Surely there’s an affirmative-action program that can put Republicans to work in the entertainment industry at ratios similar to our numbers in the general population.

That may already be the case.

Today’s column from Breitbart at the Moonie Times proposes perhaps the dumbest idea since France parked its entire Navy in the Bay of Aboukir while Napoleon took a tour of the pyramids. That idea — are you ready? — is affirmative action for young Republicans in Hollywood.

Even worse than France’s Maginot Line? Wow… that’s bad.

“Oh no! A lot of shows and movies displaying opinions I don’t like are popular! The free market isn’t supposed to work like that!”

The College Republicans, Young America’s Foundation and the Leadership Institute, not to mention countless alternative campus newspapers, all exude a rebel spirit that greatly resembles the motivations and enthusiasms of the liberal counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s.

Insulting minority students: Counterculture.

Usual trick. Take a establishment that’s perfectly a-political, (or even right-leaning), a la “MSM”, and bitch and moan, rinse and repeat, about how “liberal” it is. Just keep repeating and wait five years, it’ll become fact.

“There are tons of low-level jobs that lead to greater opportunities for industrious young adults. Our armed forces coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq provide us with a source to replenish the Hollywood creative bloodstream, too. Soldiers should vie for leading roles – especially with all those Laguna Beach swimming-trunk-laden shows.”

Shorter Breitbart: I’m not done making the troops my bitch. Dance for your paycheck, monkeys! DANCE! BWAHAHA!

See, a big part of the problem with your plan, buddy, is that troops who are coming home then to have things like extensive third degrees burns on their faces from IEDs. They aren’t really, ya know, photogenic.

No, we can’t have affirmativeaction for wingnuts because, as Dear Leader once put it: “We need to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

The biggest problem that these young Republican artistes have is that creativity, like facts, has a liberal bias.

…creativity, like facts, has a liberal bias.

That is an excellent summary of the problem. Bravo.

My proposed reality show for Young Republicans is very simple- think Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Lost.

A cadre of True Believers lives for some time in one of the major garbage dumps of the world. Either that or maybe have them go break ships with handtools in Chittagong. The winning team is the one with the fewest fatalities and lowest amputation rate.

I kind of lose the thread of the idea after that. Maybe we could get several groups of them to do this.

Oh, for @#$%’s sake, not the persecution complex again. I work in the entertainment business and the reason why there aren’t really a lot of vocal conservatives is that, despite what idiots like Breitbart will claim about liberals, there simply aren’t that many politically vocal people in the industry at all. How many actors, directors, producers, writers can you name that you know exactly what their political views are? Give me a break. Also, conservatives generally don’t tend to be creative people drawn to this industry. Look at how many of their blogs are constantly carrying on about how unimportant the industry is, with very few exceptions. How many times have they bandied around stupid words like “Hollyweird”? Maybe if conservatives didn’t show so much bloody contempt for Hollywood, they wouldn’t have such an imaginary hard time finding a place there. The reality is that most people here don’t really want your politics shoved down their throughts, liberal, conservative, or otherwise. And why is it that affirmative action is so appaling to the likes of Andrew when it helps historically oppressed people, but when it’s meant to give a leg-up to the last people that really need it, it’s groovy?

Yeah, poor people like Mel Gibson, Charleton Heston, Clint Eastwood have had their careers suffer dearly for their opinions. I’ll be amazed if any of you recognize their names at all.

The College Republicans are a rebel-spirited counterculture? Excuse me, Mr. Breitbart, I hate to tell you, but it’s 2008, not 1988. Are you with us yet?

I think his casting soldiers idea has potential, though. Then they can use their residual money to pay for all the benefits the government won’t provide. And after what they’ve already been through, Fear Factor will be a breeze.

What about a historical pageant about how manly men overcome an effeminate gay prince. You could even have the effeminate gay prince’s effeminate gay boyfriend defenestrated by the king! Two thumbs up! Oops. Been there, done that.

Given the traditional inaccuracies of Hollywood, Edward II was actually not portrayed very far from the truth.

He was a disaster who ignored his duties and obligations to wallow in luxury and essentially give his boyfriend tyrannical powers.

[Clif adds: It’s completely out-the-wazoo batshit crazy to say that this depiction of Edward II was not very far from the truth. First, Edward married Isabella as king, not as prince. Longshanks died in July 1307, some six months before Edward II married Isabella in January 1308. Second, Edward’s boyfriend Piers Gaveston was not defenestrated by Edward I. Gaveston was beheaded by the Earl of Lancaster on Blacklow Hill in 1312, some five years after Edward I had died.]

In addition to raking in Oprah-level campaign cash, Mr. Obama is making Sen. John McCain, despite the Republican’s comedic turns on “Saturday Night Live” and in “The Wedding Crashers,” look like an out-of-it grandfather.

Looks like someone’s a graduate of the Pastor Swank Improve-your-writing 3 week summer workshop!

The conventional wisdom is…
While it is true that…
…the inconvenient truth is…

What he meant to say is “…the fact is…”
I’m scanning the rest of the article for references to “the heartland”, in the hope that Gary has finally found a job ghostwriting.

If we encouraged our young to consider careers in the arts, … we’d have a new generation of players pushing their scripts

..or else a new generation of conservative fathers screaming at their kids to do something that makes money instead of doing that faggy shit.

ps: I love hollering ‘breeders!’ at people.

Jesus, that picture is the most hi-larious picture in the history of S,N! pictures. Just what’s going on with Andrew there?

Shorter Breitbart: I can has free Invisible Handjob?

