We’re days away from the 93rd Oscars ceremony, and we all know what that means.
- Progressive lectures
- A show that, in the best-case scenario, wraps up after three grueling hours
- A new, new ratings low
There’s something else critical about Sunday’s star-studded event. We can expect certain topics to come up over and again, from former President Donald Trump to Black Lives Matter. The following causes, though, won’t get so much as a mention.
Why?
They’re inconvenient to the industry. Some reflect poorly on President Joe Biden. Others make Hollywood denizens look like hypocrites of the highest order. The causes reveal the ideological limitations of an industry that purports to be modern-day truth tellers but acts like a Democratic Super PAC.
It’s why the ratings should sink even lower than ever this time around. No Oscar prognosticators are suggesting anything else.
For now, let’s go over some worthwhile causes that will go unmentioned April 25, and why that shouldn’t be the case.
Kids in Cages
Celebrities railed against President Trump for four straight years. One of their loudest rallying cries against Trump? His immigration policies resulted in immigrant children being forced to stay in jail-like conditions. Or, to use their vernacular, “kids in cages.”
The complaint fueled the “Trump is Hitler” comparisons and pointed to a real-life problem. The current immigration system, be it under Trump or President Biden, appears broken beyond repair.
No child should be kept in a cage, but that’s the cold reality at the border.
Yet when Biden’s lax leadership caused the “kids in cages” crisis to surge, the Hollywood community suddenly lost its voice. It won’t find it Sunday night, rest assured.
Chinese Censorship
Hollywood has one answer whenever Chinese officials tell the industry what to do, say or create. “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”
It coaxed creators to write sympathetic Chinese characters to add into blockbuster movies, made studios excise Chinese villains and otherwise removed any element that could be critical to the Communist nation.
The problem will only get worse moving forward, now that Chinese-made movies are crowding out Hollywood product at the marketplace.
It gets worse.
The Oscar nominated movie “Nomadland,” directed by Asian-American Chloe Zhao, is getting pummeled by Chinese interests. Seems Zhao shared a critical comment about China in the past, setting off a chain reaction.
Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” was quietly swept from the Chinese web Friday, days after nationalist backlash erupted online over questions of her citizenship and a sentence she spoke to a U.S. magazine nearly a decade ago….
First, the film’s promotional posters vanished from Douban in the wee hours of the morning. Soon, its listed release date suddenly disappeared.
Next, “self-media” blog accounts found that censors had deleted prior articles related to “Nomadland.” One particularly well-regarded Wechat account posted a screenshot with two messages it had received from censors, stating that its content had, “after examination by the platform,” been found to have transgressed the “Development and Management Rules for Public Information Services on Instant Messaging Platforms” and accordingly had been deleted.
Even Filmmaker Magazine censored a 2013 interview with Zhao that likely set off the censorial fireworks.
Zhao’s possible Oscar coronation comes at a time when cultural forces are rallying behind both female directors and Asian-Americans in general. The latter sentiment flowed from an uptick in hate crimes against that demographic group.
That should mean celebrities sharing support for Zhao and her film Sunday night. Expect nothing of the kind thanks to the industry’s fear of Chinese retribution. And it’s not even the only censorship issue flaring up as Oscar night approaches.
Concentration Camps
There’s another China-based problem lurking around this weekend’s Oscar ceremony. The Chinese government is currently operating concentration camps against a persecuted minority.
According to reports last year, up to three million Uighur Muslims in China’s western Xinjiang province have been plucked from their homes since 2017 by authorities and disappeared into a prison camp, which the Chinese government glosses over with the term “re-education” facility.
Hollywood routinely turns a blind eye to Chinese-based human rights abuses, fearing it will lose access to its vast wealth of movie theaters. That’s holding true with the concentration camp issue, even after Disney thanked China for letting the studio shoot near such camps to complete work on last year’s live-action “Mulan.”
The Oscar stage would be the perfect moment for celebrities to right this wrong.
Big Tech Censorship
There’s no doubt that social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter discriminate against conservatives. Those fears went from conspiracy talk to cold, hard realities over the past six months, extending even into the comedy space.
Celebrities have little interest in protecting the free speech rights of their fellow Americans. Remember how they cheered on President Trump’s deplatforming?
The subject should be critical to artists given how vital free expression is to their craft. They won’t say a peep about it, though, since for the moment it’s primarily impacting conservative voices.
Blacklist 2.0
It’s the worst kept secret in Hollywood … besides Scott Rudin’s anger management issues. The industry actively discriminates against conservative talent. It’s undeniable, and a frightening echo from the McCarthy Era.
Industry conservatives, at least ones not named Nick Searcy, keep their right-leaning views to themselves for fear of professional blowback. The election of Donald Trump only made the problem worse.
Oscar night presenters have yet to broach the subject year after year, even though the issue predates even the 2015 “OscarsSoWhite” hashtag campaign.
That means there’s zero chance any actor will bring up the subject this time around. Less than zero, with apologies to Bret Easton Ellis.
Businesses Crushed by Riots
We’ve endured nearly a year of protests that destroyed countless businesses across the country. Coffee shops. Book stores. You name it, it’s been damaged beyond repair by “mostly peaceful” protests.
It’s hard to quantify how many small business owners watched their dreams go up in literal smoke since then, and the Left’s false narrative that insurance would make amends for the damages proved more Fake News.
We’re seeing this process repeat itself in recent weeks prior to the Derek Chauvin trial.
We’re still waiting for a single celebrity to speak out on behalf of these small business owners, meaning they won’t broach the subject come Sunday. It’s worth noting this reporter directly asked eight celebrities who donated money to the Minnesota Freedom Fund about the plight of businesses destroyed by the protests.
They chose not to reply.
Businesses Crushed by COVID-19 Restrictions
Hollywood routinely rallies in times of national distress.
Think how often the industry’s biggest starts give, and give, to various hurricane-related charities, for example. Even at the start of the current pandemic stars opened their wallets and purses, wide, to help fund food banks and other worthy causes.
Yet the vast majority of stars have said little while state-based restrictions crushed Mom and Pop businesses nationwide. Even when the science indicated outdoor restaurants had little to fear from the pandemic, the lockdown rules prevailed.
When everyday Americans revolted, some of Hollywood’s biggest stars mocked their complaints.
There’s little chance stars will use their Oscar bully pulpit to demand states reassess the science and open their cities up for business. It may be “neanderthal” thinking, but it just might work.
The post Seven Causes You Won’t Hear Championed During the Oscars appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.