March 26, 2019

"These people who are already insecure about losing their job switch on the TV, look at the newspaper and hear that they are being described as bigots, racists... and they resent it."

"And the one thing I would urge you people who do this type of content is try and complete the idea of 'the other' being in the room because they can hear what you are saying.... Don’t tell them everything is good. That you deserve it and that you are all basically slaveholders under their skin blah, blah, blah, which is what Hollywood is saying to them every second of the day."

Said Andrew Sullivan, speaking to what The Hollywood Reporter called "packed audience of [Hollywood] professionals, including some of the town’s biggest names, at the Getty Center in Los Angeles," who gasped audibly. There followed "an immensely tense 20-minute panel which ended in Sullivan being shouted at by an audience member, prompting the moderator to step in and end the panel."
“I said what I wanted to say,” he said [afterwards]. “When you’re a struggling, white working-class person in say, Kentucky, and a Yale student says, ‘You have white privilege,’ what do you think happens? [Donald] Trump gets elected — that’s what happens. And they don’t seem to understand any of the lessons from the last time and I don’t want [Trump] to be re-elected, but I don’t think the left is helping and I don’t think Hollywood is helping.”...

64 comments:

Henry said...

...And they don’t seem to understand any of the lessons...

Yup.

tim in vermont said...

In the last election, the only place you ever saw Hillary “America is Already Great” Clinton lawn signs and bumper stickers was wealthy suburbs. Just sayin’.

Lucid-Ideas said...

You know what's so funny? Is that even within that comment that receives "audible gasps" there is still a back-handed insult. You notice how he only talks about them "being described", not as "You know?...maybe they actually aren't these things we call them?"

Anyone else notice that? Then he goes off and says, "Well this is how you get more Trump and we all know we don't want more of that right ladies and gents?"

No one put these people in their intellectual ghettos. They put themselves there. They moved there to be with other people who think like them, act like them, and reinforce their views and they fire cultural shot after cultural shot from their 'safe spaces' at a great silent majority that more often than not are befuddled at why they hate us so much.

Well...we're not befuddled anymore. Now we're just angry.

rhhardin said...

I don't think there's resentment. But they vote for the guy who makes sense instead of the guy who doesn't.

Dave Begley said...

And Hollywood and the Fake News can't stop themselves. No discipline. No insight. No empathy. Just tribalism.

tim in vermont said...

One writer asked how one should weigh the grievances of the white working-class demographic, which may be feeling left behind by globalization, against those of inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level.

I think that’s a hook for RH to opine if ever there was one. Who is to blame, the institutional racism deniers or the IQ disparity deniers? It’s a "perfect thorn.” BTW, the white working class is not in charge of the institutions that are, let’s say arguendo, racist.

Fen said...

“When you’re a struggling, white working-class person in say, Kentucky, and a Yale student says, ‘You have white privilege,’ what do you think happens? [Donald] Trump gets elected — that’s what happens. And they don’t seem to understand any of the lessons from the last time and I don’t want [Trump] to be re-elected, but I don’t think the left is helping and I don’t think Hollywood is helping.”...

All sectors, this is Fen Actual. Red Riding Hood. I say again, Red Riding Hood. One of them has finally figured it out. Activate all STA Teams and bring target in for reprogramming. Fen out.

Kevin said...

This is all any conservative commenter has been saying for 3 years. The fact that it can elicit audible gasps shows the depth and breadth of the bubble these people live in.

That is and apparently always will be the left's Achilles Heal. We know all their arguments and the reasons for them because we're immersed in them every day just by existing in the culture. They have literally 0 idea what we believe or why we believe it, and always seem to stumble upon our arguments as newborn babes no matter how old they are and how much real world experience they are alleged to have.

That's why the racism, homophobia, sexism, etc charges are really there. They're placeholders that signify nothing more than the inherent intellectual laziness of the left.

The Godfather said...

Out of the mouths of babes.

Big Mike said...

The guy shifts from deranged to sane and back again pretty seamlessly. This time he’s sane.

rehajm said...

Like lefties everywhere he’s obsessing about the message instead of imploring them to examine that they are wrong about the people they find deplorable, how they arrived at this wrong conclusion, and how to prevent these costly mistakes in the future. Instead no, we need to just tweak the message a bit.

Hollywood gasps...

Henry said...

