CELEBRITIES AREN'T NECESSARILY SMART

The atmosphere in the U.S. since the Presidential Election 2016 has been newly poisoned by celebrity involvement in politics. I use the word "newly" intentionally. Two of the worst toxins of American politics, in my opinion, were McCarthyite-turned-Republican actor, Ronald Reagan, and his B-actress wife, Nancy. They ignored the AIDS epidemic, meddled in Central America, raised taxes and handed the economic tiller of the U.S. to Ayn Rand groupies, Alan Greenspan and Dick Cheney. 

It took 20 years for their damage to culminate in the financial collapse of 2008. Their cover was their falsely claimed defeat of Communism. It would never have flown with the American public if Ronnie didn't have provenance from Hollywood and the natural ability to talk a starving dog off a meat truck. He was able to be convincing even when he was losing it to Alzheimer's. 

Symptoms of the decline of American culture are the combined popularity of reality-television and inane streaming videos on social media platforms. There is no bar of tastefulness in media. Generations of dumbed-down education have yielded an effect on society and culture. Trophies for the inept have corrupted the quality of demonstrable merit. Merit is now measured in dollars, clicks and views, measures of quantity without any actual measure of quality. 

And who are the pilots of American culture today? Crass and shameless narcissists rise to the top readily. I call this Circus America. Its mimicry is seen on every urban street. Fat girls with shorts tailored to hug their crotches. Skinny boys with pant waists below their underwear waists. Hair dyed in neon colors. The clown culture proponents cry foul whenever someone takes critical note of their exhibitionist absurdities. They say they are being shamed. Sadly, they were not appropriately shamed as children into considering the effect of their appearance and behavior upon public perception. 

While President Trump still qualifies as an example of this speak-first-think-later celebrity trend, he is actually attending to the business of fulfilling his electoral mandate with some success against massive media opposition. The rallying behind celebrities who frivolously justify public dysfunction is perhaps peaking. So many of the vanguard of celebrity defenders of dysfunction have already fallen. Fat actresses are not reaping the rewards of their activism by getting more premium roles. Staunch defenders of Far Left ideology, like Ben Affleck, are checking into rehabs. Suburbicon, the Damon-Clooney collaboration on White guilt, was a flop. Meryl Streep does not seem to be lining up to play Hillary in a biopic. And, thank the Universe, Michelle Wolf was canned by Netflix. 

But there are still too many celebrities willing to voice inanity into a microphone or type it into Twitter for attention. DeNiro Dementia Disease still pops up. For example, Cynthia Nixon's run for New York governor on a platform of open borders and closed prisons. If there was every a recipe for the euthanasia of civilization, there it is. Meanwhile, Ms. N. has been accused of monkeying with her money to hide it from the tax man. That's a socialist who would have excelled in the U.S.S.R. of old. 

I never much liked the company of pious folks who were proud of not owning a TV. I enjoy entertainment of decent quality, and it is harder to find. I admire good acting and exceptional public speaking. The material to which those talents are turned does effect society and cultural heritage. And isn't that enough? Apparently not for those celebrities who are insatiably needy. Their need for bottomless quantities of adulation and money exceeds their understanding that they are contributing to the deterioration of intelligent political and social discourse. They are paragons of selfish greed who are best ignored.