The latest Hollywood diversity conceit, as Bugs Bunny might say, “is a doozy, Doc.”

Beginning this year, to be considered for “Best Picture” at the Academy Awards, a motion picture must meet diversity requirements in on “screen representation, creative leadership, industry access and audience advancement.”

The new diversity rules are many and specific. They are also arbitrary and restrictive to the creative process. Movie companies won’t make a movie that can’t hit the diversity mark because being nominated for “Best Picture” is a big deal. It can bring millions of extra dollars to a motion picture’s bottom line. So why make a picture you know from the start won’t qualify.

But don’t take it from me, a movie consumer. Take it from actor Richard Dreyfuss: “This is an art form. It’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money. But it’s an art,” Dreyfuss said on PBS, adding, “and no one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is.”

“This is so patronizing. It’s so thoughtless, and treating people like children,” he said.

Yet, it is happening right now. The negative result is not going to be in what I’m going to see more of, but in what I’ll see less of.

Take the flick “The Quiet Girl,” for example. It’s a tale of an Irish girl who is part of a big family that temporarily shuffles her off to relatives to help make ends meet. It’s a fine movie. Simple and moving.

Would it meet Hollywood’s new diversity rules? It is about a girl, so that would give it a diversity point. But it’s set in Ireland in 1981 between two rural, white Irish families. No people of color in sight. No disabled characters, either. Demerits for that? Are we really going to do those kinds of calculations?

Consider “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which actually was nominated for Best Picture last year. If it were in the running this year, it would not have qualified for the Best Picture category because of the new diversity rules.

That’s crazy. And look, I’m not saying Hollywood won’t be able to churn out some good movies and still align with the diversity rules. They will and, in fact, I will see most of them. But, the problem is in what won’t get made because of these rules.

I guarantee you that some good movies, as artful and worthy as they may be, will be selected out before they reach the drawing board. That’s the devil in diversity mandates like this.

We won’t see it coming. It will diminish us all.

HUMANS ARE HUMANS

I’m reading Dan Flores’ book “Wild New World.” I don’t think it’s going to sit well with my friends who like to romanticize Native American cultures, who they like to think lived in complete harmony with the planet.

According to Flores, the first humans to arrive in North America wiped out whole species of animals. Hunted them into extinction with a spear tipped with a Clovis point. And, European arrivals to the new world did the same thing because, well, humans are humans.

Genetics and genomics are increasing our knowledge at a rapid pace and the fate of scores of species who share a common experience at the hands of us, he argues. Woolly mammoths, bison, wolves, passenger pigeons, spotted owls and scores more share a similar story.

I’m no scientist. I’m just a Nevada journalist who graduated from a state college with a major in journalism. What the hell do I know about the ability of humans some 30,000 years ago to wipe out whole species of beasts? But apparently they not only could have, they did.

Flores brings into focus his take on the current thinking on the topic. Humans of all ages are culpable, he says. It’s a good read.

ONE MORE THING

Thanks for reading. Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.

“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@ gmail. Com.