Those comments, which were met with audible gasps, set the stage for an immensely tense 20-minute panel which ended in Sullivan being shouted at by an audience member, prompting the moderator to step in and end the panel. (my emphasis)

The event was called:

A Day of Unreasonable Conversation

Apparently that was a typo.

Fen said...

One writer asked how one should weigh the grievances of the white working-class demographic, which may be feeling left behind by globalization, against those of inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level.

Jussie Smollett, incarcerated for staging racial hate crimes, unavailable for comment.

TrespassersW said...

"White privilege" is racism dressed up in fancy clothes. Sullivan, for all his faults, gets that. Hollywood apparently does not want to get that.

Henry said...

From the article:
A Day of Unreasonable Conversation is a new annual event that aims to connect writers and content creators with activists, non-profits and thinkers with ties to underprivileged communities with the goal of achieving more authentic representation.

So by 'unreasonable' they meant 'conventional'.

wendybar said...

He's right....and they are aghast that there are actually people who think like that.

Wince said...

"These people who are already insecure about losing their job switch on the TV, look at the newspaper and hear that they are being described as bigots, racists... and they resent it."

Maybe Andrew is between his ‘Man Who Sold the World’ and ‘Ziggy Stardust’ alter egos?

And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Don't tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Where's your shame?
You've left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can't trace time...

I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time

phantommut said...

Understanding the lessons would mean entertaining the idea that they don't "control the horizontal and the vertical." They'll accept declining viewership, decreased circulation, plummeting poll numbers, all of these things if it means they get to reinforce each others' delusions of mastery. But eventually Versailles is always overrun.

MadBohemian said...

Especially since the Yalie spewing white privilege maybe had their parents buy him in. Heard that happens. :)

Birches said...

Of course Stacey Abrams was there to fluff egos.

I'm probably one of your only readers who watched Empire. Regular people from a lower class background aren't afraid of seeing black people on screen. They're used to it. It's not just Black people that go to Madea movies. But people are tired of seeing the White, religious man show up on SVU. Because we know who is the villain.

traditionalguy said...

Good old Sullivan. He is warning the New World Order apparatchiks that the once beaten down traditional Americans neer stopped clinging to their guns and their religion. But something Big has changed. The Deplorables now have a fighter leader replicating President Andrew Jackson. He is has beaten the political corruption, beaten the New World Order in propaganda battle after battle, ended the power of their Central Bank, and laughs at their Global Warming Super Scam.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

I think the idea on the far left is to let Trump hold the Presidency until America is ready for a socialist. It’s the only explanation that accounts for all the data points.

Bob Boyd said...

An interesting blip on the culture radar.
The guy who almost single-handedly fought for and won gay marriage takes the side of the Deplorables? Awesome. I'll be glad to have him, if that's the case.

Ralph L said...

Obligatory Trump dig didn't make the medicine go down any better.

Don’t tell them everything is good. That you deserve it and that you are all basically slaveholders under their skin
I'm a little lost here: pronoun trouble?

Quaestor said...

Lessons? We don't need no stinkin' lessons.

Anonymous said...

"...gasped audibly."

Lol. Lot of that going around these days.

"One writer asked how one should weigh the grievances of the white working-class demographic, which may be feeling left behind by globalization, against those of inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level."

I can understand this fellow's dilemma. How could one possibly address the concerns of inner-city African-Americans without insulting, blaming, caricaturing, and demonizing the white working-class?

I also have sympathy for how exhausting it must be to have to keep fighting against all the hating heretics out there who suggest that every "grievance" isn't correctly or productively addressed by reference to racismandbigotry or even institutionalracismandbigotry. Or, more satanic still, that white working-class Trumpkin-Americans and inner-city African-Americans might have common interests.

(I think that Sullivan and others continuing to frame all this as mostly a "working-class" thing is way too narrow, as important as that demographic is in the ongoing realignment. A lot of people in my own educated and well-remunerated white-collar milieu are plenty steamed, too.)

AllenS said...

"and I don’t want [Trump] to be re-elected," -- Andrew Sullivan

Why not?

Unfortunately, Sullivan does not understand what he just wrote when he said: “When you’re a struggling, white working-class person in say, Kentucky, and a Yale student says, ‘You have white privilege,’ what do you think happens? [Donald] Trump gets elected"

Sullivan does and doesn't get it.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Every once in a while, the old Andrew Sullivan peeks out.

Jim Gust said...

Nice to see Andrew Sullivan making sense again.

Phil 314 said...

