This Woody Harrelson character is saying that if we #defundthepolice he and his friends would just start murdering people, which is a weird way to show support of the police but fandom is wild sometimes pic.twitter.com/8gITCs1TFw— Paul F. Tompkins (@PFTompkins) June 9, 2020
This made me look up Woody Harrelson to see what exactly are his politics. I found "Woody Harrelson: I'm an anarchist" (Politico, 2013):
So you dislike Democrats as much as you dislike the GOP?So... presumably the real Woody would like to dismantle the police, and he adopts a redneck character to taunt the abolitionists. He has the character speak as though he would wildly kill people if left to his own judgment of how to behave in a police-free America. I'm going to guess that what Woody is trying to do is make fun of the people who want to scare us out of getting rid of the police. What do you think?
It's all synchronized swimming to me. They all kneel and kiss the ring. Who's going to take on the oil industry or the medical industry? People compare Obama to Lyndon Johnson, but I think a better comparison is between Obama and Nixon. Because Nixon came into office saying he was going to pull out of Vietnam, and then he escalated the war. A lot of us were led to believe that Obama was the peace president, but there are still, I think, 70,000 troops in Afghanistan....
Do you want to get more involved in politics?
No. I don't believe in politics. I'm an anarchist, I guess you could say. I think people could be just fine looking after themselves.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Commenters question whether that's really Woody Harrelson, but couldn't get to a definite answer whether it is or not! I did a search and found "George Floyd protests: Is Woody Harrelson defending police brutality? Video of lookalike man baffles internet" (at meaww):
In the video, a man who resembles Harrelson, (perhaps it is Harrelson himself, we wouldn’t know) is supporting the police saying the public needs to deal with him before attacking the cops.... While the video has garnered a lot of attention...Garnered!
... internet users are rather concerned if it’s actually Harrelson who has featured in it. While one wrote, “I'm scared to even look up what's going on with Woody Harrelson”. Another tweet read, “@WoodyHarrelson stop with your hillbilly mean guy videos. I'm skeert.” However, a few have established that it isn’t Harrelson but a random man who holds a striking resemblance to the actor....I'm going to say that if it isn't Harrelson in the video, then Harrelson ought to have done something by now to disavow the video or try to get it taken down.
Meanwhile, a few were convinced that the viral video was in fact a parody by Harrelson. “I ain’t gon’ lie, I thought this was Woody Harrelson doing a parody of a redneck,” wrote one follower.
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60 comments:
Exactly. It's a wet dream for big mouth chicken hawk deplorables.
Tompkins has some kind of retard thing going on with his avatar. Is he a baboon or playing at being Richard Harrow?
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
-Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins
That's not really Woody. Tompkins was making a joke.
Agree. He's saying, You want no police? Well this guy, and others that think like him, is what you'll get. Create a safety and security vacuum by eliminating the police and all those preppers and gun-toting 2A advocates will step in to fill it.
From the quotes you cite he comes across to me more as a libertarian than anarchist, even though he self-identifies with the latter.
Harrelson is not making fun of Somali pirates and Boko Haram.
That would be racist.
The people who scare us into not wanting to abolish the police are not funny.
Well, perhaps that's not always true. Someone called Ragnar Shaggy-britches is obviously doing it for laughs.
Interesting comments given who his father was....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson
Change the word "redneck" to "gangsta".
Put Samuel L. Jackson in a hoodie and have him repeat the performance.
The difference between Tarantino and Spike Lee, maybe.
I am Laslo.
It makes sense that Woody doesn't like the police, since his father was convicted of murdered for hire and died in federal prison.
It seems clear that Woody is describing, for the “woke” crowd, the Hobbesian nightmare that would follow abolishing the police, no?
One more video starring Woody Harrelson that I'll skip. That anyone would hire him to play a major role in a movie about Midway is beyond me.
On defunding the police, I'm just glad I don't live in a poor neighborhood.
Well, his father did assassinate a federal judge... Maybe it's not a complete act.
"people could be just fine looking after themselves"
Sure. Strong, healthy people with guns. The rest, not so much, unless they ally with a tribe that protects them.
After a while, a demand rises for someone, anyone, to protect most people against predators. End of anarchism.
