Wow, that John Voight op-ed in the Washington Times really set off a right wing “Hollywood won’t let conservatives talk” festival of tears. They seized upon the words of some entertainment blogger and went back on the warpath. It’s not surprising. Artists are the one thing the right wing will never able to control in this country. Ever. And they can’t handle it.

On the 28th of July, Voight penned one of the dumbest op-eds I have ever read. It was mind bogglingly stupid. John Wells, of Hollywood-elsewhere.com, didn’t think it was the most brilliant piece either and he finished off a blog entry with this sentence.

The right wing, of course, went bat shit fucking crazy. How dare Hollywood threaten a man for speaking his mind! It’s blacklisting! It’s Nazism!

Uh, not so much. It’s actually just a blogger writing in the moment, being pissed off and hoping something like that would happen. Guess what? It wasn’t Steven Spielberg saying it. It wasn’t Sumner Redstone saying it. It wasn’t Tom Cruise saying it. Nope, it was someone with absolutely zero power saying it. It was about as important as the janitor at MGM saying it. But that certainly didn’t stop the right wing from losing their minds – or John Voight condemning the blacklisting.

First of all, fuck off, you idiot. Wells did not call for a blacklist, he just stated that a producer might think twice about wanting to spend time around someone who appears to be a blow hard idiot. That’s what it comes down to. Look, Voight is no longer a good actor. He is capable of delivering what is needed in movies like The Transformers. Nobody thinks of Voight when a juicy role comes along. He’s a limited character actor and they try to keep their personal life out of the spotlight as much as possible, because baggage harms their ability to be chameleons on screen.

Now, if you really want to piss off a writer in Hollywood, bring up the word “blacklist.” No one has suffered more from blacklisting than writers - at the hands of the right wing. For a bunch of right wing cunts to turn this term around and misuse it in their advantage is disgusting. The right wing destroyed people’s lives with blacklisting.

penned an op-ed for the Washington Post. It’s rife with the usual conservative grandiose victimization. He kicks off with a delightful story of how hard it is to be a conservative in Hollywood.

Oooooo. Wow. You mean, when you are in an area of the country that has political leanings toward one side, you don’t get applause for stating the opposite view? Holy shit. I never would have known that doing stand up in places like Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. I wouldn’t have known that when a guy in Mississippi yelled from the audience, “Why don’t you shut your fucking mouth?” I wouldn’t have known that when a girl in Georgia yelled, “Go home Yankee” as I walked the stage. And I certainly never would have picked that up when a woman told me I was going to hell as I told jokes in Oklahoma. How fucking stupid do you have to be to not understand that this is life.

Guess what? My liberal ass wasn’t invited back to those clubs. Wanna know why? Because I didn’t fit in. That’s called life. People naturally gather with like-minded people. I haven’t written many letters to the editor about my poor treatment in southern comedy clubs because I don’t have an obsession over things I can’t control. I’ve toured every state in the country and there were more than a few places where I had to hold my tongue, like the entire southern half of the United States. And I had to listen to many conversations about how horrible liberals are.

The most vile aspect of this right wing cry party is that the people hiring for the Department of Justice for the past 7 years had a blacklist. I’m not hearing much from the right wing about that problem. The complete politicizing of the Department of Justice and not a peep. But when a blogger comments that John Voight might not get a job, it’s shit storm time.

The right wing are cowardly, vile creatures. For them, all is well if they destroy the rule of law, but if movies are partisan in nature, a grievous wrong has been committed. They have the priorities of child molesters.

And lastly, artists will always be liberals. That’s how it works. And I’m sorry 24 has been renewed for another season. Another year of dirty, liberal propaganda.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. If you want to read more of his yammering, check out his blog Stop All Monsters.

Holy shit, just when you think the right wing can’t be more retarded, WALL-E comes out and they lose their shit. Apparently, WALL-E is an evil movie full of “liberal propaganda” and “fear mongering.” The sweet little robot movie is poisoning the minds of our youth with its “agenda.”

