Latest / The Junto Podcast / E31: Can You Separate Art from the Artist? Celebrity Politics and Your Watchlist

Transcript

E31: Can You Separate Art from the Artist? Celebrity Politics and Your Watchlist · The Junto Podcast

0:10
Hello, America. Welcome to the Junto Podcast, where we promote the practical
0:15
applications of critical thinking and bold creativity.
0:18
I am your host, Edgar Mills. Thanks for joining.
0:29
Hello, America. Welcome to another episode of the Juneteau podcast.
0:34
Thank you all for staying with me. I'm glad you're here. So what are we going to talk about today?
0:38
Well, today, I'm talking about the consumption of entertainment and art and movies, music,
0:50
fine arts, the whole works, and how that affects us personally on a moral level
0:57
and political level and all those things.
1:00
In these modern times here, folks, social media amplifies, well,
1:06
it amplifies everyone's voice, but especially celebrity voices and a celebrity's opinions.
1:14
And hearing these celebrity opinions, is it possible for us to still enjoy one
1:20
of their movies or their music or their performances, etc.?
1:23
If their personal views clash with ours, you know what I mean?
1:29
There exists a struggle in
1:32
most of us a lot of us between appreciating
1:36
these works of art whatever they
1:39
are or entertainment and then
1:42
juxtaposing those with our own personal beliefs the artist's
1:46
personal flaws political extremism or
1:50
criminal behavior even and we'll talk about an example of that in a minute and
1:55
that's on both ends of the ideological spectrum it shows up but how can we how
2:02
can we guide our own decisions and make make ethical choices about what we're consuming,
2:08
when it comes to entertainment.
2:11
I'm going to make every attempt to be objective and present facts and then talk
2:18
a little bit about how the free market kind of affects all this too.
2:22
But yeah, I'm going to be objective. Now, everything's polarized.
2:27
We talk about politics a lot on here, and I don't always mean to do that.
2:30
It just kind of goes that way.
2:32
But celebrities have a platform, man.
2:35
They have a humongous platform to speak from. And it's not just about entertainment,
2:42
right? They talk about all these things.
2:44
And the tragedy of the modern day is most celebrities are extreme left and political views.
2:52
And sometimes they alienate half of the fan base.
2:55
A lot of them do with their sort of extreme political banter and whatnot.
3:01
And you hear a lot of people say, hey, just shut up and entertain me,
3:04
right? Just shut up and play basketball. Just shut up and say, entertain me.
3:08
And I mean, is that 100% right? Probably not, but.
3:12
So the question is, I mean, do you boycott movies from certain producers or
3:20
actors or things like that?
3:22
I mean, that's the conflict, right? If you like, if you grew up watching.
3:26
Now, I'm a big fan of the movies, man. I grew up, I was so enamored with Hollywood when I was young.
3:32
I love movies. I just love movies.
3:36
My parents took me to see Jaws at the drive-in theater when it came out.
3:40
And I was scared shitless of sharks to this day. But it was a great movie, man.
3:46
It was a great movie. So how do we get around it? How do we, or do we get around it?
3:51
Can we separate the art from the artist?
3:55
The work that they produce from their own opinions.
3:59
And still, like, go enjoy a movie without having that thought running in the
4:04
background. You know what I mean?
4:06
Again, social media and the 24-7 news cycle also...
4:14
It ramps up rhetoric and it increases our own personal scrutiny of people, right?
4:22
If so-and-so makes the news about making an extreme personal statement.
4:28
And then we carry that with us. And then instead of just our personal consumption
4:32
of some awesome movie, now we're thinking about the political statements and it's, and it sucks, man.
4:38
That happens to me a lot and it sucks. But from a libertarian perspective on
4:45
that, like, well, one, it's an individual choice on whether or not you choose to boycott, you know,
4:53
some particular star or something.
4:56
That's personal choice don't don't
5:00
just jump on board if and i'm
5:03
going to use a little small example of the lgb community a couple years ago
5:08
they got fired up over chick-fil-a you know so they were screaming for everybody
5:12
to boycott chick-fil-a well look can't you just as an individual choose to boycott
5:17
chick-fil-a without trying to to cancel them or blacklist them or anything like that.
5:23
So the mob never wants the individuals to make their own choice about things,
5:28
to make their own ethical compromises or trade-offs or just to choose what a
5:36
priority, what's important and what isn't.
5:39
The mob loves to coerce people into what and how to think.
5:44
That's how activist groups operate.
5:47
But from a libertarian perspective anyway, it's all a very individual choice.
5:52
So let's keep that in mind, right?
5:54
So these are individual choices. I'm not trying to tell you who to boycott or whatnot.
6:00
So the question is, and this goes especially for Christians,
6:06
like at what point do you feel like enjoying this movie or enjoying a certain
6:11
artist's, you know, whatever music or art or whatever,
6:15
at what point does that feel like complicity, right?
6:19
Like that you're supporting and, and furthering something, a cause that you
6:25
completely disagree with.
6:27
So that's the moral aspect of that. But what else, man? The market, right? The free market.
6:32
You've heard people say you vote with your feet and you vote with your dollars.
6:36
If you're paying big money to a streaming service that you know to or do you
6:42
think to be evil, but they got that one show you like, you know what I mean?
6:47
They got that one show that you can't find anywhere else.
6:52
That's been the blessing and curse of all these streaming services, man.
6:56
Is that you got to have, if you grew up watching certain shows,
7:02
and I'll give you a free example, I love Have Gun, Will Travel.
7:05
It's an old TV Western from the late 50s into the early 60s. It's only on Pluto.
7:12
It's only on Pluto. You can't get it anywhere else. But that being said, Pluto is free.
7:21
But Netflix isn't. Sorry, my dog's back there making noise.
7:26
Danny Alright, sorry about that Yeah, the stream is certain You know,
7:30
they got the one show you like So do you pay for that?
7:34
Do you pay monthly To this raging liberal Streaming network To watch that one
7:41
show? Is that one show that important to you?
