I’m always astonished that Jennifer Lawrence can remain so clueless after starring in The Hunger Games. The whole theme of the series is the danger of unbridled power, which she doesn’t seem to realize that she is supporting.
Jennifer Lawrence has struck me as something of a lost soul. Go back to the time of the first Hunger Games movie and her interviews make her seem pretty normal. She came off as a country bumpkin in the city and at least a little proud of it. (My take. Others may disagree.) Then somewhere along the line, the wheels came off. First, she's poorly educated. I recall her referring to herself as a "middle school graduate." It's no surprise that she would fall for the silly socialist line. She wants to believe what the "smart people" believe. And she's in the insular Hollyweird bubble. She probably hasn't had a conversation with anyone outside that bubble in a decade or more. She doesn't seem to have learned much over the years, but she knows that if she's going to be accepted by the "cool kids," she has to say the right things, and contribute to the right causes. Beyond that, they don't much care what she does. As long as she weeps about the prospect of global warming, she can fly 1st class around the world and there won't be a peep out of her peers. As long as she claims to be ashamed about her whiteness, she can avoid associating with any "people of color" and nobody will even notice. It's all a charade.
What a sad but correct description. I’ve known liberals who would believe that the moon is made of green cheese if they thought the really smart, really liberal people believed it,
"First, she's poorly educated. I recall her referring to herself as a "middle school graduate." It's no surprise that she would fall for the silly socialist line."
College is where socialist dogma is drummed into empty heads. I have a master's degree in education administration, and in my experience the most clueless idiotologs have BA degrees. No, they aren't all clueless but still, the most clueless idiotologs have BA degrees.
I think you make a good point. It's struck me that in this day and age, the pinnacle of education seems to be high school graduate. There's plenty of indoctrination up to that point but at least somebody is still trying to teach the young scholars how to read and write. Once you get to college, it's all over.
Until recently, I would have exempted the STEM fields from that blanket condemnation but not any more. When math professors start saying that getting the right answer is overrated and glaciers are condemned as sexist, all hope in academia is lost.
Yes. I was licensed as a physical science teacher (many years ago). Science in schools used to be education about, and pursuit of, the scientific method. Now, science education has largely been perverted into just another facet of progressive indoctrination.
The 'follow the science' people are very non-critical, which is the anthesis of real science. In the past, fake scientists have partricipated in phrenology, the study of the shape of the head as means of determining psychological characteristics. We've had fake scientists determine that blacks aren't entirely human. And now we have 'scientists' determining that all climate change is a function of CO2 levels, and that all CO2 levels are caused by man. Not even close. Now, think of what fools promote that nonsense. That's right, people with BAs from liberal arts colleges.
This is why I advocate not attending university until after 30, when most people's politics are pretty much solidified and more or less impervious to change.
I taught college English from 1995-2017 and retired early because (among other, personal reasons) most of my colleagues had become Trump deranged after his election and our administration had made the typical hypocritical gesture of simultaneously "reaffirming [their] commitment to academic freedom" and to DIE. Luckily for me, I had not, up to that point, had any "woke" colleagues and my students were mostly older folks, including a large veteran cohort, who did not give a damn about any politics and consistently mocked political correctness and rejected "woke" nonsense.
That reminds me of when I went to college (engineering school). We were all 18-22 years old, except for this one guy, who had been in the military and was nearly thirty.
We were in a fraternity. In engineering school, that does NOT mean parties all the time. (Just on Saturdays!) Anyway, this almost thirty-year-old was one of the pledges. We dictated rules and requirements to the other pledges, and they eagerly acquiesced. Not this guy. He was pretty cool about things overall, and would do any reasonable chore. But you did not order him around.
We need a nation of people like that; people who will be reasonable, but if you try to come down on them, they'll tell you where you can stick it. That's why Trump is so popular. He's telling them where they can stick it.
At the gym today, one of the trainers said, "people can be trusting, but they're not stupid. Trying to make us think that the videos about Biden [his frailty] are a trick is a very bad move. Makes people mad."This guy's Black, btw.
Not that this has anything to do with politics, but your comment got me heading down Memory Lane.
When I was 20, I enlisted in the Army. On leave after Basic Training, I met this guy who was a grad student in chemical engineering at GA Tech whose holding capacity for beer was matched only by my own. His sister was a 30-something nurse at Emory Hospital who was really attractive and we were going to hook up, but my pal objected for some reason he never told me, and I backed off. To this day I wonder why he didn't want me to date his sister because I left for AIT before I found out and never saw either of them again.
That was in 1981, about two or three lifetimes ago.
Yes, but there is such a thing as a fundamental baseline in education for rational logic and thought. Many leftists skipped school when that was being taught.
Wow, in that first clip Sasha posted on Sunday AM about Biden's Hollywood fundraising. The top comments on that YouTube video absolutely skewering Biden and his monied/movie class...
Hollywooders are mainly morons, if they had any intellectual ability or potential, they or the school system would have recognized this and a different path would have been taken.
We just see the end result of the one winner for the every ten thousand losers, who mainly pursue this entertainment path because they have no other apparent special talent or proclivity.
They rarely deserve the status or influence that is bestowed upon them, currently their main act is being a useful idiot.
J Law is another sad example of how the Hollywood machine chews up and spits out young, actresses like her. She's 100% indoctrinated into woke ideology now. Whether or not she believes what she is saying is immaterial, because the woke doctrine is part of the Hollywood game.
She's still young and pretty enough to be getting roles but see where she's at in another 10-15 years.
And then there’s that other “Jennifer” micro-wit, Anniston. She publicly & sanctimoniously proclaimed she was cutting anyone unvax’d from her life. I hope she is suffering from anything vax-related she will never publicly admit
Thank-you, Sasha Stone for providing insight on the relationship of Hollywood and the Democratic Party! It really helps to understand the trends and narratives they both share. I do appreciate that confronting both of them has been at considerable expense personally and professionally to you. Hopefully you will see rewards in your sacrifices.
