the establishment, is using the UFO theme. (to be tested ...)

Jim

2/14/2021 06:40:51 pm

Or, maybe it is just a cash cow for attention whores.

T. Franke link

2/15/2021 02:56:36 am

Jim, please give my thought a try. As Jason Colavito pointed out, liberal journalist Drew Pearson used the UFO theme against McCarthy, i.e. against establishment. My hypothesis works quite well, I would say.

What is missing is an explanation. Why the UFO theme as a theme against the establishment, whatever the establishment is? Maybe C.G. Jung could help?

T. Franke link

2/18/2021 12:25:35 pm

I meanwhile found that CG Jung had indeed a theory of the phenomenon of UFO belief. But it is not what I thought. In this German article from 1958 he compares UFO sightings with the manifestation of god or saints to believers, and that they project their longings into the UFO belief.

https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-41760984.html

It does not convince me. I have two other ideas, why UFOs appeal to powerless people living in resistance to establishment (or seeing themselves as such):

(a) UFOs as a symbol representing an overwhelming power before which you are powerless.

(b) UFOs as a symbol of salvation, that there is an even higher power than the power which makes you are suffering, and UFOs represent a hope beyond the earthly mess, just like religion does.

Tom M

2/15/2021 03:09:08 pm

Robert Wise was a director, not an actor. Marlon Brando, James Dean, Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Rock Hudson, all leading men of the 1950’s wouldn’t do science fiction. And Tony Curtis would dress in drag and John Wayne would play an offensive, cringeworthy Genghis Khan before either would don a space suit and chase aliens. Production wise, the two biggest sci fi movies of the 1950’s were “This Island Earth” and “Forbidden Planet”. Starring Rex Reason and Leslie Nielsen respectively. Hardly in the same class, or box office draw, as the aforementioned actors.

Anytime we do revisionist history and 1950’s American it always starts with Joseph McCarthy. He’s easily the most hated man of the decade and rightful so. It’s universally agreed he was a no good SOB. From there it’s a short leap into blaming the evil military. For me, I’m less critical of the military. Something about saving the free world the decade before the 1950’s does it for me. I realize that’s not popular with most.

Look, I’m not saying Jason is wrong here. As a gay man he has a perspective on this I do not. But I’m gonna need more than the fact Joe McCarthy kicked some liberal journalist in the balls. And oh, by the way, said liberal journalist was also in the sci fi move “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. From there we jump off the deep end into the “macho military and effeminate scientists” in sci fi cinema.

It’s a pity no A listers would do sci fi back in the day. Following Jason’s theme, no actor was more macho, more heterosexual, more manly, on the silver screen than Rock Hudson. And no man more gay in real life. He’d have been perfect for the macho, anti gay, military man and our hero. With no man more effeminate and emasculated than his trusty side kick Tony Randal. The prefect nerdy scientist. Throw in Doris Day dressed in alien drag. And a few “there taking my semen!” lines. And you’ve got sci fi cinematic gold! Enough to rival their classic 1959 “Pillow Talk”. But more importantly you’ve got a right wing, homophobic, alien conspiracy theory for the ages. Enough to even make Scott Wolter blush.

Jason Colavito link

2/15/2021 06:45:46 pm

As it happens, James Dean actually did do science fiction, on television. He was in an episode of a sci-fi anthology show. He didn't refuse to do science fiction movies. Like the other actors on your list, he considered himself an A-list actor and only did A pictures. He nearly refused "Rebel without a Cause" because it was originally slated to be a B-picture. The issue isn't about celebrity but that studios considered most science fiction to be B-pictures, which would not attract A-list actors. That, too, was a product of the times, when the prestige pictures had very limited range and genre films were almost all consigned to lesser roles.

The military men in the 1950s films like "Thing from Another World" were decidedly not the hyper-macho he-men of today. They represented a different type of masculine model, as I alluded to in my article. In "Thing," the military men are portrayed as "normal" men, while the scientist is coded as both communist and queer--something even critics of that era noticed and commented on.

The connection between communists and queers was well-established in the 1950s. Senators made speeches about it on the floor of the Senate. Congress issued reports saying as much. The connection between aliens and communists in the movies is also equally well established. The transitive property connects the dots, even if we didn't have some actual mid-century movies where aliens were depicted as effeminate men or coded homosexuals.

Life imitates art, and the themes that grew in movies ripened in nonfiction in succeeding decades, just as 1990s-era fiction is now passed off as truth. (See, e.g., star gates, from "Stargate.")