“A Day of Unreasonable Conversation is a new annual event that aims to connect writers and content creators with activists, non-profits and thinkers with ties to underprivileged communities with the goal of achieving more authentic representation. “

No, no and no! Show me one product from Hollywood not underwritten by Evangelicals that “authentically” portrays church and church goers and then maybe I’ll start to listen.

Fernandinande said...

journalist and provocateur Andrew Sullivan

The first sentence insults the speaker - should I read further?

inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level.

Imaginary racism which results from "IQ-denial", e.g. Madison schools.

“We live in a time where our system is under attack from within and from without, and the fact that the system is under attack means " "we" are irrational and hysterical ... but Sullivan is the provocateur.

Henry said...

On the other hand... I think Sullivan's claim the Hollywood is helping ensure Donald Trump gets re-elected is pretty lame. It's a literalist take on what Hollywood does. For every movie or show that rests on liberal presumption, there is also a movie or show -- often the same movie or show -- that promotes swift, decisive action by law enforcement against evildoers.

Donald Trump is an old-school tough-on-crime politician. Shows that promote the idea that the world is dangerous and needs a tough sod to take it on actually help Donald Trump. Given that Hollywood is making almost all of its movies for teenage boys, this is hardly a surprise.

Leland said...

The normal meme is "that's how you got Trump". Trump's supporters have been saying this since Nov 2016. They say it not because they want Trump to lose, but rather as a more effective foil than just calling parts of the Left "hypocrites".

Call them hypocrites and they'll just dig in and send back more invectives. Tell them their behavior isn't improving and therefore minds are not being changed, and they just call you Nazi, which is hardly different from the other invective. At least though you get to scare them into thinking they'll get more Trump.

By the way, it's funny how really scared the left is yet they say everyone else has phobias. Then again, progressives projecting is nothing new.

Ralph L said...

A Day of Unreasonable Conversation is a new annual event that aims to connect writers and content creators with activists, non-profits and thinkers with ties to underprivileged communities with the goal of achieving more authentic representation.

Sullivan must have taken them at their word, not what they meant. No wonder they shut him down when someone had his feelings hurt.
achieving more authentic representation
The Brits have embraced this thoroughly already. "Line of Duty" even has a few black criminal policemen.

whitney said...

It's shocking that they gasped audibly and don't already know that. This really does feel like revolutionary France and I'm afraid that I'm one of the Vendee

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

oh no. Americans LOVE being called deplorable racists with too much privilege by their leftwing masters and betters. Esp ones who are money grubbing money whores with private servers.

Francisco D said...

I think the idea on the far left is to let Trump hold the Presidency until America is ready for a socialist. It’s the only explanation that accounts for all the data points.

Interesting thought. I will have to keep that in mind as things unfold.

buwaya said...

You cant argue someone out of an opinion he is paid to hold.
In that industry you can't oppose the messaging your paymasters have decreed.
Which is the big picture of Sullivan in that place.

tim in vermont said...

"Don’t tell them everything is good. That 'you deserve it' and that 'you are all basically slaveholders' under their skin.”

Does that help, Sullivan didn’t make the transcript.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Regarding Stacy Abrams...

I continually ask myself if black people are really this dumb to continue allowing themselves to be used or if there's a quid-pro-quo they actually think they're getting the upper hand in?

It's just unbelievable how they continuously over and over again allow themselves to be used as props by these grievance-pushers. Even Obama got 'used' by them. Decade after decade black America continually languishes, while the insane black leadership continues to do the same dumb political thing over and over again while expecting a different result.

Dems are circus carnies and Stacy and those like her are the rube thinking that one more ring toss will get them their coveted plush donkey.

Lawrence Person said...

"Journalist and provocateur Andrew Sullivan"

Evidently "provocateur" is now a synonym for "someone who dares to have a non-liberal opinion" in Hollywood.

JPS said...

AllenS:

"Sullivan does and doesn't get it."

Schroedinger's pundit.

Michael K said...

A lot of people in my own educated and well-remunerated white-collar milieu are plenty steamed, too.)

Shhhhh. Don't wake them up.

They'll keep making m movies that only sell in China.

MadBohemian said...

It’s always nice to see someone in the other camp say something non-dehumanizing once in a while.
Like Taibbi too. I don’t see eye to eye politically, we’ll never vote alike. However, it at least makes me feel value in reading them from time to time. Also makes me feel less angry at them generally.
Not asking much, you can disagree, but the vitriol is astounding.
So good for Sullivan on this. But on other stuff...

daskol said...