Why do you think Hollywood and the Republican Party or at least the far right Trump Party have so few hits to its credit? I count two Jim Caviezel hits - Passion of the Christ and that Freedom flick.
Trump is better described as a 90’s Democrat, at least policy wise. There’s really not much light between what he is pushing and say, Bill Clinton, although their personal styles are quite different (in some ways).
I notice how the term, “far right” gets bandied about far more often than “far left”. This is especially noticeable in the legacy media. Also, the left has been very successful in redefining the word, “fascism” into a right wing ideology. It would be more properly understood as a collectivist ideology. The very name comes from the Latin for “bundle of sticks”, stronger together if you will. Its economic positions are far left, going just short of state ownership of the means of production, to a melding of state and corporate power.
The traditional meaning of "far right" is Neo-Nazi and KKK, which is to say White Supremacist. And the traditional meaning of "White Supremacist" is believing that Whites have a group right to superior status, which is something that almost no one in America believes. And "shifting meaning" is a fallacy. Other than that, hey no problem.
What policy of Trump's, being "extreme", would justify the "far" in "far right"? If maximizing enforcement of immigration law is extreme, then why would maximizing enforcement of minimum wage law not also be extreme?
There is no justification. It’s just an exercise in “othering,” and it’s lost its luster as people realize that it’s all nonsense. Look at European news reporting. Anyone even slightly to the right of Macron is portrayed as the “extremist, far right.”
Your are correct. However, the woke value folks who hate wholesome, ethical content don't used those adjectives. They use phrases like " we are an evolved society that realizes all humans are sentient. Why knowingly spread bad karma and hurt people's feelings in ways that are tramatic".
A lot of Republicans dropped out of the culture decades ago and decided to let Hollyweird just be weird. A few created their own music, art, etc, but it was always guaranteed to be really cheesy and just not that great.
It’s only been w/in the past few years that Angel Studios has taken off with Sound of Freedom, the Chosen and other productions.
Don’t forget the Hollywood crowd hated Mel Gibson for making Passion of the Christ and were quite happy to make him out to be the original Jew hater. His career never recovered from what they put him through. He’s been in a few things since, but he’s not the star he was before he did the Passion of the Christ.
A lot of Republicans truly thought and still think that culture (and art) doesn’t matter.
Thankfully there are 2 acceptable films in decades of culture. On the other hand, that doesn't speak so well of those finding only 2 films acceptable. I realize there are more, but not so many (maybe more after precode) more recently.
What a bunch of has beens, congratulating each other on how important and wonderful they are. Closed club and I don’t want any part of it. I couldn’t care less what they say…all of them repulsive. Ricky Gervais posted this when he let the Hollyweirdos have it at the Golden Globes. Hilarious and truthful! https://x.com/rickygervais/status/1803524829212987676?s=46&t=2jfQm1Ic6O6rb8KtnmEP4w
It does seem the older and irrelevant they become the louder and stupider they become. I guess it’s hard to realize that a majority of people don’t know who Barb is are give a shit. Hey the cop didn’t know who Justin Timberlake was.
The more irrelevant stars become, the louder they grasp with talons at some type of relevance. As well, and many have stated, when you live in a windowless box and that box begins to crack, you become scared of the light from is outside.
I’ve never fully understood why these people can’t just step back for a moment, appreciate the success and privilege that they experienced, and just enjoy their lives and fade away. But it’s never enough. Their lack of self esteem is pathological. That cup can never be filled.
Good point! Today's big stars like Emma Stone, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Shawn Mendes & Lil Nas X are die hard Trumpers!
I never understood why anyone gave any weight to the opinions of actors, who at the end of the day are merely paid dancing monkeys. What expertise does an actor have on any topic outside of acting that gives them any credibility? Are they somehow experts on foreign policy, or economics, or the constitution merely because they have the ability to emote and recite lines from a script? Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see how absurd it is to give any credence to the opinions of these preening buffoons.
It's kind of ironic. In Shakespeare’s time — and for much of human history — actors were considered the least educated and least reputable people in society. Mass media changed that perception.
Actors are adults who pretend for a living. They are not smart people but they think they are. More and more regular people have realized that and are ignoring them.
The smart ones are the ones who keep their mouth shut on political issues they don't understand and don't post on social media about how they hate half the country.
I have no idea what Tom Cruise or Christian Bale think about things in their personal lives. And I don’t care. I do appreciate that I can enjoy their films without knowing they hate me for not being woke.
The power of actors, even back in the days of only theater and vaudeville, (the bloodiest riot pre-1900 in the USA was over a Shakespeare play between partisans of a Brit and a USA actor, I think Booth - not JW Booth,) is fascinating and not easy to dismiss. Is it irrational? Of course. But I defy anyone who watches, say, Mr. Smith Goers to Washington or 12 Angry Men not to feel warmly about Stewart and Fonda, respectively. Knowing what I know about the actors you mention, I still get chills over Streisand's voice, or Paul Newman in Hud, or Jack Nicholson or DeNiro in many things. It's a hard feeling to resist, for many of us, and as a salespersons' advantage, being a celebrity can be huge. Until you pointedly and deliberately offend your audience, that is.
Top Gun was a great Saturday matinee! I plan to see both of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” part 1 & part 2 on big screen this summer. I’m a sucker for a good Western, I really enjoyed ‘Dances w/ Wolves’ - this will be same time period. When Kevin puts up his own $$ the outcomes on screen are usually thumbs up.
I really enjoyed your essay, Sasha. I haven't felt like Hollywood has anything worthwhile to offer me for some time now and couldn't quite put my finger on why. You perfectly described how the industry went from a source of entertainment to a source of irritation.
Wow! Such a moving piece, Sasha. I went through 5 tissues as I cried and laughed. Then you ended it with my all time favorite song.
Your writing came upon my radar by accident. I somehow stumbled upon your work on Substack. Now I understand that your writing is what my mind and soul was so desperate for. I needed fresh eyes on politics and everything else in between.