Wha? Would that agenda be, “Don’t pollute and get off your ass?” Seriously? That is what they are getting upset about? What the fuck is wrong with these morons? And they are morons. Take a look:

Shannen Coffin:

Hey, lady named after the box we put dead people in, the movie is about love and the dangers of excess. Believing in exercise and using your mind are not part of the “liberal agenda.” That God you worship sort of set shit up like that. He gave you parts to use. The movie is saying if you don’t use the shit God gave you, then it ain’t gonna work out that well. As far as all the pollution, you may want to become familiar with the term “exaggeration” because it is a pretty common storytelling tool. And as far as it being an "awful" story - welcome to the world of being alone.

Greg Pollowitz

Welcome to the world of irony, Greg. I guess it would be “like a 90 minute lecture” if anyone in the movie spoke during the first hour. See, Greg, people speak during lectures. That is actually what a lecture is. You just compared a movie where no one speaks to a lecture and you were serious, which is hilarious. This was a visual feast, during which your simple brain was forced to work without being told everything. Oh, and it’s a FUCKING CARTOON. Are you still mad at Dr. Seuss because of The Lorax? I see no difference between you and a shit-throwing monkey.

Glenn Beck:

Here’s a tip, Glenn: The movie is set in the future, so they aren’t teaching you kids that we have destroyed the Earth, but that we may if we don’t change our ways. But, hey, now you can be as mad at robots as you are at penguins. Also, Glenn, please tell me if you know what a closed system is, because you sound mildly retarded.

Glenn, did you just attempt to make your point with Styrofoam? Did you actually just convey irritation that your child may ask a question about the overuse of Styrofoam? Do you actually think only people who are excited to tell their kids about the problems of Styrofoam (no one) will enjoy Wall-E? Has a thought ever entered your brain that you didn’t allow to come out of your mouth?

Dirty Harry:

Oh, dear. You stupid asshole. Do you not understand that art imitates life – and films in particular reflect what is happening in society at that moment? For you to take such umbrage at a subtle moment is both astounding and laughable. Not once during this film did I, someone who hates Bush to his core, think about President Bush. Only you right wing morons seem to be frothing at the mouth over this kind of shit. And yet, I bet you still love when a “Clinton getting a blow job” joke rolls out of Robin Williams' pie hole. Oh, and thanks for hating the movie about the dangers of excess but loving the movie about rats cooking food. That’s a great message for kids.

You’re a fucking tool.

Jonah Goldberg:

Hey, thanks for being able to see through all the incredibly offensive images and enjoying the movie. But, I’m going to have to call you out on being a douchebag. For you to use the term “fear mongering” in a negative fashion is the height of irony.

Jonah, had this movie been about a world destroyed by terrorism, you would have jerked off until your penis looked like it had gone 15 rounds with Rocky. Maybe if conservatives had a creative bone in their body, they might be able to knock a few of those out of the park. But you guys don’t, so you won’t. Bummer for you.

Gennady Stolyarov II

Egregiously unrealistic?

Gennady, you know that was a cartoon, right? You understand that there is a difference between cartoons and documentaries, right? You know that people don’t have superpowers, like that family in The Incredibles, right? And that toys don’t talk and run around, like they did in Toy Story? Also, you understand that you are a fucking moron, right?

I understand that the right wing seems to have no ability to form complex thoughts. And I am not kidding, or making a nasty comment. I truly believe they do not have the capability to construct complex thoughts. They only see simplicity and then react with grunts and shrieks. WALL-E is a classic example.

The movie is a love story first. And the true villain is technology – but not in an overt way. Advances in technology allowed humans to break with nature, which led them to become divorced from their humanity. Their culture and society is completely artificial and they have moved about as far away from being human as possible. WALL-E is now more human than humans, as he longs for an intimate connection and enjoys the fruits of labor. WALL-E is on Earth, living a natural and organic life, while humans are in space, living an artificial life. People have now become so reliant on technology that they communicate via computer while sitting right next to each other, while WALL-E attempts to communicate by speaking and finding a common bond. It’s irony!

My favorite aspect of the right wing hatred are the movie's religious undertones.

The robot Eve brings forth the new “apple” in the form of a plant that tempts them to leave the false world they have created, the false God of technology and instead choose life. Too bad the simplistic right wing monkeys couldn’t see the obvious religious undertones due to their rage over piles of animated garbage. Oh, and wasn’t one of the seven deadly sins “Sloth?” Does the right wing now believe that excess is okay? How the fuck did they get to this place? They are more cartoony than WALL-E.

