Actor Dean Cain fired back Friday at Salon writer Amanda Marcotte over her claim that Hallmark Christmas movies were “basically fascist propaganda.”
Marcotte’s article ripped into the holiday-themed love stories that are Hallmark’s stock-in-trade, suggesting that the “schmaltz” was a cover for a subliminal “heteronormative” message.
While digesting Christmas dinner, enjoy my piece about why Hallmark holiday movies are basically fascist propaganda. https://t.co/BpiVHSM5jX
— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) December 25, 2019
Cain, who appears somewhat regularly on Fox News, responded to her claims on “Fox & Friends.”
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“Well it’s really terrifying to wake up the day after Christmas to find out that Santa is a Nazi,” Cain began. “Shocker. It’s the most ridiculous thing. At first I thought it was so ridiculous I thought it was a terrible Adam Schiff parody, but then I went and read it and it’s insane,” he continued, noting that Hallmark stories are all about family, love, Christmas, and about people coming together.
“It’s the farthest thing from fascism that exists out there, to me it’s completely shocking,” he added. (RELATED: ‘Baloney’: Dean Cain Isn’t Buying Apology From Debra Messing, Eric McCormack Over ‘Blacklists’)
Cain went on to point out that no one was forcing anyone to watch the Hallmark Channel. “If you don’t like the Hallmark Channel — which had huge ratings over Christmastime, like 70 million viewers — if you don’t like it don’t watch it but it’s certainly not fascist propaganda that’s insane. It’s literally — you want to know who the fascist is look who wrote the article,” he continued.
Hallmark Channel beats CNN in pre-Christmas ratings https://t.co/EAZnQwQiC9 pic.twitter.com/uqiJs5Do52
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) December 27, 2019
“You said it’s popular, and it is, it’s beating CNN, the Hallmark Channel,” host Katie Pavlich pointed out. “So this is what it actually said: ‘Running down this year’s schedule of Christmas movie offerings is like a trip into an uncanny valley of shiny-teethed blow-dried normative whiteness. It’s like watching “The Stepford Wives” but scarier.”
“Well, yeah, that is just a whole bit of word salad there,” Cain laughed. “Madness and craziness. Literally it’s ‘everybody who doesn’t agree with me is a Nazi and a fascist and a racist.’ I mean, that’s it and the Hallmark Channel is the farthest thing from that. You know, I’ve done 10 movies yeah, I haven’t done any the last couple years so there’s no reason for me to be out here defending them other than the fact that it’s just completely wrong, to say that it’s fascist propaganda. It’s insane.”
Cain concluded by pointing out that what Marcotte was really attacking was small-town American values and traditional Christmas stories, but he also noted that the market for those movies was huge in major cities as well.
“It’s a bald-faced attack on Christmas,” he said.
“It’s an attack on American values as a cultural institution,” Pavlich agreed.