At 66 years old, I don't act like a know it all but I am pretty firm in my beliefs. I have always been a white, female, conservative. I never voted for a democratic. What you had to say was so different from any story I had heard. I never knew anyone that jumped political fences, like you have done. Then talk about it so honestly. Thank you & God bless.
You ain't the only one here with boxcars as your age, doll.
WHAT. A. LIFE, huh?
Since 2012 I've made my living selling novels on Amazon. It was HARD at the start b/c I didn't have a clue WTF I was doing. Hadda good run, but the glory days are gone. BFD... I still make a buck, and I'm kinda good at my craft. Still... it got kinda boring. No lie... not for nothin', there's only so many days you can spend on the beach in Feb (I live in Canada now). So last year I got a PT job at a UPS warehouse four blocks from my sub-division. A couple of hours a night, Mon-Fri, Teamsters job, and...well... it's been an eye opener to the working class lemme tell ya.
Up until October I was a card carrying socialist and for the 2nd time since 2016 it was eye-opening. Nahhh, I ain't Jewish (well, I guess I'm Jewish-adjacent b/c I grew up in NYC, and my local barber had Auswitz tats....
Anyway...
The unreal changes I've seen in the course of my 66 years... Holy Toledo....
(Fill in the blanks for all the Boomer shit you see on Facebook about how it was sooo different...)
At UPS I'm astonished. Really.
How brutalizing it is today to be working class.
I'm just a 'night shift loader'-- slinging boxes for 3-4 hrs. The 'Big Guys'... drivers.... couldn't be bothered to learn my name for 3 mos b/c of the turnover in my slot. (What I make from book royalties via Amazon is what they make) . But here's the thing....
Back in the 80's, in NYC, I had been a top of the food chain union employee (NYPD)... and I've never, EVER seen working class at that level of income (about 70K/year in '24 money + bennies) been so...
...so hopeless.
These people are barely hanging on. They're struggling so hard. And don't get me started about my fellow loaders- they make less than 1/2 of a driver...
But yet, in the economy, these people are at the top of the food chain.
The Working Class food chain. And if they're having it hard, in a Union job... how bad is it for the Amazon drivers for example? Don't get me started on the Starbucks barristas who are trying to pay off student loans at a glorified minimum wage...
The freaking DRIVERS don't go to the movies. (Quick point- the last movie I went to was Cry Of Freedom and I'm NOT religious) b/c it simply...
"Ain't worth the dough"
And THAT'S why H'wood...and the Democratic party are dying.
They ain't worth the dough. And they don't realize it.
H'wood is going through a reckoning similar to someone just diagnosed w/ a terminal illness. I think it was Kubler-Ross who described the stages of grief.
The first stage is anger.
And since 2016, the Democrats have been, and still are, angry. There's been a tad of 'Bargaining' in that a very small number have expressed regrets over their behavior during COVID ("I wuz wrong, but I wuz just doin' mah best") but for the most part, they're still MAD AS HELL!
They fail to see that an enormous chunk of the electorate isn't taking it anymore.
The Dems lack any insight at all.
And H'wood is in worse shape. Because what they're offering... ain't worth the money.
Sasha’s political journey definitely adds gravitas and credibility to her almost prophetic voice, but it’s the moral clarity that I mostly find so inspiring. I think the progressive insight - which all societies need if they are to flourish - consists of its insistence on calling out a society’s deficiencies and injustices, especially when they become entrenched in the form of abusing power. (The conservative insight provides an equally necessary balancing insistence, but that’s a whole other subject.) In any case I see Sasha as being true to the best aspects of progressive moral criticism even in her current political stance. I don’t think she has a political home exactly in our current party system. Instead she’s just following her moral compass, especially with respect to her regard for ordinary people who are being vilified by entertainment industry and other elites who only pretend to speak in the name of regular people.
I used to be a Democrat. Now, since the rise of a smug "politically correct" elite, who often expresses contempt for the masses, I am dissociating from what I see as a lack of empathy. Trump is a very wealthy man who still has the common touch. He conveys to the common person that he is one of them. At the same time, we see the rich, privileged celebrities expressing contempt for those common people who see themselves in a down-to-earth talking Trump. No, Trump is not the ideal president. But until the Democrats start walking with the common people of all colors and creeds they used to walk with they will lose the vote to people like Trump.
You are a sloppy reader. Or maybe you’re just a troll who writes things he knows to be absurd in order to irritate or provoke.
Berk expresses quite clearly that he is no longer a Democrat because he values empathy, and he finds it lacking in his former party. You respond “You disdain empathy.” I think you are a troll.
I am not pro-Trump. I am sorry that you and others had that impression. I am a -professional historian(Emeritus professor of U.S. history, Cal. State Long Beach) who has studied American elections for well over fifty years. I said that Trump has the common touch, that is he talks about issues in a way that appeals to a lot of frustrated working class people whose lives have become more frustrating and difficult. He is a bit of a demagogue. The problem is his opponent should retire after one term, as he no longer has the cognitive capacity to serve as president. I have frequently voted for third parties, as the two major ones run candidates who represent monied elites.
I did not get the impression that you are pro-Trump. And as far as I can see I didn’t write anything to imply that I did think that. In fact I was simply pointing out to Simon Jean Paul Adams that his criticism of your observations (as oxymoronic) was based on a sloppy reading of your comment.
Stephen Berk says, " I am dissociating from what I see as a lack of empathy," meaning the Democrats lack it, and "dissociating" = "to cease associating" or "parting." Berk rejects the Ds because they lack empathy, which is demonstrated by their "contempt for the masses."
And Trump's empathy (at least in public) appears to be limited to his voting bloc and the working class in general.
I have not said Trump HAS empathy. He is, as I also said, a demagogue whose words resonate with working and middle class people who have seen their lives become more difficult. The Biden administration, largely because of its massive monetary and arms support for two elective wars (Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia) has vastly increased the deficit and national debt. This has played a major role in causing the worst inflation since the seventies. More important, it has made the world today a much more dangerous place. They don't negotiate with Russia but instead surround Russia with military bases and missiles. This is extremely costly and dangerous because of it potential to start World War III, which none of us will survive.
