Possibly the craving of performers to be taken seriously is understandable when you consider how intellectually insecure they can be. Lawrence has been acting since she was 14 and didn’t attend college. Shannon is a high-school dropout. Perry left high school at age 15. Evans did not attend college. Teigen attended community college “for a couple of days.” They look around and see a Nobel Prize winning columnist like Paul Krugman of The New York Times inveighing against Trump, and they long to be valued as much for their thoughts as their looks. They hunger to be known as “activists” in addition to mere actors or singers.
But they’re supposed to spread joy, not rancor. And they’re oblivious to the way they motivate Trump supporters. A central reason for his victory was the widespread conviction of his backers that progressive politics, as relentless and fanatical as the Viet Cong, was infiltrating and attacking every nook of American life, not excluding bakeries, the national anthem, restrooms and now even pronouns. (Don’t call her a her if she wants to be called zir, zid or indeed Zod.)
Dragging politics in where it doesn’t belong makes life more combative, irritating and exhausting. It means no escape, no outlet, no letup, anywhere. The Viet Progs not only never give up, they never take a week off or stop advancing into new territory. We keep saying the country is too divided and it is. But five minutes ago the national anthem was considered uncontroversial. Now it’s a fount of disputation and bitterness. Whose fault is that, progressives?
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