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He was openly maga and a homophobe and a transphobe. I wouldn’t consider these qualities for a role model.
by amjnsx 8mo ago
He was openly maga and a homophobe and a transphobe. I wouldn’t consider these qualities for a role model.
- sschueller 8mo agoMany like myself did not know this as a kid in the 80s-90s. Some of the movies he made like "sidekicks" left a positive impression at that age.
- nazgulsenpai 8mo agoIn the 80s-90s his positions would have aligned fine with the center left.
- EnPissant 8mo agoForget the 80s-90s - Even California passed prop 8 in 2008.
- rootusrootus 8mo agoSome of them, perhaps. I don't think the center left would ever have been into the birther conspiracy.
- nazgulsenpai 8mo agoThere were conspiracy theories in the 80s and 90s too.
- sanktanglia 8mo agoThere is a huge difference between general conspiracy theories and the birther lie which was more racist astroturfing than a legitimate conspiracy
- something765478 8mo agoNo, I'm pretty sure they would have. I remember during the primaries, Hillary tried to attack Obama by showing him in a "Muslim" garment.
- rootusrootus 8mo agoThe Internet has a fairly long memory and a lot of research on topics like this, and it does not agree that Hillary ever tried such a thing. Ample evidence that GOP politicians, including Trump, tried to claim she did. And late in the primary season a few of her supporters made some sounds like that. But nobody has ever found any shred of evidence her campaign made any accusations, or started any rumors.
- DennisP 8mo agoGP said "these were acting roles." They were talking about the characters, not the actors behind them.
- LetsGetTechnicl 8mo agoBut then he said he "picked them for a reason" implying that he chose those characters based on the characteristics he shared with them
- DennisP 8mo agoWhatever the reason, it wasn't because his characters were "openly maga and a homophobe and a transphobe," because they weren't. Bruce Lee movies and Texas Ranger didn't address those issues at all. And in spite of his flaws, it's possible that he had some good qualities as well, or at least aspired to them. So maybe those other qualities were what he looked for in the characters he played.
- LetsGetTechnicl 8mo agoDoesn't seem like he aspired all that hard, since instead of expressing empathy for people who weren't like him, he continued to be a bigot in nearly every aspect. But sure, if you were a white cis straight guy I'm sure he was perfectly kind.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoI think you forget that Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act and put in the policy of “Don’t ask don’t tell” and Obama supported it originally. Of course they both had a change of heart- was it true change or they saw the direction of the political winds? Who knows? I don’t know Chuck Norris’s views on LGBT. But if he was a self proclaimed “born again Christian” and a rabid Trump supporter, I can only guess. But I no more expect people who were insulted by what he said (which I personally don’t know) to give him more grace or reverence than I do is a Black man who couldn’t give two shits about a dead racist podcaster. Other people no more need to “contextualize” homophobia than I feel a need to “contextualize” the racism of a dead podcaster.
- ceejayoz 8mo ago> put in the policy of “Don’t ask don’t tell” DADT was a significant improvement over the status quo of "we ask, you tell, and then you get dishonorably discharged". Considering it evidence of homophobia is revisionism. Did it go far enough? No. Was it a good step towards where we wanted to go? Yes.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoAnd the Defense of Marriage Act?
- ceejayoz 8mo ago> It passed both houses of Congress by large, veto-proof majorities. Support was bipartisan, though about a third of the Democratic caucus in both the House and Senate opposed it. Clinton criticized DOMA as "divisive and unnecessary". Sure doesn't seem like a Clinton issue?
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoAgain he still signed it. It’s like Susan Collins who always has “serious misgivings” about things that her fellow Republicans do and then votes the party line anyway trying to stay in her party’s good graces while at the same time not pissing off her liberal constituents
- phishin 8mo agoImagine basing your entire opinion on a man about how they feel about that other man.
- ryandrake 8mo agoImagine having a lot of people you once admired and looked up to as role models, from actors all the way to even your parents, suddenly all within a decade or so take their masks off and reveal that they are actually villains.