They don't like being called a shitty class of people. It's shrewd of Sullivan not to implore his audience to actually empathize with working class Kentucky folks since that improves his chances of being heard, when he puts in terms of the audience's political interests. Still sad, though, that it's impossible to get incredibly well-off Hollywood types to empathize with working class. You might think it's because those working class people are white, but it's because the fancy people are all empathized out feeling for one another for having to live in the world of Trump. And how dare anyone suggest empathy for the very people who foisted Trump on us! What a clusterfuck we've got in our country.

Bobb said...

There goes Andrew Sullivan again invoking his white privilege to lecture Hollywood.

Anonymous said...

...against those of inner-city African-Americans...

Blacks don't live in the inner-city anymore. They've been gentrified to the inner suburbs. Inner cities are now dominated by hipsters.

LordSomber said...

I keep seeing a recurrent theme the last couple of years, ranging from Hollywood to Hillary — persuading people by insulting them doesn't work.

I know — duh.

William said...

Hollywood has gotten a few things wrong. Its greatest movie, GWTW, was pro-slavery, but now they've figured things out. There might have been unfortunate stereotypes in previous eras of film-making, but now they're honest and accurate in their portrayal of life and history. Their depiction of Christians and corporate types is totally fair and unbiased and not at all like they way they used to portray blacks and Japanese in WWII movies.

narciso said...

Remember how they hated Nixon, just like python hated thatcher.

tim in vermont said...

"...gasped audibly."

They don’t want to lose their phony baloney jobs. Seriously, that’s the tyranny of Hollywood. Nobody can express a thought that brings their loyalty to the party into question unless they have proven box office appeal.

cyrus83 said...

It's ironic that for all the actors in Hollywood, few seem to be able to manage the role of sane adult off camera, even though it would immensely help their political cause.

I can understand hating Trump voters, but that's a sentiment that should be kept private and not voiced in public. Why does any Hollywood or lefty type think that spewing hatred at Trump's voters is going to help win in 2020? This would be like if Republicans were trying to win over black voters by calling them worthless welfare parasites, and probably with about the same result - doing worse with the voters being attacked than would otherwise be the case.

gahrie said...

How can you be an elite without Deplorables to look down upon?

Paul Zrimsek said...

A Day of Unreasonable Conversation is a new annual event that aims to connect writers and content creators with activists, non-profits and thinkers with ties to underprivileged communities with the goal of achieving more authentic representation.

Andrew, Andrew, Andrew. You're not there to talk about the deplorables; you're there to talk about your Oppressed Gay Identity.

Ralph L said...

Inner city institutional racism in cities that are overwhelmingly Democratic at top and bottom, with the moderate middle increasingly squeezed out to the suburbs where their white privilege still reigns.

gerry said...

Godfather @ 8:03: Out of the mouths of babes.

Or boobs.

YoungHegelian said...

Up Next, Andrew Sullivan speaks to the 1932 Congress of Workers' Soviets on the topic of "Capitalism --- Maybe Not So Bad After All?".

The reaction would be exactly the same, except by 1932 some in the audience would probably secretly agree. I'm not sure about the modern Hollywood audience.

Sam L. said...

Andy nailed it, and the listeners wouldn't accept it. Come On, 2020!!

FullMoon said...

One writer asked how one should weigh the grievances of the white working-class demographic, which may be feeling left behind by globalization, against those of inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level.

Yeah, the "racism and bigotry on an institutional level" bullshit aside, what the white and black have in common is the desire to have a full time job that pays enough to allow for basic needs and some extras.


Birkel said...

"...weigh the grievances..."

Intersectionality Bingo.

Ken B said...

It’s the gasps that is the telling detail. Try to imagine what must be in your mind to make you gasp hearing what Sullivan said.

Achilles said...

inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level.

All of those inner city institutions are run by democrats.

RobinGoodfellow said...

Blogger Ken B said...
It’s the gasps that is the telling detail. Try to imagine what must be in your mind to make you gasp hearing what Sullivan said.


I’m pretty sure what was on their collective mind was, “Are my pearls OK and where is the nearest fainting couch?!”

Rick said...

One writer asked how one should weigh the grievances of the white working-class demographic, which may be feeling left behind by globalization, against those of inner-city African-Americans who face racism and bigotry on an institutional level.

What force is causing these grievances to be weighted against each other? When writing does understanding one person force you to not understand another?

People in thrall to their politics don't understand how completely it effects them.