Richard Dreyfuss took a lot of heat for attending a Ted Cruz campaign rally a few weeks ago. Which is ironic, since the famous actor leans about as far left as you can without falling over. He just likes to hear and engage other viewpoints. I guess his liberal friends in Hollywood felt betrayed and the backlash-hungry media ran with it, as they are wont to do.
The actor’s son Harry was so pissed off at the attacks on his dad that he penned an excellent Facebook rant explaining the importance of curiosity and considering opposing viewpoints. Here’s an excerpt:
If we shame curiosity, our country will never stop being scarred by the battle lines we draw to ward off the loony toon republicans or the batshit democrats. Exalt curiosity. Exalt the ability to hold someone else’s belief in your mind for a moment. You might find we disagree on fewer points than you thought, or you might find that this other person is insane and you are the God of right and wrong. I think that sort of certainty is always insane, but arriving there after actually engaging with an opposing opinion is the closest you’ll ever come to being right.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Harry. It’s nuts how so many supposedly enlightened people believe so strongly in their own ideals and opinions that they refuse to listen to other perspectives. How in the world do they expect to learn or accomplish anything in life when they’re that closed-minded and think they have all the answers?
Sad how our culture has perverted the word “diversity” to mean race, gender, and sexuality when its true meaning is about ideas, expression, and culture. The irony is that those who do all the talking about diversity and inclusion are usually among the most politically correct, which limits the free expression of ideas. Hypocrisy.
When asked if he was surprised at the backlash from showing up for Ted’s talk, the elder Dreyfuss said, “No, no. Because my other son, Ben, who is an editor for Mother Jones magazine, always warned me never to read comments on the internet because they were from people who were dropped on their heads.”
Funny man, but there’s a lot of truth to that. The ever-growing “backlash” crowd has become incredibly annoying … present company excepted, of course. You have no idea how boring it is to have to listen to the thoughts in my head all the time. Keep those comments coming folks. Need. More. Diverse. Viewpoints.
I fear there are more people that have been dropped on their heads than we can fathom. Love your blogs. I send them to my 24 & 22 yr old sons frequently. Food for thought for their yet unspoiled minds….
Must’ve been an epidemic of moms with slippery hands. I saw an article the other day that had like 50,000 comments. I’m thinking who are these people? I mean, don’t they have better things to do? Sheesh. Thanks Gloria!
“The irony is that those who do all the talking about
diversity and inclusion are usually among the most politically correct,
which limits the free expression of ideas. Hypocrisy.”
No, training and meta-messages. The full explanation is also connected to 2 more Tobak articles:
* Personal Accountability, RIP… https://stevetobak.com/2016/01/22/personal-accountability-rip/
* Don’t Be a Jellybean.. https://stevetobak.com/2016/02/03/dont-be-a-jellybean/
So, lets connect the dots. What is political correctness? Strip it down from its externals to its core. The core is the idea that you need to suspend your personal, independent judgement – and substitute the (changing) fatwas of authority figures. However illogical or unethical. Everything else about it is just distraction and fluff. Dreyfuss may be a leftie, but he broke that iron law, the REAL law of PC. So of course all this happened.
We had a major incident in Egypt that was supposed to eliminate this fallacy a few thousand years ago. But we’ve done our best to destroy the biggest belief system that transmitted the accompanying lesson, and I guess Charlton Heston films can’t do it all alone.
Consequence 1: When kids are indoctrinated to internalize this mindset, they don’t have much accountability. If you’ve given your judgement over to authority figures as a default setting, personal moral accountability is actually illogical. This works great when they get to Wall Street, let me tell you. Let’s see, 1990s to 2008 is… about right for institutional impact. In other words, this is a feature for the Left and for many of its rich patrons, not a bug.
The larger cycle it kicks off also benefits them: The absence of internal ethics forces reliance on a poor alternative, regulation. Which makes cronyism more important, giving existing players big advantages. Which makes the lack of independent judgement more adaptive for individuals – until ruin or revolution arrives to interrupt the cycle.
Consequence 2: Punishment for not thinking like the herd (r-selected Rabbit warren), as displayed here, will tend to produce a lot of natural Jellybeans. The herd will hurt you. So the meta-message is that when the Fatwas of Authority are absent, look to the herd.
This thinking leads to poverty – but that isn’t the worst of it. A lot of jellybeans raised to remove their personal accountability = a generation raised into latent fascism.
We either push back on the very heart of these ideas, or our future is very dark indeed.
Excellent analysis, Joe! You nailed it.
You (and Harry for that matter) couldn’t have said it better.
From my own experience, I’m tempted to suspect something even more tragic to be behind of this drama. The incredibly fast and superficial stream that we call media today just noticed Richard Dreyfuss sitting there in the audience and never bothered to ask: why. Like a picture of Sarah Jessica Parker without make-up, this would be the new celebrity accident to gawk at. A baffled crowd of left-wing, inclusive, diversity loving media consumers (including myself) could only react in two ways. We could have asked, why is this happening, or – which is a lot simpler – puke our disapproval onto the internet.
Yes, I believe, diversity includes ideas, cultures, but also race, gender and sexuality. But I also believe, political correctness is the fabric softener that will ultimately damage the fibres of diversity beyond recognition. There is only one thing I will not discuss. I am a hardcore fan of Richard Dreyfuss, and the least thing I will do, if I read something irritating about him, is asking myself one thing. Could it be he might have a damn good reason for doing this or saying that after all?
You mean actually tthink instead of simply reacting as programmed? What a concept.
lol re: SJP, btw. 😀