Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Hollywood and McCarthyism

Hollywood loves to make movies about the days of the McCarthy hearings and the Blacklist when writers couldn't get work (actually they could but they had to use pseudonyms or fronts). These movies always side with the poor people accused of being communists, usually portraying them as hapless victims who only joined the Communist Party to impress a girl or some such. The almost never show the truth which is that the Communist Party of Hollywood was dedicated to the overthrow of the US government and was directly controlled by the Kremlin. All of this came out in the early 90s after the fall of the USSR during a brief period when their records were public.

The point of all of these movies is to make us root for the dissident and boo the officious accuser who is willing to ruin the lives of hard-working, talented people over a difference in philosophy. Hollywood is for the underdog.

Except is isn't.

Look at what happened to Kevin Hart. He was chosen to host the 2019 Oscars. Within three days he was out after people dug up some homophobic tweets he made a decade or more ago. Never mind that he recanted and apologized for them years ago. He was judged unsuitable to host the Oscars.

Hollywood has taken the place of McCarthy and no one is there to stand up for their victims.

Note, the one exception to the movies about the Hollywood communists was the Coen Brothers' Hail Caesar. That movie correctly showed a group of writers who were dedicated communists although it was an over-the-top portrayal that included kidnapping an actor and sending the ransom to the USSR. After The Majestic, I can forgive the Coens' exaggerations.

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