FearTheReaper may have started a blog.

While trying to light my cigarette this morning on a break during work (my Zippo was out of fuel, sadly), I came across this article (I was reading the print edition, of course). I found it very interesting. I've always felt that Europe is light-years ahead of the U.S. in certain respects, namely the social arena. And this might be another example.

For those of you with diminished attention spans, the article speaks of a $38 million dollar program the Dutch are instituting for schools and neighborhood in which they hope to stem the growth of right-wing nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism in their country. They're not fighting these groups--merely preventing new ones from forming. A rather novel idea, I'd say. Attacking the source of the problem, the root rather than the branches. Kill the body and the head will die.

After the 2004 death of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist, the number of hate crimes in the Netherlands rose sharply. Many of these involved Muslims in retaliatory attacks by Dutch citizens (Note: 5.5% or about 1 million of the country's population is Muslim). Such a reaction is natural, I suppose, given the current geopolitical situation. After all, it seems like in today's lightning-fast, media-driven, consumerism-saturated world, where everyone has their 15 gigabytes of fame, you really have to do something extreme to get noticed and have your voice truly heard above the din.

But let's get back to The Program, as it were.

Stopping hatred before it starts, is essentially what they're doing. Teaching the youth (5 to 16 or 18, I'm assuming) that such radicalism and subsequent hate (terror?) crimes will not be tolerated in their society, and on a larger scale, the world. That's absolutely brilliant, I say. Yes, parents are also responsible for the rearing and teaching of their children, especially on an intrapersonal level. But so is the government, and especially on the interpersonal level (ah, there's the Democrat in me). After all, it's a global society now, and whether we like it or not, we're all hooked up to the same cable now--as close together as stations on a dial. A shock at one end will travel round, affecting everyone. The flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, it seems.

I say bravo to the Dutch. I really hope their program works. Because as each new, successive generation inherits the planet (amid the cries of "It was broken when I got here!"), the problems and the solutions fall to them; they become the new stewards of society. There is a sense of duty and responsibility, I think, that they will accept. This planet is all we've got, and if the whole Human Comedy is to continue, we've got to live with each other as best we can--you and me, we're in this together now.

I don't know what the curriculum entails. I assume it's something along the lines of common sense: that in order for humanity to keep progressing, we've got to stop the formation of the radicals/fundamentalists of all stripes who wish to keep the status quo and drag us back into the Dark Ages because it's easier to just give in and not fight, it's more comfortable that way; change is bad. A static society is easier to control than a dynamic society.

I hope the Dutch kids go for this program. After all, the Netherlands is a very liberal country, it seems; we all know the stories about how Amsterdam is a creative and recreational capital, with its Red-Light District and 'coffeehouses' and other so-called 'hedonistic' venues. Hell, they have the brains to legalize all the things we good Americans consider bad and impure, and what do they get: a pretty laidback and liberal society. They're a beacon of social tolerance and they really get along with each other.

Could such a program work here in the U.S.? Maybe, I don't know. I mean, there's plenty of students with beards, but I really don't see our country moving towards the left end of the sociopolitical spectrum for a while--at least 20 years or more, when the twentysomethings of today hit their forties and get really active in national politics and keep the ideas of their youth. For great change does not come in leaps and bounds, it comes in baby steps. And in order for something of this nature to take place in such a puritanical country as America, we've got to wait for the old guard to fade away and let the young Turks take the reins. Yes, there will still be the right-wing holdovers of another time and another place hanging on and railing against the change (Hell, maybe we do need them, for balance, as Believers need Skeptics), but we're all heading for the same destination: the future. And we've already brought about such a globalized society that we're experiencing many other cultures and people who are much different than we are--what did we expect, for Them to be all like Us? And we're all in the same boat...if it sinks, we're all Doomed, so let's try and make the ride comfortable for everybody.

I say to the Dutch, you've got at least one American behind your noble efforts. I hope that one night, we can all go to sleep and wake up the next morning to find that the Dream has been realized.