Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Monday, January 25, 2016

Celebrities and Politics: Do they really mean what they say?

By Thornton Crowe

We often see in the news and TMZ, celebrities becoming more vocal about their personal politics. This phenomenon only provokes the question, “Do they really mean what they say or are they just saying these things to keep their names out there in the airwaves?”

It seems the Liberal celebrity gets away with saying some of the most hateful rhetoric while the Conservatives are scorned. For example, Whoopi Goldberg released a statement about relocating out of the US if Donald Trump becomes president as well as other liberal celebrities and you have to wonder, where would she go?

In the commentary of a recent post, someone raised this very question. She certainly couldn’t move to any communist country, as free speech is not something their citizens are allowed. This runs counter to Goldberg’s continual weighing in on government affairs. She would be seen as a person who would be on the government radar with a short period of time. When looking at the other options, she is in the only free country where her view (pardon the pun) would be acceptable or even allowed by law.

Whenever the Conservative celebrities are forthright with their views, like Stacey Dash’s endorsement of Romney and now her speaking out against her fellow black actors’ Oscar boycott, are often demonized by the MSM and the public. They stay relatively quiet with the exception of people like Rob Lowe, who tweets his conservative witticisms and pays dearly in counter tweets. Believe it or not, many have a misconception about Hollywood’s seemingly Liberal bend. Much of Hollywood’s high-powered stakeholders are Republicans, yet you seldom see them weighing in on any media outlet because it’s simply not their style.

The downside to this uber-liberal celebrity pontification is that many young, under-informed voters look to them as modern day heroes and take their opinions of our governance as fact not opinion. They look to the pop culture pundits and let their views be dictated by these celebrities that may or may not be really weighing in on subjects, but trying to drum up their fan base and planted news articles during ‘down’ times in their careers.

What they don’t realize is, their opinions are based firmly in hypocrisy because if it weren’t for capitalism, they would not be rich. The fact that they invest money, pay for large mansions and buy extremely expensive cars is demonstrative of their own use of the same ‘capitalistic system’ they vilify.

Therefore, can we really trust these celebrities and their views or should we look at candidates and our government more objectively, ferreting out the information and facts for ourselves?

How say you?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor conservative victims.

Anonymous said...

So amazing how people on here do not read the actual article and realize its true essence. Sad.

Anonymous said...

I believe most are telling the truth. They are just too stupid to realize they benefit from the conservative's keeping the free market alive. And too blind to see that democratic politicians are working just as hard to keep it alive. Those in Washington know how it works. That is why a Sanders will never make it to the big boys (excuse me) "persons"chair. Just stop paying attention to the celebrity crowd. They really are not special. Morons worshiping them make them think they are special. Now distributing celebrity wealth, all of it, is something I just might support.

Anonymous said...

“Do they really mean what they say or are they just saying these things to keep their names out there in the airwaves?” Thorton

Yes, they really mean what they say as do conservative actors etc. I am not a big TV-movie fan but two that come to mind are Tim Allen's wife on Home Improvements and Shelton's girlfriend on Big Bang Theory. Not on the show, of course, but in real life they are political conservatives and speak to it.

Also remember all the out spoken conservatives on Fox.

I understand why you can not believe they mean the things they say.Either can liberals believe conservatives mean the things they say.
Two different brains, two different ways of thinking. What was God thinking when he put both on this Earth?

Whoopi Goldberg released a statement about relocating out of the US if Donald Trump becomes president as well as other liberal celebrities and you have to wonder, where would she go?-Thorton

The answer: Ireland or Great Britain. I am sure we could think of others.

What they don’t realize is, their opinions are based firmly in hypocrisy because if it weren’t for capitalism, they would not be rich.-Thorton

Conservative thinking is more black and white than liberal thinking.
This is not a criticism just an obervation.

Just like Donny and Marie used to sing,"A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock N Roll" most people are a little bit liberal and a little bit conservative. Thank God.




Thornton Crowe said...

12:57PM, enjoyed your post. My post was meant to provoke thought and you seemed to get that one.

First, more conservatives are a lot less black and white than you would think, it's just the establishment of the RNC has made issues that are not really issues to most voters. Also, conservatism is hardly republican thought at this point.

Conservatism is more of an economic believing in the free market system, promoting wealth creation, while preserving traditional social institutions. Liberalism is more of a domestic policy/social policy based theory that promotes enforced altruism through allocating taxation to redistribute wealth - like we find in both the schools of Progressivism (Clinton) and Socialism (Sanders) as well as National Socialism (the economic/domestic theory of the Third Reich - please refer to Mein Kampf and Kershaw's biography on Hitler.)

Republicans since Reagan have become more political based as they have moved away from free market and, like the Democrats, they seem to be a tax-happy lot. I believe most Conservatives refer to them as RINOs or my favorite, Democrat Lite.

Second. The people on Fox News are like the Liberals on CNN and MSNBC. They are paid to talk politics. Please note: They are paid political pundits. Hence, their purpose is entirely different than Rob Lowe's or Susan Sarandon's. Actors, musicians, athletes are paid to perform using their talents in any give art, not to be political pundits.

Whoopi got her 'start' as an actress and then morphed over to be a 'social' commentator that has now morphed into some self-imposed/assigned important in the political arena. Frankly, she looks ridiculous like Cher when she spews her rhetoric on the TV because we all know her hypocrisy is so blatant, it's laughable.

Lastly, are you referring to Patricia Richardson and Mayim Bialik?

Anonymous said...

Thorton at 1:32

Yes, I am referring to those two, Richardson and Bialik. There are others. I just don't pay much attention to any of them conservative or liberal to be able to list them off and I do have real work.

The question was what country would Whoopi be accepted in and I answered that.

I am an economic conservative but believe me when I say there are plenty who are black and white conservatives who find fault with everything. My family members including extended family and friends were like that. And continue to be like that. They know better than everybody what is best for everybody else in all phases of life.I was like that. Today I am more of an interesting observation, live and let live guy myself because I doubt we can do that much to change attitudes anyway. Also we are all going to die before we know it.

I am sorry, but from what you have said, Thorton, there is a question as to whether you would measure up to their standards.

dogg said...

I think teh wrong question was asked here. It real question is do we care what they say? I, for one, could not care less what the Hollywood dimwits have to say.

Thornton Crowe said...

We must look at the demographics of people who are doing most of the voting. In the last election, many old school Republicans didn't bother to vote as some kind of protest.

It was the young voters whom seemed more empowered by Obama than the older workers. Unfortunately, the young voter is more prone to be influenced by people in the entertainment industry. Hence, why, with Obama, you saw a presidential candidate going on the talk show circuit. For some reason this outlet has not been embraced by the Republican base on the whole. Obama (and Clinton's sax playing in 1992) seem to empower and engage the young relatively uninformed voters, inspiring them to vote for the 'pop-culture cool candidate' rather than the stodgy, uncool old guy.

The question was posed because I personally do not believe these celebrities really embrace their rhetoric in total. While outwardly their words are liberal, inward, they still enjoy the fruits of their participation in capitalism and often exploit the very loopholes they wish to deprive the people they speak to -- hypocritical. I feel they do this to feed the PR machine and get some tred in the press. Let's face it, when one of them hiccups, it's news to their fans. And with the advent of people like Clinton (Bill) and Obama, these hipster politicians have become an industry of cool.

See what I mean?

10:30PM, the celebrity is not speaking to you because you are not bedazzled, but something tells me you're not 18-22 years old either.