Hollywood’s Adversarial Attitude Informs Our Indifference
Dear Hollywood:
It’s horrifying that a loathsome character like Harvey Weinstein, or anyone for that matter, would demand sexual favors from young talent in exchange for career success. We know that Weinstein’s not the only person in Hollywood who does this, and we suspect that he’s the rule rather than the exception. Every time a new story about some degenerate Tinseltown panjandrum’s sexual peccadillos comes to light, our stomachs turn. And under normal circumstances, the vast majority of us would be more than just disgusted over the revelations that powerful people like Harvey Weinstein have made your abasement a gateway to success. We would be sympathetic. We would demand that heads would roll, that Congressional hearings be arranged, that mass firings take place across every studio.
But we’re not. And we won’t.
You see, you asked for our ambivalence. Not in a “she wore a short skirt” sort of way, but for the last few decades the loudest among you have set yourselves up as our betters simply because you stand in front of cameras and recite words that other people have written. You’ve made no secret of your contempt for normal Americans’ mores, values, and traditions, and despite your clear lack of education and ethics, you’ve decided that your career success translates to intellectual/moral superiority, like Rumpelstiltskin’s straw spun into gold. Your endless lectures on climate change, presidential politics, gender differences, the state of American health care, foreign policy, and whatever else that trips your trigger reflect nothing but the tedious, infantile emotionalism that has informed the far left since the 1970’s, and we’re really quite tired of hearing it.
The philandering, coke-sniffing, back-dealing, potted plant-ejaculating lot of you are the worst kind of hypocrites, because unlike normal Americans who try to live by a code of ethics (and occasionally fail), you loudmouth Hollywood types don’t even attempt to uphold your own standards of behavior. Your marriages collapse into horrific public acrimony, your time is spent more inside drug rehab facilities than your multimillion dollar homes, you blindly support the most destructive politics our country has to offer, and yet you continue to demand respect. Why? Because you put on spandex for a comic book movie that caters to the lowest common denominator of our culture: explosive, special effects-laden spectacle. You don’t have to be this way, but you choose to.
We see right through you. You don’t know us, but we know you. So you asked for our indifference to your self-created plight. And when it comes to people like Weinstein, who’s made it an integral part of his career to inject unwelcome politics into what was once an escape, we rejoice in his downfall. The more like him who fall, the better for our culture. You put your politics front and center when all we wanted to do was have fun in front of a screen. What you’ve forgotten is that politics is a battle, and every battle has at least two sides. You’ve set yourselves up as the enemy, so what’re we supposed to do, stop you when you start shooting each other in the back? Of course not. We’re going to watch with smiles on our stupid, cousin-humping, hick faces.
We’re not asking you to come to our side. We’d just like you to remember that without us, you’re little more than a bunch of pretty faces who let themselves be sexed up by reprobates in exchange for money and fame. If there’s a rape culture anywhere in America, its living, beating heart throbs in the middle of Hollywood, and you’re its most ardent enthusiasts.
Our indifferent scorn is the price of choosing political activism.
