Carny Folk

Some people are reportedly upset that actor Bradley Cooper is with Her. Given the age in which we live, the smart bet is that no one cares enough about Bradley Cooper to have noticed so his PR team authored the story and sent it out to the media. That is often how celebrity news gets created. The PR team sends e-mails to the media telling them their client will be doing something and included in it will be suggested story lines. A big chunk of sports “news” is cooked up by player agents.

Cooper’s people want the big shots in Hollywood to know that he, despite being a Pale Penis Person, is still firmly on the reservation. Another one of the strange parts of our current age is that those who make movies popular with the normies immediately fall under suspicion. American Sniper was a big hit with normal whites so the lunatics naturally suspect that Cooper may be some sort of spy for the enemy or even a heretic. Dressing him up and sending him to the old witch’s speech sends the right signal.

Now, actors are often quite stupid so their handlers do not want them performing off-script. Even the smart ones, Cooper went to Georgetown, often have psychological problems that can lead them to say and do strange things when not on their leash. Cooper has suffered from mental illness and addiction. Putting him in a box so the cameras can see him and then planting the phony victim story gets the coverage they want without risking an embarrassing off-the-cuff comment from the celebrity.

Logic says entertainers should avoid politics. There is no upside. On any given issue, close to half the public is on one side and the rest are on the other side. On the other hand, people do not really care what these people think so maybe there is no downside either. People make sport of the Hollywood moonbats because it is easy, but it does not seem to alter anyone’s viewing habits. Susan Sarandon is nutty as an outhouse rat, but in her prime she was easy on the eyes and a popular actress.

Politics in America is entertainment, at least that is how it is sold to us, so it makes sense for entertainers to be drawn to it. The people in charge assume we prefer things sold to us the same way Hollywood sells actors and they are probably right. Barack Obama won in 2008, despite being a foreign weirdo with a funny name. He is a good actor and he reads his lines flawlessly. For all anyone knows he was hired out of a community theater somewhere as he never had a job prior to politics.

Up until last week, none of this would have mattered. For the bulk of human history carny-folks were at the bottom of the social ladder. Perverts, deviants and troublemakers ended up in the entertainment business. That is true today, except we used to have the good sense to keep the carnies out on the fringe. They would come in, do their shows and then be told to move along. Decent people understood that you did not want these dirt bags hanging around too long. Now, the carnies are in charge.

Most actors are crazy liberal. They stake out positions that suggests they are divorced from reality. The rich, famous ones embrace third-world authoritarian politics, which if implemented, would land them in a work camp. The minor actors embrace the latest Progressive fads, usually in the most degrading fashion. People like Lena Dunham seem to invest most of her time finding new ways to humiliate herself on behalf of a cause. It turns out that stupid, crazy and liberal is not much of a handicap in Hollywood.

My guess is that there is a lot of overlap in cognitive qualities required to be an actor and be a loony-tune liberal. They say there is no dignity in television, because you will inevitably be required to degrade yourself on camera. To do that means you cannot have a high opinion of yourself. A healthy self-loathing and a desire to obliterate one’s own is going to be a necessary skill for an actor. Similarly, joining a mass movement like a political cause is best done by those seeking to exchange their identity with that of the group.

People in show business are always on the prowl for affirmation. They go on stage because they want the applause. What makes American Progressivism enduring is it imbues the adherent with the sense of intellectual and moral superiority. To be a liberal is to be super-smart so if you are a super-smart good person, you are a liberal. That is the belief. It is why dimwits like Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman kit themselves out as bohemian intellectuals. They just assume that their ability to remember the lines from the liberal catechism makes them intellectuals.

The wisdom of putting carny folk at the top of the social ladder is open to debate. My sense is the only people who think these people are at the top of the status structure are the actors and people who want to be actors. Everyone else gets that actors are low-lifes and fairly stupid. While there are exceptions, the public is conditioned to assume their favorite actor is nutty as a fruitcake in real life. Then again, the people running for office are often worse than the carny folk so maybe it is a good idea to put the carnies in charge.