Yeah I think that Woody is trying to taunt the Left, by that I mean the agitators who are demanding defunding the police. I think he has probably seen some messaging from Democratic pols, notably Joe Biden, who are trying to walk back defunding the police to something more about reform and change. I think he wants to anger the agitators so that they continue to actually press for full defunding. He even gives them a timetable, "1 Month". Which I suspect is short enough of a time period for non complete anarchy to set in.
In a tangential note, I think this reflects a division in the Left where the agitators and protesters, where all the energy is at the moment, do actually want to defund the police, where lots of the pols, talking heads, and less extreme Democrat voters, instead want to push it into reform. There was I think an emblematic tweet below Woody's that said.
Wife: I want a divorce.
Me: I think what mean is marriage reform.
The tweeter is I'm assuming of the defund the police faction, and is making fun of people on the left, who are trying to alter the clear language the people are using.
Number one I don't believe we should look too celebrities for our politics. They don't live real lives and can't relate to those who do.
Number two Woody harrelson is certainly has the wealth and power to protect himself should the anarchists come after him.
number three Nixon never gets any credit for actually ending the Vietnam war.
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
He's definitely taunting the people who want to do away with the police by suggesting they won't like the outcome they are arguing for. He's calling them stupid and short-sighted.
I'm more torn on his attitude towards rednecks. His delivery is spot-on enough that I think he knows them well (I think I know them well-enough to judge), which would suggest some level of respect for them (if he didn't respect them, he wouldn't get to know them so well). But my general knowledge of Harrelson makes me doubt he respects them, so I'm left with the unsatisfying conclusion that it's just a good delivery from a good actor.
I think that's not Woody Harrelson.
I think PFT and related artists I've loved and supported for years keep making it harder to ignore their political stances/beliefs, which makes it harder to appreciate their work, and that's a shame--I have never minded having different beliefs, but an awful lot of these guys are going out of their way to communicate that they don't want me as a fan.
I think that's not Woody Harrelson.
I think PFT and related artists I've loved and supported for years keep making it harder to ignore their political stances/beliefs, which makes it harder to appreciate their work, and that's a shame--I have never minded having different beliefs, but an awful lot of these guys are going out of their way to communicate that they don't want me as a fan.
Woody's dad was convicted for murdering a federal judge.
But Woody was good in "No Country for Old Men."
I'm unclear. Is this the real Woody Harrelson saying abolish the police or a fake Woody Harrelson? It is unclear to me from your post.
As for expanding the VN war, here's US troop levels by Year. Nixon took office in Jan 69:
1967 485,600
1968 536,100
1969 475,200
1970 334,600
1971 156,800
1972 24,200
1973 50
John Henry
He's a natural comic in outtakes from Edge of Seventeen DVD (2016).
I will say that from a messaging standpoint, it is generally bad news for the Left that the American Flag is clearly a symbol of the Right in America. The founding fathers are kind of leaning that way too, which would also be bad for the left for messaging.
I guess the Left does have Che, and that Unibrowed, Communist, Mexican painter chick.
Its just another way, and not a creative one, to insult the American volk.
It will amuse his audience, which is not of the volk.
I think the video is funny, so whatever the message, it is a success. I think he is making fun of rednecks AND the social justice warrior set. Mostly the latter, because they are obviously morons who don't think things through to logical conclusions. Rednecks may have poor taste and be uncouth, but they've got basic reasoning down.
No problem for Woody, he already has a bodyguard. At worst he would just need to hire one or two more.
I... don't know what to think. It's so jarring when you have the Robin-Williams-as-Mork transforming into Robin-Williams-as-whoever-he-was-in-Good-Will-Hunting, the Tom-Hanks-as-crossdressing-straight-guy mutating into Tom-Hanks-as-dude-in-Philadelphia, the Woody-Harrelsen-as-bartender-from-the-sticks metamorphosing into Woody-Harrelsen-as-natural-born-killer... Stay in your lanes, you people.
(IOW, I love the craft of acting. I deplore the American -?- tendency reflexively to ascribe Deep Thoughts to actors - not that I think that's what our host is doing - and the tendency of actors to believe their every Thought is Deep.)
maguire said..." His delivery is spot-on enough that I think he knows them well (I think I know them well-enough to judge),"...