How many actors, directors, producers, writers can you name that you know exactly what their political views are?

Very good point. Likewise, how many conservatives really know what their own political views are? Apart from “liberals are bad” and “taxes are evil”, the entire ideology is a vague, constantly shifting turdpile. These people can’t even nail down their own views, let alone express them in any meaningful – much less any artful – way.

Or even recognize an expression of them. Exhibit A: The Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs.

Hollywood may be the most perfect example of free enterprise in our system. It should be used as a shining example of capitalism in every economics class. Seriously, what a fucking business model–most other industries can only drool with envy.

This is the real reason conservatives hate Hollywood. As always, you must take whatever they say and turn it on its head in order to make sense of it. Hollywood is the capitalist ideal, and that pisses them off.

A bunch of junior asshole organizations “… all exude a rebel spirit that greatly resembles the motivations and enthusiasms of the liberal counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s.”

Could someone please explain to these nitwits that the words rebel and conservative are not synonyms? The College Republicans are greedy rat-fuckers-in-training now, just as they were in the ’60s and ’70s.

The principal thing keeping Young Conservatives from pursuing low paying jobs in Hollywood is that they are low paying jobs. Much better to work for Dad’s company, or to go onto the wingnut welfare teat.

I wrote the exact opposite point that you attribute to me. Check the preceding paragraph to the one you pulled to make your point:

While it’s mostly true that the conservative experience in Hollywood is long on diagnosis and short on remedy, what sets us apart from our liberal counterparts is that we don’t ask for a legislative fix.

Surely there’s an affirmative-action program that can put Republicans to work in the entertainment industry at ratios similar to our numbers in the general population.

Or how about a “Fairness Doctrine” that extends beyond talk radio to TV, film and music?

Talk about dim.

[Clif adds: Er, Andrew, if that is you, we didn’t say that you were making a legislative proposal. We just thought that the whole idea of movie scripts by College Republicans was hilarious. Before you accuse people here of being “reading-comprehension challenged” you might learn to read stuff carefully yourself. And you really should credit Pastor Swank for the phrase “reading-comprehension challenged.”]

Oh yeah. I can see it now. Just what a feature film production needs. At what, two hundred thousand bucks a day you need a bunch of PTSD and TBI victims in on-screen roles.

‘Cause hey. What could possibly go wrong?

mikey

Boo, Breitbart! Boo! How dare you insult me!

what sets us apart from our liberal counterparts is that we don’t ask for a legislative fix.

Surely there’s an affirmative-action program that can put Republicans to work in the entertainment industry at ratios similar to our numbers in the general population.

So… instead of asking for a legislative fix, you’re asserting that there already is one?

SamFromUtah, is this the official blog of the reading comprehension challenged? The point is clearly made rhetorically.

[Clif adds: This may be a faux-Breitbart. The IP address from which this and the previous Breitbart comment originates is allocated to a Uruguayan ISP.]

Andrew-

Thank you so much for coming to my defense. The Obots here at Sadly, O! simply don’t understand the things you and your fellow stalwarts of the Heartland have to go through every day, especially in the face of ruthless misogyny and disgusting hatred of the true blue Reagan Democrats of Appalachia, who represent the one and only future for this country, and who have sadly been ignored and shut down by the Obots here at Sadly, O! You, sir, are a great patriot and I support you and your mission.

The Collage Repugs are mad that Bush/Cheney haven’t managed to destroy Hollywood the way they have everything else they touched.

I thought the gay-prince link was going to be about Prince Herbert.

Jeebus-lordy, check out AB’s maw in that pic! Hysterical.

We cn haz sumn fotoshoup a dikk in hiz mouf? PLZ???

{tear}
~oldphort

[Clif adds: This may be a faux-Breitbart. The IP address from which this and the previous Breitbart comment originates is allocated to a Mexican ISP.]

The fact is, that’s because it’s actually me.

“The site’s main running joke is in finding embarrassing slips or untrue statements.” Awesome. And sometimes right under your own noses.

Apparently the College Republicans of the Jack Abramoff/Karl Rove/Grover Norquist era spurned Hollywood to jump on the breadwagon of Washington DC. If that fount of cash is drying up, they could try writing self-exposes fthat actual scriptwriters could turn into new “Wall Street”s, with all the “greed is good” ethos we’ve come to know and love.

The point is clearly made rhetorically.

Maybe not “clearly” as such, but I’ll take your point.

The College Republicans, Young America’s Foundation and the Leadership Institute, not to mention countless alternative campus newspapers, all exude a rebel spirit that greatly resembles the motivations and enthusiasms of the liberal counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s.

So explain this – which rebel motivations and enthusiasms do the College Republicans et al share with the hippies of yore? Is this based on the idea that today’s Establishment is liberal? Or is it just about the mind-altering substances and screwing?

Hola, todos las netrootistas!

So explain this – which rebel motivations and enthusiasms do the College Republicans et al share with the hippies of yore? Is this based on the idea that today’s Establishment is liberal? Or is it just about the mind-altering substances and screwing?

A little of both.

