Just because I like some guy's movies, doesn't mean I'd like his politics

[MrScorpio]

Or even him (or her) as a person…

Arnie, Mel, Tom, even Bruce…. It's would be nice if these guys would just stay on the big screen where they belong.

When this country starts to idolize people to the point where they want their movie characters running things, then that's we get into trouble.

You'd think that we'd learn our national lesson after the Ronnie fiasco…. But, Nooooooooooo!

[Ineeda]

1. I see them as a product or brand.

If I don't like an entertainer's politics, I try to avoid contributing to their support. It's less than a drop in their bucket, but I don't shop at Wal Mart for the same reason. However, if a celebrity shares a liberal/progressive philosophy, I listen and appreciate it when they use their soapbox.

[Buzz Clik]

3. Yours is not an uncommon attitude. As the OP suggested, ...

... that thought process gave us Reagan and Ahnold.

[Bandit]

5. I agree with you

If a movie has Chuck Norris or Steve Baldwin I simply do not watch that movie..I do not shop at Walmart or listen to any radio station that airs Rush Limbaugh..I know it is a drop in the bucket for them but it is my drop and I will spend it where I please.

[glowing]

2. I'm not so sure... there's a certain comedic Senator that seems to be really good.

[Buzz Clik]

4. But, for every one Al Franken, we get four stinkers.

Astronauts, athletes, movie stars. Gawd. We never learn.

[glowing]

8. And who is good enough to represent people? Just rich white lawyers?

My job does not define who I am. We let the people choose by vote... The butcher, mechanic, and the idiot teabagger. What makes them somehow better than an actor of musician or sports player other than noteriety?

[Buzz Clik]

10. An unknown candidate must establish himself/herself based on knowledge and believability.

An ex-jock, ex-astronaut, or movie star simply needs to convince the electorate that they are not idiots.

[pipi_k]

6. Same thing with music

Not too long ago people were royally pissed off at Elton John for singing at the wedding of Rush Limbaugh.

So what? I like his music.

Ted Nugent. His politics are absolutely revolting. But I like some of his music. "Stranglehold", "Home Bound", "Death By Misadventure", etc.


Then there are people whose politics I do agree with but I wouldn't listen to their music or watch their movies if you paid me.

Sheryl Crow, for example. Last June she said to Katie Couric that "Tea Party members are uneducated, angry and potentially dangerous..."

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/alana-goodman/2010/06/28/sheryl-crow-tea-partiers-are-too-uneducated-understand-what-s-happeni#ixzz1McIPMBxh


I think her voice sucks and I don't like her music.

So whatever...I know what you're saying. It's possible to separate the person from the Art he or she produces.

[logosoco]

7. Okay, here is where i admit that i do still

like nugents "stranglehold". I don't go out of my way to play it, but i still like it. Maybe it just reminds me of driving around with my friends when we were teenagers. But i really can't stand the man who made the song.
I also still like charlie daniels old songs..."Long Haired country boy" is on my mp3 player. But something surely happened to him in the reagan years.

[mochajava666]

9. I'm kind of conflicted on this point

I hated it when people boycotted the Dixie Chicks because one of them said some disparaging remarks against W.

On the other hand, I can't bring myself to watch anything with Arnold or Stephen Baldwin or Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson. Fuck Chuck Norris and Ted Nugent. They aren't good enough to consider boycotting. Their "art" embarrasses themselves enough.

I would like to separate the art from their politics, but when I see their faces, I just want to shoot my TV - and I like my TV. I also like my guns, so that's why I'm conflicted.

[LanternWaste]

11. If I couldn't separate the art from the artist...

If I couldn't separate the art from the artist, I'd be very bored sometimes...

[cbdo2007]

12. There are some differences.....some just have different politics, others are hateful racists....

Of course I'm comparing Arnold and Mel here.

I can easily separate and still respect someone with a different viewpoint that me, even someone who is a womanizer and still enjoy their movies.

But Mel with his racist, hateful rants were over the line for me. I can't bear to watch him in anything after all of that.

[LiberalAndProud]

13. You know, it's not rational,

but I can't rewatch Lethal Weapon. Mel's politics have totally ruined the experience for me. I can't suspend my disbelief to the degree called for.

Sad, really.

[Urban Prairie]

14. Can't imagine what it is like to be a rightwinger who likes hard rock/metal music

the lyrics of many songs all too often seem to be in complete conflict with their pious moral superiority beliefs. I have to admit that I was a bit shocked to learn that the loathsome creature known as Condoleeza Rice was/is a hard rocker. Wonder if she has ever played "air guitar" to a Megadeth song...heh!!

Same with "gangsta" rap and hip-hop, I have confronted more than a few rap-loving young teabaggers online who spewed right-wing talking points on apolitical forums and message-boards, most just don't respond to my posts calling them out for their bigoted hypocrisy. Those few who have usually replied with some kind of BS defense, ala Trump for example, claiming to have "close" friends and acquaintances who are of other races and creeds.

Before my fellow but now ex-Michigander Ted Nugent came leaping out of his rightwing closet, I had (regretfully) attended a couple of his New Years Eve "Whiplash Bashes" in downtown Detroit during the mid-90s. Although his music was often played on FM rock radio stations here in the 80s and 90s, I never bought any of his CDs or cassette tapes, despite my having accumulated a fairly massive music collection in every format available through the years. I liked to listen to a "few" of Nugent's songs on the radio, but most of his songs I didn't really care for. I now absolutely despise him for keeping his extreme rightwing viewpoints and ideology well-hidden and relatively quiet, that is, until his somewhat prolific rock song writing, mainstream popularity, and concert hall-filling career was pretty much over with.

[LeftishBrit]

15. Ditto - not that I care much for either in the case of Arnie