Thanks for this. I appreciate your history. I too was a former progressive who believed and went along with all this until Trump was elected in 2016.
The world definitely changed after that, but I feel good that I picked the side of reality. I see a lot of people I used to identify with completely and utterly terrified about the state of the US because they have swallowed all this crazy propaganda about Trump being the second coming of Hitler.
You NAILED it with Hollywood. This isn't 2004. Nobody trusts Julie Roberts or George Clooney when it comes to politics. We all know they sit in a bubble of privilege and wealth and talk down to us.
If there is one thing where Hollywood completely lost their credibility, it was the revelations that came out around Harvey Weinstein and "metoo".
This guy was a serial rapist, harasser and abuser. He raped women, then harassed them into signing NDAs. If they wouldn't, he would blacklist them, and hire private investigators and former Mossad agents to harass them.
And everyone knew. EVERYONE! I knew. I knew what a piece of shit Weinstein was, plenty of women came forward and confirmed his behavior.
For DECADES, the Hollywood elite looked away while he did this, because they needed him to be famous and rich.
Only when it became fashionable to speak out against him did they dare to say anything.
Hollywood has absolutely no credibility anymore, and like you say, anyone who is a non leftists progressive is not listening to any of this.
The center of gravity in this magnificent essay is that phrase: “aghast that democracy happened to them.” If Martin Gurri’s analysis is correct, then it is this repudiation of elite consensus that really explains the horror with which so many people regard Donald Trump. The consensus has been mostly Democratic/Left, but Trump has also taken an axe to the Republican role in endless wars to remake societies not interested in being remade, ideological support for free trade no matter what the effects, and milquetoast immigration law enforcement. Donald Trump is not an ideologue. But beyond that, he’s not really a rationalist either. This stands as a terrible slur to anyone vested in the bureaucratic/managerial order of good-government control. However it’s precisely the failure of that very bureaucratic governance that accounts for the rebellion we are now seeing.
Sasha herself is a little like Trump in that rather than wasting time on the defense of Trump’s policies or character - both somewhat chaotic (if effective) phenomena - she goes right for the jugular, which in the case of the entertainment industry is its futile defense of a deeply flawed aristocratic elite. That’s the real story of our times. We’re easily distracted by the superficial (Trump said what!?!? Hunter paid his Dad a cut of his earnings!?!? and on and on) when the pathetic attempt of our ruling class to blame the people on its impossible-to-hide failures is the drum beat under it all. There are a handful of truth tellers who can hear the drumbeat and convey it effectively to the rest of us. Sasha is one of them. I’m a conservative, and chaos is a conservative’s deepest fear, but I can hear it coming too. It’s terrifying.
I am old enough to have seen a 19 year old barbra Streisand appear on the old Dave Garroway late night show in 1960 In those days, with that voice, everyone wanted to be her for her voice not for her politics if she had any. This was way before she was one of the Hollywood elite. She was just a very talented kid from Brooklyn wearing second hand clothes and singing like an angel. As a fan, I bought loads of her records and CD's and followed her rise to fame up until she reached the rarified status she now enjoys. I was recently in a bookstore that had her recently published memoir displayed and when I went to pick it up and have a look, turns out it is close to 1000 pages and I couldnt even lift it. Even Caro's individual books on LBJ were ONLY 800.
Their influence it’s damn near negative these days. I have gotten free laughs the last several days out of the comedic genius that is Mark Hamill. Watching him content like in all the leftist retardation on X so the whole world knows how stupid he is makes my days.
Social media has killed the movie star. There are so many like Mark Hamill that can't help themselves but to post their braindead takes and leftist opinions all over social media. It has exposed them as the idiots they really are. There is no more mystique around Hollywood.
"Aligning with Obama meant that they, the ultra-rich, could borrow his status as a Black man, and as long as they pledged allegiance to the Woke, they could be forgiven their sins of wealth and privilege."
Hollywood produces more high quality content than ever to be viewed across various streaming platforms, network TV and theaters. That would be the opposite of ruined.
I’m always astonished that Jennifer Lawrence can remain so clueless after starring in The Hunger Games. The whole theme of the series is the danger of unbridled power, which she doesn’t seem to realize that she is supporting.
Jennifer Lawrence has struck me as something of a lost soul. Go back to the time of the first Hunger Games movie and her interviews make her seem pretty normal. She came off as a country bumpkin in the city and at least a little proud of it. (My take. Others may disagree.) Then somewhere along the line, the wheels came off. First, she's poorly educated. I recall her referring to herself as a "middle school graduate." It's no surprise that she would fall for the silly socialist line. She wants to believe what the "smart people" believe. And she's in the insular Hollyweird bubble. She probably hasn't had a conversation with anyone outside that bubble in a decade or more. She doesn't seem to have learned much over the years, but she knows that if she's going to be accepted by the "cool kids," she has to say the right things, and contribute to the right causes. Beyond that, they don't much care what she does. As long as she weeps about the prospect of global warming, she can fly 1st class around the world and there won't be a peep out of her peers. As long as she claims to be ashamed about her whiteness, she can avoid associating with any "people of color" and nobody will even notice. It's all a charade.
What a sad but correct description. I’ve known liberals who would believe that the moon is made of green cheese if they thought the really smart, really liberal people believed it,
"First, she's poorly educated. I recall her referring to herself as a "middle school graduate." It's no surprise that she would fall for the silly socialist line."
College is where socialist dogma is drummed into empty heads. I have a master's degree in education administration, and in my experience the most clueless idiotologs have BA degrees. No, they aren't all clueless but still, the most clueless idiotologs have BA degrees.
I think you make a good point. It's struck me that in this day and age, the pinnacle of education seems to be high school graduate. There's plenty of indoctrination up to that point but at least somebody is still trying to teach the young scholars how to read and write. Once you get to college, it's all over.
Until recently, I would have exempted the STEM fields from that blanket condemnation but not any more. When math professors start saying that getting the right answer is overrated and glaciers are condemned as sexist, all hope in academia is lost.
