Rant: Americans Believe They're Under Attack By Hollywood

By Josh Tyler: 2008-11-17 03:31:35

For anyone who thought that electing a black man president might mean America was on its way to growing up, overcoming petty bigotry, backbiting, and ignorance here’s a splash of cold water. According to a survey done by the Anti-Defamation League 61% of Americans believe religious values are under attack by Hollywood. A Hollywood which 22% agree is “pretty much run by Jews”. The solution to this problem according to 40% of them, is to start banning “dangerous ideas” from libraries. That’s right, America’s ready for a good old-fashioned book burning.

There has been some improvement. Back in 1964 fully half of respondents thought that the Jews were out to get them. Go us, we’re slightly less prone to becoming Nazis. Unfortunately, we still haven’t gotten over blaming our problems on other people. It’s the TV that made your husband cheat on you, not the fact that you haven’t seen the inside of a gym in 10 years. It’s the goddamn movies that turned your kid atheist, not the Catholic priest who molested him behind the pulpit after choir practice.

Apparently, Obama or no, we’re still a nation of half-crazed conspiracy theorists who refuse to take responsibility for our actions because it’s easier to scream and moan about entertainment. That guy on the TV just said he doesn’t like the Pope! They’re trying to take away Jesus! We’ve got to stop them! Shoot the artists! I’m sure that’s what Jesus would do. It’s definitely what the 49% of us who believe America is becoming “too tolerant in its acceptance of different ideas and lifestyles” would do.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise. These are the people who voted for Prop 8 in California a few weeks ago, these are the people who bitched and moaned over the posters for Zack and Miri Make a Porno. These are the people who live in the “Real America” and find their own lives so unfulfilling, that they must waste time and energy meddling in and controlling the lives of others. I don’t know how they find the time to bother looking over my shoulder, personally after a hard days work I wouldn’t have the energy for it. I guess when you’re motivated by fear, you run on adrenaline. These are people who live their entire lives in fear, who thrive on ignorance. They’ll do anything in the name of keeping things the same. They want to oversee what you read, what you think, what you say, what you do, and who you marry. They want to make your decisions for you. Make you think the way they do. Just don’t take away their guns. It’s the American thing to do.

The good news here is that this book-burning American majority seems unwilling to put its money where its mouth is. Rated-R movies still make big money at the box office, they’re still showing up in droves. Everybody loves to bitch about something, and Hollywood is a favorite target for anyone given the opportunity to rant. This survey gave them an opportunity to rant and they did. It’s my hope that at least some of them, probably don’t really mean it. You may not find them buying a ticket for Religulous, but you’ll still see them sitting beside you at the next Quentin Tarantino flick.

Here’s a full breakdown of the Anti-Defamation League’s findings. Read and despair even more over there:

• 61% of Americans say they believe that "Religious values are under attack in this country," while 36% disagree with that statement (graph). 59% agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans." And 43% hold the view that Hollywood and the national media are waging an organized campaign to "weaken the influence of religious values in this country."

• Significantly fewer Americans believe today that Jews control the TV and film industries. The survey showed that 63% disagree with the notion that "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," while only 22% agree. When ADL conducted its first survey on anti-Semitic attitudes in 1964, nearly half of all Americans believed that the television and film industries were run by Jews.

• There is surprising support for censorship. Nearly 40% of the American people support the notion that "dangerous ideas should be banned from public school libraries," and nearly the same number of Americans disagree with the statement that "censoring books is an old-fashioned idea."

• Nearly half of those surveyed – 49 percent – believe that the United States is becoming "too tolerant in its acceptance of different ideas and lifestyles;" 47 percent disagreed with that statement.

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Meredith
November 17, 2008 at 22:22

It's sad, but not terribly surprising, to see these results--up until the part about book censorship. I wonder if these same groups would be pro-censorship if, for example, the Bible or the writings of Saint Augustine were banned in Jewish communities.

