Taste is a funny thing. It changes so incrementally, we barely notice, except looking backward over time. Take my falling out of love with going to the movies. For decades, it used to be a weekly thing, sometimes more. I’d see the big blockbusters, plus whatever indie flicks looked interesting.

Now it’s Academy Awards time. Ten films have been nominated for Best Picture. I’ve seen precisely one. Barbie. Let me save you an hour and 54 minutes: It’s a movie about a doll who wears a lot of pink. She hangs out with a diverse group of fellow dolls. The men are dolts, or oppressive. The patriarchy sucks.

The movie ends – spoiler alert! – with Barbie being dropped off at the gynecologist.

Driving Miss Daisy it ain’t.

Changing taste also explains why I’ll pass on tuning in for the Oscars. That used to be another annual staple for me, until the show became a bloviating mess of woke preaching and Hollywood self-importance. I suspect you’ll skip watching, too, based on its annual Nielsen ratings. Last year, 20 million Americans either tuned in live or checked out the show on DVR within seven days.

I’m not discounting an audience that’s equal to the entire population of the state of New York. But let’s keep in mind that we live in a country of 336 million people. That means 94% of the United States – 316 million of us – couldn’t be bothered.

Keep that massive sample size in mind the next time your kid tells you that “everyone is talking about” some influencer, or a pundit speculates which direction the culture is moving.

Television news viewing is another example of our distorted views regarding the taste of the masses. The smart set talks often about how the right-wingers at Fox News dominate the cable ratings.

On Super Tuesday, the night more than a dozen states cast their primary votes, Fox had about 3.5 million Americans watching during the heart of prime time. Left-leaning MSNBC clocked about 1.9 million viewers, while poor confused CNN mustered about 938,000 viewers.

Again, this is in a country of 336 million people. Meaning that for about nine out of 10 Americans, Super Tuesday was just … Tuesday. About 4.8 million people watched Will Trent on ABC versus 3.5 million who watched FBI on CBS.

None of the above suited my taste. I watched an old episode of Law & Order SVU on Hulu and went to bed early. Which is about what I do most nights ending in the letter -y.

I’m not saying I’m right to ignore what’s popular at any given moment. Rather, it doesn’t resonate with me. I feel the same way about the two dominant political parties.

Currently, 31 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands allow Americans to register with a party affiliation. At last count, there were about 48 million Democrats and 36.4 million Republicans. Meanwhile, 35 million folks registered as independents and 4 million belong to a third party.

David Leibowitz, Author

Add it up and you discover that being part of Team Red or Team Blue doesn’t appeal to most of us. Which maybe explains why 80 million Americans – about one-third of eligible voters – didn’t vote in the 2020 presidential election.

In terms of literary taste, I still hold a high regard for the Preamble to the Constitution. You may remember it. It’s the passage that starts out, “We the People of the united States,” then goes on to talk about establishing “domestic tranquility” and “the general welfare.”

I’m not sure there’s a “we” anymore when it comes to America. We live side by side, but that might be about all we have in common.

Written by David Leibowitz for the Ahwatukee Foothills News ~ March 18, 2024