7:44
I mean, is any TV really that important to you? I don't think it is that important,
7:49
Well Let me back that up Let me back that up,
7:54
Art is important. Entertainment, just in general, is important.
8:00
Sometimes just for your sanity. Now, just like everything else we talk about,
8:05
people take things to extremes.
8:07
And if you're an addictive personality, we talked about this when we were talking about pornography.
8:12
Addiction. There are people who are addicted to television shows and don't get off the couch.
8:18
They will sit on the couch and binge watch whatever their shows are.
8:22
They forge these imaginary relationships with the characters and all this stuff
8:26
So again, I think entertainment is good.
8:29
I think art is necessary to our world Yes, even tv even music and all that So
8:38
yeah Entertainment's generally speaking from my perspective good.
8:43
So now now back to it. How do we prioritize it?
8:48
So I'm going to talk about a couple of sort of instances of this and where certain
8:54
actors or artists, they have whatever political lean they have.
8:59
They come out kind of extreme on one side or the other, or they had some kind
9:03
of criminal allegations, which people love to get on their high horse about
9:08
these criminal allegations.
9:09
And then some of them may be true, some of them may not. We never really know
9:13
the truth when it comes to like Hollywood and things like that and Washington. anyway.
9:19
And we'll see how, how do we reconcile our core beliefs with still supporting
9:27
certain actors or actresses?
9:29
So I'm going to start out with Sean Penn. And I'm going to start with Sean Penn
9:33
because I grew up watching Sean Penn kind of grow as,
9:38
well, he's probably maybe 10 years older
9:40
me i think he's a brilliant actor folks
9:43
i think he's a brilliant actor and he does you know he dives into these roles
9:49
and he's very man and he's played such a wide range i wouldn't say he's an underrated
9:56
because you know hollywood they they pump him up a lot but i think he's a brilliant actor.
10:03
If you guys remember bad boys and I'm not talking folks, not Will Smith and
10:07
frigging Martin Lawrence,
10:08
the bad boys from like, I don't know, 1982 or so or 83, maybe where they were
10:17
in like this youth sort of detention jail, you know, prison thing,
10:21
man, that movie was, that was watching that, you know, 10 years old or 11 years old,
10:29
man, that was serious business.
10:32
That was a hard movie man and it was good and it was awesome what's another
10:36
good one at close range with his brother chris pent and christopher walken man.
10:47
That's some serious business right i think and he was in like falcon and the
10:52
snowman and then one of my all-time favorites if you guys ever remember i want
10:56
to say it was called taps It was a young Sean Penn,
11:01
young Tom Cruise, young Timothy Hutton.
11:05
They were in this military school.
11:09
And yeah, man, just brilliant performances all the way around.
11:13
All right. There's the talent right there. There it is. There's the talent.
11:17
Sean Penn is a hard left-wing activist.
11:23
So much so that he was literal friends.
11:28
Arguably being used by, but friends with Hugo Chavez, folks,
11:33
the former Venezuelan dictator.
11:36
And Raul Castro, he goes down and hobnobes with these communist country leaders
11:44
who are known to have just the most egregious human rights track records.
11:51
And and even he does get a little bit of beef from the left but only a little
11:56
because these these countries that he goes down there and he has these big you know these big sort of.
12:06
Showcased staged meetings you know with these guys and they shake hands and
12:10
they eat and find food and and whatnot and the lgb community kind of because
12:17
those those countries are notably anti-LGB, right?
12:20
So that's, the left is often contradictory anyway.
12:24
However, if you go down and just casually enjoy spending time with a ruthless
12:30
communist dictator, you, there's some problems there.
12:34
You're not that smart. You're not, not as critical as you, in your thinking
12:39
process as you think you are.
12:40
Now I'm sure Sean Penn thinks everybody else is just dumb and he's the smartest guy in America.
12:47
But need I remind you folks that
12:48
communism has killed more people than Nazism ever did or any other ism,
12:54
So if I, and I am, by the way, directly and vehemently opposed to communist
13:00
and socialist ideologies, what does that mean for me to watch a Sean Penn movie?
13:06
Am I endorsing Sean Penn's ridiculous behavior and points of view there?
13:14
Well, I don't go to the movies that much anymore, so I don't directly pay that way.
13:19
And I do have all the streaming services, folks, like all of them.
13:23
So yeah i'm paying i'm i'm supporting that apparatus
13:27
that friggin industry and if he you know i'll post up a little year i'll post
13:34
up a little clown emoji when he when if he ever says i'm stupid so i'm not calling
13:39
for the world to cancel sean penn and i guess i indirectly support Sean Penn.
13:46
I have a little turmoil with that, but I think the art stands on its own.
13:52
So I'm going to continue watching it.
13:54
All right, let's go to a lesser example. Do you guys remember, well,
14:00
Pink, the pop lady, Pink, the music, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus
14:10
Wade a couple of years ago.
14:12
And she came out because she's big and tough. And she says, never fucking listen
14:17
to my music again if you support that.
14:21
And what does that mean to her? Like, so on a single issue, she's willing to
14:27
alienate over half of the American population.
14:31
And probably, I mean, I'm sure she's a worldwide phenomenon, I guess.
14:35
So, but I'm sure throughout the world, you know, probably half of the population
14:41
disagrees with abortion and thinks that it's murder.
14:47
So she's so she's willing but but now mind
14:50
you she already made her money by the
14:54
time she made this heated statement so how
14:58
how genuine is it well you got to get
15:01
along right when you're coming up in the in the business you gotta you gotta
15:05
be cool and keep it down keep it quiet until you get so you got to coerce everybody
15:11
into believing that you're something and then once you hit it big then you can
15:15
come on out and show you true colors, I guess. That's the way it is.
15:21
Now, disclaimer, I've never listened to music from Pink.
15:26
It never will, regardless of her stance on abortion or any other stance for that matter. Yeah.
15:34
So what is that? What is that, right?
15:37
She cutting off half the population. And she vocally, I think she's vocally,
15:43
you know, everybody in Hollywood and the music industry is vocally against Donald Trump.