Unfortunately for the ape above, members of the military are already hard at work consulting, and even portraying themselves in movies. Coming to the forefront of the mind is the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. (which is totally awesome and on right now.) Since it was written by godless liberal whiners Ed Burns and David Simon (the wire) Dimbert probably doesn’t think it counts. Also the guy who plays himself is the “homo” of the unit, and a daoist slab of marbled man love, so pretty that it hurts to look at him. His closeted conservative (read tiny) boner probably continues from the death scenes right into the shower scenes. I dont see Mel “look at my ass, no really look, now look at my ass while i get gratuitously tortured, oh wait is that my penis?” Gibson hiring actual soldiers for his next epic crapfest (wgich i will probably ends up liking despite myself)

Regarding the picture of me: It’s kinda like finding a picture of Gallagher whacking a watermelon and making fun of him for having rind in his hair. The photo is of me goofing off. When I get back home from Mexico, I’ll look for some bad pictures of me that were not intentionally clownish. May theSadlyNo spiritual source of wholeness, Gaia, bring peaceful tidings to Gallagher. Both of them. And Clif, too. Because he really is on his game.

So… instead of asking for a legislative fix, you’re asserting that there already is one?

Actually, sounds like he’s asking for a fisking, Bogus-bart or not.

While conservatives own an ironclad argument that Hollywood discriminates against our kind

Really? We’d kinda like to see it.

The victim card – liberalism’s reliable ace in the hole – is not a winning ploy for conservatives who want to make inroads in Hollywood

Well, I’ll just ignore the unsupported cheapshot. I’m putting this here because it’s refuted by every other part of this column.

Where are the young playwrights that romanticize freedom over servitude? Where are the brash Gen Y artists mocking baby boomer excesses? Where are the scholarships cultivating fresh talent? Where are the venture capitalists ready to fill the void? Where are the movie stars telling the press gaggle at Cannes that America is still beautiful?

Well, ABC’s Path to Blame Clinton was already mentioned, so I’ll just throw in David Zucker.

While it’s mostly true that the conservative experience in Hollywood is long on diagnosis and short on remedy, what sets us apart from our liberal counterparts is that we don’t ask for a legislative fix.

IOW conservatives whine. I’ll let the Affirmative Action thing slide, as it’s really low hanging fruit. I’m giving Breitbart the benefit of the doubt by assuming that this graf, which totally sinks his entire column, was a misunderstanding and mistranslation.

Or how about a “Fairness Doctrine” that extends beyond talk radio to TV, film and music?

Or even a “Fairness Doctrine” that extends to talk radio? Maybe, as a conservative, you’re still living in the 50’s or possibly 1984.

If we encouraged our young to consider careers in the arts, we would begin to reap the benefits in short order. Instead, we waste valuable time complaining and now are knee-deep in our enemy’s dogma and have the indignity of paying for their products. Too much time has been lost navel-gazing about why things haven’t fallen our way.

Funny thing, it’s kinda hard to cast a culture as immoral ignorant demonic satanists who hate America and want the Islamoatheists to ghey abortion the troops and then tell your kids, “that’s what I want you to do when you grow up”. Please choose: entertainment is a worthy endeavour – that conservatives should want to participate in or Hollywood is evil. Because doing both is not going to help your cause.

Had Mr. Weyrich and other leaders encouraged participation in the commerce of entertainment, instead of acting like defeatists or the puritanical parents in “Footloose” (how Hollywood truly envisions conservatives)

See, this is what I mean. Hollywood sees conservatives as puritans? Really? I think you’re projecting your stereotyping bigotry. Also, John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest’s characters in Footloose were very detailed and well thought out characters (for a mass market movie from the eighties). Plus, 1984 again. If you’re going to complain about Hollywood, try watching some of their stuff from this centruy.

We need to break out of this mind-set and send our best young minds to Hollywood. There are tons of low-level jobs that lead to greater opportunities for industrious young adults.

See, here’s one of the many differences between conservatives and liberals. Dictating the careers of your movement’s “best and brightest” is not something liberals would consider a valid strategy. Try and understand – the reason College Republicans avoid the entertainment industry is because assclowns like you tell them it’s full of evil and no good can come from it. That plus they can make a whole lot more cash elsewhere.

I really dig this argument. Rather than have the All Glorious Free Market decide what movies/TV shows to make, how about we let political affiliation be our guide to proper propagandizing!

Now, I watch my fair share of movies, and I see several “conservative” themes play out time and again:

1) If a bad guy is bad enough, murder is justifiable
2) Royalty are prettier/smarter/stronger than everyone else
3) Collatoral damage and due process be damned to catch The Bad Guy
4) Men are strong protectors, women are victims
5) Women who choose career over family will have a downfall
6) America- Fuck Yeah!

By the same token, I am aware there is an over-abundance of “evil rich whities” in movies, but, c’mon, realize that for every “Wall E” espousing some “pollution is bad” imagery, there are numerous “Wanted” movies out there which probably advocate 1, 3, and 6 above.

Dimbart not only wants the CRs to write the new scripts for Hollywood, but he wants returning war vets to be hired for actors

Just like Paul Haggis did when casting “In the Valley of Elah”?

Yet mistakenly, when they receive their degrees, they are directed to Washington, D.C., and their state capitals, thinking politics is how you win. Or they think the path to victory is becoming the next George Will or Rush Limbaugh.

Here’s the thing – they were right. It’s just that they succeeded in “winning” in politics and opinion-spewing and have massively fouled that nest.

Too much time has been lost navel-gazing about why things haven’t fallen our way.

They did fall your way. All three branches of government, and a massive chunk of op-ed real estate, like that occupied by the column we’re discussing here. Where it fell apart was that that gave the public a good solid gawk at what you’re really like.

the reason College Republicans avoid the entertainment industry is because assclowns like you tell them it’s full of evil and no good can come from it. That plus they can make a whole lot more cash elsewhere.

Plus, they have no talent and their ideas are stupid?

