Hollywood: Double Takes and Double Standards

Most of us in the west, whether here in Britain or in America have grown up being influenced
by the work that has come out of the studios of Tinsel Town. Hollywood has given us many
memorable moments in our lives, from the dazzling special effects and daredevil stunts performed in
many an action movie, to the enthralling story lines from a well-crafted gangster flick or tear-jerker
romance story which can have the audience in tears. Hollywood can entertain, it can also bring some
serious issues in society to the fore. I think of films like American History X or 12 years a Slave, which
among many others have tacked issues such as racism in our society. There have also been films like
the Oscar winning Boys Dont Cry with Hillary Swank which tacked the issues revolving around
gender as far back as the 90s. Hollywood, whether we like it or not is a major part of most of our
lives in one form or another and it does have an indelible effect on the shaping of our society,
sometimes for the better.

Hollywood has always been a majority liberal/left-wing dominated setting. There is not an Emmys,
Grammys or Oscar award that goes by that we dont see various celebrities using their platform to
try to highlight the moral crusade of their choice. Leonardo DiCaprio for example is an outspoken
supporter of the efforts to try to reverse the damage caused by climate change. Certain values are
widely accepted as being held amongst the liberal Hollywood elite, they are anti-racism, anti-
homophobia and they are strong supporters of womens rights, we can cast our mind back to the
Pussy Hat march when Donald Trump was elected President and remember celebrities such as
Madonna and Ashley Judd taking to the platform and equivocating about what a sexist monster
Donald Trump was. Hollywood has a strong connection with feminism, they stand for the rights of
downtrodden women everywhere.

It was about 3 weeks ago when the news of the allegations of Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood
super producer who worked on such films as Pulp Fiction broke in the media. Ever since then the
media has been inundated with new revelations every day, ranging from lewd sexual behaviour in
the presence of women right up to the many allegations of rape. But no-one in Hollywood knew
about this right? Reports and rumours have been circling around about Harvey Weinstein for years,
the actress Rose McGowan alleged she was raped by Harvey Weinstein nearly 20 years ago. She
claims that the allegation that she made has resulted in her being slut-shamed and has even had a
detrimental effect on her career. Courtney Love, the ex-wife of the legendary frontman of the band
Nirvana even eluded to Harvey Weinsteins inappropriate behaviour in the mid 2000s.

When the reports started to surface, some of Hollywoods elite came out and said what a terrible
thing it was and misogyny and sexual abuse against women needed to be eliminated. George
Clooney and Matt Damon among others came out parading the tolerant liberal banner, and Im sorry
forgive me for my cynicism, put on a fake display of shock and outrage. How the fuck could they not
know? These rumours have been circling around about Harvey Weinstein for years. Even Quentin
Tarantino, a producer whose work I used to love but now have next to no respect for even came out
and said he knew about Weinsteins reputation and that he shouldve confronted him. Oh, really
Quentin, no shit! I thought that is what you Hollywood Liberals did, confronted people who
disrespected the rights of women, like you know, Donald Trump and his supporters.

Ever since the election of Donald Trump, Hollywood has been engaged on a vitriolic smear
campaign of Donald Trump and his supporters. Hillary Clinton, a woman who was given hundreds of
thousands of dollars by Harvey Weinstein to support her numerous campaigns came out and called
these people the Deplorables, among the word she used to describe them was sexist. Oh, so what
was Harvey Weinstein then Hillary? A bastion of unimpeachable morality?

The 2017 Womens March or the Pussy Hat march in protest of the election of Donald Trump
used the Access Hollywood tape as an example of what a disgusting sexist and pervert Donald
Trump was. Now lets cover that issue shall we? In the tape Donald Trump spoke of grabbing
women by the pussy. Yeah it was a bad remark, it was pretty fucking tasteless, but the big
difference between Trump and Weinstein and all of the others who have been accused, and the
ones who covered for him is that Donald Trump was talking to a male friend. He wasnt making that
comment to a woman, if he was that would have been a different matter, but as men, which one of
us can say that we have never been with a mate and said something along the lines of I wouldnt
mind giving her one or something to that effect. Is it crude? Yes it is, and as men we should look to
conduct ourselves a bit more tastefully, but there is a big difference between what Trump said on
that tape and the years of alleged inappropriate and downright criminal behaviour of some of these
members of the Hollywood glitterati. Donald Trump did have some allegations labelled at him during
the 2016 campaign of his own inappropriate behaviour, but none of those accusations have surfaced
again since, which could make the cynic say that some of those allegations might have been part of a
particularly nasty election campaign. As far as anyone knows Donald Trump is not a serial rapist.