Yes. I was licensed as a physical science teacher (many years ago). Science in schools used to be education about, and pursuit of, the scientific method. Now, science education has largely been perverted into just another facet of progressive indoctrination.
The 'follow the science' people are very non-critical, which is the anthesis of real science. In the past, fake scientists have partricipated in phrenology, the study of the shape of the head as means of determining psychological characteristics. We've had fake scientists determine that blacks aren't entirely human. And now we have 'scientists' determining that all climate change is a function of CO2 levels, and that all CO2 levels are caused by man. Not even close. Now, think of what fools promote that nonsense. That's right, people with BAs from liberal arts colleges.
This is why I advocate not attending university until after 30, when most people's politics are pretty much solidified and more or less impervious to change.
I taught college English from 1995-2017 and retired early because (among other, personal reasons) most of my colleagues had become Trump deranged after his election and our administration had made the typical hypocritical gesture of simultaneously "reaffirming [their] commitment to academic freedom" and to DIE. Luckily for me, I had not, up to that point, had any "woke" colleagues and my students were mostly older folks, including a large veteran cohort, who did not give a damn about any politics and consistently mocked political correctness and rejected "woke" nonsense.
That reminds me of when I went to college (engineering school). We were all 18-22 years old, except for this one guy, who had been in the military and was nearly thirty.
We were in a fraternity. In engineering school, that does NOT mean parties all the time. (Just on Saturdays!) Anyway, this almost thirty-year-old was one of the pledges. We dictated rules and requirements to the other pledges, and they eagerly acquiesced. Not this guy. He was pretty cool about things overall, and would do any reasonable chore. But you did not order him around.
We need a nation of people like that; people who will be reasonable, but if you try to come down on them, they'll tell you where you can stick it. That's why Trump is so popular. He's telling them where they can stick it.
At the gym today, one of the trainers said, "people can be trusting, but they're not stupid. Trying to make us think that the videos about Biden [his frailty] are a trick is a very bad move. Makes people mad."This guy's Black, btw.
Not that this has anything to do with politics, but your comment got me heading down Memory Lane.
When I was 20, I enlisted in the Army. On leave after Basic Training, I met this guy who was a grad student in chemical engineering at GA Tech whose holding capacity for beer was matched only by my own. His sister was a 30-something nurse at Emory Hospital who was really attractive and we were going to hook up, but my pal objected for some reason he never told me, and I backed off. To this day I wonder why he didn't want me to date his sister because I left for AIT before I found out and never saw either of them again.
That was in 1981, about two or three lifetimes ago.
It's a shame that we get to live only one life. There are so many possibilities!
Yes, but there is such a thing as a fundamental baseline in education for rational logic and thought. Many leftists skipped school when that was being taught.
JLaw may be a lost soul but if that is how someone looks as they get more lost (i.e. ever more gorgeous), I'd be willing to give it a shot.
She's a babe. No doubt about that. But it reminds me of something I heard once about beautiful women.
No matter how hot she is, somewhere out there is some guy who's sick and tired of putting up with her shit.
lol, LIKE
You can change her. 😂😂😂😂😂
Change her? I'm saying I'd want to be her!
Oh, man, hot girls aren't tough to find and neither are idiot sheep liberals.
Everything we the public see re: these ppl is all choreographed and scripted....been that way for a long time. PR is THE business in Hollywood.
Wow, in that first clip Sasha posted on Sunday AM about Biden's Hollywood fundraising. The top comments on that YouTube video absolutely skewering Biden and his monied/movie class...
Hollywooders are mainly morons, if they had any intellectual ability or potential, they or the school system would have recognized this and a different path would have been taken.
We just see the end result of the one winner for the every ten thousand losers, who mainly pursue this entertainment path because they have no other apparent special talent or proclivity.
They rarely deserve the status or influence that is bestowed upon them, currently their main act is being a useful idiot.
J Law is another sad example of how the Hollywood machine chews up and spits out young, actresses like her. She's 100% indoctrinated into woke ideology now. Whether or not she believes what she is saying is immaterial, because the woke doctrine is part of the Hollywood game.
She's still young and pretty enough to be getting roles but see where she's at in another 10-15 years.
U really surprised tho?
That entire collection of video clips (Clooney, Hanks, Stewart, et al) is really somethin.
Sadly, not really. But just because you’re a Hollywood star doesn’t mean you have to be stupid.
Doubtful she's stupid per se. She just does and says what she's told.
Isn't that kinda the definition of stupid?
$160 million and adoration from the civilized?
And then there’s that other “Jennifer” micro-wit, Anniston. She publicly & sanctimoniously proclaimed she was cutting anyone unvax’d from her life. I hope she is suffering from anything vax-related she will never publicly admit
Whoever said these people were smart? They are empty vessels seeking adoration and pleasure above all
She dropped out of school to pursue acting. She's not a smart person.
Thank-you, Sasha Stone for providing insight on the relationship of Hollywood and the Democratic Party! It really helps to understand the trends and narratives they both share. I do appreciate that confronting both of them has been at considerable expense personally and professionally to you. Hopefully you will see rewards in your sacrifices.
Why do you think Hollywood and the Republican Party or at least the far right Trump Party have so few hits to its credit? I count two Jim Caviezel hits - Passion of the Christ and that Freedom flick.
Trump is better described as a 90’s Democrat, at least policy wise. There’s really not much light between what he is pushing and say, Bill Clinton, although their personal styles are quite different (in some ways).
I notice how the term, “far right” gets bandied about far more often than “far left”. This is especially noticeable in the legacy media. Also, the left has been very successful in redefining the word, “fascism” into a right wing ideology. It would be more properly understood as a collectivist ideology. The very name comes from the Latin for “bundle of sticks”, stronger together if you will. Its economic positions are far left, going just short of state ownership of the means of production, to a melding of state and corporate power.
Exactly correct about Trump being a 90's Democrat. That is why the Washington establishment of the Republican party hated/hate him.