33 thoughts on “Carny Folk

  1. I have felt for some time that the best actors can do what they do because they aren’t really anybody, they don’t have a basic personality. As a result, they can easily become any character they need to be for a movie or play. Off the set, they are still acting the part their manager or handler says is best for their career. The actual values that part represents, or presents, has no meaning or value.

    • I believe it is a Native American maxim which claims a part of one’s spirit/soul is lost every time a lie is told. 

      So I just watched the movie “Limitless” on TNT this afternoon.  In this film, Bradley Cooper plays a regular joe whose intellect is vastly increased upon taking a drug called NGT.

      In my opinion, Cooper does play the part intelligently.

      But, in the end, it is all a lie and he’s just another stupid liberal Democrat.

  2. People who put on a show: I recall once a British TV chat show host saying that some of the people he had to deal with as guests on his show were turds, though he may not have used quite that word. He did once say that a famous film star was due to be on his show and meeting him an hour beforehand was a nightmare. The famous being was not only offensive, nasty, rude but mostly one-syllable. The presenter thought, when the show went out, this would mark the end of his career as he struggled to deal with such an obnoxious arse.

    When the star came down the stairs (the show was live) the actor greeted the presenter like a long-lost friend, gushing over him like the presenter was the greatest person who ever lived. The audience wondered,a s they arched, why the presenter’s mouth had dropped open in a gape: he was so astonished at the turn=around he could barely hold back his utter astonishment.

    The point the presenter made was these famous stars all — yes, all of them — were acting ‘nice guy’ when it suited them. After the gushing performance, they went back to what they were.

    • “as they arched” should be “as they watched.” I do wish my observation skills of the junk I type (tripe?) was better.

  3. Interesting post on the moral inversion that passes for 1st World culture these days. For most of human history, the elite had to pretend to virtue, however defined in their contemporary culture, most particularly if they were not particularly virtuous. This was just self interest in the days when there were potential challengers ready, willing and able to move in should any current incumbent elite make the mistake of becoming contemptible.

    But now the elite pretend to depravity, even if they live mostly virtuous (or at least not obviously self-destructive) lives. This observation was pretty well documented in Charles Murray’s ‘Coming Apart’.

    A little depravity can be a fun thing if your power, wealth and status allow you to evade the consequences. But the fewer resources you have, the faster it destroys your life, even today. Hence there was some moral virtue to elite hypocrisy in avoiding leading the lower orders to destroy themselves through stupid status signaling.

    But carneys don’t care. Or appear not to or not to have to. Hence the apparent attraction of public depravity to prideful narcissists, like show biz types. Politicians also tend to be prideful narcissists in this culture, hence the mutual attraction to carneys that Z Man points out. Apparently we have enough resources (for now) that we can celebrate carney life as a culture: How long_?

  4. The Romans placed three groups at the bottom of the social order: Slaves, gladiators, and actors. They loved their actors but they didn’t arrive by the front door.

  5. It seems both actors and politicians are, at times, more analogous to the screens upon which their audience project their own fictions; as opposed to vice versa. And, this is when the actors on stage seem to make believe in their own reflections.

    After all, their greatest fantasy is to be scene as “cool” and even the Fonz approved of “Jumping the Shark” in pursuance of Happy Days.

  6. Go to the county fair a day or two before it opens — while they’re setting up. Check out the guys with the wrenches & tool belts. You probably won’t want to ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl.

  7. My theories on show-people.

    1. As Z-Man says, people who play dress-up for a living generally aren’t the smartest or most stable.

    2. Most were never middle-class. They started out waiting tables in New York or LA, a year later they were millionaires. Nothing in between. No getting a raise and seeing no change in take-home pay because of taxes. No wondering how raise a family on their income or any of that boring stuff. Nothing that would ever keep them moored to the things most people call reality.