15:48
But now she's like gatekeeping her own audience.
15:53
Like she's telling you who she's performing for.
15:58
It's not everybody. It's only half.
16:02
Now, clearly from a libertarian perspective, if you're putting music out there
16:06
and if you like it, you can listen to it.
16:08
It don't matter what she thinks about it because it's out there in the world.
16:12
It's out there in the wild.
16:13
She don't mind taking your money for buying her music, I'm sure.
16:17
She says so because it's performative. And that's what you call,
16:21
I think, virtue signaling, which is kind of stupid.
16:25
Now, let's talk about one. I'm gonna I'm gonna break in here.
16:29
So next I'm gonna talk about Roman
16:31
Polanski But let me break in just last night for the first time ever.
16:35
I watched me and my wife watched, uh Once upon a time in hollywood Now I happen
16:40
to be a quentin tarantino fan as far as the movies go.
16:45
Um, the only and I i'll go ahead
16:48
and tell you I didn't care for the kill bill sort of series
16:52
there but all the other ones I freaking
16:54
love uh Reservoir Dogs yeah that
16:57
was in the early 90s or late 80s just brilliant
17:01
and then you know Pulp Fiction brilliant I thought Inglourious Basterds was
17:06
brilliant I love the revisionist history stuff I love the the way I I just like
17:13
Quentin Tarantino's work it was great Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was about
17:18
time of very famous well not the incident specifically,
17:22
but back when Charlie Manson and the Manson family there, and they murdered.
17:29
Sharon Tate and some others in that house up in the Hollywood Hills.
17:35
And Roman Polanski was connected to that. Roman Polanski was married to Sharon Tate at the time.
17:41
But anyway, let's talk about Roman Polanski.
17:44
So far after that, so I think that incident and that movie took place in maybe
17:48
1969, 1970 or something.
17:52
Later, you know, cause Roman Polanski was a big, he was a big deal in the early, in that time.
17:58
And if you remember, now I happen to like Roman Polanski's work.
18:03
My wife wrote the movie, Rosemary's Baby.
18:07
That's one of my wife's favorite movies. It's, that's a proper horror movie.
18:11
That's a proper scary movie that's done well and very visually. Yeah. It's, it's good.
18:18
Who else? Chinatown. Oh, man.
18:22
Yeah, Chinatown. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and that. That's some good stuff, man.
18:28
He's got talent. The guy has talent for making movies. In 1977,
18:33
he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl.
18:36
Now, I blame his parents.
18:39
Her parents were complicit in that. They should have never, ever.
18:44
They're just trying to get their daughter famous, and they were willing to sacrifice
18:47
their daughter for that. She was drugged and raped. He got charged.
18:52
Yeah. And then he fled the country, went to France, and I guess,
19:00
you know, for whatever reason, they couldn't extradite him or whatever.
19:03
He's still out there right now, celebrated by Hollywood elites.
19:07
I don't know when the last movie he made is, but he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl.
19:16
Yeah that's some egregious shit
19:19
right there and on that yeah if
19:22
rosemary's baby's on tv my wife will watch it i i watched chinatown you know
19:28
many times i've seen the movie several times long before i ever really knew
19:33
about even what even who directed the movie you know what i mean when i was
19:37
young and i watched the movie but i kind of.
19:42
Is the line at? I don't know. I think that's it. And I think rape of a,
19:46
of an underage girl is a line and I don't support Roman Polanski and I don't purchase his fit,
19:54
you know, pay for his films and I, and any of those things. There's my line. Right.
19:59
And yeah, he was, he was charged and, but it never went to court and it was there,
20:05
but yeah, it was pretty cut and dry based
20:08
on testimony and those things from other
20:11
other folks and whatever you
20:15
want to say about the lifestyle of hollywood in that time so whatever
20:18
the sexual revolution you know kind of kind of
20:21
was was waning at that time but i'm sure in hollywood
20:24
you know debauchery was at an all-time high
20:27
i'm sure well in the 70s it definitely was everybody remembers uh studio 54
20:32
in like new york in the 70s so debauchery was at an all-time high so yeah i'm
20:38
100 certain that he did that what he was accused of doing 100 certain of it and and i think it.
20:47
Is rosemary's baby still a good movie it is now you can start to break and get
20:52
into semantics right well that movie was made in like 1968 or 67 or 68 before
20:59
he did what what what he did so So you can get down to semantics, I guess.
21:05
But by continuing to support his films, does that shit on the victim?
21:10
I think it does a little bit.
21:13
But you could say the same about Sean Penn and communism and all that.
21:16
So there's so many little avenues that you can go off to either condemn or endorse.
21:25
There's so many little threads you could pull.
21:29
Nobody's forced to watch anything. You know what I mean?
21:32
And if I choose to boycott personally Roman Polanski, then there it is.
21:39
Am I going to yell and scream at you for watching Roman Polanski films?
21:43
Nah, I'm going to tell you that he's a rapist and then let you do what you want.
21:49
But that's it because I'm not going to infringe on anybody else's free will for sure.
21:55
All right. And on the same note, on the same of Roman plant,
21:58
let's get back to a once upon a time in Hollywood real quick.
22:02
Speaking of Tarantino, I didn't think the movie was that great.
22:05
And maybe because I have an emotional attachment to Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham,
22:09
which the two main characters were kind of loose interpretations of that.
22:16
But DiCaprio's character, who was, you know, the facsimile of Burt Reynolds,
22:23
he was an absolute douchebag throughout the entire movie.
22:26
There was no redeeming qualities for that guy at all.
22:31
He was vain. He felt sorry for himself. And was Burt Reynolds really like that?
22:34
I don't know. I don't think Tarantino knows either. But.
22:39
I think that was a poor depiction of what we think Burt Reynolds might have been like.
22:45
And then Brad Pitt's character, who was meant to be a cliff,
22:49
who was kind of a facsimile of Hal Needham.
22:53
Was he a shitbag? I don't know. His character was cool as hell.
22:57
To me, he was the main character.
23:01
I know DiCaprio was de facto main character, but I think Brad Pitt was the main
23:06
character in that movie. Yeah.