The traditional meaning of "far right" is Neo-Nazi and KKK, which is to say White Supremacist. And the traditional meaning of "White Supremacist" is believing that Whites have a group right to superior status, which is something that almost no one in America believes. And "shifting meaning" is a fallacy. Other than that, hey no problem.
What policy of Trump's, being "extreme", would justify the "far" in "far right"? If maximizing enforcement of immigration law is extreme, then why would maximizing enforcement of minimum wage law not also be extreme?
There is no justification. It’s just an exercise in “othering,” and it’s lost its luster as people realize that it’s all nonsense. Look at European news reporting. Anyone even slightly to the right of Macron is portrayed as the “extremist, far right.”
Hey Tom, to add to your point, apparently some of the far left parties in EU countries are looking to ban from politics any group not far left.
It's not working out the way they'd like. The Greens are being swept from power.
And yet, when they do make movies, people go to see them. Compare that with the investment ROI with typical Hollywood dreck.
Yes, Passion of the Cripes and Sound of Freedom were yuge at the box office! Maybe not so much at Rotten Tomatoes & Metacritic.
Guess what: The critics are part of the same Hollywood system that inculcates woke values. No wonder they hate wholesome, ethical content.
Your are correct. However, the woke value folks who hate wholesome, ethical content don't used those adjectives. They use phrases like " we are an evolved society that realizes all humans are sentient. Why knowingly spread bad karma and hurt people's feelings in ways that are tramatic".
A lot of Republicans dropped out of the culture decades ago and decided to let Hollyweird just be weird. A few created their own music, art, etc, but it was always guaranteed to be really cheesy and just not that great.
It’s only been w/in the past few years that Angel Studios has taken off with Sound of Freedom, the Chosen and other productions.
Don’t forget the Hollywood crowd hated Mel Gibson for making Passion of the Christ and were quite happy to make him out to be the original Jew hater. His career never recovered from what they put him through. He’s been in a few things since, but he’s not the star he was before he did the Passion of the Christ.
A lot of Republicans truly thought and still think that culture (and art) doesn’t matter.
Thankfully there are 2 acceptable films in decades of culture. On the other hand, that doesn't speak so well of those finding only 2 films acceptable. I realize there are more, but not so many (maybe more after precode) more recently.
What a bunch of has beens, congratulating each other on how important and wonderful they are. Closed club and I don’t want any part of it. I couldn’t care less what they say…all of them repulsive. Ricky Gervais posted this when he let the Hollyweirdos have it at the Golden Globes. Hilarious and truthful! https://x.com/rickygervais/status/1803524829212987676?s=46&t=2jfQm1Ic6O6rb8KtnmEP4w
Ricky Gervais is the best, he always nails it. No wonder Hollywood doesn't like him! Plus he's a genuine animal lover, always a plus.
Ricky Gervais is brilliant
It does seem the older and irrelevant they become the louder and stupider they become. I guess it’s hard to realize that a majority of people don’t know who Barb is are give a shit. Hey the cop didn’t know who Justin Timberlake was.
The more irrelevant stars become, the louder they grasp with talons at some type of relevance. As well, and many have stated, when you live in a windowless box and that box begins to crack, you become scared of the light from is outside.
I’ve never fully understood why these people can’t just step back for a moment, appreciate the success and privilege that they experienced, and just enjoy their lives and fade away. But it’s never enough. Their lack of self esteem is pathological. That cup can never be filled.
I thought they are trying to supplement their social security checks😂
Sadly, it's not about money. It's about things that drive them that they can't seem to control.
Has beens to the has beens but not to the younger generation.
You think Gen Z cares about geriatric George Clooney and Julia Roberts? Lol.
Good point! Today's big stars like Emma Stone, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Shawn Mendes & Lil Nas X are die hard Trumpers!
Taylor Swift?
How many of them were at this event?
I never understood why anyone gave any weight to the opinions of actors, who at the end of the day are merely paid dancing monkeys. What expertise does an actor have on any topic outside of acting that gives them any credibility? Are they somehow experts on foreign policy, or economics, or the constitution merely because they have the ability to emote and recite lines from a script? Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see how absurd it is to give any credence to the opinions of these preening buffoons.
It's kind of ironic. In Shakespeare’s time — and for much of human history — actors were considered the least educated and least reputable people in society. Mass media changed that perception.
Actors are adults who pretend for a living. They are not smart people but they think they are. More and more regular people have realized that and are ignoring them.
Some actors are smart people, but they are not the cool woke kids in Hollywood.
The smart ones are the ones who keep their mouth shut on political issues they don't understand and don't post on social media about how they hate half the country.
I have no idea what Tom Cruise or Christian Bale think about things in their personal lives. And I don’t care. I do appreciate that I can enjoy their films without knowing they hate me for not being woke.
jay
The power of actors, even back in the days of only theater and vaudeville, (the bloodiest riot pre-1900 in the USA was over a Shakespeare play between partisans of a Brit and a USA actor, I think Booth - not JW Booth,) is fascinating and not easy to dismiss. Is it irrational? Of course. But I defy anyone who watches, say, Mr. Smith Goers to Washington or 12 Angry Men not to feel warmly about Stewart and Fonda, respectively. Knowing what I know about the actors you mention, I still get chills over Streisand's voice, or Paul Newman in Hud, or Jack Nicholson or DeNiro in many things. It's a hard feeling to resist, for many of us, and as a salespersons' advantage, being a celebrity can be huge. Until you pointedly and deliberately offend your audience, that is.
My husband and I saw Top Gun and haven’t seen a movie in the theater since.
Plan to see Sound of Freedom or rent it or buy it. It’s beyond good and worth your time. The message is clear and the movie is exceptional.
It’s an awesome movie, Ruth.
I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I saw it the opening week. When it was over, everyone just sat there absorbing the message and then we stood and applauded a well-done movie.
Top Gun was a great Saturday matinee! I plan to see both of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” part 1 & part 2 on big screen this summer. I’m a sucker for a good Western, I really enjoyed ‘Dances w/ Wolves’ - this will be same time period. When Kevin puts up his own $$ the outcomes on screen are usually thumbs up.