  8. Two words. Katie Perry. It wouldn’t have surprised me to see her on stage last night, naked, painted with red and blue and silver (she’s big on silver and sparkle).

    I’m still trying to figure out why she matters.

  9. “People in show business are always on the prowl for affirmation. They go on stage because they want the applause.”
    William Buckley said he would rather be governed by the first 200 names in the phonebook than by “politicians”..
    Perhaps it would be better if our TV and movie actors were randomly selected and trained, rather than the self-selected weirdos we have currently. I don’t mean randomly selecting from a pool of current applicants — all wanna-be “stars” — no, I mean really randomly selected, drafted actually; people whom would never dream of becoming actors. People untainted by the desire to be famous, to be taste-makers or “role-models”.
    Acting is such an easy thing to do, anyone can do it .. hell, look at the idiots doing it now.

    Although I think we would still have a problem with the producers, directors, scriptwriters and editors … but, one thing at a time, let’s at least replace the current in-your-face narcissist actors.

  10. I’ve said this way too many times – but, once again, we live in the Matrix. Nothing is real. Everything is staged. Even intelligence. Everything is an act, performed by actors. Opinion is scripted. We are conditioned by a thousand fake images pouring into us in a variety of ways every day. I refer to it as the Great Delusion.

  11. It surprised me when lots of people on the right got upset that Cooper was attending the DNC event. I guess I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and consider that maybe he had the opportunity to go and check things out for himself. He looked pensive in the picture I saw of him and his gf, but then maybe he was just stoned.

    Actors are notorious for playing a role but speaking out of turn (180 degrees) about their personal opinions. Like Matt DAAAAMON playing Jason Bourne. Just before release of his new movie, he is bad mouthing gun rights?? What an ass! He has no problem getting rich off violence and guns in his movies but he has no problem telling everyone else they shouldn’t have guns. I do not give these carny’s one dollar. Like TeaPartyDoc, I watch when I can see their stuff for free.

    I think Laura Ingraham said it best in the title of her book “Shut Up and Sing.” Applies to anyone in the arts. Who told these people anyone cares about their opinions?

  12. That’s a major defect in my understanding of the world — I don’t care what any celebretard thinks about anything, and I can’t understand why anyone else does. And yet, evidently the majority of my fellow countrymen do. Which is why I’m a “conservative” — if I can’t grok something big like that, I have no business setting policy for anyone.

    • N.b. I mean “I can’t understand why other people out there care.” Not trying to imply that anyone here cares what Bradley Cooper thinks. But I know smart, successful people who actually read People magazine and seem to be invested in Johnny Depp’s love life. Weird.

      • I will skim through People or US magazines while waiting to get through the grocery store check out, but I am totally baffled that folks actually pay good money to buy such crap.
        Even more baffling is that some readers of that garbage actually write letters to the editors of those magazines to comment about the stupid articles they have read in those idiotic magazines.
        And most likely the readers of those magazines – including the readers of The Enquirer or the NY Times – are permitted to vote; one reason that our nation is so F’d up.
        There is no better proof than this demonstrating that no citizen should be allowed to vote unless they have passed some sort of written exam that demonstrates knowledge of the US Constitution.
        Yes, I actually know someone who buys and reads the Enquirer. Long, long ago I learned not to bother asking this individual about why he/she supports a particular candidate for office. I found it is more useful speaking to a pebble than trying to decipher their totally illogical, nonsensical, contradictory explanations ( e.g., I hate the high taxes I have to pay here – it’s a ripoff – but I will be voting for the “I will raise your taxes” candidate) .

  13. Long ago, I was a communication major at a big 10 school. To my great joy, I landed an internship at the local TV station my senior year. First day on the “job”, I got to watch the Managing News Director/ Anchorman report the news to the camera, as I stood by the technical director. Awesome!
    Then, I got to meet the anchorman. This was going to be great. I asked him about various world, national and local issues and how he thought they would play out. I might as well have been speaking Swahili. Dude was dumb as a bag of rocks. I was blown away how stupid most people are in that industry. Long story short, he was engaged to the station owner’s daughter. That, plus he was good looking and read the telpropmter well.
    All paid “Talent” = carny workers. Find clips of Obummer trying to give a speech when the prompter goes down. Shockingly (not really) poor performance.