23:08
He was personable he was cool he was laid back he was not pretentious you know what i mean.
23:16
It was i think it was i don't
23:18
like i don't like tarantino's depiction of two of people that i consider i don't
23:25
know screen heroes and how i need them because not because he was a screen hero
23:30
but because he was a hollywood stuntman and i was very enamored with hollywood
23:34
stuntmen i got a cousin Derek, who when I was very young,
23:38
he did a little stint as a stuntman.
23:41
And man, I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
23:44
And Hal Needham was, if you watch Have Gun, Will Travel, you can see him in early episode.
23:49
Well, throughout the whole run of that, he was a stuntman and a character in a lot of those episodes.
23:56
Anyway, anyway, I'm dragging on. And then one more, much as I like the Hal Needham
24:02
depiction there. And then a depiction of Bruce Lee, man.
24:05
They had him painted up like an arrogant douchebag. Was he?
24:09
You know, I don't know, but he was also a childhood hero. And maybe that's my
24:12
fault for having heroes as a child, right?
24:16
I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have put somebody up on a pedestal knowing that
24:21
they're human and flawed.
24:23
Is that right? No, man, I was a kid. I was a kid in the seventies.
24:27
Bruce Lee was absolute money.
24:30
Yeah. Bruce Lee was absolutely my, and I watched the Green Hornet, by the way. All right.
24:37
Once upon a time in Hollywood, not that awesome. I mean, was the filmmaking okay? Yeah, sure.
24:44
And even though Tarantino is known for the gratuitous violence,
24:48
but I thought at the end when the hippies tried to break in and kill everybody
24:54
and then they got, yeah, the violence.
24:59
I think it was purposely overdone. Yeah. I don't know.
25:03
I didn't think it was as good as some other movies, but it, but that was also
25:07
a little revisionist history, right?
25:09
The reality is the, the Manson family hippies went to Sharon Tate's house instead
25:15
of, you know, Cliff and Rick Dalton's house there.
25:19
So, and then the reality is they did the murders and, and, and went to jail.
25:25
And by the way, Sharon Tate was in fact pregnant when she was murdered,
25:29
which makes it all the more egregious.
25:32
But anyway, Charles, man, you know, everybody knows Charles Manson.
25:35
All right, now, moving on. Sorry about that. I just watched that movie last
25:39
night. I had to talk about it. What about...
25:44
Everyone knows and has an image and a vision of Woody Allen.
25:50
Oh, he's so brilliant, Woody Allen.
25:53
Oh, he's a brilliant New Yorker. Oh, he's always so nervous.
25:58
Woody Allen has some pretty good films. I watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona on one of my deployments.
26:05
That was like one of the, one of the, you know, they got ripped DVDs over there,
26:10
like, like pirated DVDs. And that was one of them that I had.
26:15
So I watched it. I thought it was a good movie, man. I like,
26:18
uh, you know, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem was, it was good. It was a good movie.
26:25
You know, adults having their little dalliances and then having deep angst about it and all that stuff.
26:32
Not only was Woody Allen accused now, now he got over on this.
26:36
And I think it's because he probably has a lot of power in Hollywood and New
26:41
York But he was accused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter, Dylan,
26:49
When she was seven Seven years old.
26:55
Here's the weirdness. Mia Farrow was in Rosemary's Baby, directed by Roman Polanski,
27:01
and then married Woody Allen.
27:03
Now, I'm sure at some point Woody Allen and Roman Polanski knew each other and
27:07
probably hung out. God knows what kind of debauchery those two were up to.
27:11
But yeah, he was accused of sexually abusing a seven-year-old adopted daughter.
27:17
All right, well, that's bad enough, right? So then he and Mia Farrow also adopt
27:23
a young Chinese girl named Sun Yi.
27:27
And then upon their divorce, he marries his adopted daughter, Sun Yi.
27:33
I got to imagine, am I being judgmental? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I am.
27:40
I can only imagine that Woody Allen was doing horrible things with Sun Yi long before she was of age.
27:48
And then and then
27:51
to marry your adopted daughter never mind
27:54
what your intentions truly are and yeah
27:57
you shouldn't do anything just to make sure everybody else is okay with it but
28:03
the optics on that and i hate to say the optics because that's whatever but
28:10
that That looks nefarious just on the surface.
28:15
There is no way he wasn't doing inappropriate things with that girl.
28:20
And it was inappropriate to marry her too, but not illegal, generally speaking.
28:24
But he was a man in a position of power that had significant sway over this
28:30
young adopted Chinese girl.
28:32
I think it's egregious. I think it's horrible.
28:35
I think he's a criminal. I do not like Woody Allen.
28:40
Seen woody allen films yeah everybody carries on about annie hall annie hall excuse me annie hall,
28:48
and uh you know manhattan you
28:51
know movies like that one i watched when i was a kid because it was funny and
28:56
it was on like cable everything you always want to know about sex but we're
29:00
afraid to ask yeah man like and you can see the inclinations of some people
29:06
in their work right like for instance, Quentin Tarantino.
29:10
I think everybody, I think it's just widely and broadly understood.
29:14
Quentin Tarantino has a foot fetish.
29:17
It's in every movie. You can't escape it. There's always very artistic depictions
29:22
and very detailed depictions of women's bare feet.
29:28
And I don't hate on it for that. That ain't illegal. It might be a little weird,
29:32
but I think you can also see some inclinations from would ye yeah yeah i don't
29:39
care for woody allen i don't care for woody allen,
29:42
and if you want to think critically right like he was never
29:45
actually arrested for that either one of those things and
29:48
never charged so you can say okay well
29:51
it was never substantiated so he's good he was just a victim
29:54
of false allegations if you call yourself a critical thinker you can go that
29:58
but if you call yourself a critical thinker you can go another level deeper
30:02
and understand that his level of influence and sway probably had something to
30:09
do with that lack of charge,
30:12
right?
30:13
So you can go off hearsay or you can go off, hey, the evidence says he was, whatever.