Horizon is on our list too!
I really enjoyed your essay, Sasha. I haven't felt like Hollywood has anything worthwhile to offer me for some time now and couldn't quite put my finger on why. You perfectly described how the industry went from a source of entertainment to a source of irritation.
Wow! Such a moving piece, Sasha. I went through 5 tissues as I cried and laughed. Then you ended it with my all time favorite song.
Your writing came upon my radar by accident. I somehow stumbled upon your work on Substack. Now I understand that your writing is what my mind and soul was so desperate for. I needed fresh eyes on politics and everything else in between.
At 66 years old, I don't act like a know it all but I am pretty firm in my beliefs. I have always been a white, female, conservative. I never voted for a democratic. What you had to say was so different from any story I had heard. I never knew anyone that jumped political fences, like you have done. Then talk about it so honestly. Thank you & God bless.
You ain't the only one here with boxcars as your age, doll.
WHAT. A. LIFE, huh?
Since 2012 I've made my living selling novels on Amazon. It was HARD at the start b/c I didn't have a clue WTF I was doing. Hadda good run, but the glory days are gone. BFD... I still make a buck, and I'm kinda good at my craft. Still... it got kinda boring. No lie... not for nothin', there's only so many days you can spend on the beach in Feb (I live in Canada now). So last year I got a PT job at a UPS warehouse four blocks from my sub-division. A couple of hours a night, Mon-Fri, Teamsters job, and...well... it's been an eye opener to the working class lemme tell ya.
Up until October I was a card carrying socialist and for the 2nd time since 2016 it was eye-opening. Nahhh, I ain't Jewish (well, I guess I'm Jewish-adjacent b/c I grew up in NYC, and my local barber had Auswitz tats....
Anyway...
The unreal changes I've seen in the course of my 66 years... Holy Toledo....
(Fill in the blanks for all the Boomer shit you see on Facebook about how it was sooo different...)
At UPS I'm astonished. Really.
How brutalizing it is today to be working class.
I'm just a 'night shift loader'-- slinging boxes for 3-4 hrs. The 'Big Guys'... drivers.... couldn't be bothered to learn my name for 3 mos b/c of the turnover in my slot. (What I make from book royalties via Amazon is what they make) . But here's the thing....
Back in the 80's, in NYC, I had been a top of the food chain union employee (NYPD)... and I've never, EVER seen working class at that level of income (about 70K/year in '24 money + bennies) been so...
...so hopeless.
These people are barely hanging on. They're struggling so hard. And don't get me started about my fellow loaders- they make less than 1/2 of a driver...
But yet, in the economy, these people are at the top of the food chain.
The Working Class food chain. And if they're having it hard, in a Union job... how bad is it for the Amazon drivers for example? Don't get me started on the Starbucks barristas who are trying to pay off student loans at a glorified minimum wage...
The freaking DRIVERS don't go to the movies. (Quick point- the last movie I went to was Cry Of Freedom and I'm NOT religious) b/c it simply...
"Ain't worth the dough"
And THAT'S why H'wood...and the Democratic party are dying.
They ain't worth the dough. And they don't realize it.
H'wood is going through a reckoning similar to someone just diagnosed w/ a terminal illness. I think it was Kubler-Ross who described the stages of grief.
The first stage is anger.
And since 2016, the Democrats have been, and still are, angry. There's been a tad of 'Bargaining' in that a very small number have expressed regrets over their behavior during COVID ("I wuz wrong, but I wuz just doin' mah best") but for the most part, they're still MAD AS HELL!
They fail to see that an enormous chunk of the electorate isn't taking it anymore.
The Dems lack any insight at all.
And H'wood is in worse shape. Because what they're offering... ain't worth the money.
excellent comment, thanks
Great comment! Times are indeed hard and going without is the name of the game for so many but the Left doesn’t give a F.
Sasha’s political journey definitely adds gravitas and credibility to her almost prophetic voice, but it’s the moral clarity that I mostly find so inspiring. I think the progressive insight - which all societies need if they are to flourish - consists of its insistence on calling out a society’s deficiencies and injustices, especially when they become entrenched in the form of abusing power. (The conservative insight provides an equally necessary balancing insistence, but that’s a whole other subject.) In any case I see Sasha as being true to the best aspects of progressive moral criticism even in her current political stance. I don’t think she has a political home exactly in our current party system. Instead she’s just following her moral compass, especially with respect to her regard for ordinary people who are being vilified by entertainment industry and other elites who only pretend to speak in the name of regular people.
Moral clarity, exactly!
I used to be a Democrat. Now, since the rise of a smug "politically correct" elite, who often expresses contempt for the masses, I am dissociating from what I see as a lack of empathy. Trump is a very wealthy man who still has the common touch. He conveys to the common person that he is one of them. At the same time, we see the rich, privileged celebrities expressing contempt for those common people who see themselves in a down-to-earth talking Trump. No, Trump is not the ideal president. But until the Democrats start walking with the common people of all colors and creeds they used to walk with they will lose the vote to people like Trump.
You disdain lack of empathy but then praise Trump. That folks, is an oxymoron.
You are a sloppy reader. Or maybe you’re just a troll who writes things he knows to be absurd in order to irritate or provoke.
Berk expresses quite clearly that he is no longer a Democrat because he values empathy, and he finds it lacking in his former party. You respond “You disdain empathy.” I think you are a troll.
LIKE
I am not pro-Trump. I am sorry that you and others had that impression. I am a -professional historian(Emeritus professor of U.S. history, Cal. State Long Beach) who has studied American elections for well over fifty years. I said that Trump has the common touch, that is he talks about issues in a way that appeals to a lot of frustrated working class people whose lives have become more frustrating and difficult. He is a bit of a demagogue. The problem is his opponent should retire after one term, as he no longer has the cognitive capacity to serve as president. I have frequently voted for third parties, as the two major ones run candidates who represent monied elites.
