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Who Made Hollywood Icons Moral Authorities?
Townhall.com ^ | January 7, 2020 | Michael Brown

Posted on 01/07/2020 7:33:42 AM PST by Kaslin

Did you ever stop to wonder who granted moral authority to famous actors and actresses? Did you ever ask yourself why their opinions should carry extra weight? After all, it’s one thing to be a certain person, such as a political leader or an athlete or a cancer survivor and to speak from your experience. It’s another thing to make believe you were that person. How does making believe qualify you to speak?

At the moment, Ricky Gervais’ scathing takedown of woke Hollywood at the Golden Globes Sunday night is getting all the attention it deserves. And, according to the Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra, “The reaction to Gervais’ speech appeared to be overwhelmingly positive among people who do not work in the news, media, or entertainment industries.”

But Gervais’ frontal assault on Hollywood hypocrisy begs a deeper question: why should we even care what Hollywood icons have to say?

We can admire their giftings. Some of them are incredibly gifted.

We can appreciate their hard work and, at times, even sacrificial efforts to present memorable moments in film. Some of them go to extreme lengths to play a particular part, immersing themselves in the characters they portray, and viewers benefit from their efforts.

Directors and screenwriters and animators and others also use their skills to produce some amazing movies and shows. And it’s fine to appreciate and respect what they do.

At the same time, none of this qualifies them to be moral authorities, and we should pay no more attention to their opinions than to the opinions of our neighbor next door.

In fact, to some degree, we should pay less attention to their opinions.

That’s because some of them are quite immoral personally, not to mention living an elite, ultra-wealthy bubble.

Some have deep personal issues, from emotional struggles to family breakdowns and more.

Why should we say to them, “Please share your views with me on marriage and relationships and the meaning of life”?

Some Hollywood performers are seductresses, baring their bodies for millions to see, becoming objects of lust and sexual fantasy. Should I question my pro-life values because they are pro-abortion? Should this matter to me?

Others glorify violence in the most extreme forms imaginable (or should I say unimaginable)?

People are sliced up or shot up or chopped up. Eyes are ripped out or poked out or pulled out. Human beings, created in the image of God, are torn to pieces or blown to pieces or tortured or maimed or slaughtered. Blood gushes on the screen as heads are torn off and limbs are detached – all for our entertainment.

And to keep our interest, the violence has to become more intense, more graphic, more repulsive.

Yet the very actors who play these murderous roles and the producers who fund these bloody pictures now want to lecture us about gun control or foreign policy. Seriously? To repeat: why on earth should we care?

Do these icons have the right to express their opinions? Of course they do.

Do they have the right to use their fame as a platform to disseminate their message? Without a doubt.

But that doesn’t mean that we have to listen. And it certainly doesn’t mean that they have some kind of moral, high horse on which to stand. Really, now. Since when does Hollywood get to preach morality?

While listening to an audio course on the French Revolution, I found it interesting that, at one point in 18th Century France, the moral credibility of professional actors was deeply questioned. After all, they made their living by pretending to be who they were not. Maybe they are acting now? Who are they, really?

As noted by the author of an article posted on the Ordinary Times (this quote is from the author’s interaction with readers in the comments section): “Society has always been hypocritical with performing artists and this leads to continued disrespect for this day. Actors at various points have been considered no better and often closely linked to prostitutes. Actors were not able to get proper burial in France until the French Revolution abolished the power of the Church to control burials.”

But when it comes to actors today, they are often exalted beyond all measure, as if they could really fly through the air or really had supernatural powers or really were equal to everyone they ever portrayed.

The fact is, they are as human as the rest of us and certainly, just as flawed. And while we can appreciate the fine people who are in Hollywood and be thrilled to see a powerful, godly, moral witness that is emerging, let’s stay real.

Hollywood has made billions of dollars on immorality and violence, on mocking God and demeaning people of faith, on sending mixed and even perverted messages.

It’s time that Hollywood preach to itself.

Perhaps Ricky Gervais will start a trend? And perhaps we could pick up where he left off: Yes, you’re a bunch of compromised hypocrites. But there’s good news. Jesus died for people just like you!


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: awards; foreignallegiances; foreigners; hollyweird; hollywood; morality; treason; unamerican
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1 posted on 01/07/2020 7:33:42 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Homer Simpson.......................