That was a caricature of the redneck stereotype, not knowledge of the real thing. Sorry.
Its like he watched those "Duck Dynasty guys" on cable once or twice.
Sound and fury. Woody Harrelson is nuts, no matter what he means.
Besides African examples cited above, there's ISIS still doing police work here and there, caning women for showing their faces and girls for wanting to learn something besides baking barazij. I suppose they are also still experimenting with homosexual flight -- just a little more starting height and a bit more humph on the launch and a nancyboy can take wing better than Icarus himself... a least that's the theory.
Just in case the reader takes offense at examples of black and brown amateur constabularies, there are plenty of examples of white people enforcing order of a sort, and not just Medieval seafaring pagans, but ostensibly Christain Americans. There's Curly Bill Brocius and Ike Clanton, Billy Bonny and his Regulators, Frank and Jesse. More recently there's Alphonse Capone, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia -- not to mention various keagles, dragons, and imperial wizards.
The point is this: Those who call for abolishing the police or even curtailing their presence and authority are ignorant fools. Abolishing the police isn't simply unwise. It's impossible. Order will be enforced. In a decent society, the enforced order will issue forth from laws decreed by the citizens through they're duly appointed government, that's the essence of civilization. Without that kind of enforced order, let's call it law enforcement, the inevitable alternative is the enforced will of those willing to use whatever level violence and coercion needed to obtain your submission. If you BLM sympathizers want to stop being citizens and start being the clients of warlords and gang chieftains you could hardly make a more effective start than "abolishing the police".
But down the Ta'Nishi Coates, you dimwits, and pick up Thomas Hobbes. Learn a lesson the easy way for once in your benighted, useless lives.
Create a safety and security vacuum by eliminating the police and all those preppers and gun-toting 2A advocates will step in to fill it.
I suspect that the problems, if the police were disbanded, would more likely arise from elsewhere than preppers and 2A advocates. See, e.g., Baltimore post-Freddie Gray (police took a stand-down approach, violent crime skyrocketed), no-go zones in Europe (honor killings, child rape, domestic violence), downtown Minneapolis...
I'd be curious how deep his anarchism actually runs. People, especially on the Trendy Left and the Stupid Left, use the term loosely and (as with most things) without much thought. Literally the word "anarchy" means no-rule yet you scratch the surface of many sef-styled anarchists and there's a bunch of people they want to rule.
Buwaya is right. He is imagining he is highlighting an inconsistency in the law and order crowd, and feels safe in mocking *them*. We saw the same schtick with rednecks confused by ladders at a mexican wall.
That was funny. He just wants to smoke pot and be left alone.
Woody Harrelson for President!!!!
THAT GUY IS NOT WOODY HARRELSON. UGH.
Jamie: modern method acting is realistic because the actors are not thinking at all. It's all about feeling and emotion and apparently listening to the other actors. At least that's what I got from watching it doesn't episodes of inside the actors studio. Best episode ever Dennis Hopper.
Yeah, I don't think that's Woody Harrelson.
It helps to have millions in the bank and a nice cozy place on Maui - to be a proper anarchist.
Even anarchists like a local police department.
Might come in handy when those Antifa a-holes decide to paint the Circle A on your back and throw a brick at your family thru a window.
Ask Tucker Carlson.
here's a comment I probably shouldn't make, but:
I find it interesting that some folks who are convinced of the illegitimacy of multi-generational racial guilt for slavery in the US are on the same forum with those who wait about three milliseconds to remind us of the awful deeds of Woody's dar.
Don't see that being discussed here, myself. First principles and all that.
Still, this video is a pretty blunt instrument for shaping policy decisions. That makes it appropriate for our times.
I think the tweet is saying that this person in the video is *like* a Woody Harrelson character, which I think is also questionable. I can't think of a movie where he played anyone like that, but then I haven't seen all his movies. The guy in the video looks more like Randy Quaid to me.
@tommyesq: I'm inclined to agree with you. I think Harrelson is using the persona he is to increase the number of people he's communicating to, not because he really believes rednecks, preppers, and 2A people will start killing in the absence of police.