- saintfire 8mo agoIs it revelatory that human beings having a quality you admire aren't the ideal person you projected them to be? I'd reckon you'd be hard pressed to find a single person that matches every quality/belief you imagined them to have.
- ryandrake 8mo agoI don’t think this is about nit picking some small detail that causes them to fail a quality/belief checklist. It’s not like finding out your hero picks his nose or doesn’t like chocolate ice cream. When someone goes mask-off as MAGA, they are revealing fundamental core beliefs and values that totally flip the kind of person you might have thought they were. I have friends and family who I never thought had a hateful, cruel, or belligerent bone in their bodies, suddenly start acting like totally different people, in the span of a few years. This isn’t me holding them to some purity checklist!
- mindslight 8mo agoAgreed. Additionally, when someone says something latently bigoted or hateful, it's easy to just let it slide because we all have our failings and societal progress is slow. Whereas maggotry is about openly embracing those failings, taking on additional types of failings from other people, and then socially validating it all as a purported political movement. But the only real thing tying it together is frustration with the world culminating in lashing out, which is why when they get into power there are no actual constructive policies in any political framework [0]. (apart from lining the preachers' pockets of course, and now apparently a holy war) nit: I wouldn't call it "mask off" though, as if it's been there the whole time. I'd say it's more like there is tiny a kernel of that (and let's be honest, who doesn't have this in some form or another?), combined with a lack of willpower and critical thinking, that causes them into give in to the siren song of easy answers from mass-personalized propaganda. [0] ancap and religious fundamentalism are the only frameworks I've been able to find that fit the maggot movement, and they're not particularly constructive.
- mindslight 8mo agoYou either die a hero, or you live long enough to become a Faceboot psychosis villain. It's basically the politics version of "Why is everything so cold?"
- delabay 8mo ago[flagged]
- ap99 8mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- cthalupa 8mo agoHalf the country didn't vote for Trump. Not quite 2/3rds of the voting eligible people in the country voted to begin with, and not even half of those people voted for Trump. Less than 1/3rd of eligible voters voted for Trump. Not all people that voted for Trump consider themselves Republicans, much less MAGA, when MAGA is only 50-60% of Republicans. So in reality less than 1/6th of the US voting-eligible population is MAGA. Not half. And that was at the election - roughly 20% of Trump voters now openly profess regret in voting for him, though I don't think we have data breaking that down as self-proclaimed MAGA vs. otherwise. I suspect if you were not self-proclaimed MAGA you're more likely to be open to regret, but I'm sure at least some of them were MAGA.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo ago[flagged]
- SetTheorist 8mo agoStating objective facts is not "copium". It is simply false that "half the country [voted] for Trump".
- intrikate 8mo agoUnless poll after poll is contacting and registering answers from 100% of people in the country, that's only 35-40% of the people who answered the poll, which is a much, much smaller number.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoStatistical sampling has been an accepted technique for over a century now
- rishabhaiover 8mo agoA kind person with humility would never say this.
- boca_honey 8mo ago[flagged]
- ErroneousBosh 8mo ago> You say "openly MAGA" as if it were a crime or something to be ashamed of Can you explain why it's not something to be ashamed of?
- chungy 8mo ago[flagged]
- luddit3 8mo agoMy country is not a cult of personality.
- cthalupa 8mo agoBeing maga is diametrically opposed to supporting your country, as we've seen in particular this time around, but was also clearly visible in 2016-2020. Rampant abuse of the legal system to target individuals, despite claiming (without evidence) that that was that the Democrats did against them Total disregard for the constitution Threats towards the judiciary A million other things that I can list - but I'm sure you've heard them all and just don't care, so there's probably not much use in me continuing.
- nullstyle 8mo agoThat's some grade AAA ignorance hard at work. Or did you mean supporting Israel?
- gpvos 8mo agoIndeed. And supporting MAGA is supporting the destruction of your country.
- _wire_ 8mo agoTo believe in "Make America Great Again" you have to believe that America is not great, and this implies you are ashamed of your country. Shame is built in to MAGA.
- encom 8mo agoIncomprehensible levels of based.
- dogemaster2026 8mo ago[dead]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]