2 posted on 01/07/2020 7:34:56 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: Kaslin

Once upon a time actors were viewed as being on the level of prostitutes.

Such a view wasn’t wrong.


3 posted on 01/07/2020 7:35:05 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Kaslin
That’s because some of them are quite immoral personally,....

That's the bulk of Hollyweird.

4 posted on 01/07/2020 7:36:45 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: Kaslin

High priests of Babylon, Greece and Thyatira without the garments?


5 posted on 01/07/2020 7:36:49 AM PST by Karliner (Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28 Isa 17 "This is the end of the beginning" W Churchill)
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To: Kaslin

Well, they themselves did!! Because they are told their opinion is so important by all the people they pay to be around them.


6 posted on 01/07/2020 7:37:21 AM PST by BobinIL
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To: Kaslin

Fatty Arbuckle.


7 posted on 01/07/2020 7:38:07 AM PST by Repeal The 17th
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To: Kaslin

I figured the award ceremony was going to be insufferable as know-nothing, rich actors and actresses queued up to blast Trump.

Glad Gervais put them in their place (for now)....


8 posted on 01/07/2020 7:38:58 AM PST by Bon of Babble (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby)
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To: Kaslin

Themselves.


9 posted on 01/07/2020 7:40:57 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: Kaslin

I’ve been thinking about that a lot as well. We pay these idiots to entertain us. They are like court jesters. We are the court and they are the fools. They are there at our pleasure. They serve until we think they’re not entertaining anymore. I think there are some in the court who are “entertained” by these idiots spouting off about social issues. This entertainment has become monetized in the form of becoming “politically correct” and getting access to jobs that the fools might not otherwise get. However the fools fail to see that their first job is to entertain the court and not cater to the few who only care about their political and social stance.


10 posted on 01/07/2020 7:42:38 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: DouglasKC

Dance, Monkey, Dance!


11 posted on 01/07/2020 7:43:30 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kaslin

Very true. Robert de Niro is a gifted actor, and Jim Carrey was a wonderful comedian.

Both are high-school dropouts who focused on acting to the detriment of anything else.

I’ll listen to what they say about acting. About anything else - meh..


12 posted on 01/07/2020 7:43:40 AM PST by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
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To: Kaslin

13 posted on 01/07/2020 7:44:44 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kaslin

Hollywood a place where every freak known to mankind lives there.


14 posted on 01/07/2020 7:46:05 AM PST by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: Kaslin

Who says they are even icons?


15 posted on 01/07/2020 7:46:18 AM PST by Avalon Memories (Politics is all about quid pro quos. Donate to me! Vote for me! I'll give you "free" stuff)
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To: Kaslin

This is more a reflection of human nature. We used to put people at the top because they were the most capable or the most powerful. Being at the pinnacle made them the authority and example.

Before Christianity, it also led to might made right (and morally right).

These same instincts - that the most prominent and influential people are the moral heads and leaders - remain true. Modern media means that they may be there only because they’re beautiful and slept with the right people. Because they are at the center of attention, we instinctively think they are alphas.


16 posted on 01/07/2020 7:49:29 AM PST by tbw2
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To: tbw2

And because they are “alphas” or “the most important”, many want to pay attention and emulate them to become alphas themselves.


17 posted on 01/07/2020 7:50:18 AM PST by tbw2
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To: Kaslin

The power of visual “programming” with ZERO rebuttal. All day every day 24/7/365.

Platforms secured.

An electronic curtain has descended over the republic. See it? Feel it?

One programmer hands you off to the next programmer...joyfully, effortlessly.

Jihadi of the year 2019

“she’ll cut your head off and you won’t even know you are bleeding” according to her dour spawn and the enmeshed propagandists. See how effortlessly and joyfully they work together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Th4a9QhGng

We the people...in order to form a more perfect union...have been overtaken.


18 posted on 01/07/2020 7:50:29 AM PST by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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Idiots. Idiots made them moral authorities. Why would anyone consider a professional liar as a moral authority? Do you think that elected officials are moral authorities? I don’t. I think they are representatives of the people and as such, they are supposed to just do what we tell them to do without a lot of their personal opinions mixed in. Unfortunately, that’s not where we actually are.


19 posted on 01/07/2020 7:52:46 AM PST by NicoDon
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To: Kaslin

John Wilkes Booth: Actor, Democrat, Political Activist.


20 posted on 01/07/2020 7:53:02 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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