USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is one of the more benign trivial pursuits resulting from America’s fixation with celebrities,” I wrote for Guns & Ammo back in 2002. “Parodying the play ‘Six Degrees of Separation,’ the game gives players up to six steps to connect the actor to any other actor via movies they have appeared in.
“A more ominous pastime is the knack for stars to abuse their fame by promoting ill-conceived ‘causes,’” my column continued. “And when it comes to the Second Amendment, connecting gun-grabbers in only one step is, fittingly, a no-brainer.”
Back then I was commenting on Bacon and various other famous Hollywood “stars” signing on to a Handgun Control, Inc. (before they decided “Brady Campaign masked their motives better) “Open Letter to the NRA” that advocated for all kinds of infringements—from purchase limits, to waiting periods, to bans on semiautomatic firearms, and more.
“We are not gun haters,” they assured us.
I then went on to present anti-gun quotes from other “celebrities,” many surprising to people who make the mistake of assuming screen images are more than illusions. Those included A-list “action heroes” like Sylvester Stallone, Sean Connery and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Curiously, one bona fide Hollywood leading man — real action hero Audie Murphy — would have been too young to buy a gun at the time he was winning the Medal of Honor, that is, according to the gun-grabbers.
Of course the clamor from Hollywood anti-gunners has only increased over the years, and from time to time we’ll see more anti-gun inanity offered by “lucky stars” including Uma Thurman of “Kill Bill” slaughterfest fame, and “Captain America” Chris Evans.
Fast forward to the present and Bacon is back, appearing with gun-grab fanatic Julianne Moore, rich socialist Susan Sarandon, free speech ban devotee Michael J. Fox (and other “stars” I’ve never heard of) in a Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown-funded “Make a Plan to Vote” video.
Astroturfers are big on”PSAs.” But for some reason, they’re not big on allowing comments under them.
In this one, they urge us to vote for “Gun Sense Candidates …who will offer more than thoughts and prayers… and most importantly people thaty aren’t bought and paid for by the NRA.” That last bit is pretty “rich,” considering “Michael Bloomberg Will Spend $80 Million on the Midterms. His Goal: Flip the House for the Democrats.”
And speaking or rich, look what starring in all those movies and TV shows looking “cool” with a gun has done for Bacon’s bank account.
“Progressive” trolls, of course, resort to Alinsky Rule 5 ridicule whenever the hypocrisy of an actor raking it in with guns in movies while stumping for real-world gun-grabs is pointed out. They’re playing characters, we are told. The implication is that anyone bringing the matter up is foolish and disconnected from reality.
What a lame attempt at deflection. Meanwhile, the over privileged stage props reap ludicrous rewards engaging in play “gun violence,” more often than not while pretending to be “good” enforcers for the state. Still, you can stipulate that everyone (but dolts who turn to celebrities for political opinions) understands it’s all make-believe, and you can force-feed that point back to them. Of course the characters are not real. Nor are the images the actors portraying them project, or the public’s perception of the person behind them.
It’s all an illusion, “the stuff that dreams are made of.”
They’re not wiser, smarter, better informed, more caring… If anything, celebrities have shown themselves more dysfunctional, more egotistical, more narcissistic, more knee-jerk ignorant, more willing to whore themselves, more conformist with the expectations of those who can reward or destroy them…
They’re not who they pretend to be when they’re repeating lines written by others in a manner directed by someone else under perfect lighting with their very appearance molded by specialists, technicians and artists. So why the hell should anybody assume when they speak out on politics their opinions are any more valid than, say, a Mark Dice interview subject’s?
Those are the ones that useful idiot “stars” can influence, by the way. And that’s what Bloomberg and the Democrats are counting on.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and a contributor to Firearms News, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.