Gotta go, amigos, just wanted to say hi and give this moribund site a little kick in its ass.

I can imagine fewer excellent ideas than taking a bunch of people with PTSD and asking them to pretend they are back in life-threatening situations. With *special effects*. Our former partner used to freak out when fireworks went off, I can only imagine how he’d have reacted if someone had stuck him in the middle of a graphically simulated war re-enactment with accompanying sound effects. Do these people *hate* the troops? Do they *want* them to spend the rest of their lives screaming themselves awake at night?

Celebrties who have been marginalized for being conservatives:

Bruce Willis, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Adam Sandler, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Chuck Norris, Charles Barkley, Clint Eastwood, Kurt Schilling, MIke Ditka, John Elway, Bret Favre, Dennis Hopper, James Hetfield, the Rock, Bobby Knight, Tommy Lasorda, Meat Loaf, Heather Locklear, Al Michaels, Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Regis, Kurt Russel, Pat Sajak, Pete Sampras, Tom Sellek, Ben Stein, George Steinbrenner, Fred Thompson, Dennis Miller.

Rather than have the All Glorious Free Market decide what movies/TV shows to make, how about we let political affiliation be our guide to proper propagandizing!

Bubba, we already tried that. It was called the Hays Code:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hays_Code

Will Hays was a Republican, of course, and he set out the following three principles:

1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

“Correct standards of life”. That pretty much sums it up, don’t it?

Shorter Breitbart: We broke all our toys. Give us another one! We want the shiny one that has a trade surplus with every other country in the world! Give it to us now or we’ll scream!

“While it’s mostly true that the conservative experience in Hollywood is long on diagnosis and short on remedy, what sets us apart from our liberal counterparts is that we don’t ask for a legislative fix.”

No, what sets you apart from your liberal counterparts is that you’re talentless. Otherwise, you might be making movies and TV shows too.

Ah. I belatedly see that mikey has already made my point, which I should have expected. (Yes, I only skim comment threads here before I comment. Because if I try to read the whole thing, there’s another hundred comments up before I’m done.) I put my hand up to being reading-comprehension challenged, and I credit Pastor Swank, because I am aware of all internet traditions.

No, we can’t have affirmativeaction for wingnuts because, as Dear Leader once put it: “We need to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Forget about that “soft bigotry of low expectations” crap. The young wingnuts’ SAT scores have fallen; and doctors have been hosed so often by shrinking Medicare/Medicaid and SSI reimbursements that they aren’t ponying up those fake ADHD excuses that used to get young Republicans without “connections” into the Ivy League.

[Clif adds: It’s completely out-the-wazoo batshit crazy to say that this depiction of Edward II was not very far from the truth. First, Edward married Isabella as king, not as prince. Longshanks died in July 1307, some six months before Edward II married Isabella in January 1308. Second, Edward’s boyfriend Piers Gaveston was not defenestrated by Edward I. Gaveston was beheaded by the Earl of Lancaster on Blacklow Hill in 1312, some five years after Edward I had died.]

1. No shit, but how often to Hollywood portrayals actually get those details right for any historical character? Not freaking often. Telling a good story has its own requirements and storytellers have sacrificed accuracy since the fucking bards sat around singing tales in the mead-hall. Braveheart had PLENTY of similar inaccuracies regarding other characters as well – Wallace was not a commoner but a member of the nobility and the Scots sure as HELL never sacked York, to name just two.

2. He was a horrible king who did neglect military matters while lavishing luxury on himself and privilege on “favorites” – he had others after Gaveston. In fact, it was EXACTLY his refusal to ever say “no” to favorites – regardless of how inappropriate his desires or behavior – that caused the nobility to abandon him and join Isabelle and Mortimer.

3. Except for the gay angle, his portrayal is solidly in the well-known mold for similar characters like Nero and Commodus (in Gladiator). All are presented as materially-spoiled but emotionally neglected/abused children of political elites who chaffed for so long under their parents that they were emotionally unfit for the demands of their office by the time they obtained it. Its a stock-fucking-character that was tailored to hint at homosexuality but largely still in the stock-fucking-character mold. For example, the allegations that Mel Gibson had him Cross-dress in that scene (walking down the hallway with a mirror) is pure fucking hogwash – Those were Men’s courtly clothes and part of a trend that, 200 years later, saw men wearing stockings, skirts, and stupid ruffled collars.

4. None of the above fucking matters because usually when it comes to the political art critic, the importance of details changes depending on whose ox is gored. I’m curious to find out which historical movies you like, because right now I’m wondering if you’re not just like one of these rightwingers who nitpicked “City of God” but let “300” pass without much comment.

The magnificent silverback looks a tad put out at the Egore stumbling next to him. I call unfair association.

Correction: I wrote “City of God” but I meant “Kingdom of God” with Orlando Bloom.

Damn it – another typo: “Kingdom of Heaven”.

[Clif adds: A wrong word isn’t a typo; a wrong letter is a typo. Unless of course you randomly typed “God” for “Heaven” which would be a good trick. And while you’re correcting stupid stuff, you might want to correct the bit comparing me to a rightwinger.]

the reason College Republicans avoid the entertainment industry is because assclowns like you tell them it’s full of evil and no good can come from it. That plus they can make a whole lot more cash elsewhere.

Indeedy, and Breitbart’s pointing out that there are “tons of low-level jobs that lead to greater opportunities for industrious young adults” is pretty laughable. It’s probably true, but I think your College Republican isn’t looking to start at the bottom and work up – they want to be installed in an office with a window, start kissing up and pissing down, and taking 3-hour drunken lunch breaks immediately.

