Celebrity Politics.

[rumballs]

Originally Posted by croatan

The problem, as I see it, is that unintelligent, uneducated lemmings blindly believe what some of these celebrities say.

... or they blindly believe what some of the politicians say.

[Txdawg]

Originally Posted by RumblePen

Since the Clooney thread is about economics and the Tom Cruise thread is about scientology and dingbat closet homosexuals, I figured I'd start a new one.

A couple of questions.

When you're famous you should no longer be allowed to have an opinion and voice that opinion?

Or is just when it's a liberal opinion?

Should Ronald Reagan and Arnold Swarzeneggar have just shut the hell up and stuck to acting?

What makes a celebrity less qualified in politics than anyone else when the only qualification for being a politician IS popularity?

I just don't understand why everyone gets so pissed when some famous movie star gets politically active, or simply states an opinion.

And one another thing that's been on my mind recently. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are hypocrits. They criticize other celebrities for voicing a political view, yet they do the same damn thing with South Park!

Very well said....my is simply that people should not give any more credit to these people JUST because they are actors. The actors themselves have every right to voice their opinions, and they may even know what they are talking about. I think the problem lies more with the general public taking their opinions and giving them more weight because they are famous.

[colgate]

Originally Posted by Txdawg

Very well said....my is simply that people should not give any more credit to these people JUST because they are actors. The actors themselves have every right to voice their opinions, and they may even know what they are talking about. I think the problem lies more with the general public taking their opinions and giving them more weight because they are famous.

Maaatt Daaaamon.

[Jeff]

I think Arnold has actually done a decent job. I like it when an outsider gets in. They usually aren't beholden to any parties. Woudn't want him to be president though.

[TTgirl]

Originally Posted by RumblePen

Since the Clooney thread is about economics and the Tom Cruise thread is about scientology and dingbat closet homosexuals, I figured I'd start a new one.

A couple of questions.

When you're famous you should no longer be allowed to have an opinion and voice that opinion?

Or is just when it's a liberal opinion?

Should Ronald Reagan and Arnold Swarzeneggar have just shut the hell up and stuck to acting?

What makes a celebrity less qualified in politics than anyone else when the only qualification for being a politician IS popularity?

I just don't understand why everyone gets so pissed when some famous movie star gets politically active, or simply states an opinion.

And one another thing that's been on my mind recently. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are hypocrits. They criticize other celebrities for voicing a political view, yet they do the same damn thing with South Park!

Here's part of what I responded with to a similar question posed on the Clooney thread:

#22 It's been my experience that celebs of either political ilk are for the most part ill-informed and given to bouts of hysteria, so any cause would probably be better served if they exercised some restraint.

And here's what I posted on the Tom Cruise thread:

#40 Celebs are people who, for the most part, have lost touch with reality because they've isolated themselves in their own little enclave for such a long time, and are constantly being told how wonderful they are by the ass-kissers and hanger-onners they surround themselves with. Is it any surprise that any of them would have the nerve to think that they'd be instant experts on anything?

So yes, I'd rather they discussed politics among their friends and acquaintances in the same way we do. Like Croatan said, there are plenty of lemmings who would sooner take the word of Justin Timberlake on some issue of national importance than actually go do a little research for themselves. (Hey, who knows, Justin may be all there when it comes to national issues, but I won't know that till I go see for myself.)

And it's all an outgrowth of the increasing amount of time on evening news broadcasts spent on who's doing who in Hollywood, what the big weekend movie opening is, interviews with various actors on how difficult/challenging their latest roles were to portray, etc. and so on ad infinitum.

There's rarely anything to tell us of an upcoming congressional vote on a bill that may end up taking a bigger chunk out of your paycheck, or that may chip away at some of your constitutional rights. If there is, it's usually some celeb on his or her way into some industry awards ceremony talking about how they flew in their private jet over some poor people on the way to another awards ceremony and how we need to DO SOMETHING, so we should vote for the guy who wants to help the poor people by throwing billions of dollars at the problem. So where are we going to get these billions from, and how's it going to get spent? Who cares! Whatshername Starlet looked soooo good, she must have had her nose done and did you see the earrings she was wearing?

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good movie, but it has its place.

I'm getting tired of having my life dictated by airheads and idiots, quite frankly.

Oh, and good luck keeping this on-topic!

[Spagg]

Originally Posted by rjose

You have to realize that everything with them is tongue in cheek. Sure they made fun of celebrities, rather directly, for voicing their political views. But at the same time they were criticizing the war on terror and blind nationalism in a slightly more subtle way (at least as subtle as one can get while saying "America, **** yah"). Have you ever seen them come out and say, "vote for candidate X"? I haven't. I don't think that they endorse one party over the other, but just call it like they see it. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with making your TV shows, movie, book, poetry, etc., political as long as you remain objective and refrain from blatantly endorsing one camp or another.

I agree with this statement. Whenever I have watched an episode of South Park that deals with political issues (or really any "important" issues), they seem to always make fun of everyone. They make fun of the left, the right, the middle, the religious and the non-religious etc.

[steve12553]

Celebrities are entitled to an opinion the same as each of us. They also have just as much right to express it. Not more. Not under false pretexts or before a large audience that they have access to because they can act or sing or model. If they want to expound on politics they should aquire there audience in a fair manner. Everyone here can express their opinion to an audience of their peers. We are using our powers of persuasion to make our points not our charisma. If they want to go before a large audience for political reasons let them run for office, be scrutinized, have their qualifications examined. Another thing that was brought up was South Park. South Park is political satire in a very broad form. I also noticed that everyone is fair game- Liberal, Conservative, Celebrity of Historical Figure.

[TTgirl]

Originally Posted by Spagg

I agree with this statement. Whenever I have watched an episode of South Park that deals with political issues (or really any "important" issues), they seem to always make fun of everyone. They make fun of the left, the right, the middle, the religious and the non-religious etc.

Yep, they're definitely equal opportunity offenders. The Simpsons is in that same vein.