30:21
Has, you know, everybody has their own belief in their heart of hearts about things.
30:25
Yeah. Woody Allen. All right. I'm done. Here we go. And now we're kind of going
30:30
to go on the other end of the spectrum a little bit.
30:34
J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry, the Harry Potter books and all that, the fame, right?
30:42
Just they were over the course of about 10 years, the epic that Harry Potter was everywhere.
30:49
It was Harry Potter, Harry Potter. And it was a series, so it just goes on and
30:52
on, like Lord of the Rings. It's never ending.
30:55
But yeah, Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts.
30:59
And she had some other stuff under her pseudonym, even.
31:03
So very successful, J.K. Rowling was. Very successful, or is.
31:10
But she violated liberal dogma because she's critical of the transgender movement,
31:18
The transgender activists who are pushing and pushing and pushing because she thinks it's important.
31:27
Biological sex is important and that it's a critical point to women's rights.
31:35
Yeah, women's rights.
31:38
She's been called a transphobe and she's been and she stands on it and she's
31:43
and she owns it and I don't think she even gets that you know bent out of shape
31:48
about it she just says what she says and that's it you can take it or leave
31:51
it so yeah the left has been very critical of her,
31:57
and there was a backlash and and she got criticism from actors who benefited
32:04
from her talent Young Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe Yeah Hey,
32:12
thanks for the great success And catapulting me into superstardom But you're
32:18
transphobe And I disagree And I think you should be boycotted Or whatever.
32:26
You enjoy harry potter books do you do you
32:28
conflate that with with transphobia do you
32:32
think oh my god i mean the same way we
32:35
talked about sean penn and communism do is
32:38
that in is that running in the background now i got to imagine the lefties love
32:43
boycotting and they love the mob mentality and they love cancel culture now
32:48
i feel like probably libertarians at least are a little more rational about
32:54
these kinds of things to whether or not,
32:56
yes, if you do believe that, if you think she's just a vile person and you can
33:02
choose not to, not to read her books, but also do these people, these artists,
33:09
are they, well, look, sexual harassment and sexual abuse is not free speech,
33:13
but these others, right?
33:14
Who just Sean Penn, for instance, and JK, are they
33:18
entitled to their free speech the catchphrase these
33:21
days is you can have free freedom of speech
33:24
but not freedom of consequences that's that's a big catchphrase going around
33:28
these days yeah but are they entitled to this same free speech or or what can
33:37
we separate her fantasy books and her fantasy world from her personal opinions.
33:45
Without calling for some kind of collective censorship. Yeah,
33:49
I don't know. Think about that.
33:51
And then we have one of my favorites, folks, Dave Chappelle.
33:57
Yeah, man, Dave Chappelle has been controversial in his jokes.
34:03
Now, look, man, I follow some comedians. Everybody loves comedy. I love comedy.
34:09
Well, at what point does comedy go too far? Who knows? It's even in bad taste.
34:15
I was a fan of Andrew Dice Clay, Big Style, and he was tasteless.
34:20
That was part of what made it funny, was how tasteless it was.
34:24
But yeah, you make some transgender jokes.
34:27
Make some transgender jokes and boom, the activists are up in arms.
34:34
But he came out in support of J.K. Rowling, actually, on this transgender stuff.
34:42
Said that gender is a fact. And I, and I, and I do believe that folks,
34:45
I know trans transgender people and I don't, I don't hate on them at all.
34:50
I just think there's some, well, there's a lot of nuance in there.
34:54
There's a lot of, of psychological stuff going on and emotional stuff going
34:58
on, but he said he was on team turf guy, a guy on another podcast that I listened to sometimes.
35:07
He mentioned the term TERF, T-E-R-F.
35:12
And I didn't know, I don't, I didn't know what it was. I had to text him and
35:17
go, Hey bro, what is this?
35:20
Break this down for me. Explain this to me.
35:23
TERF. Cause Dave Chappelle said he's on team TERF.
35:28
I don't know what the hell that is. I want now here's I'm going to tell you
35:32
what I think I remember it to be I think it is trans.
35:37
Exclusionary radical feminism I think
35:40
that's what it is and so I think they attribute that to people like JK Rowling
35:44
people who are very vocal in women's rights and feminism who are opposed to
35:51
men being on named women of the year on Glamour magazine because that's just detracting from women.
35:59
And so these, these turf women, and I guess men too,
36:05
oppose the men, transgender men dressing up as women and superseding and overshadowing
36:16
the rights and the domain of, of women.
36:21
Yeah. So that's a bridge too far for me.
36:24
That's two very hyper, very super specialized activist groups that I can't go
36:31
down that far. I just can't do it. Can't do it.
36:35
So look, Dave Chappelle, he's funny, and he rips on everyone.
36:40
And it's funny, man.
36:43
Funny he rips on disabled people is
36:46
that funny yeah it's funny man if you
36:49
don't have a sense of humor about somebody's comedy is
36:52
the last the final frontier for
36:55
free speech folks if you start canceling comics for saying controversial stuff
37:03
we're lost man we're lost people
37:07
tried to get Dave canceled from a Netflix and guess what Netflix did?
37:13
They made that financial decision. They didn't get rid of Dave because Dave
37:20
makes them money and they're in business to be in business.
37:24
Netflix is liberal. They put a lot of liberal garbage on their platform,
37:30
but they don't want to lose that Dave Chappelle money.
37:33
So they're making a priority choice too, aren't they?
37:37
Yeah. And what, and who else, man? Speaking of that.
37:42
All right. Let me go back. Okay. And then we got other, there's some other examples.
37:47
Okay. I'm going to skip those. I don't want to go.
37:49
And speaking of, so I wouldn't say Dave's a conservative at all,
37:53
but let's look at the conservative side of that. Speaking of entertainment, right?
37:58
Sports, sports is just entertainment.
38:01
There's a handful of football. Tim Tebow was, now people say,
38:04
well, he wasn't as good a football player as people said, but the NCAA,
38:09
you remember they put the black paint under the eyes, but then people started
38:14
putting Bible verses in them.