I am Breitbarticus.

And regarding that picture, have you really sunk so low as to make fun of my mom? Stay the hell out of my photobucket, Clif.
Grunt.

Legalize said,

July 21, 2008 at 23:30

Celebrties who have been marginalized for being conservatives:

Bruce Willis, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Adam Sandler, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Chuck Norris, Charles Barkley, Clint Eastwood, Kurt Schilling, MIke Ditka, John Elway, Bret Favre, Dennis Hopper, James Hetfield, the Rock, Bobby Knight, Tommy Lasorda, Meat Loaf, Heather Locklear, Al Michaels, Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Regis, Kurt Russel, Pat Sajak, Pete Sampras, Tom Sellek, Ben Stein, George Steinbrenner, Fred Thompson, Dennis Miller.

The problem with this list is that half those people are slightly conservative or don’t obnoxiously flaunt it. Therefore, they’re still considered “liberals” by most neocon pundits.

I wonder how it is that queeffart thinks he gave “this moribund site a little kick in its ass,” when he has failed to back up a single argument and instead goes on and on about his own picture. and just because your a paper tiger doesn’t mean you have to strawman your own mother into the argument.

“If we encouraged our young to consider careers in the arts…”

I love this tribal turn of phrase they have. “Our young.” “Our women.” “Our blood and treasure.”

Anything to seem more like a hot-blooded Anthony Quinn-type virile man of robustitude, and less like the mincing, whining third-rate “intellectuals” (with zero accomplishments in business, the arts, the academy, or much else) that they are.

Memo to A.B.: Your “young” don’t consider careers in the arts because, almost to a man and a woman, they don’t have the existential courage. They don’t want to enlighten or even describe the world. They want to beat the system. They’d rather devote their adult lives to pleasing Daddy and getting a bigger and bigger allowance. Go on, knock yourself out. Encourage.

I love this tribal turn of phrase they have. “Our young.” “Our women.” “Our blood and treasure.”

That is a beauty, and “our young” goes beyond tribal to sounding like something a biologist would say.

i work with all kinds of right wing writers all the time in hollywood. and the funny thing about it is the good writer doesn’t have an ideology that you can feel in watching his or her work. you just can’t. i worked on spy game, set it up and developed it with a writer whose personal politics are far far neocon right wing. and yet the movie doesn’t evince a point of view beyond a loathing of bureaucracy and a slight nostalgia which cuts both ways.

e.g. it’s nuanced. because he’s a GOOD writer. and i’ve worked with liberals who do the same thing.

of course, sometimes people wear stuff on their sleeves. rarely, in my estimation, does this lead to a good result. Grand Canyon (or its inferior rip-off “Crash”) clearly has a liberal message and heart, but to me the story in both movies is deadened by too much preaching. shit, cyrus noswrateh is a very good writer when he doesn’t let his politics get in the way like he did on path to 9/11 (his movie on the pullman strike is a minor masterpiece and has a pro-union anti-racist message).

breitbart’s idea, therefore, is so fucking stupid as to surely be satire. except he’s not clever, and he’s not funny. he’s just apparently this stupid.

hey andrew, i’m pretty sure we hung out back in the early 90s (AB, were you friends with a certain ZP back then?) and IIRC he was uselessness incarnate back then. there is nothing more worthless than contrariness for its own sake, and that is the man in a nutshell.

Surely there’s an affirmative-action program that can put Republicans to work in the entertainment industry at ratios similar to our numbers in the general population

Unfortunately for these guys, Cannon Films went out of business a while ago due to Golan & Globus’ bad management.

Hey, maybe they can all go to work for Lou Aguilar!

I don’t think wingnuts are even aware of Cidade de Deus.

And waitaminute – Didn’t Expelled‘s towering success wrench the entire showbiz industry into the conservative column anyway?

Lancelot Link said,

July 22, 2008 at 2:03

Surely there’s an affirmative-action program that can put Republicans to work in the entertainment industry at ratios similar to our numbers in the general population

Unfortunately for these guys, Cannon Films went out of business a while ago due to Golan & Globus’ bad management.

Hey, maybe they can all go to work for Lou Aguilar!

Maybe that’s what they want: the propaganda action films of the 80’s that teenaged boys used to get a hard-on over.

…and dangling participles.

Surely there’s an affirmative-action program that can put Republicans to work in the entertainment industry at ratios similar to our numbers in the general population.

First, I’d like to see the mighty Dimbulb prove that Goopers are being actively blackballed &/or discriminated against, based solely on their political affiliation.

(*crickets*)

This from an adherent of denying opportunities (like marriage) to non-heterosexuals because it’s a “lifestyle choice”? The same can be said – with veracity – of opting to be a Republican today … not to mention that it comes off as about as swift as opting to be a monarchist in Europe in 1917.

Time for a boycott on crying-towels for neocons … they had their shot at proving their political/cultural value (repeatedly), & they’ve royally screwed the pooch, every single goddamned time. Hint: if your ideology sucks so much raw ass that it gets perennially ignored or treated with total contempt by society at large, maybe it’s time for you to switch to something better.

I am aware there is an over-abundance of “evil rich whities” in movies,

I always assumed that this was a side effect of the over-abundance of white actors and general reluctance to cast minorities in any major role.

I suspect that this is Andrew’s fifteen minutes of fame right here. Use it wisely Andy, it’s all you’re going to get.

