How the Left Ruined Entertainment
In light of recent events, a couple of thoughts percolated in my mind and I have since decided to share with you after watching some material that suggests that others are feeling the same way.
As someone who is actively involved in politics and has also dabbled in the entertainment industry I think I offer a unique, albeit not necessarily original, analysis on the fact that the Left is completely ruining TV, movies, and entertainment.
Here are four points that I would like to make that I think many individuals will identify with:
- The reason that people spend their hard earned money on film, the theatre, or a TV is not because they want to hear biased liberal entertainers attempt to advance their political agendas. For an example of this look no further than the cast of Hamilton berating Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence at the conclusion of their show. They go to different forms of entertainment as an escape from what is going on around them. They go to that source of entertainment to leave the stresses of the real world and enter the excitement of the fictional one. A perfect example is illustrated through an anecdote that I clearly recollect from my year in Israel. I was living in a Yeshiva with a tedious daily schedule. I enjoyed my time there but sometimes would just get burned out. The effect was intensified since, while I was there, there was a wave of terrorist attacks that kept our campus under lockdown. It honestly didn't take too long for me to get antsy due to all the repetition of my setting, schedule, and the limited number of people I was encountering on campus. It was during those moments of despair that I would go to books or other forms of entertainment so that I could meet new people (the characters), visit new places (the setting), and undergo a different schedule or adventure (the plot.) The same principle applies to the world of entertainment. The last thing I want to encounter is the exact political atmosphere I am trying to avoid when I turn to entertainment. It is with this disconnect between the actor and the ordinary person, and their inability to understand the preferences of one another, that the Hollywood Leftists continue to shoot themselves in the foot. When Meryl Streep ruins the Golden Globes, a celebration of cinematic achievement, by ripping into Donald Trump, it only hurts her plea for people to join her in her opposition of Donald Trump. By frustrating the people who tuned into the golden globes to evade President Trump and the lunacy associated with him, she’s causing more eyes to roll than she is drawing people to her cause . Clearly her colleagues did not learn from her misguided opining, because just a week or so later, at the SAG awards, they did the exact same thing, bothering regular people who live outside of the bubbles of New York and Los Angeles even more. I think that Ben Shapiro explained this phenomenon best on his show, which appears on dailywire.com. He explains that the reason he doesn't watch shows like House of Cards — a political show— is because as a political pundit, he lives House of Cards. The last thing Ben wants to spend his free time doing is exactly what he already does all day.
- The worst thing to happen to entertainment these days is the politicization of characters. I was recently reading an article in the arts section of The Wall Street Journal where they described Cary Matheson, the protagonist of Showtime television series Homeland, and her recent transition from a badass character to a left-wing hack. I observed this evolution before The Wall Street Journal, which is why I stopped watching the show after season 2 (well that, and its deteriorating story line.) But how sad is it that the makers of entertainment have stooped to a point that they are willing to take their quality show and throw it in the trash for the sake of political correctness and advancement of agenda?
- In an effort to advance the discussion of political correctness and how it is destroying cinema, I would like to tell you about an interview of Andrew Klaven by Mark Steyn on the Conservative Review Television Network. In the interview, they discussed the fact that political correctness doesn't allow for an antagonist in a terror film named Mohammed, because that would be “islamophobic” and “offensive.” Unfortunately, this garbage is accurate and as a result it diminishes the quality of the art. You see, terrorism films are frightening when they are realistic. So when you have a radical Islamic terrorist in your film named Terry Johnson from Idaho, it is less practical and therefore, less entertaining. Nowadays, the only enemy or hero we can have is a guy who shoots spider webs out of his arms in a desperate effort not to offend anyone. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with films like Spiderman, there is something very wrong about the fact that most blockbuster films that come out these days are like that because of Hollywood’s inability to make put realistic films on the big screen due because of their political agenda.
- I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that casting directors can no longer even pick the actors that best fit the role anymore because if the script they are given calls for a predominantly white cast, and they cast as such, they risk being called bigots. The notion that every film must have a character representing every gender or race is ridiculous -- viewers enjoy realistic scenarios on screen and sometimes the two protagonists in a story are going to be two white males. And believe it or not, not every life story features a transgender gay couple that kills babies. Sorry. And what about this new notion that all genders and races have to be equally represented at award ceremonies? Absurd! You are nominated for an award due to the quality of your work, not due to the color of your skin and to suggest otherwise is literally the definition of racism. Yes, last year’s Oscar fiasco entitled #Oscarssowhite involved racism, but not for having a supposedly disproportionate amount of actors of color. What was racist was the fact that it was suggested that actors should be judged based on skin color and not on quality of performance. The awards-race game has gotten so out of hand that this year’s nominees, who are mostly non-caucasian, triggered rebuke by the Left because it was obviously fixed in an effort to appease last year’s protests. So thank you leftists, now due to your virtue signaling, our Oscar awards are going to be filled with under-qualified candidates.
So in an extremely condensed analysis, this is how the left is destroying one more great thing that we have in our lives. I just hope that they don’t go after Nutella next. I love that stuff.