Collarspace Discussion Forums


Home  Login  Search 

Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you care about an actor's political beliefs?


View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
 
All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion >> Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you care about an actor's political beliefs? Page: [1] 2   next >   >>
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you care... - 9/14/2010 10:26:39 PM   
CrispinC


Posts: 32
Joined: 9/14/2010
Status: offline 		I've had a few strange experiences of late with coworkers and friends of friends in which I will mention, in passing, a fondness for a television show or movie and they'll immediately become offended by the political/cultural affiliations of a cast member.  A number of people have mentioned that they can't watch Dark Blue because they "can't stand Dylan McDermott" (because he spoke at the DNC once) and the level of vitriol expressed against 30 Rock because of Baldwin/Fey is pretty staggering.

It also shouldn't go unremarked that I know a handful of people who won't watch anything Tina Fey related because she once made an insufficiently glowing remark about Jon Stewart.  Also I know people who won't watch Frasier reruns because Frasier is a right winger.   There are also, natch, people who watch anything Frasier does (including Down Periscope or whatever) specifically because he IS a right winger.

To me, this is all much too vertiginous and confusing and generally a waste of time--I prefer to like or dislike nuggets of entertainment based on whether or not they entertain me.  Like, I'm pretty sure I'd still love His Girl Friday if Cary Grant had turned out to be a Nazi spy, and I'd still love Weird Science if John Hughes had been a card carrying LaRouche supporter.  But I'm wondering how other people feel--if you find out unflattering things about the political and cultural leanings of writers/actors/whatever does it sour your appreciation for their work?


_____________________________

Words are weapons, sharper than knives
Makes ya wonder how the other half dies
INXS

Profile   Post #: 1
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/14/2010 10:29:18 PM   
DomKen


Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004
From: Chicago, IL
Status: offline 		At present the only acor I'm purposely avoiding for "political" reasons is Mel Gibson. I'm doing so to avoid helping to fund the things he supports.

(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 2
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/14/2010 10:29:33 PM   
GreedyTop


Posts: 52100
Joined: 5/2/2007
From: Savannah, GA
Status: offline 		I don't pay any attention to the politics of the actor if I enjoy the show. 

_____________________________

polysnortatious
Supreme Goddess of Snark
CHARTER MEMBER: Lance's Fag Hags!
Waiting for my madman in a Blue Box.

(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 3
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/14/2010 10:37:01 PM   
CrispinC


Posts: 32
Joined: 9/14/2010
Status: offline
quote:

t present the only acor I'm purposely avoiding for "political" reasons is Mel Gibson. I'm doing so to avoid helping to fund the things he supports.


See, already I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I'd totally avoid Mel Gibson if I liked any of his projects to start with.  I guess his antisemitism and treatment of women strikes me as so vile it is less a political issue and more of a moral one.

On the same note, I've never been able to watch any of Polanski's films.


_____________________________

Words are weapons, sharper than knives
Makes ya wonder how the other half dies
INXS


(in reply to DomKen)
Profile   Post #: 4
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/14/2010 11:20:44 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: GreedyTop

I don't pay any attention to the politics of the actor if I enjoy the show. 


I could walk right by an actor on the street and I wouldn't know it.
I'm not a t.v. person except for the History Channel, A&E, and the Business channel.
I stopped watching t.v. shows that last 30 minutes and, "come to a quick resolution" decades ago! "Shit-coms."

_____________________________

"But Your Honor, this is not a Jury of my Peers, these people are all decent, honest, law-abiding citizens!"

(in reply to GreedyTop)
Profile   Post #: 5
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 3:46:10 AM   
COINT


Posts: 45
Joined: 4/29/2010
Status: offline 		I dont have time for T.V. I'm dodging the whole war...and I'm on a security detail during the Toronto film festival!

(in reply to popeye1250)
Profile   Post #: 6
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 4:40:51 AM   
Lucylastic


Posts: 40310
Status: offline 		I enjoy Kelsey Grammer, and honestly couldnt give a damn what he is politically.
The only person I really dont like and avoid, even more so since 2008 is jon voight, something about him just makes me wanna bitch slap him into a hole.oooh ok, there is one more, but thats cos I find her to be even more moronic than I did when she was "fun" is that victoria jackson blonde dumbo. She is completely whacked.