[Clif adds: A wrong word isn’t a typo; a wrong letter is a typo. Unless of course you randomly typed “God” for “Heaven” which would be a good trick. And while you’re correcting stupid stuff, you might want to correct the bit comparing me to a rightwinger.]

“Kingdom of Heaven” had plenty of inaccuracies and wasn’t particularly good, but the main point – that the combination of religious zealotry and faith-based optimism, of at least some Crusaders, caused them to provoke a stupid war, further compound that error by fighting stupidly, get slaughtered at the Battle of Hattin, and lose the very thing they prized the most – was spot fucking on.

Now, go look up old conservative reviews of “Kingdom of Heaven” and look at the criticisms they offered. “Balian was born in Israel and not France, nor was he ever a blacksmith”. “Muslims committed atrocities too”. etc. None of them had any relevance to the main point and it was laughable to see them rationalize away the main lesson on account of a few ideologically motivated inaccuracies and bunch of story-telling untruths.

Now, I say that “for hollywood” it wasn’t very inaccurate and you respond by saying I’m batshit crazy and citing a bunch of facts that have nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not Edward II was or was not a bad and ineffectual king who cared more about fashion, parties, and his boyfriend than on his responsibilities. Pardon me for seeing similarities.

Now, having thought more about it, I will grant that there is a point that , Edward II was not “effeminate” From what I understand, he actually was a tall, strong, and athletic man who didn’t mind physical effort for sport & leisure – he just didn’t like the drudgery of campaigning. He DID care about fashion & parties (so did Henry VIII for that matter), which are part of the modern package of stereotypes about homosexuals but he was not an effeminate weakling who could barely shoot an arrow a short distance (like in that scene). He could well have been played more like Commodus in “Gladiator” who, despite his moral weakness, cowardice, and obvious physical inferiority to the hero, was neither effeminate nor weak. That is not necessarily a “minor” detail.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said,

July 21, 2008 at 23:15

See, here’s one of the many differences between conservatives and liberals. Dictating the careers of your movement’s “best and brightest” is not something liberals would consider a valid strategy. Try and understand – the reason College Republicans avoid the entertainment industry is because assclowns like you tell them it’s full of evil and no good can come from it. That plus they can make a whole lot more cash elsewhere.

————–

I don’t know about that. The Golden Age of RW Welfare is rapidly consolidating and concentrating. Rush and Sean are vacuuming up all those wingnut dollars and how many more crappy, talking-point type beta monkeys are needed? Their meal ticket is going on lockdown soon, only the alpha monkeys will feast on the RW thinktank dime.

As far as Hollywood is concerned, I thought they’ve made the definitive movie on the future of RW intellectualism – Idiocracy. How do you top that?

Breitbart should encourage the College Republicans and the Y.A.F. members to Be A Man! Enlist! Their services are needed more in the Military rather than in Hollywood. In fact he should consider enlisting himself since he’s under the Army’s maximum age for enlistment. And don’t worry, Breitbart, you can get a waiver for being an over-weight barrel of grease.

The Golden Age of RW Welfare is rapidly consolidating and concentrating. Rush and Sean are vacuuming up all those wingnut dollars and how many more crappy, talking-point type beta monkeys are needed?

Interesting. Those two contracts alone are pretty goddam huge, and how much can there be in the loss-leader wingnut slush fund? It seems infinite, but as an engineer, which is practically a scientist, I am forced to admit that nothing is infinite except my contempt for honest, hard-working Heartlanders.

Anyway, I’m curious to see where the rightie-blather industry goes. I can imagine the A-list nuts like Rush and Sean will thrive in a Democratic-controlled age, just like in the Clinton years. I pity the beta monkeys having to go and find jobs with “Spent the years 2001-2008 kissing George W. Bush’s ass in print” on their resumes.

Celebrties who have been marginalized for being conservatives:

…Meat Loaf….

Meat Loaf is a conservative? Damn, it’s all over – we’ve lost the culture wars.

Meat Loaf is a conservative? Damn, it’s all over – we’ve lost the culture wars.

He hasn’t been the same since Dr. Frankenfurter gave him the ol’ Trotsky.

Jeez, I leave here for a few hours, and it already smells like Bruce Vilanch’s pool villa. To the aptly named PoopyMcPants who said I “failed to back up a single argument and instead goes on and on about his own picture.” First, I deigned to comment at this completely marginal site and I get nothing but insults hurled at me by a bunch of third rate Paul Lyndes. Secondly, I only made one comment about the photo, of about six or seven comments. And my first comment REFUTED the basis if the entire thread. Go back and read it: It’s an open and shut case. Big Clif with one f stepped up to the plate and whiffed the ball. The game was over the second I stepped into this disease ridden cesspool.

My main point is that conservatives have to stop complaining about Hollywood being liberal and have to get into the business themselves. (Sink or swim.) You’d think that would be well received. But because I am an out conservative, any point I made was going to be vilified. You are all so brave with your insults — hidden behind your Dungeons and Dragons and Patty and Jimmy uber-geek monikers.

That’s why I created the Huffington Post (you read that right.) So I could laugh all day long at self congratulating parochial chumps like you. I am the unheralded King of the Nutroots! Long live Andrew Breitbart!

[Clif adds: This ain’t Breitbart. Unless this commenter parading as such wants to explain to us why he’s using an ISP outside the U.S. Plus this comment has too many trademarks of a tiresome troll, and, although Breitbart might be a ridiculous wingnut, he’s smarter than you’re average troll.]

My main point is that conservatives have to stop complaining about Hollywood being liberal and have to get into the business themselves. (Sink or swim.)