That was a caricature of the redneck stereotype, not knowledge of the real thing. Sorry.
Its like he watched those "Duck Dynasty guys" on cable once or twice.
At best.
If you think that is an accurate characterization of ANY large group you are viewing the world by a reflection in a fun house mirror.
I joked on twitter that we should just replace the police with game wardens. They could write citations for things like doing more than the allotted number of home invasions listed on your permit, killing more than three bystanders in a bank robbery, stuff like that. Killing of protesters would be highly regulated, like migratory waterfowl, special permits would be required and strict limits put in place so as not to deplete the population.
I am not sure that the people calling violence a form of direct democracy have really thought it through.
Lost in London is a funny movie and based on an actual thing that happened to Woody one night there.
Cop has Woody in a hold and says “Who’s a natural born killer?”
“You are, you are a natural born killer” replies Woody.
mezzow
I don't think anyone implied Woody Harrelson is guilty for his father's sins. The implication is that his father dying in prison might give him a reason to hate the law.
You would get widespread vigilantism without a police force. This would be especially true in the United States since so many normal citizens own massive numbers of guns and ammo, and more would do so without a police force- you would see everyone buy a gun in New York City and D.C. despite the strict gun control laws.
Someone in a thread said look to Mexico as a model of a country without a police force. That is right some regards, but it misses a bigger point- most citizens in Mexico don't actually own firearms, especially not modern ones- the criminal organizations do, but not the normal citizens. Mexico looks like the US inner city slums in this regard because of the gun control laws in those cities, but the rest of the US isn't like that, nor will it ever be like that.
I like it. I’d love it, but it probably has the effect of scaring some sense into leftists, backing them off from their ACAB fantasy. I’d rather they got their way, followed swiftly by what’s coming to them.
Woody knows rednecks because he grew up among them/as one.. He knows leftists because he is one, sort of, if anarchists accurately fit anywhere on the political spectrum. He also knows limousine liberals, because he lives among/works with them.
Also, anarchism is not the same as anarchy. It’s more skin to libertarianism, or even states rights, or more aptly, local rights and sovereignty. Woody is mockingly calling for anarchy in a reductio ad absurdum because even an anarchist doesn’t want chaos.
The truth is, the police are as much or more to protect the accused from us, as to protect us from the accused. See also: KKK and lynching. How'd that lack of accountable law enforcement work out for the black community?
I know it’s a character being played, but is it not Woody Harrelson playing the character?
Too confusing!
He seems to good at playing a comic character....
Bleh.
I wouldn’t have put it up if I didn’t think it was him.
I'm not that good with faces, but usually very good at recognizing voices. I'm fairly sure that's not Harrelson.
I’m so tired of people claiming to be Anarchists. It’s nothing more than a subset of Utopianism. Fucking useless people who BELIEVE bullshit like anarchy.
It’s probably not really Woody.
"who BELIEVE bullshit like anarchy."
Anti-capitalist Marxists
Actors have no special insight into anything other than their own industry. And they don't do very will with their own industry. The Harvey Weinstein saga, with decades of female stars covering up his rapes to get movie roles, should indicate to you that actors are not to be trusted on anything more important than which side of their face photographs the best.
Wow, if I can't get a clear answer and it's actually not Woody, then it was really wrong to name Woody in the tweet.
I clicked on the tweet and one of the commenters said "that's definitely no Woody Harrelson" and the author, Paul Tompkins, replied "I definitely know that."
I'm usually good at faces, and this guy is a doppleganger for Woody Harrelson, but I'm pretty sure it's not him.
Woody has a gap in his front teeth. And the voice is wrong.
"Wow, if I can't get a clear answer and it's actually not Woody, then it was really wrong to name Woody in the tweet."
It's not Woody Harrelson. It's a "Woody Harrelson Character." like saying this "Abe Lincoln Character" about a guy who looks like Abe Lincoln.
Why are people so shocked by this video? If the police are removed vigilantes, redneck or otherwise, will step into the power vacuum to protect their own.
Think of it as a public service announcement.
That is not Woody Harrelson the well known actor. Harrelson is a good decade older and has tiny button teeth with a diastema.
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