My Last Political Post, I Swear!

This week, anyway.

John Rogers has posted a clarification about the whole “self-pitying self-indulgent narcissist” thing.  He didn’t mean for it to apply to all conservatives who feel bullied around town.  Fair enough.

I think he was referring to me to me when he wrote, “There was one commenter who noted that in some jobs, as a low-level dude, you need to keep your mouth shut, or you’d be fired…  I sympathize.”

On a side note: it’s too bad he didn’t link to me; I could use the traffic, even if it is from his leftist, commie, pinko, hippie, pot-smoking, latte-sipping, Prius-driving, liberal readers.

How do you like them stereotypes, Scott? ;)

(To drift even farther afield of the point, Elana Frink thanked me for linking to her: “You mentioned me on your blog! I FEEL SO FAMOUS.”  What amazes me more than the fact that a couple hundred people read my thoughts daily is the idea that one of those people would be impressed that I linked to her.  The intertubes are weird.)

Anyway.  Back to the Kung Fu Monkey blog:

I once saw somebody fire a five year old. I’ve seen people fired because they didn’t go get their boss’s blow fast enough. Welcome to Hollywood. It’s awful. Politics will be the least of your worries in your hopefully long career.

I’m confused when people dismiss complaints with invocations of “That’s life!“  Is this supposed to make me feel better, or worse, or what?

So bad things happen.  The fact that I’m not the first (nor last) to suffer from them means I shouldn’t say anything about it?  What happened to the liberal credo, Speak Truth to Power?

It’s silly and irrelevant to tell me I’m young, and I haven’t seen the worst of it.  When I get fired for not getting the producer’s blow fast enough, I’ll complain about that, too.  That’s why I started this site.

Hollywood Conservatism

I should amend yesterday’s post.  I made Hollywood’s liberalism seem monolithic, when that’s not completely true.

I worked at a video production company where all the top people were conservative.  They went to church.  They had four or five kids each.  They were married to the same person for decades.

It was bizarre.

The staff was still mostly liberal, though.  When the bosses knocked off at 5:00, once again, everybody felt safe to assume everyone else was liberal.  (The company employed a lot of kids straight out of college, so it was a reasonable assumption.)

I do know that many of them felt compelled to shut up about their politics when the boss was around.  Empathizing with their position, I resisted the urge to say, “Oh, well, I guess you could get a job anywhere else in Hollywood.”

:)

- – -

On a side note, I found a mirror version of me, in Elana Frink’s blog, Girl on Girl Action. (She claims to be “kind of amazed to discover that many people Google this phrase looking for pornography.”  Come on, my blog gets porn searches!  How did you not see this coming, Frink?)

Anyway, it’s pretty funny, and well written.  For instance, here’s a post that involves the phrase, “I’m a PIRATE-THEMED HOOKER.” (Go ahead, try not to click that link.  I dare you.)

I like her idea about starting a new political party, “Libersocialism.” I think I’ll call mine “Conservatism.”  That’s “conservative” + “fascism.”

Look, you try it.

I’m a Self-Pitying, Self-Indulgent Narcissist With My Head So Far Up My Ass That I Equate “Occasional Discomfort During Cocktail Party Conversations” With “Being on the Fucking Blacklist.”

Allow me to explain.

There’s an article from the Hollywood Reporter making its way around the blogosphere, “Republicans in biz feel stifled, bullied.”  (Their headlines are so creative.)

Now, I don’t generally talk about politics, because that’s not what this blog is about.  (Unlike John Rogers, who, in the last two months, has posted maybe one article about writing.) But this is about how politics can affect your job, so I’m making an exception this time.

First off, I don’t want to claim there’s some sort of vast, left-wing conspiracy going on.

There isn’t a blacklist.  (As I stated in my comments on Rogers’s blog, I think Klavan’s statement that he didn’t want to be “the Dalton Trumbo of the right” is mere hyperbole.)

