Dear Envelope-Gate Bigots: Your Cluelessness is Showing
Like many people across the country, I live-tweeted the Oscars last night. I was born and raised in California, so the Academy Awards are bigger than the Superbowl for me. I wasn't particularly invested in any of the movies, aside from Hidden Figures, but I love the fashion, and it's just a fun, mindless activity. As you probably know, this year's ceremony had a surprise ending when Warren Beatty accidentally read the card for Emma Stone's Oscar win for Best Actress in a Leading Role for La La Land and declared that film winner of Best Picture when the award actually went to Moonlight. The response to everything that happened last night on Twitter? A whole bunch of 45 loyalists claiming that the liberals in California got what they deserved because they were "all" making fun of the president the whole night. Not that it means anything to you, but not everyone in Hollywood is liberal or anti-45, and the only person who roasted the president all night was Jimmy Kimmel, who didn't present an award to anyone.
So, what else are you peeved about? The fact that people are upset that the filmmaker for The White Helmets wasn't able to attend the ceremony because he couldn't get out of Syria? The Iranian filmmaker behind The Salesman didn't attend out of solidarity with the other 6 predominantly Muslim nations 45 wants to include in an immigration ban?
First of all, cinematographer Khaled Khateeb of The White Helmets at least at one point said that his passport was cancelled by the Syrian government, not that the United States was just picking on him. So, how anyone got anti-U.S. sentiment from that needs to be explained to me. Is it unpatriotic to say that what is happening in Syria is really messed-up? If so, I don't think you'll like Khateeb's film anyway.
Second, Asghar Farhadi's note stating that the travel ban divided the world into "us" and "our enemies." You know, when someone puts it that way, it may not sound attractive, but if you support the ban, and that's not how you see it, enlighten me in the comments below because I really don't get it. I don't see how you can claim that banning travel from a country to keep us "safe" from those "dangerous" people is not dividing the world into "us" and "our enemies."
Third, if you don't care about all this stuff about love, unity, and universal human themes, fine. Nobody is saying you need to. The assumption behind the viewership of the Oscars is that people who watch the show like movies, and like most other art forms, this may sound shocking, but that's what it's about. If the themes aren't universal human themes, it's not going to be popular enough to be a movie. Sorry if that's crushing to some of you. Also, have you ever considered that if you really believe you are so unique that there's no such thing as something universal that could touch you that you might just be the snowflake? Oh my goodness. How awful of me. I know.
Those jokes that you think are so clever about referring to L.A. as La La Land and thinking you're somehow ahead of the Hollywood elites in observing that--you know, I think that film's title proves they beat you to it and they made a lot of money off if it and you didn't. So who has egg on their face now? Still you!
If you want people to stop calling you a bigot, you don't have to stop supporting 45. You could just stop posting stupid hateful stuff using pet names like "libtards" or ordering everyone who has an accent to "get out of [your] country."
As for left-leaning Hollywood and picking on Warren Beatty, I don't even know if Warren Beatty is particularly liberal. I know Clint Eastwood isn't. I also know that Nichole Kidman and Matthew McConaughey have both even voiced some support for 45.
I guess in this respect, I am a California girl in that I do believe the Hollywood storyline that ultimately good triumphs over evil, so while your Tweets are annoying, I think we're going to be just fine.
photo credit: ventonero2002 Oscars via photopin (license)