So… where are you going to go work in the show business?

Don’t listen to Clif with one f. It’s me. Signed, Andrew Breitbart

Whatever he does in show business we should promise to stop making fun of him and hurting his feelings if he’ll just stay behind the camera.

For fuck’s sake, when you’re very clearly the dullest of a collection of unfunny guests on Balloon Knot Red Eye, you need to not be getting in front of the camera.

Whatever he does in show business we should promise to stop making fun of him and hurting his feelings if he’ll just stay behind the camera.

There need to be further restrictions, because your proviso there would still allow him to be a writer.

My main point is that conservatives have to stop complaining about Hollywood being liberal and have to get into the business themselves. (Sink or swim.)

Rereading this, I realize what it is –

My main point is that conservatives have to stop complaining about Hollywood being liberal liberals stifling progress in Iraq and have to get into the business themselves join the army. (Sink or swim.)

War of ideas at home, etc.

I say YES, let’s have affirmative action for Republicans in Hollywood! At the same time, let’s have affirmative action for liberals in the military and associated industries. Being retired military and still living in a Navy town, I can tell you firsthand that the quickest way to be ostracized in the military is to be a liberal.

Never mind that it was Bush I who initiated the largest military drawdown in history. Never mind that the military of Israel and EVERY NATO country (except Turkey) accepts gays (not one myself, but knew several who were kicked out no matter how good they were at their jobs).

Yeah, breitbart – let’s deal! You get affirmative action for Republicans in Hollywood, and we get it for liberals in the military and associated industries. How about it?

I just love free market capitalists who like affirmative action when it suits them. wait did i say love? Don’t you people have a bank to bail out?

Didn’t this addiction to contrary trolling, obsession with the strange personal issues regarding identity and it’s theft on display, and endless posting from simple googled up lists of proxy servers get old even back on Eschaton 8 years ago? Or even 15 years or so ago, when people were already doing it on the nascent net, even then… Such a shame, but what a sad, pitiful life one must have, to still be at the same compulsive and transparent behaviour today, as unchanged and still as unconvincing here and now in 2008, despite over a decade of repetition.

This whole right vs left media debate is a big distraction people.
It’s all corporate news whether it’s NYT, CNN, FOX, NPR
Choose your flavor of B.S. Some like it with a little sugar, some with a lot.

I love conservatives’ sudden fondness for the fairness doctrine. I’ve seen it pop up over the last few days concerning Obama’s trip, as Republicans whined about equal time for McCain. Now we have it again in reference to the output of the entertainment industry. Well, well, well…they weren’t that enamored of it while Reagan and Bush I were chipping away at it, were they? Just another example of the need to be careful what you wish for.

“Soldiers should vie for leading roles – especially with all those Laguna Beach swimming-trunk-laden shows.”

Finally, a remedy for our nation’s severe celebrity-wannabe shortage!

“Soldiers should vie for leading roles – especially with all those Laguna Beach swimming-trunk-laden shows.”

Is it just me, or is this statement just a bit “closet-y”, as in “still in the closet but simply dying to get out”?

Just what we need…even stupider movies and TV shows.

With extra flag-waving.

Is it just me, or is this statement just a bit “closet-y”, as in “still in the closet but simply dying to get out”?

That did occur to me too. I think it’s another required feature of the wingnut mental landscape. Just like the main point of the entire article i.e. “There’s a serious problem, and everyone except me is morally obliged to help solve it.”

… I’m curious to find out which historical movies you like,

I’m particularly fond of the Muppet Movie.

I’ve worked in the film business for years. You can always tell which crew are Republicans ’cause they are total assholes. They have NO sense of humor and are un-creative – they are completely the opposite of what you want on a set. You WANT someone that thinks ‘outside the box’ when it’s time to setup a difficult shot. Republicans just can’t do that.

The last thing we need are more Republicans in Hollywood, they kill everything they touch.

Heh, gotta ask BlackBart how that “Half Hour Comedy Hour” worked out.

Teh funnee ur doin it rong!

Gee, what a brilliantly insightful question: Why don’t more right-wing Republican types encourage their kids to go into the arts? Hmm. Um. I … I don’t know. Unless, maybe, do you think …? Could it have something to do with the fact that THERE’S NO FUCKING MONEY IN IT? Or something like that, I don’t know, I’m just pulling this out of my ass, over here.

Sunday bring to you Saima mohsin, host of the very popular news eye on dawn news.

Wait. There’s a fairness doctrine for talk radio? when does it start?

How’s about making this an exchange program? Take a bunch of conservatives from, say, the financial services industry, and let them swap jobs with a bunch of liberal Hollywood producers. Then we could see how each industry fares after six months.

Awww, the poor “conservative” Republicans are wishing for the government to have a law to protect them. Halp, government, please save us poor Republicans from the free market!

This is what you get when you develop and sell an entire political movement based upon image without regard to substance. Eventually the population notices the disconnect and the movement fails.

However popular the conservative image may have been in the past (and however unpopular they managed to make the liberal image) the plain truth today is that conservative political ideas are very unpopular. And try as they might, conservatives are unable to divorce the unpopularity of their ideas from their image.

Breitbart ignores the disease in favor of increasing our dosage of his perscription for the symptoms. We’ve already been mainlining conservative entertainment themes for the past two decades. The 20 percenters now live bunkered in the unshakable faith that the rest of the world is bent on our destruction. A few more game shows and Dom Coms featuring themes favorable to conservatives and a handful of Alex P. Keatons won’t rescue the failure of conservative political ideas. And the longer conservatives ignore their plight, the worse the situation will get for them.

