Opinion

#OscarsSoDumb: Time To Boycott Hollywood Hypocrites?

J. D. Gordon Former Pentagon Spokesman, George W. Bush Administration
Font Size:

O.K., I’ll admit it.

Upon hearing that famous Hollywood entertainers Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett-Smith launched a campaign to boycott the Academy Awards this year with the hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, my first thoughts were in sharp disagreement. Yet after looking into their complaint, specifically that the 2016 awards program does not include black actors among the 4 four major acting categories, just like in 2015, I’ve given it some thought and now agree with the boycott. Sign me up!

Though here’s where our views differ: The hashtag ought to be: #OscarsSoDumb.

That’s because in the grand scheme of things, Hollywood’s biggest annual event is primarily an exercise in limousine liberal self-adulation and mutual back-slapping, awarding themselves for the most riveting progressive-themed propaganda films. And usually while doing the opposite in real life. Let’s not forget the fashion industry, we’re also treated to see “who wore it best” on the red carpet. So dumb.

While I don’t see any proof of racism in the Oscars, unlike Snoop Doog, Michael Moore and others boycotting apparently do, it is easy to see countless Hollywood Hypocrites who deserve a good wake up call.

For every major left-wing cause out there today, progressives have busily churned out a stream of proselytizing films, especially in the past decade or so. Meanwhile, it always seems to be “do what I say, not as I do.”

How so? Let’s talk specifics:

On combatting racism, it’s no wonder comedians like Chris Rock and Don Cheadle are unhappy.

Like the rest of us, they’re exposed to a steady drumbeat of social justice-type films recalling our nation’s history of slavery and Jim Crow Laws, where the blacks are depicted as mostly good and virtuous. And the whites, well, mostly villains. 12 years a Slave, Django, Selma and The Help, are just the most recent examples.

So if that’s the official party line, why aren’t blacks consistently, every year, regaled by Hollywood as the heroes in real life? Even if 12 years a Slave did happen to win three Academy Awards just 2 years ago, including best picture. Oh, how quickly they forget.

And then there’s climate change hypocrisy.

Al Gore’s An Incovenient Truth, 2012 Ice Age, The Day After Tomorrow, The Colony and Waterworld all come to mind.

We’re told our high energy consumption lifestyles are killing the planet, yet when the cameras stop rolling, the former Vice President and A-list celebrities zip around the world in their own private jets and SUV’s. And back home in places like Beverly Hills and Burbank, they’re living in mansions that cost a fortune to heat and cool. So much for minimizing one’s carbon footprint.

How about gun control?

While big stars like George Clooney and Jamie Foxx are lecturing Americans about guns, they’re simultaneously cranking out virtual killing fields on the big screen. How many thousands of people do we need to see gunned down in big budget blockbusters? Sure, most people can separate fantasy from reality. But some deranged folks can’t.  Incredible too that the loudest critics of police, like Quentin Tarantino, glorify guns the most. Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, ring a bell?

And then there’s the LGBT agenda.

Oscar winners Brokeback Mountain and Milk are the most famous, but far from alone. Some point to Christopher Plummer’s Oscar win in Beginners as a forerunner to Bruce Jenner’s transformation to Caitlyn. The Danish Girl, about one of the world’s first sex change operations, is in theaters now. I’m not accusing Hollywood of hypocrisy here, yet these films resemble a form of political ads designed to sway public opinion. That’s troubling too.

Oddly enough, there are even catch-all leftist films. Elysium, starring Matt Damon, managed to lump in illegal immigration, universal health care and science fiction all into one!

Now to be fair, not all of Hollywood is trying to persuade Americans to join MoveOn.org and vote Democrat.

There are still plenty of politically neutral, and even a handful of conservative entertainers making terrific films of all genres.  But in a sea of left-wing influence operations, those gems are becoming harder to find.

As for the increasing number of Hollywood films which remind us how bad America is, and how racist, bigoted, xenophobic, Islamophobic, homophobic, and whatever else we’re portrayed to be, I say “no thanks.” Spare me the lecture. And spare our country too, no wonder why the world hates Americans. They watch our films!

While we can’t legislate morality, the free market, i.e. box office sales, can make a difference. So instead of just passively tolerating Hollywood Hypocrites and their self-defeating, condescending points of view, maybe it’s time we teach them a thing or two?

Perhaps it’s time for Americans to send them a message: Bye!

J.D. Gordon is a retired Navy Commander and former Pentagon spokesman, serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-2009. He has also served as a Senior Fellow and adviser to several Washington, DC-based think tanks.