Someones politics is not a criteria for me tho, obnoxious and mentally ugly come in all stripes.
OK so two out of a huge number... I feel ok with that

_____________________________

(•_•)
<) )╯SUCH
/ \

\(•_•)
( (> A NASTY
/ \

(•_•)
<) )> WOMAN
/ \

Duchess Of Dissent
Dont Hate Love

(in reply to COINT)
Profile   Post #: 7
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 4:52:18 AM   
rulemylife


Posts: 14614
Joined: 8/23/2004
Status: offline 		I won't watch anything Dennis Miller does anymore.  Not that he ever was really funny, even on SNL.

But watching his bloated carcass get all giggly with Bill O'Reilly is a little more than I can take.

(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 8
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 5:11:03 AM   
Kana


Posts: 6676
Joined: 10/24/2006
Status: offline 		With very few exceptions, I could care less what some high school dropout actor/singer/musician/whatever thinks about damn near anything.
Why should I give a damn what any starlet/mimbo/bimbo thinks?
Now, if Jonas Salk or Bill Gates wants to talk, you know, someone who actually did something, changed the world, then I may listen.





_____________________________

"One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. "
HST

(in reply to rulemylife)
Profile   Post #: 9
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 5:13:06 AM   
Moonhead


Posts: 16520
Joined: 9/21/2009
Status: offline 		If people are blackballing actors over political beliefs, maybe they just aren't going far enough?
There's plenty of dead actors who are politically dodgy, after all. Why should John Wayne (a thoroughly reactionary type who proagandised for vietnam) or Errol Flynn (who was notoriously rather taken with Germany's nazi party) get let off purely for having stopped breathing?

In fact, just stopping with actors, and ignoring the rest of pop culture seems a bit half hearted. There's plenty of pop bands, writers and artists with strong ideological axes to grind, and unlike most actors, this is often made completely blatant in their work. Just listen to Rush's 2112, and then try to argue that they aren't queer for Ayn Rand, to pick an obvious example. The libertarian element on here are probably a lot more taken with them, and the fact that they spent most of their '70s interviews giving mad props to Rand, than the lefties. (I'd say that the lefties probably like U2 a bit more than the objectivist element do, but hopefully everybody thinks they're a dreadful band fronted by a self righteous wanker and avoids...)

And that's without even getting started on prose fiction. There are Marxists SF writers who refuse to even discuss Robert Heinlein or the people who've spent lengthy careers shitting out third rate pastiches of his work from the '50s. Equally, there's a lot of left leaning horror writers who are happy to cite HP Lovecraft as an influence, despite finding his racism, anti semitism and vile attitude towards women offputting.

Actors, on the other hand, spend their careers parrotting lines somebody else has scripted and trying to look like they mean it. Who gives a shit what they think about anything?

_____________________________

I like to think he was eaten by rats, in the dark, during a fog. It's what he would have wanted...
(Simon R Green on the late James Herbert)

(in reply to rulemylife)
Profile   Post #: 10
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 5:14:50 AM   
thishereboi


Posts: 14463
Joined: 6/19/2008
Status: offline
quote:

To me, this is all much too vertiginous and confusing and generally a waste of time--I prefer to like or dislike nuggets of entertainment based on whether or not they entertain me.


Yea, that pretty much describes me. I'm not going to marry the actor or spend any time with them, I just want to watch the movie and be entertained.


_____________________________

"Sweetie, you're wasting your gum" .. Albert


This here is the boi formerly known as orfunboi


(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 11
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 5:31:36 AM   
tazzygirl


Posts: 37833
Joined: 10/12/2007
Status: offline 		The only one i avoid.. and its not an actor.. i wont watch anything done by polanski... and it has nothing to do with his politics.

_____________________________

Telling me to take Midol wont help your butthurt.
RIP, my demon-child 5-16-11
Duchess of Dissent 1
Dont judge me because I sin differently than you.
If you want it sugar coated, dont ask me what i think! It would violate TOS.

(in reply to thishereboi)
Profile   Post #: 12
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 5:53:36 AM   
servantforuse


Posts: 6363
Joined: 3/8/2006
Status: offline 		I avoid Janeane Garofalo and Susan Sarandon. These two babes are way out there in leftie land.