38:16
And NCAA banned that for putting a scripture underneath their eyes.
38:22
There's dudes out there doing these crazy dances and these bizarre rituals in
38:29
the end zone, but you can't have John 3.16 under your eye. Yeah, Tim Tebow.
38:38
Of perceived that, I mean, it was controversial, but was it?
38:41
He's just a Christian. He's just an outspoken Christian.
38:44
That's it. And he's gone on to do great things in the nonprofit or helping people
38:51
around the world based on his Christian values.
38:56
What about Chris Pratt? Now, granted,
39:01
Chris Pratt's one of the biggest stars in America today, but he still gets constant,
39:05
constant criticism because yeah
39:09
because he's a christian he's a conservative and and
39:13
one of the most outspoken i keep going back to the lgb
39:16
community trans community that they're
39:19
the most outspoken they're the smallest percentage wise
39:23
of american population but the loudest
39:26
and they that's a badge of honor for them
39:29
i guess but you know trying to get
39:32
get people canceled man guardians of the galaxy i mean now are you yes i'm a
39:38
marvel fan i grew up reading marvel comics and all the movies at some point
39:44
they kind of just became whatever they became you know,
39:51
but yeah he gets constant constant grief from the liberals.
39:57
Woods is another. He was, James Woods was in some good movies.
40:00
He was a, he's a good actor. He was in some great movies in the eighties,
40:03
but he's an outspoken conservative.
40:07
He can't get work. He can't get work.
40:10
Can't get work in Hollywood because, because he's a conservative.
40:14
One of my other favorites is Dennis Miller. Now speaking of comics,
40:18
he was, he started out as a comic.
40:20
Dennis Miller is a pretty brilliant guy and he's noted for his very obscure references.
40:27
That you have to be an educated person to even remotely understand.
40:33
But yes, you know, after, you know, probably in the 2000s, you know,
40:38
he just started getting more and more conservative.
40:42
He's done work with like Bill O'Reilly, who was back on Fox News days.
40:46
And he had a podcast for a while. He might still.
40:50
And all that. He started out, yeah, Saturday Night Live as the news desk,
40:55
you know, the weekend update.
40:57
And his opening song was, uh, uh, lunatic, you know, the, the pink Floyd,
41:03
the lunatic was in my brain.
41:06
It was good. And he's got the big signature thing.
41:10
Yeah, man. Dennis Miller. You don't see him much. Now he's probably just loving
41:14
life. You know, he's probably just out there staying low and loving life.
41:18
Probably lives in like, I don't know, Santa Monica or somewhere.
41:21
Kevin Sorbo. He's an outspoken conservative Christian. You know you see him
41:26
on these You guys remember he was Hercules Back on the like USA I think and then In the 90s that.
41:36
Warrior princess and hercules and he's in a few things here he's been in some
41:42
like christian produced films you know but he you don't see that guy doing work
41:48
in hollywood mainstream work,
41:50
all right so anyway that's enough example guy we can we can sit here and do this all day,
41:55
we can sit here and do this all day the hyper-partisan politics is pervasive
42:01
in the entertainment industry, especially in California, especially Hollywood,
42:05
but all over, entertainers, entertainers in general.
42:09
You grow up, all right, here's what I imagine, right? This is a very loose, here's what I imagine.
42:14
You come up, you want to be an entertainer, right? At a young age,
42:17
you realize, oh, I want to be an actor, or I want to be a musician, or I want to be a...
42:20
So you spend the early, you know.
42:24
10, 15 years of your early life struggling, and you're appreciating like,
42:30
oh man, well, at least I got some snap or at least I got some EBT,
42:35
you know, and you're eating ramen and you're living on people's couches.
42:40
Man, any subsidies you can get from the government is welcomed because you're barely alive.
42:46
Well, you're barely living physically, right? You're out there trying to make it big.
42:51
So, and you see government largesse as, as correct and it's kindness.
43:00
The government should take care of, the government should take care of me so
43:05
that I can pursue my dreams.
43:08
So, and now this is my thought, this is my thoughts. And then let's say you're
43:13
one out of, you know, one out of a thousand that hits it big and you start getting regular work.
43:20
Start getting regular work and you're out there and you're, and you're,
43:23
and you got a little bit part in this and a bit part in that.
43:28
And you're getting a little more recognizable. And maybe you've done a couple
43:32
of, you know, you had like three lines in a movie, but they were delivered with
43:36
all, all the gusto, right?
43:39
All the, all the emotion that, and somebody noticed and they're man,
43:45
this guy's got potential.
43:47
This gal's got potential.
43:50
The next thing you know, you're in a couple of things.
43:53
You're in a miniseries as a supporting role.
43:59
Yeah. And now your bank account is starting to build up.
44:04
Your bank account is starting to build up and you're feeling a little more comfortable.
44:08
You don't really need, the government's no longer a thing, right?
44:11
I don't need the government anymore.
44:13
I'm making a pretty good living. I got a sweet ride.
44:17
I got a sweet, I got a sweet apartment.
44:21
You get like you get a movie and you're the main character
44:24
and it was a success and you
44:28
made a few million off it well a few million for a regular human is that's life
44:33
right there I'm good to go for the rest of my life but you you're living in
44:36
Hollywood now right you've been living on on couches and going from homie to
44:42
homie maybe even sometimes in the back of your your your van,
44:46
but now you got a couple million you know and you now you got a movie under
44:50
your belt a big movie people loved it.
44:53
And there's already people hitting you up for another one. Oh,
44:57
we got a miniseries lined up and you're the main character.
45:01
Now you're millions into it. Now you're worth, you know, a couple hundred million
45:05
and you're walking around Hollywood like you're a native, right? You hate the tourists.
45:11
You came from, you know, I don't know, Alabama or Missouri or somewhere,
45:16
but now you're walking around Hollywood because you've made it.
45:20
And now you're a native. You look down on all the people coming in from the
45:25
Midwest and the South and wherever, and you're starting to be a part of the Hollywood.
45:34
You're a staple in Hollywood society.