But I’m offended at the notion that this is all in our right-wing heads.  We are almost always the lone conservative in the room.  It’s not just that liberals are the majority, but they are such a majority that they don’t even consider the possibility that a conservative might be around.  And when I leave the room, they’re right!

People feel perfecly free to claim that Republicans are hateful, biggoted, war-mongering, stupid, and more.  Is there any other group you could so openly disdain, without any fear of repurcussion?  Oh, yeah, Catholics.

The thing I found most offensive, though, is Rogers’s claim that we conservatives are merely feeling “occasional discomfort during cocktail party conversations.”

I’m a PA.  I make six hundred a week, live in the Valley, drive a Corolla, and have never been to a cocktail party in my life.  If I were a producer, and the only person I had to answer to was my liberal showrunner, Rogers might have a point.

But there are five levels between me and the showrunner, and they’re all varying degrees of liberal, from a Joe Lieberman-type to someone who could be a Rush Limbaugh parody.

I do not feel free to discuss my views with almost any of them, except in the most veiled, indirect ways, and I defy anyone in my position to say otherwise.

Politics in Hollywood

I don’t often talk about politics, but after two weeks of conventions, people aren’t talking about much else.

Here’s a sampling of some of my Facebook friends’ status updates in the past couple weeks–

B___ wishes he could write hilarity like Palin has foreign policy experience because “she’s up there in Alaska which is right next to Russia!” Thank u Fox News.

J___ doesn’t understand why Palin’s situation is a “private family matter” but Bill Clinton’s situation wasn’t.

S___ wishes the Jews had a Pope so we could excommunicate Joe Lieberman.

K___ believes John McCain has punched at least one kitten in the face in his lifetime.

A___ agrees with everyone who thinks Sarah Palin is hot. Thank God for Google and jpegs. Go Obama/Biden!

F___ is pretty sure the GOP planted Juno and The Secret Life of the American Teenager to make Bristol Palin sympathetic.

F____ would like to know if Bristol Palin will go to the prom with him?

D___ is wondering if Sarah Palin knows that she really is just a gimmick and a puppet…

C___ http://perezhilton.com/2008-09-03-its-called-karma

M___ is LET’S GO BLUE!!!

Notice a pattern? I didn’t filter this. There was not one comment in favor of the Republicans. (Although, admittedly, “LET’S GO BLUE!!!” is probably regarding a football team.)

My favorite is the one about planting Juno and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. This guy really thinks Karl Rove controls this business he works in? The one in which everyone he knows thinks exactly like him?

Now, I realize this is not a scientific study, but it’s still rather random. Most of these people work acquaintances, not “friends” in the sense that we have similar interests and tastes.

Adam Carolla talked about this very subject this morning. It’s not that there’s a blacklist or anything, but if you’re a Republican or conservative, you probably don’t mention it. It’s like if your boss is a Trojan fan– you probably wouldn’t wear a UCLA hat to work, right?

So, I keep quiet, discussing my political leanings only on my anonymous blog. Sigh.

Open Minded

People often regard Hollywood as a liberal place. People are often right.

When the California Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, approval was unanimous among people I know or know of in the business. On the other hand, nearly all of my friends disapproved of the way Eliott Spitzer was run out of office.

So, you think “liberal,” you think “open minded,” right? Not necessarily.

A couple months ago, I was ordering lunch for the office. We usually order some meatless dishes for the vegetarians, but since this was a Friday during Lent, I ordered a few extra.

I mentioned this in passing to my boss, and he said, “What? What are you talking about?”

“You know, Catholics, Friday, no meat?”

“If it’s some sort of religious thing, they can fend for themselves.”

Um, really? If you want to avoid meat out of some notion that animals are sentient, or a misplaced hatred of vegetables, that’s fine, we’ll get you a salad. But if you want exercise your First Amendment right to the free practice of religion, fuck off.

Wow, that was a really serious post. Hmm. Screw it, here’s a monkey fighting a tiger.