Hollywood hypocrite Joss WhedonThe Hollywood Left are a whiny, tiresome, hypocritical bunch.
Screenwriter-producer-director-composer-occasional actor Joss Whedon has a net worth of $45 million. He acquired that enormous pile of lucre by creating and directing several successful television shows, most notably the cult favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse.
Whedon just hit the big time with the blockbuster movie Avengers, which is the third highest-grossing film worldwide and the highest-grossing 2012 film, earning more than $612 million in North America, as of July 10, 2012, and over $843 million in other countries, as of July 8, 2012, for a worldwide total of $1.455 billion.
TV and movie making, of course, are capitalist enterprises that had made Whedon a multimillionaire, richer beyond most Americans’ dreams. But Whedon wants you to know that he absolutely despises capitalism and instead lauds socialism as “beautiful.”
John Nolte reports for Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, July 14, 2012, that Whedon told an audience that he was raised by people on the Upper Westside neighborhood of Manhattan in the 1970s who thought socialism was a ”beautiful concept.”
Whedon is frustrated by how socialism remains a taboo word in American politics. He blames it on — you guessed it — Republicans who calls “socialist” Obama, his administration’s many initiatives, as well as laws that advocate increasing spending on social welfare programs. Whedon traces this horrible misuse of the word “socialism” to — you guessed it — Ronald Reagan.
Whedon hysterically laments: “We are watching capitalism destroy itself right now. [America is] turning into Tsarist Russia [and] we’re creating a country of serfs. We have people trying to create structures and preserve the structures that will help the middle and working class, and people calling them socialists. It’s not Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal […] it’s some people with some sense of dignity and people who have gone off the reservation.”
Not that socialism or communism works mind you-I wouldn’t even dream of advancing that argument-but we should be honest that modern capitalism as it has been practiced in the west has been an outstanding failure.
But not for the obvious reasons. It takes a MORAL people and government to make capitalism work. We don’t have that anymore. Our economy has devolved into a oligarchy/Kleptocracy primarily because the electorate is morally corrupt. How does one explain the rise of crony capitalism where the bankers and their corporate brothers get preferential treatment by their government regulators and the rest of America gets the shaft?
Bill Clinton was a horribly amoral man-yet the public/electorate LOVED him (well, that would be women for the most part). Yet his campaign donors got preferential treatment (Loral getting said treatment by the Clinton White House over the objection of the Clinton State Department). Obama was heavily backed by the “Alternative Energy” crowd and how did that work out (S0landrya)?
I’m sure Romney, if elected, will put the financial interests of his campaign donors over the best interests of the United States.
Sorry, free-market economies are dead. Just not for the reasons the libs say so.
@Ivan:
Ivan, I agree with all of what you state except for a few things. What we see practiced in America today is not even remotely associated with Capitalism, and Capitalism does NOT necessarily require a moral people.
When government got into the business of backing “winners” and shedding, or ignoring, “losers”, OR rather, those they favored over those they did not, we started on a course away from having a free market economy to one resembling Nazi Germany, without the obvious government/corporate links.
Those links have been surfacing for some time now and people are rightly angry about it all, both at the GOP and the Democratic party, both of which have led the country towards the failure you describe.
And while you find it either amusing, or sad, or BS, that people are supporting the GOP over Obama and his tyrannical rule, the alternative for those people is to experience the last four years, again, only this time around much, much worse.
As for Romney, I don’t think any conservative is under the illusion that he will lead the country open, honest, and transparent. He is an animal of the establishment GOP, and should be viewed as such.
The sad fact is that neither Obama nor Romney give me much hope for the future.
Good comments, Ivan.
As for the imbecile who is the subject of this topic, it only shows that money may change one’s lifestyle, but it won’t change their stupidity and ignorance one bit.
When will people realized that Capitalism/Socialism are idealized models and are not realized—in their pure form—and arguing about them just obscures the real point: How can a government secure the health, freedom, and safety of its own people? These points are not generally the concerns of ultra-conservative, who place emphasis on the successful individual rather the on the success of all members of society.
@Liberal1 (objectivity):
No, conservatives place emphasis on the opportunity for all members of society to have success, which is quite different than ensuring all members of society actually do have success, which is an impossibility.
By trying to ensure that all members of society end up successful, the liberal/progressives lower the bar so far that success is measured as simply staying alive, rather than actually prospering.
But please, Lib1, continue to tell us your “wisdom” regarding society, economy, and life in general.
When will liberals learn that the last, most unqualified people to rant against capitalism are the ones who made their fortunes through capitalism?
Kind of amazing that such a tiny mind brought us the moral clarity of the Independents, versus the Nanny-State amorality of the Alliance, no?
@johngalt: @johngalt:
Yes, I said that. You are making my point: An amoral electorate ALLOWS this to happen-or we could say makes it happen-by not taking seriously their responsibility as citizens in a Republic.
We’ve gotten to the point of capitalizing gains and socializing losses BECAUSE the electorate ELECTS leaders who allow this to happen.
Take the TARP bailout. Supposedly, the phone calls were 300-1 AGAINST TARP. Yet, mysteriously, the voters then two months later turn around and massively RE-ELECT those who voted for TARP.
Sorry, a moral people would have voted to punish the TARP supporters, not reward them.
I know we agree, but I don’t think we have the disagreement you suggest.
@Ivan:
I see your point and agree with that point of view.
I think that I took issue with you stating that it takes a Moral people and government to make capitalism work, but I didn’t look at it from the point of view of the electorate voting in the people who cause capitalism to morph into socialistic and crony capitalism type mechanisms. From that standpoint, you are absolutely correct.
Capitalism, when left to it’s own devices without government interference, actually works very well and those companies who put out a good product at decent prices will do very well while the “snake-oil” salesman will eventually fall on their face. Government, though, allows the “snake-oil” salesman to continue on much longer than they should by propping them up with grants, low-interest “loans”, tax incentives, false markets, and any other number of government programs designed to “prevent” people from failing.
I’ve said before that our federal government’s job, as far as business goes, is to allow ONLY an equal opportunity. That equal opportunity includes the opportunity to fail, as well as succeed. In order to prevent failure, government must also limit the success that some enjoy, which further limits the advances that businesses are able to make technologically and economically, both of which benefit the consumer as well as the businesses involved.
@Liberal1 (objectivity):
Are you for real? Name me one problem that government programs have solved? Homelessness? Education? Poverty?
Sure, you can argue vaccination programs, but that is more of a technology issue than government.
1. I see more homeless than I have ever seen in my life these days?
2. Poverty is skyrocketing, despite TRILLIONS of dollars supposed to cure poverty in the US.
3. Education-it’s horrid. Government education is a failure and is getting worse.
4. The Post Office. Get real.
Negative. It is socialist entitlement programs that is creating a nation of serfs, and Democratic-Socialist “Change” that is purposely trying to destroy Capitalism, led by a far-left, imperialistic, anti-Constitution ideologue.