‘Hollywood had revealed itself in countless ways as one of the most hypocritical capitalist enclaves in the world.’ Bret Easton Ellis
That’s “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis, in an excerpt from a new book he’s promoting that takes on the entertainment world’s most powerful after they, the author says, turned on one of their own for no good reason.
Their target: Kanye West, and by turns, Donald Trump.
Within Hollywood’s contempt for West, or at least for the entertainer’s apparent respect for Trump — West says he and the president share “dragon energy” — lies much hypocrisy, charges the author.
The elite’s grimaced reaction to West’s tweets and his rambling, televised Oval Office meeting with Trump last fall, an appearance complete with an Adidas promotion, wasn’t that much different than the baffled reaction among much of social media’s rank and file. But it’s the stars who should be ashamed of themselves, Easton Ellis writes.
Read an excerpt from the book “White” in the New York Post.
“Ever since the election, Hollywood had revealed itself in countless ways as one of the most hypocritical capitalist enclaves in the world, with a preening surface attitude advocating progressivism, equality, inclusivity and diversity — except not when it came down to inclusivity and diversity of political thought and opinion and language,” Easton Ellis, who has posted his own share of seemingly pro-Trump, writes. “They proudly promoted peace just as they were fine with Trump getting shot by Snoop Dogg in a video or decapitated by Kathy Griffin or beaten up by Robert De Niro or, more simply, as an apparently drunken Johnny Depp suggested, assassinated.
There’s risk with intolerance of Kanye’s stream of consciousness, MAGA hat-wearing, Oval Office scene-stealing moments, the author says. And that’s intolerance leveled not even at West’s commentary, but at its very existence, including a preconceived notion of what issues or candidates that West, as a black man, should embrace. (Easton Ellis actually refers to Kanye moments as “sweet and mysterious, dumb and profound, funny and playful, part absurdist stunt...”)
He writes: “Fellow comrades had started to adhere to their new rule book: about humor, about freedom of expression, about what’s funny or offensive. Artists — or, in the local parlance, creatives — should no longer push any envelope, go to the dark side, explore taboos, make inappropriate jokes or offer contrarian opinions. This new policy required you to live in a world where one never got offended, where everyone was always nice and kind, where things were always spotless and sexless, preferably even genderless — and this is when I really started worrying, with enterprises professing control over not only what you say but your thoughts and impulses, even your dreams.”
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