    I went back to school a few years later for computer science and never looked back.

    • I have an acquaintance who does law in the entertainment business. He bumps up against lots of stars and he says a good rule is to assume the opposite of what you see on TV. If Actor X is a funny, easy going character on TV, he is a miserable jerk in real life. The dumb guy on TV is usually the smart guy, while the TV smart guys are all dumb as dirt.

      The times I’ve met celebrities, what always strikes me is how small they are and oddly proportioned. Their heads always seem a size too big for their bodies.

      • re: “The times I’ve met celebrities, what always strikes me is how small they are and oddly proportioned. Their heads always seem a size too big for their bodies.” thezman

        You apparently have defined what it means to be photogenic or that the Camera Lies.

        Dan Kurt

        • Someone once told me that the ideal height for a TV actor is 5’10” as they can play the big guys without towering over the other actors who are usually around 5’8″. Otherwise, they have make the other actors stand on boxes or wear lifts, which is a hassle. They say the average height for a man is 5’9″ so maybe they are not as short as I think and I’m wrong. I’m right around six feet, which seems average to me as I don’t tower over many people nor look up to many people.

          But, athletes lie about size all the time. If a player is listed as 5’10” and 185 on the roster, he’s probably 5’8″ and 175. Maybe actors do the same and they are mostly well below the average height.

          • It’s not the height it’s the proportion. In figure drawing, a model that has a ratio of head measurement to their body is 7 to 7.5 heads high, regardless of true height, will fill up your canvas, or your television screen. Many short, slight people have this physical gift. It’s the human form’s “golden mean” for desirability. The slightest young lady model we had was 5’1″ and she was almost impossible to fit onto the canvas, so golden was the ratio. Can’t explain it.

          • Joan, that’s interesting. For most of my figure drawing (the Friday portrait group), the models were sitting in a chair so I never bothered to measure the head compared to the body.

            As far as actors go, I wonder how much of it has to do with camera angles and perspective as well.

          • Get a good artists’ anatomy book and you find all sorts of measurements that help you accurately capture the dimensions that make every human face and figure unique, and why Uma Thurman can see around corners, so widely spaced are her eyes. Hollywood looks for women like this, and you don’t find too many in everyday life. Eyes typically are spaced one eye-space apart. More than that and the casting director will give you a second glance, even if not particularly beautiful.

            Nothing we see that is part of a bajillion dollar industry is by chance.

      • Mean celebrities I have met and spent sufficient “observation” time with: Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby.

  14. If want to deny power to the carney’s don’t go to the carnival. Or at least wait until you can go for free. The only movies I watch are ones I don’t have to pay for. Unfortunately that means TCM, which uses lefties like Manckiewics as an introducer (Young Turk).

    • If the government wanted to “fix” Hollywood they would bust up the cable monopolies so that you guys your content a la carte. Then they would end the tax subsidies that subsidize much of the crap in Hollywood. The industry would have no choice but to retool to appeal to the market again.

        • They make sure the global giants never forget to drop off their gifts at Christmas to the political class. The Microsoft case was an old fashioned mafia shake down. They were sending a message. The Tobacco settlement at the same time was a nice bookend.

    • I’ve often wondered how Manckiewics got and holds that TCM job, which really isn’t much of a job by TV standards. He’s not good looking, comes across as standoffish (compared to Robert Osborne), doesn’t have much of a “presence”, and doesn’t appear particularly knowledgeable. I guess someone at TCM knew his old man.

      • His grandfather and father were big time screenwriters and directors in Hollywood. Oscar winners, I believe. He also has another significant connection, genetically speaking, that we aren’t allowed to discuss.

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