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Just as a serious press wouldn’t praise president elect Donald Trump just for being Trump, a serious press wouldn’t describe Meryl Streep’s speech during the Golden Globes award ceremony on Sunday as “powerful” or “riveting.”
Even though I love Meryl Streep as an actress— she captivated me as Jill Davis in Woody Allen’s Manhattan, probably the best romantic comedy of all time— politically, she has fallen for Hollywodd’s pseudo-progressivism, probably the most hypocritical progressivism of all.
In her speech, which has suspiciously become legendary already, topping Twitter’s trends for over 12 hours, Streep points to celebrities in the crowd highlighting their non-American origin. She mentions Canadians, Italians, Nigerians, Israelis, etc. She jokes that none of them were asked for a birth certificate, referring to Trump’s silly insistence on seeing Barack Obama’s birth certificate since he accused the current president of being born in Kenya.
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Streep then affirms that if all of the immigrants in the room were deported from the United States, the American people would only watch football and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). These, she lectures the audience, “are not the arts.”
Meryls Streep has become the queen of bias, and bias can only do away with reason. Streep should know, and I suppose she does since she is an extremely intelligent woman, that Donald Trump’s famous “anti-immigrant” policies won’t touch the elite. The celebrities for whom she fears will not be affected in any way.
In fact, no legal immigrant, celebrity or not, will run the risk of deportation under a Trump presidency as long as the president elect keeps his promises. In fact, it’s not even a certainty that all illegal immigrants in the United States will be formally expelled.
The president elect has said on several occasions that he plans to deport illegal immigrants with criminal records. Rather different, isn’t it?
So Streep should be more careful with her words. I wouldn’t want to believe that someone whose work is so respected across the world is deliberately manipulating the truth, adapting the truth at her convenience in order to align it with her political interests even if these are merely ideological.
Streep stated in her speech that, when those in power offend, they also encourage others to offend. If that is the case, it’s also true that when celebrities make biased and prejudiced statements, they make room for fanaticism.
If we all want a critical society which is capable of putting anyone on the spot, we can’t lead its members from one extreme to the other.
It’s extremely easy for Meryl Streep to speak from a podium, surrounded by cameras and enjoying absolute liberty while wearing a dress that probably equals an average American’s monthly salary. After her speech, Streep and the “revolutionary” immigrants she mentioned will return to their respective mansions, where they can satisfy any need with a mere snap of their fingers. These celebrities can be anything they want to be, except the common citizens whom they treat with such contempt.
Donald Trump might act in exactly the same way, but Streep assures us that she is better than he is. I have my doubts in that respect.
There is a large group of immigrants in her own country which doesn’t enjoy the same liberties as Streep. They have no mansions. They wake up at 5 AM in order to be at work on time. They have neither cameras nor microphones nor designer clothing. Most of them probably didn’t watch the Golden Globes.
Streep didn’t mention them. She also didn’t mention the handicapped young man who was kidnapped and tortured for supporting Donald Trump. Perhaps they are not as valuable to her because they don’t represent “the arts” or because they can’t afford snobbery.
As usual, Donald Trump couldn’t control his urge to attack critics and described Streep as “overrated” on Twitter. Defense and aggression are not the same, and in this case the attack was unnecessary.
Even if they don’t realize it, Trump and Streep are the same. They tend to drown in their own arrogance.