LeifFraNorden

2/16/2021 02:27:11 pm

The equation of communists and gays was not entirely negative. Many outspoken communists were idealist dissenters. Allen Ginsberg– though not a communist per se– voiced communist sympathies and happily fostered a reputation for being America’s worst nightmare. In the 1950s America started to see a transformation in the public perception of homosexuality. With people like Ginsberg, gays began to be viewed less as child molesters and more as heroic outsiders– paving the way for the social changes that came 25 years later.

Kent

2/16/2021 12:02:43 am

I said "did", not "acted in". We'll just ignore Patricia Neal shall we? And guide our lives by "What would John Wayne do?"

Forbidden Planet? You mean that movie with Walter "Lifetime Achievement Award" Pidgeon?

"It’s universally agreed he was a no good SOB." No, it's not.

"And oh, by the way, said liberal journalist was also in the sci fi move “The Day the Earth Stood Still”." And oh, by the way, Jason mentioned that in his article. Are you claiming credit? Did you oh, by the way, not read the article?

LeifFraNorden

2/15/2021 07:51:07 pm

Blame for the problems Mr. Colavito identifies lie more with news media than with woo-woo TV shows. Most news stories are straight propaganda, and many headlines have no connection to the stories which follow. ‘Respected’ news outlets left and right publish trash that a few years ago would make the tabloids blush. They entirely ignore significant events that do not support their predetermined conclusions. Reporters fail to ask obvious questions and get basic arguments wrong– we can’t tell if they are disingenuous, lazy, or stupid. And to top it off, a pseudo-history piece won a Pulitzer Prize this year.

Perhaps we are overstating our case– but only slightly. The point is that when people can’t believe anything, how can we blame them for falling for UFOs and conspiracy theories?

Kent

2/16/2021 02:08:02 am

You make a good point. Janet Cooke's "Little Jimmy", l'affaire Jason Blair, quick think of some white people! Woodward and Bernstein's lies, Walter Cronkite playing military analyst, NBC's Brian Williams, Dan "Forged Documents" Rather...

Tom M

2/18/2021 07:00:43 pm

Walter Pidgeon was a character actor. Not a leading man. While Patricia Neal had a nice career, she’s hardly in the Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day category of 1950’s actresses. The discussion was about leading men in sci fi movies. As far as Joe McCarthy, one man’s tyrant is another man’s hero. It all depends on your perspective. We obviously disagree.

I was not aware that James Dean did a TV sci fi episode. I’d very much like to see that. He was very much an A lister and I didn’t know he almost turned down “Rebel Without a Cause.” There’s another movie from that decade that deals with coming of age and speaks of sexual attitudes of the time. That in my opinion, is just as good as “Rebel.” “Home from the Hill” staring Robert Mitchum and a very young George Peppard and a very young George Hamilton. Directed by Vincent Minnelli. It’s worth a look if you haven’t seen it.

Just to clarify, my Rock Hudson, Tony Randal, Doris Day reference in my last post was made in jest. It was in no way meant to be mean spirited. I love Rock Hudson movies. Especially with Tony Randal. In my opinion, their subtle comedy was far superior and underrated to that of Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis of the same period. Lewis, the Robin Williams of his generation, was good in small doses. It was always a chore for me to get thru one of his movies. But I digress.

I’m right there with you Jason with McCarthyism, the hysteria surrounding communism, and homophobia. Where you start to lose me is the Sci fi/UFO connection to it all. Still, I’ll keep an open mind when I read your book.

There’s a deleted scene from the 1960 movie “Spartacus.” Where the emperor of Rome (Lawrence Olivier) is being bathed by his man slave (Tony Curtis). The emperor wants to have sex with his man slave. The emperor asks his slave “do you eat oysters, do you eat snails?” And then asks, “is it a moral issue that one eats oysters or snails, or is it one of appetite?” Of course what he was really saying is “do you have sex with men?” “Do you have sex with women?” “And it ok to have sex with both because it has nothing to do with morality.” Then the emperor of Rome says, “ I have an appetite for both.” Not unlike Olivier himself, a known bisexual. The scene was well written and well played. And it’s a shame it ended up on the cutting room floor. But it had absolutely nothing to do with Ancient Rome. In reality, if the emperor wanted sex with his man slave, he would have taken it. Without any philosophical discussion. The scene rather speaks of the time in which the movie was made. And by the late 1950’s, times were changing. McCarthyism, conservative 1950’s America, or some complicated sci fi/UFO conspiracy theory wasn’t going to stop it.