Why do I use that example? I dont use it as a defence of Trump. I wouldnt really consider myself
a Trumpist, Im just a guy from London who probably has some political opinions that are poles apart
from Trump. The reason why I use this example is because it highlights the immense double-
standard and glaring hypocrisy of Hollywood. For years Hollywood have tried to preach their religion
of neo-progressivism, and have denounced anyone who wouldnt accept their political
enlightenment as small-minded bigots. Talk Show host Jimmy Kimmel, the self-appointed conscience
of America has lambasted Trump and Trump supporters on many topics. When the Mandalay Bay
shooting happened, Jimmy Kimmel wasted no time in jumping on his soapbox and telling America
they had to hand in their guns, immediately jumping to blame Conservatives, the NRA and anyone
who didnt whole heartedly agree with his view. Kimmel did the same thing on Trumps proposed
healthcare plan, eluding to the fact that many would die if Trump implemented it. Okay Mr Kimmel,
fair enough, we know what left-wingers stand for, and even though I and many others dont agree
with the new left, they are your beliefs and in a free country you are entitled to them. So why then
Jimmy, did it take you days to even mention the Weinstein allegations? Is it different when one of
your left-wing friends commits deeds deemed to be inappropriate to women to when someone else
does it?

The hypocrisy has been there for all of us to see, Hollywood preaches tolerance and this neo-
progressive religion that is supposed to be a doctrine championing the rights of oppressed people
everywhere but when it goes on outside your doorstep you remain quiet about it. One of the
funniest examples to show some of this left-wing Hollywood hypocrisy at its finest is that of the
actions of George Clooney. For years George Clooney has been adored as this impeachable and
tireless activist for the rights of oppressed people. George Clooney is a major advocate of the pursuit
to help refugees resettle around the world. George Clooney was living in the U.K until very recently
but has since moved back to America, do you know why? Because he moved away with his family
because the wave of terror attacks made him fear for his security. So, its okay for your regular joe to
deal with the effects of your support of mass resettlement of immigrants, but when it comes a little
close to your doorstep George youre running for the hills. If there is not a greater example of
hypocrisy in Hollywood than George Clooney, maybe I have to look a little harder.
 Maybe I am being a little unfair in my scathing criticism of Hollywood, not everyone in Hollywood
is guilty of this. I am sure there are some upstanding people in Hollywood. I once met Jon Voight in
Times Square and he was one of the nicest and most accommodating people you would ever hope
to meet. By no means Hollywood is the only place where this type of insidious behaviour towards
women takes place. This happens in every institution, among every race, class and religious group in
the world and we do all have to work together to stamp it out. I must also mention that at the time
of writing this blog that Harvey Weinstein remains innocent until proven guilty of any crime, but
there is a hell of a lot of smoke behind these allegations. You could argue there has been some
smoke in the Trump/Russia allegations, but while that smoke is diminishing by the day, the smoke
from the Harvey Weinstein saga is growing to the extent we could start sending smoke signals.

Hollywood is by no means alone in having to deal with this crisis, as the father of a daughter, I
want her to grow up in a world where this sort of thing doesnt happen anymore. It is all our
responsibility to deal with these sort of issues. But Hollywood, just some advice for the future. When
you want to come to the rest of the world and try to enlighten us with your philosophies on
tolerance and peoples rights, just make sure you call out the problems in your own house first.

By Luke Moran

If you enjoyed this and want to read more buy my book PC gone mad: How Political Correctness
aided the rise of right-wing populism On Amazon.