I’ve gotta admit thought, it’s fun to watch.

There are lots of reasons conservatives are not well represented in Hollywood. A “conservative” mindset is not very compatible with creativity. Creativity is associated with liberated thinking. You can have Libertarians make a go at writing, but they tend to get infected with neo-conservatism along the way and their dominant emotional state is contempt (Dennis Miller, Ben Stein).

The only emotions conservatives are comfortable showing in public are “cool detached superiority” (The Rock, Clint Eastwood, Arnold, etc.) or contempt. Hollywood has only a very limited supply of roles for such actors. For every Arnold coolly dispatching foes in a big picture, you need several hundred liberals showing fear, love, angst, swooning, running in terror, cackling maniacally, and writing the whole sorry affair.

Then there is the persistent message conservative talking heads and pundits program into their faithful, that Hollywood is a futile and corrosive and useless and immoral cesspool (even if some of that is contradictory). Conservative parents thus push their children far from the arts. They mock the arts, belittle the arts. A young conservative would be shunned by family and congregation if choosing to head out to Hollywood.

Hollywood would be more than happy to accept talented creative conservatives. It would let them tap into a pretty reliable and compliant and predictable market. Hollywood at it’s heart embodies capitalism. Hollywood wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

It really is the case that conservative scorn and contempt for Hollywood is what keeps them from having representation. There are many a boy and girl raised conservative that seek to follow their dreams and go to Hollywood, and become liberal from being rejected by their conservative community. Maybe this “rebellion liberal” doesn’t stick with it, but by then they have seen both sides of the coin and can never be a *real* movement conservative like Andrew envisions. They have enough years of seeing through right-wing blowhards that they never really drink the kool-aid again, even when they go back to voting Republican.

Legalize said,

July 21, 2008 at 23:30

Celebrties who have been marginalized for being conservatives:

Bruce Willis, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Adam Sandler, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Chuck Norris, Charles Barkley, Robert Duvall, Kurt Schilling, MIke Ditka, John Elway, Bret Favre, Dennis Hopper, James Hetfield, the Rock, Bobby Knight, Tommy Lasorda, Meat Loaf, Heather Locklear, Al Michaels, Gary Oldman, Joe Pesci, Regis, Kurt Russel, Pat Sajak, Pete Sampras, Tom Sellek, Ben Stein, George Steinbrenner, Fred Thompson, Dennis Miller.

First off IMO, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Clint Eastwood and Gary Oldman are the only people in this list with any genuine talent. Considering how much they have all worked over the years and continue to work, the idea that they have somehow been “marginalized” is bizarre.

The rest have personalities, the markets for which ebb and flow.
“Entertainers” like Kelsey Grammer, Chuck Norris, Heather Locklear, Kurt Russel, Pat Sajak, Tom Sellek and Dennis Miller haven’t been marginalized because they’re conservative, they’ve been marginalized because they’re marginal talents. They were all “right place, right time” celebrities whose places could’ve been filled by any other of the thousands of marginally talented people vying for a shot in Hollywood. They were all lucky they got as far as they did. Please, enough with the professional victimhood.

Soldiers should vie for leading roles – especially with all those Laguna Beach swimming-trunk-laden shows.

Yeah! And retarded-ass Lynndie England can make a guest appearance each week, helpfully doin’ her cha-CHA! pointing gesture at their swimming-trunk-encased “stuff”!

WOW!
I can hardly wait to see the conservative fall line up:
” Touched by a Jesus Freak”
“The Bushes”
“Abstinence in the City”
“Apprentice to Rove” (with ending line: “Your f@#ked!”)
“Hunting with Dick” (Cheney)
“Brotherhood of the KKK”
“Guns n God”
and a new game show hosted by McCain:
“Get off my lawn??!!”

Half the people mentioned as having their careers damaged because they are republicans are junkies! I have done drugs with about ten of them myself!!!!

To be successful as an artist, one usually needs a good dose of empathy and compassion something of which conservatives are in short supply.

Clif,

I think you made a good point in your original article, but why are you nitpicking the hell out of the reader who posted that the portrayal of the prince in BraveHeart wasn’t out of the ordinary? r4d20 was making an arguably valid point. Hollywood skews just about all real-life characters, and it’s usually done for dramatic purposes. I’ve script-doctored for a while now, and if compressing a bunch of personality quirks into a character will save us a single page of script, we’ll do it.

[…] Breitbart and Fox attacked […]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Voice of Reason. Not quite fair.

In addition to anchoring one of the smartest sitcoms of the past 20 years–Frasier–Grammer is the best guest voice actor ever to appear on the “The Simpsons” and every bit a match for the regulars. He’s Sideshow Bob. In a handful of episodes (7 or 8) he’s created a memorable nemesis for Bart and the rest of the Simpsons–that’s why his episodes (“Cape Feare,” “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming,” “Brother from Another Series”) are some of the best in the long, long run of the Simpsons, and why simply the words “New episode” and “Sideshow Bob” are enough to make me excited.

Willis is up and down, and for all I know is a jerk in real life, but watch “Unbreakable”; he can deliver.

Kurt Russell–“Escape from New York”? “Deathproof”?

Voigt–Midnight Cowboy. Mission Impossible.

Costner–no talent? Field of Dreams, JFK, The Untouchables, and one of the best liberal movies of recent years, Thirteen Days?

You’re right about the rest, but credit where credit is due.