I did not get the impression that you are pro-Trump. And as far as I can see I didn’t write anything to imply that I did think that. In fact I was simply pointing out to Simon Jean Paul Adams that his criticism of your observations (as oxymoronic) was based on a sloppy reading of your comment.
An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms like "military intelligence." You clearly don't understand the expression, so perhaps you shouldn't use it.
Stephen Berk says, " I am dissociating from what I see as a lack of empathy," meaning the Democrats lack it, and "dissociating" = "to cease associating" or "parting." Berk rejects the Ds because they lack empathy, which is demonstrated by their "contempt for the masses."
And Trump's empathy (at least in public) appears to be limited to his voting bloc and the working class in general.
I have not said Trump HAS empathy. He is, as I also said, a demagogue whose words resonate with working and middle class people who have seen their lives become more difficult. The Biden administration, largely because of its massive monetary and arms support for two elective wars (Israel/Palestine and Ukraine/Russia) has vastly increased the deficit and national debt. This has played a major role in causing the worst inflation since the seventies. More important, it has made the world today a much more dangerous place. They don't negotiate with Russia but instead surround Russia with military bases and missiles. This is extremely costly and dangerous because of it potential to start World War III, which none of us will survive.
I agree.
Thanks for this. I appreciate your history. I too was a former progressive who believed and went along with all this until Trump was elected in 2016.
The world definitely changed after that, but I feel good that I picked the side of reality. I see a lot of people I used to identify with completely and utterly terrified about the state of the US because they have swallowed all this crazy propaganda about Trump being the second coming of Hitler.
You NAILED it with Hollywood. This isn't 2004. Nobody trusts Julie Roberts or George Clooney when it comes to politics. We all know they sit in a bubble of privilege and wealth and talk down to us.
If there is one thing where Hollywood completely lost their credibility, it was the revelations that came out around Harvey Weinstein and "metoo".
This guy was a serial rapist, harasser and abuser. He raped women, then harassed them into signing NDAs. If they wouldn't, he would blacklist them, and hire private investigators and former Mossad agents to harass them.
And everyone knew. EVERYONE! I knew. I knew what a piece of shit Weinstein was, plenty of women came forward and confirmed his behavior.
For DECADES, the Hollywood elite looked away while he did this, because they needed him to be famous and rich.
Only when it became fashionable to speak out against him did they dare to say anything.
Hollywood has absolutely no credibility anymore, and like you say, anyone who is a non leftists progressive is not listening to any of this.
The center of gravity in this magnificent essay is that phrase: “aghast that democracy happened to them.” If Martin Gurri’s analysis is correct, then it is this repudiation of elite consensus that really explains the horror with which so many people regard Donald Trump. The consensus has been mostly Democratic/Left, but Trump has also taken an axe to the Republican role in endless wars to remake societies not interested in being remade, ideological support for free trade no matter what the effects, and milquetoast immigration law enforcement. Donald Trump is not an ideologue. But beyond that, he’s not really a rationalist either. This stands as a terrible slur to anyone vested in the bureaucratic/managerial order of good-government control. However it’s precisely the failure of that very bureaucratic governance that accounts for the rebellion we are now seeing.
Sasha herself is a little like Trump in that rather than wasting time on the defense of Trump’s policies or character - both somewhat chaotic (if effective) phenomena - she goes right for the jugular, which in the case of the entertainment industry is its futile defense of a deeply flawed aristocratic elite. That’s the real story of our times. We’re easily distracted by the superficial (Trump said what!?!? Hunter paid his Dad a cut of his earnings!?!? and on and on) when the pathetic attempt of our ruling class to blame the people on its impossible-to-hide failures is the drum beat under it all. There are a handful of truth tellers who can hear the drumbeat and convey it effectively to the rest of us. Sasha is one of them. I’m a conservative, and chaos is a conservative’s deepest fear, but I can hear it coming too. It’s terrifying.
"We love democracy when the peons vote the way we expect them to."
I imagine Sasha would be pleased with the comparison to Trump 😊
I would also like to imagine that Chris' essay made sense.
I didn’t think so. The comment is addressed to serious people. Most of Sasha’s readers are serious people. You, however, are an exception.
Do you have a question for me?
I am old enough to have seen a 19 year old barbra Streisand appear on the old Dave Garroway late night show in 1960 In those days, with that voice, everyone wanted to be her for her voice not for her politics if she had any. This was way before she was one of the Hollywood elite. She was just a very talented kid from Brooklyn wearing second hand clothes and singing like an angel. As a fan, I bought loads of her records and CD's and followed her rise to fame up until she reached the rarified status she now enjoys. I was recently in a bookstore that had her recently published memoir displayed and when I went to pick it up and have a look, turns out it is close to 1000 pages and I couldnt even lift it. Even Caro's individual books on LBJ were ONLY 800.
Their influence it’s damn near negative these days. I have gotten free laughs the last several days out of the comedic genius that is Mark Hamill. Watching him content like in all the leftist retardation on X so the whole world knows how stupid he is makes my days.
Social media has killed the movie star. There are so many like Mark Hamill that can't help themselves but to post their braindead takes and leftist opinions all over social media. It has exposed them as the idiots they really are. There is no more mystique around Hollywood.
It's not like we thought these people were ever very bright to begin with, when we gave it any thought at all. Social media has removed all doubt.
Brilliant as usual🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is but one of the gems you articulate:
"Aligning with Obama meant that they, the ultra-rich, could borrow his status as a Black man, and as long as they pledged allegiance to the Woke, they could be forgiven their sins of wealth and privilege."
Yes, those words of truth from Sasha jumped right off the page.
An outstanding read that sums up how Obama and his minions have helped ruin Hollywood.
Hollywood produces more high quality content than ever to be viewed across various streaming platforms, network TV and theaters. That would be the opposite of ruined.
Wow you missed the point.
Quantity DOES NOT equal Quality.
And how much of it is navel gazing baloney that almost no one watches?
Your best piece to date.
I concur, Tom!
I think you might be right about Hollywood's death, too, Sasha. Ba, ba, bye...
“Jump the Shark”? Joe and Obama NUKED THE FRIDGE!
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