The notion of books as irreversible corrupters of our youth is absurd. It is the job of the parents to instill values in their children. If your kids are swayed away from their upbringing by a single book, then that reflects one of two possible facts: either you've done a poor job impressing values upon them, or your defense of those values has been lacking.

Kids are less concerned with the "what" than the "why" of moral arguments, and if you can't give them a convincing foundation upon which to build their morality, then frankly, you shouldn't complain when they start second-guessing you.

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BenjaminD
November 17, 2008 at 17:41

Oh. My. God.

A friend of mine linked me to this article on Myspace (yes, everyone I know that has a myspace is TOTALLY a child molester and stalks everyone else and takes pictures of each other naked in the shower. That's obviously why we're friends and have Myspaces. Duh.) and I started reading these comments and I couldn't resist saying something.

@ blacksheep:
Last time I read this article (the article. not the title) it was focusing on how stupid Americans are, in general, significantly more than sympathizing with particular actors and telling sob stories about them. I am truly sorry that the only thing you could attack in this article was the idea that Hollywood needs sympathy. I'm sorry if it is beyond you to respond to the idea that Americans are half-crazed conspiracy theorists, let alone address the idea that over 40% of Americans are okay with outright censorship in libraries.

The principal in the high school I was in last year (yes, I am one of those teenagers that "hold little to no value whatsoever") forbid my theater group of ever putting on another play after performing William Shakespeare's _Macbeth_ successfully. Censorship at work! God forbid, _Macbeth_! How inappropriate. It was a professionally directed play that over thirty people spent well over 3000 hours putting together. It was in no way inappropriate or inconvenient to the school.

I you should open your eyes to the world around you. Realize that teenagers are the future of the world that the older generation has left in shambles. Claiming that we have no value (did you mean values? Please tell me you meant values, saying we have no value is just outright slander towards a group of people you apparently have no comprehension of or respect towards) is ludicrous. No single person in my generation has attacked the wrong country for a crime they didn't commit. We haven't had a chance to contribute our opinions to a society that thinks that censorship is moral. Instead, we have people like you that offer teenagers no respect, either as a group or as individuals. Please do not demand respect that you have done nothing to earn. Respect the younger generation as the people that have to live in the world you're leaving behind.

So please, wake up and notice what color the sky is outside your house. Appreciate it for a second. It means something more than all the bitterness in the world. Or flick people off in traffic, build an alter to hate, and for the love of whatever god you believe in, scrape that damn inscription off the bottom of the statue of liberty. But I'd recommend you open your eyes. It will make people hate you less.

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Stuart
November 17, 2008 at 15:49

I always gaze with wonder at how many commenters in a comments section are so ignorant that their defensive rants always end up proving the editorial's point.

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bahbahblacksheep
November 17, 2008 at 14:25

-begin sarcastic voice- gee thanks for depending hollywood josh tyler! i'm sure they need defending those poor poor sad souls in their multimillion dollar mansions and mercedes and omnipotent democratic voting block. how dare people attack them for pushing their beliefs on everyone because they think they know better. what with their complete control over nearly all our cultural exports and primetime viewing audiences and what have you. i'm so glad there's someone on the net who has the courage to stand up and take on those bastards who don't work in hollwood. you go josh tyler! hollywood needs more defenders like you! -end sarcastic voice-

p.s. open your eyes. the only people running to the media at every opportunity throwing out career-ending accusations against their opponents all voted for the obamessiah. the town elders of "footloose" have since morphed into those with 'd' behind their names and hail exclusively from hollywood. but of course i suppose you could dismiss all that because some spineless hollywood suits decided to take the word "porno" out of a little movie no one was gonna go see anyway. boohoohoo poor kevin smith. all that free publicity for his wittle wittle movie. i'm sure he didn't see that coming at all.

p.s.s. the success of r-rated movies can be attributed to teenagers who we can all agree hold little to no value whatsoever. man do you even take time out to research these "rants" of yours instead of just relying on what some press release says?

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