(in reply to tazzygirl)
Profile   Post #: 13
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 6:49:30 AM   
ScaryJello


Posts: 103
Joined: 10/19/2006
Status: offline 		I couldn't care less what the actor is like of screen. He could be a raging white supremacist who beats his retarded child with a bible every night before bed, but if the movies or shows he is in are good then I will watch them. I don't care what my cook, waiter, dry cleaner or taxi driver think. If I enjoy the service and goods provided then I go.

After all this is still America and they have the right to think their thoughts and express them, ESPECIALLY if they disagree with the majority.

_____________________________

twitter: http://twitter.com/thescaryjello

blog: http://scaryjello.blogspot.com/

stories: http://scaryjello.wordpress.com/

(in reply to servantforuse)
Profile   Post #: 14
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 6:53:38 AM   
TheHeretic


Posts: 19100
Joined: 3/25/2007
From: California, USA
Status: offline 		Boycott an actor over politics? No. I might find Susan Sarandon annoying, but I still enjoy several of her movies. I did make a deliberate choice to stop watching Bill Maher's show, but that was because of his bigotry, not his left perspective.

At one point, I was very much looking forward to Roger Waters' anniversary tour of "The Wall," but as I've followed the hype, it seems he is taking a highly politicized, anti-war approach to what they'll be doing, and it looks more and more like I'm going to skip it. I'm willing to drop a couple hundred bucks on tickets, and spend several hours driving for a concert, but not to spend the time feeling deliberately alienated. I'm certainly not going to pull his music off the i-pod, though.

_____________________________

If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.


(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 15
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 8:25:56 AM   
THELADY


Posts: 116
Joined: 7/2/2004
Status: offline 		only michael moore turns me off.....the fat ass slob cries aginst america and the free market the whole while making megga bucks off it.

otherwise their politics are not what makes actors good or bad. and for the time being this is still America where anyone should be able to say what they believe.

(in reply to TheHeretic)
Profile   Post #: 16
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 9:28:30 AM   
juliaoceania


Posts: 21383
Joined: 4/19/2006
From: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Status: offline
quote:

But I'm wondering how other people feel--if you find out unflattering things about the political and cultural leanings of writers/actors/whatever does it sour your appreciation for their work?




It has impacted my opinion of certain artists, yes. I wouldn't make a point of telling other people I dislike someone because of their political views, but it has poisoned the well for me in the past. Like I said, if someone brought up how much they loved Chuck Norris, I wouldn't dis him on his political views, but I find myself repelled by him, nonetheless

_____________________________

Once you label me, you negate me ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Reality has a well known Liberal Bias ~ Stephen Colbert

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt

(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 17
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 9:29:55 AM   
juliaoceania


Posts: 21383
Joined: 4/19/2006
From: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Status: offline
quote:

I guess his antisemitism and treatment of women strikes me as so vile it is less a political issue and more of a moral one.


For many of us some political views are immoral....

_____________________________

Once you label me, you negate me ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Reality has a well known Liberal Bias ~ Stephen Colbert

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt

(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 18
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 10:08:40 AM   
Archer


Posts: 3207
Joined: 3/11/2005
Status: offline 		A few folks I have chosen not to support them financially based on politics. Most often I chose not to support them based on talent, LOL

I do believe that it is acceptable to use whatever criteria you want to determine who you are going to spend your leisure dollars on.
They are afterall YOUR dollars.

I'll echo here that Micheal More will never see a dollar of mine. The invention (or popularization) of the mockumentary should have been enough to have him jailed for life, if not executed. LOL



(in reply to juliaoceania)
Profile   Post #: 19
RE: Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you ... - 9/15/2010 11:42:01 AM   
LaTigresse


Posts: 26123
Joined: 1/15/2006
Status: offline 		I watch movies to be entertained. I don't give a fig about the political views of those that made it. I do care whether or not they made a movie worth spending my money on.

_____________________________

My twisted, self deprecating, sense of humour, finds alot to laugh about, in your lack of one!

Just because you are well educated, articulate, and can use big, fancy words, properly........does not mean you are right!

(in reply to CrispinC)
Profile   Post #: 20
Page:   [1] 2   next >   >>
All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion >> Are you a draft dodger in the Culture War? Do you care about an actor's political beliefs? Page: [1] 2   next >   >>
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts




Collarchat.com © 2025
Terms of Service Privacy Policy Spam Policy

0.094