From Barton Swaim‘s “David Mamet Is a Defiant Scribe in the Age of Conformity,” a 4.8.22 Wall Street Journal interview:

“Do people in the entertainment industry censor themselves? ‘They do not walk around saying things that are dangerous to express, no,’ Mamet says. ‘People whisper out here. They have to. To say, ‘Well maybe Trump did some good things’…you can’t do that. You’d risk your home, your job, your family, your friends.”

“Mr. Mamet is convinced that the ‘woke agenda’ is basically an act, so in some ways it works well in Hollywood. ‘Nobody really believes it,’ he says. ‘Nobody really believes boys turn into girls and girls turn into boys…no one does. But it’s put into a different category, so that it becomes dangerous to question it. If you question it, you’re out.’

“Are the young buying [the woke thing]? My own observation suggests some substantial minority do not. Academics and college students I’ve spoken to since 2017 indicate that social pressure to signal assent to a rotating series of orthodoxies, from public health to race and gender theories, has sparked a quiet revolt. Post a black square on Instagram to show that America is systemically racist, even if you don’t think that’s true; wear a mask even though you know it doesn’t work and you’re 20 and vaccinated; share your pronouns whether you accept or reject gender ideology — a reaction seems almost guaranteed.

“’People of that generation,’ Mr. Mamet agrees, ‘a lot of them just aren’t scared anymore.'”

HE question: Are those tiny metal studs or moles below the two corners of her bottom lip? The green hair is okay and she seems relatively mold-mannered, but those mole studs….good God.