45:38
And now it's the unfortunates. You look at them. You see them on the streets
45:41
when you drive by in your very big Mercedes. You see them on the streets.
45:46
Hollywood's full of them. Los Angeles is full of them. there's homeless everywhere.
45:52
It's, it's, it's an epidemic and you see them and you think,
45:57
oh, how unfortunate somebody should do something about that.
46:03
On and then you're sitting in a little junket or you're on a little interview
46:06
with someone and you're like, yeah, Donald Trump is such a piece of shit.
46:11
He really should do something about this.
46:13
Gavin Newsom tries so hard, but he just can't get any support from Donald Trump.
46:19
And so we have these poor, unfortunate, the illegals, they need citizenship
46:25
so that they can succeed. And we got the homeless.
46:29
Why don't Donald Trump do something about it? Oh, no, I got to run.
46:33
I got a lunch date on my yacht.
46:36
We're talking about a new movie. Yeah, I'm pitching a new movie to Chris Nolan.
46:43
We're going to sit on the yacht and have some lunch.
46:50
Hyperpartisan politics, and then these artists they
46:53
lose touch never mind the conspiracies you
46:57
know never mind the conspiracies they lose touch they're out there now they're
47:02
out there pushing these hyper-partisan talking points and they're just enjoying
47:07
the luxury and and the excess of being a hollywood actor.
47:16
But then you're getting more and more of your Mark Ruffalo. You're out there
47:19
talking about how horrible everything is.
47:22
I don't know. I would like to see Mark Ruffalo's tax returns or his charitable
47:28
donations or his physical volunteering.
47:31
I'd like to see it. I mean, maybe he does.
47:33
I can't say that he doesn't because I don't know, but I got to imagine any Hollywood
47:38
star, most of them, if they're going to do a thing like that,
47:42
it's going to be publicized. sized, I got to imagine that.
47:47
So they're using their platform now from their position of luxury to push the
47:56
division between regular Americans and all of those elite who know better. Yeah.
48:04
And it just furthers the social divides, folks.
48:07
And then everything they say, at some point, When you're on the other end of
48:12
that, everything they say looks like now they're just reading from a propaganda script.
48:18
Yeah, they might be genuine, but everything they say now, it looks like they're
48:22
reading from a script because largely they use the same script.
48:26
They use the same talking points, largely.
48:29
They all do movies together. You know what I mean? They all do the same movies
48:32
and they all sleep with the same people.
48:37
Yeah, they all sleep around in the same beds. They all go to the same parties,
48:42
And they no longer have the capacity To objectively look at the world America,
48:50
let alone third world countries and what not,
48:54
us, if we're going to follow these people, how far are we going to follow them?
48:58
How far are we going to follow them?
49:00
Do I have to like Sean Penn as a person to like his movies?
49:04
Can I enjoy his movies and then critique him?
49:07
And if Sean Penn called me today, could I sit and have a conversation with him
49:10
about how wrong I think he is about most things?
49:15
And then turn around and tell him how awesome I think he was in Bad Boys.
49:21
Or even, hey, there's a movie Ben Stiller did, I don't know,
49:27
decade ago maybe, called Walter Mitty, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,
49:31
which is based on an old Danny Kaye film, by the way.
49:34
But I thought Sean Penn's character in that movie was awesome.
49:39
That's the guy I want to be.
49:40
I want to be some world-traveling recluse photographer,
49:44
getting that one shot of the Himalayan snow leopard taking a picture and then
49:51
like not even, not even developing the film, just, just letting him be.
49:58
This character was awesome, man. It was, it was a good character. I liked it.
50:02
I like, when I look at him do that, I like that character and I want to like Sean Penn.
50:06
And then I hear Sean Penn saying some bizarre communist garbage.
50:12
And then I come back to reality.
50:15
So how far do we want to follow them, folks? Do we have to follow their political?
50:19
Like if you're enamored with Mark Ruffalo and he starts spouting off nonsense,
50:26
do you too start spouting off the nonsense?
50:30
Is that how much you like? You like him so much that you're like,
50:32
oh man, he can't be wrong. Yeah, I don't know about that.
50:37
When it comes to us making our minds up on these people and how we pursue,
50:41
how we consume our entertainment, well, we got one, and this is all from an
50:47
individual perspective.
50:49
You know, you as an individual, right?
50:51
One, assess, especially with like the dudes accused of criminal,
50:56
rape, among other things.
51:00
Or OJ Simpson murdering his wife. They're still OJ fans, folks.
51:07
People grew up, I grew up watching O.J. play football. Yeah, I was an O.J. fan.
51:12
And then what happened? He murdered his wife. I'm no longer an O.J. fan.
51:18
So you got to assess the severity of whatever you're looking at there.
51:22
And can you, does it warrant your little individual boycott?
51:26
Can you, or can, is it a political thing and you can just like,
51:29
okay, well, he's stupid. And you can overlook it and carry on.
51:33
Or if it's Roma Polanski raping a girl and you're like, no, I can't.
51:37
I can't i can't be okay with that guy you
51:40
got so you got to look at that severity and then
51:43
you got to weigh benefits right the does the
51:46
art have value for one is it
51:49
good is it quality is it something that that enriches your life in a in a sort
51:53
of maybe emotional or you know way or does it or is it just mindless you know
52:00
whatever nonsense so does the does the quality of the art, have a...
52:08
Matter. Does that weigh in? Maybe. I think so.
52:12
There's 8 million B movies out there that nobody can tell you a single name
52:17
of a single person in the movie.
52:20
There's 8 million musicians out there that nobody knows who they are.
52:24
They just didn't hit. They didn't have an impact.
52:27
Yeah. And then how's the market go? Some people, the market, right? The free market.
52:33
Are we supporting these people with our dollars or
52:37
are we i mean and just supporting streaming platforms support
52:41
these people i don't know now look i'm
52:44
a libertarian i believe in in property rights i
52:47
believe in all this thing these things but i mean every every movie i watched
52:53
when i was in iraq was a pirated dvd that's just the way it was yeah everyone
53:00
because you go get a dvd for like a buck or.
