Having an Opinion vs Being An Asshole
(I found this old post, originally written in February 2021, and never finished it until now)
So a lot of hay is made about celebrities talking politics. Right-wingers really hate it, primarily because the vast majority of celebrities, vocal or not, are all Democrats. They’re more inclined to say “shut up and sing” unless it’s a very rare right-wing celebrity speaking up, like Ted Nugent, Patricia Heaton, or, more recently, Gina Carano.
Leftists, on the other hand, absolutely love it to the point that the more vocal celebrities are often guests at the Democratic National Convention. You even had Lady Gaga singing at the official installation of China’s envoy, Joe Biden.
I am a free speech absolutist. I believe people should be able to say whatever they want, whenever they want. I also believe in libel and slander laws, as people should be protected from the lies of others, and should have recourse for recompensation in the event that someone else’s lies seriously impacts their business or life. So maybe I’m not a pure absolutist, but I passionately believe in free speech.
Whenever I read stuff like the post embedded below, I roll my eyes and wish these people – and I mean leftist celebrities – would shut the hell up already, but then I stop myself. They have the same rights as I do. I have no business trying to take it from them. Too bad they don’t feel the same way I do.
I Reject Unifying with Psychopathic Leftists Who Trash Talk A Conservative Legend Who Dies of Cancer
Bette Midler is a sick person. She seriously needs to find a psychiatrist and sit with them for a few hours a day. Maybe several hours a day.
This really saddens me because my mom and I were both big fans of Bette Midler. My mom loved the movie Beaches and even had the soundtrack. We’d listen to it (and Metallica, and The Judds, and other stuff) in the car while on road trips. The woman is very talented. Way too talented to waste a whopping four years sperging over the Bad Orange Man. You’d think she’d have better things to do, like recording a new album or something.
But note this paragraph from the article:
"And she wasn’t debating issues or ideology. There were just hate-filled Tweets, one after another."
This applies to the vast majority of what all politically vocal celebrities post. It also applies to the vast majority of what they say in interviews. They only ever speak in platitudes, or use obvious talking points. Some of them might be passionate enough about a given issue to cite some statistics or facts, but even then, it isn’t much.
They never, ever have anything truly substantial to say. Hell, the likes of Rachel Maddow come across as far more intelligent simply because talking politics is their job. They come well prepared with, uh, “facts” and statistics and whatever else to support whatever batshit insane argument they’re making. I loathe Rachel Maddow, but I can take her seriously.
Bette Midler and her deranged rants? No.
I’d say the same thing about Captain Dipshit, Chris Evans. He thinks he’s intelligent, with his handy thesaurus and Grammarly subscription, but the only thing he ever has are insults. He insults Trump, he insinuates that Kanye West is literally illiterate, and of course, the usual comparing Republicans to Nazis.
And I could say the same about a lot of other celebs. Over the years, I’ve tried to stop myself from automatically hating someone because they’re leftist. Most of my family members are varying degrees of leftist, and I certainly don’t hate them. I am also tired of wasting my energy being angry at these people. When I was younger, I would get really angry at people. Now, I just roll my eyes and move on as best I can, since for some people, like Taylor Swift, the media goes all out to shove them in our faces.
I can handle a celebrity being a leftist as long as they’re not wishing death on us, like Michael Shannon did, or as long as they are not flat-out insulting us or the politicians we support, like all the rest of them. If you can be an open-minded and mature individual, I can respect that.
All I ask is to be treated like a human being. These people need to calm the hell down (I mean, why are they so angry – they’re all in power, so what’s the problem????) and understand that this division they keep banging on about can be healed starting with themselves.
Photo by Vera Arsic from Pexels