As I’ve written about before, I believe Hollywood has painted itself into a corner much the same way the Democratic Party has — meaning, it is under the thumb of a Twitter army that influences and controls mainstream media. The fear of public humiliation is so extreme that it inhibits more moderate people from standing up to it. Trust me, as someone who has been tossed onto the pyre many times, it is not fun. Marketing departments and publicists scramble to do damage control, carefully constructing an apology in an effort to calm things down.
This can’t be fixed. Writing in his Substack column, the Liberal Patriot says this of the Democrats:
In short, Democrats are stuck. The left will not allow the party to escape the gravitational field of identity politics and the party’s inability to do so means that their brand cannot sustain a durable majority. Indeed, there are signs that Democrats are experiencing more and more slippage among working class voters of all races. For a left of center party, that is catastrophic—not just for 2022, but far beyond.
The reason I quote this piece is that it can be said for all areas that are controlled by the Left, and at the top of that list would be movies but especially the Oscar race. It is trapped. It is locked into this same kind of oppressive force. What gets made and produced here (as opposed to other countries where there is much more freedom, and why so many imports are so good) has to be party-line. It has to follow the strident new rules of the Left. Twitter is always there to flip out and force them back into their box if they step out of line.
The only solution is to build outside of that system. That is why voices that exist outside of it are becoming more and more popular, and much bigger threats. Just look at podcast rankings and cable news ratings. One of those voices has to be Ben Shapiro who has built the website and growing empire, Daily Wire, to directly compete with Hollywood. So far, he has hired Gina Carano after Disney fired her, and given her a production deal. They have scooped up the school shooter movie Run, Hide, Fight and distributed it on their platform. They are getting into book publishing as well.
Since we live in a time of fear, panic and hysteria, just mentioning Shapiro’s name will get you screamed at (at best). But this game isn’t a winning one for the “Left” politically or culturally. When you have a massive movement to destroy people as popular as Joe Rogan or Dave Chappelle you are simply alienating more people than you are attracting, you know like 11 million people? To quote Jamie Lee Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda, is that SMART?
Now, The Daily Wire has another movie set to premiere tonight for free on Youtube. It’s called Shut In and it stars Rainey Qualley (Margaret’s sister, Andie’s daughter) as a single mother protecting her children from an invader. I haven’t seen it. I’m going to watch it. I’m posting it here even though I know many of my readers will flip out, call me a Fox News watching Trump supporter. But look, man, to quote Bob Dylan, when you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.
We live in a time where people seem to be divided into “good” and “bad,” but increasingly the definition of “good” is defined by compliance with whatever insanity is pushed out by the “Left” on Twitter. Rules are simply made up daily and we’re all expected to go along with them. This is what you can’t say, this is what you can’t watch, this is who you can associate with, this is where you can’t shop, this is what you MUST believe. Some of us aren’t built that way.
The only way forward out of this mess, I can promise you this with 100% certainty, is to not be among the frightened who hide in the shadows, but to be a brave voice who speaks honestly to your audience and gives Twitter the middle finger. Most people, the majority, are afraid of the screeching mob. I don’t blame them. They will get you fired, or humiliate you daily. They will dehumanize you with glee, diving back in again and again to enjoy what that feels like. But it’s gross and it’s alienating to the broader collective.
I am impressed that Ben Shapiro is a David taking on the Goliath because that is what Americans do best. They compete. I hope his movie business does exceedingly well and if I were anyone out there who wanted to get a movie made I would be all over this new avenue of opportunity. No, you probably can’t capture the eyeballs of the beautiful people or the cultural “elite.” But so what? Reaching more better is always better than reaching the “right” people.
Be brave. Be honest. It’s the only way out of this mess.
Here is their YouTube channel for Shut In. Probably it gets destroyed by those on the Left who will pull out their big guns. I’m sure the Daily Beast will have a column on it at some point. But hey, like life, art finds a way.
