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Location: In an illegal immigrant free part of the country.
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Actually I am quite happy that the hollyweird crowd is exposing their views. Now I know whose movies/music to never spend my money on. I do not care how good a movie/music may be, they will never see a dime of my money.
Here is an example of why I agree with the "shut up and sing" idea
A few years back my wife and I spent a ridiculous amout of money for tickets to see the New York Dolls. Inbetween almost every song the guitar player Sylvain was bashing Bush and begging for Kerry votes. They even changed words in some of the songs in order to mock Bush and a few times stopped playing in order to rant.
To me it was just unacceptable regardless of who they where talking about and I just wanted them to shut up and sing!
They are intitled to their opinions but they shouldn't force them on a captive audience that is just wrong imo be they lib or con.
I felt the same way at a Springsteen concert in DC. Just shut up and sing. I didn't pay X number of bucks to hear your political rant about Dick Cheney between songs. On the other hand, if Mr Springsteen and others want to rant to the news media, be my guest.
I actually believe celebrities help the Republicans just by being themselves.
I hear a lot of conservatives talk about how celebrities should just "shut up and sing" (act, dance, etc).
I'm just wondering how you guys feel about it. Should a citizen who has become famous or wealthy be allowed to form and voice an opinion like any other citizen or does entering the entertainment industry strip them of their rights?
My personal opinion is that this is all a bunch of sour grapes. If there were more conservative entertainers speaking out then you wouldn't hear this. For instance, when Bruce Willis supports the war (he doesn't any longer, but when he did) - I never heard ONE conservative question his right to an opinion.
Yeah, I do think it's a bit of a double standard. Toby Keith came out with all these pro-war sentiments when we invaded Iraq, and Charlie Daniels is outspokenly pro-Bush, but I never hear anyone telling them to just shut up and sing. I think that only happens when people don't like the message.
My thought ... they have just as much of a right to speak their mind as anyone else. If I'm at a concert and don't like it, big deal. It's called free speech. And I'll just wait for them to stop blabbing until the next song kicks in.
I liked the Dixie Chicks before the Infamous Comment, and I like the Dixie Chicks now. Are people afraid of opposing ideas or what? Is it intolerance? Can you not separate the entertainer from his/her views and comments? I don't get it. "Shut up and sing" is, IMO, not a pro-freedom sentiment.
Yeah, I do think it's a bit of a double standard. Toby Keith came out with all these pro-war sentiments when we invaded Iraq, and Charlie Daniels is outspokenly pro-Bush, but I never hear anyone telling them to just shut up and sing. I think that only happens when people don't like the message.
My thought ... they have just as much of a right to speak their mind as anyone else. If I'm at a concert and don't like it, big deal. It's called free speech. And I'll just wait for them to stop blabbing until the next song kicks in.
I liked the Dixie Chicks before the Infamous Comment, and I like the Dixie Chicks now. Are people afraid of opposing ideas or what? Is it intolerance? Can you not separate the entertainer from his/her views and comments? I don't get it. "Shut up and sing" is, IMO, not a pro-freedom sentiment.
It's a pro-consumer sentiment.
I'm sure that people on both sides are more tolerant of those that share their views.
I have no problem when the sentiments are expressed in a forum such as a concert to benefit the troops or one given to raise money for a candidate. Those have both been given and were generally for people on opposite sides. People know and expect what they get when they go. I think it's arrogant for them to feel as though they should offer their opinions every time they have a microphone.
Of course celebrities, like anyone, have a right to express their views. But it is by nature problematic because:
1) They have an abnormally high amount of access to the media. They are not like some passionate grass roots group trying to garner attention. They always have a camera pointing at them and can always get airtime. And how versed are they with regards to what they're preaching? Rosie O'Donnell just sounds stupid as well as confused. I doubt most of them have the time to really research certain topics and that should be a prerequisite for anyone who touts views in any venue.
2) Celebrities tend to oversimplify the subject. Look no further than Bono. Of course 99% of humanity would love to save Africa. But it is a lot more complex than he presents and requires a lot more than simply throwing money at the problem. Were it as easy as he says, it would have been done already. The irony with Bono is that his own country is a splendid example of a poor nation that suffered from war, colonialism and poverty to become prosperous.
3) Celebrities live on a different planet than most people.
This terrapass thing has been great. I showed it to everyone I work with and even the tree huggers couldn't believe it..
and to whoever said at least they're doing something by buying one.. that's not true. By buying one of these (and reading the fine print on what they (don't) have to do with your "contribution", you're basically just causing a few more emissions by requiring the servers to make the processes required by your transaction..
Now for me, I've actually done a few things.. I got rid of my pool which was not only an eyesore, but wasted a lot of water, required chemicals and burned a lot of electricity. I also have drastically cut down on stupid driving. I now only go places that I need to and usually save up and knock quite a few things out at once. I also drive a route that is efficient in that it requires the least amount of miles to go somewhere.. I do this in the comfort of my SUV that gets maybe 16 MPG on a good day, but at least I'm ACTUALLY doing something...
carbon offset, I so hope that word never makes it to the dictionary... hopefully it'll just be something we all laugh about in a few years like we did with the like fer sure valley girl thing...
sorry for the interruption, back to the topic of stupid celebrities being the ultimate in hypocrites, spreading lies and falsehoods and really not even being able to entertain... music seriously has sucked for the past few years. Every song I listen to in my CD player is probably at least 5 years old..
Of course celebrities, like anyone, have a right to express their views. But it is by nature problematic because:
1) They have an abnormally high amount of access to the media. They are not like some passionate grass roots group trying to garner attention. They always have a camera pointing at them and can always get airtime. And how versed are they with regards to what they're preaching? Rosie O'Donnell just sounds stupid as well as confused. I doubt most of them have the time to really research certain topics and that should be a prerequisite for anyone who touts views in any venue.
2) Celebrities tend to oversimplify the subject. Look no further than Bono. Of course 99% of humanity would love to save Africa. But it is a lot more complex than he presents and requires a lot more than simply throwing money at the problem. Were it as easy as he says, it would have been done already. The irony with Bono is that his own country is a splendid example of a poor nation that suffered from war, colonialism and poverty to become prosperous.
3) Celebrities live on a different planet than most people.
Self-explanatory.
Of course, you could make the same exact three points about politicians! I still don't see why any of this makes it problematic for celebs to express their views. The average Joe on the street oversimplifies the subjects, too, and I'm not about to tell him to shut up.
It's just not that big of a deal to simply tune it out, IMO. ::shrug:: Besides, if celebs don't come out and make their views known expressly, they'll just do it in the roles they play or the lyrics they sing. Same difference ... one approach just has (ostensibly) more artistic merit.
Britney Spears was pro-Bush and pro-war... I'm pretty sure that most Republicans listened to her.
Seriously, I really appreciate it when a celebrity like Rob Reiner takes up the issue of cutting funding for the arts in schools. Until he brought it up, I wasn't even aware that they were cutting funding for arts -- and I believe that his ideas were important.
They are celebrities because they're good performers - not because they're necessarily smart people. Their political views are no more relevant than mine and probably less informed than mine. I'm fine with them having opinions but I don't think they should hijack their celebrity status to try to force their opinions on everyone else.
I agree. Most of them are not highly educated and use their celebrity status as platforms. Just another act with their highly inflated egos.
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I still don't see why any of this makes it problematic for celebs to express their views. The average Joe on the street oversimplifies the subjects, too, and I'm not about to tell him to shut up.