53:07
And that wasn't going to Sean Penn. That buck didn't go to Sean Penn.
53:11
But yeah, you need to respect property rights and copyright and stuff.
53:18
Granted, these people work hard and they should receive the benefits of their labor.
53:24
I don't think it's easy being an actor by any stretch. I mean,
53:27
I kind of do, but also I think there's a, you know, just memorizing all these
53:33
lines and all these things.
53:34
And being able to relay emotion.
53:39
Yeah, I don't think it's easy. I know being a musician isn't easy.
53:44
I know being an artist isn't easy. So they deserve the money they get as far as the work goes.
53:53
There's the free market sort of thing. You can either just completely not consume
53:57
entertainment or figure out who deserves your money, I guess.
54:02
And then, of course, just like my last episode, we have to avoid hypocrisy when
54:06
we're making these decisions.
54:09
Apply the standards consistently across the board.
54:13
So if I can give Sean Penn a break because he's such a brilliant actor, who else?
54:18
Can I give, well, I'm drawing a blank right now.
54:21
Can I give Christopher Walken a break? Now, I've never heard Christopher Walken
54:25
make a political statement in my life.
54:27
And I've been watching movies with that dude since way back,
54:31
since daggum the deer hunter.
54:33
You know what I mean? Dogs of war. Yeah, I don't know what his political stance is.
54:37
I got to imagine it's liberal. I think he was born and raised in New York City.
54:41
You know, so I got to imagine.
54:44
But it doesn't run in the back. There's not a background app running with me
54:48
criticizing Christopher Walken as I'm watching him deliver the watch speech and Pulp Fiction.
54:56
No, man, I'm just watching him deliver some brilliant dialogue and thinking,
55:02
God, this is awesome. Yeah.
55:05
Hold everybody do i hold all these actors and musicians to the
55:07
same standard i don't know i guess it got it goes back
55:10
to the severity of of what they they're doing and
55:13
and whether their art has like deeper value
55:17
but at any rate no one else should dictate your consumption of entertainment
55:22
movies music or otherwise so so as the first amendment states we have a freedom
55:30
of association and we can consume what we want to consume.
55:34
We have a freedom of expression and so does everyone else, even actors.
55:38
But again, like I said, the catchphrase earlier, you can freely express.
55:42
You have a freedom of speech, but you don't have a freedom of consequences.
55:46
And there are some bizarre groups out there that will boycott you and try to
55:50
out you and try to dox you and all that stuff.
55:54
So I don't think that's necessarily free market either. That's coercion.
55:58
I say let the free markets do what they do, right?
56:02
They can reward or punish the value of some art without any government or intervention
56:08
or mob mentality or cancel culture.
56:11
That's what I think. It's hard to say we need to keep politics out of entertainment.
56:18
Christian production companies making the sound of freedom.
56:21
There's a, there's a, there's a few, there's a, like a Christian conservative
56:25
company that makes another one.
56:27
I mean, that makes, and I remember it being one was about a cop.
56:32
I want to say it was in Albany, Georgia.
56:33
I think Kirk Cameron was involved with that. So there's, you know,
56:37
there's that out there. So there, do we keep politics out of it?
56:41
Well, the art, we know a lot, you know, there's a lot of politics in the art.
56:47
I mean, art, Probably partially came to exist out of critique of politics.
56:53
So I'm not, no, you don't necessarily need to keep, excuse me.
57:00
Sorry. You don't necessarily need to keep politics out of the art.
57:05
But again, we're talking about separating the art from the artist.
57:09
You know, do something that's brilliant and artistically striking and poignant.
57:14
But then when you're doing your interviews man don't don't shit on half
57:17
the population man maybe maybe we could do it that way you know
57:21
in a free society folks separating the art from the artist is an individual
57:26
choice and it's individual liberty i always encourage you to stay away from
57:32
the collective stay away from the mob mentality and the cancel culture and all that stuff.
57:38
Just do some thoughtful analysis because there is a lot of cultural richness
57:47
in the movies and in music.
57:51
Where would we be without movies and music and art?
57:55
But you can consume that stuff and enjoy it for what it is without compromising
58:00
your own principles. You can.
58:03
So do. Go out and consume some art, even if it's visual art,
58:07
even fine art, oil paintings and sculptures.
58:11
Because hardly ever do we hear about those artists' political opinions.
58:18
As famous as athletes and actors and whatnot. But yeah, consume the art, folks. Take it in.
58:25
You know, analyze it for what it is. Don't read into it. And enjoy it for what
58:30
it is and don't read into it.
58:32
And if the guy on the screen is a douchebag in person, yeah, I don't know.
58:39
Don't call him up. Don't send him a Christmas card. You know what I mean?
58:43
Enjoy art. Enjoy it for what it is. Enjoy it at face value.
58:47
Yeah. That's what I got, folks. That's where I'm at. Yeah, that's where I'm at.
58:52
I'm happy to hear your feedback on it. For sure, I'm happy to hear your feedback on it.
58:56
And please do send it and reach out to me and tell me what some,
59:01
do you have that in your life?
59:03
Do you have an artist, an actor, a musician that you like, but you totally disagree with them politically?
59:11
Yeah. I don't know. Tell me your story.
59:14
All right, folks. Thanks for listening. next weekend
59:17
we got the follow the wall match two gun match coming up that's
59:21
nine october or sorry nine november going to
59:24
be from 10 until complete and that's two
59:27
gun and it's going to be good in november again
59:30
later in november i want to say 17 or 18 and 19 possibly we have the two-day
59:37
land nav course find that on twoteamguys.com and then we have the three-day
59:43
land nav course five six and 7 December. And that's a beast.
59:48
And it's awesome. So find that also on twoteamguys.com.
59:54
If you can, if you have the means, please give to Help a Homie Fund.
59:58
That is givesingo.com backslash helpahomiefund. And if you can't give,
1:00:05
please share it and send it to all your friends and whatnot.
1:00:09
And other than that, folks, be good to each other.
1:00:13
When you're out in the wild and take care.