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A recent online flap — framed by a provocative YouTube clip asking which is worse, two men kissing or a white woman kissing a Black man — has exposed how brittle our cultural conversations have become. What was pitched as a crude thought experiment instantly became a morality test, and Americans from both sides of the aisle rushed in to score points instead of having a real discussion. The clip taps into a persistent internet meme and viral imagery that have already been repurposed and weaponized across platforms, complicating what ought to be a simple conversation about decency and consent.
Let’s be clear: the image of two men kissing has been recycled across social feeds for years, sometimes celebrated as representation and other times used as a cheap shock gag. That double life of the same image — praised in one corner and mocked in another — tells you everything about modern media: context is irrelevant, clicks are everything, and nuance dies in the comments. Conservatives should oppose the cynical commercialization of intimacy just as much as anyone else who values decorum and honest storytelling.
What angers people on the right is how the left’s moral indignation so often picks winners and losers depending on the narrative of the day. When a woman is coaxed into kissing one man while another is brushed off, plenty of commentators rush to condemn racism, and rightly so, but often ignore the broader moral rot that treats people like props for viral content. The real problem is the cultural rot that celebrates spectacle over sincerity and punishes any voice that points it out.
At the same time, conservatives should not pretend discomfort with public displays of sexuality is equivalent to hatred. There are reasonable debates to be had about what we show children, what we normalize in public, and how media exploits intimacy for engagement. We should demand consistency: if disapproval of one kind of public display is labeled bigotry, then the same standard should apply across the board rather than being weaponized as a cudgel for political gain.
This controversy also highlights a bigger truth — the Left’s cultural project has nothing to do with tolerance and everything to do with control. Platforms and publishers will amplify whatever content maximizes outrage, then lecture the rest of us on empathy while silencing dissenting voices that call out the hypocrisy. Conservatives must push back not by mimicking the mob but by insisting on fair treatment, free expression, and a return to common-sense standards that respect both individual liberty and social cohesion.
We should also remind fellow Americans that true conservatism is neither hateful nor timid. It defends the dignity of every person, opposes real racism wherever it exists, and values healthy families and civic institutions. That means confronting the exploitation of intimacy for views while rejecting attempts to reduce legitimate prudence about public decorum into a cartoonish brand of hatred.
If nothing else, the kerfuffle invites a simple proposition: stop letting click-driven outrage set the terms of our public life. Hardworking Americans want less performative virtue and more honest debate about the norms that bind us together. Stand for free speech, demand consistency, and refuse to let corporations and celebrities treat our culture like cheap theater.
