Clint Eastwood and Political Correctness
August 5, 2016 § 22 Comments
I have to admit, I like Clint Eastwood, the artist. He’s the star of one of my favourite films of all-time, The Good, the Bad & The Ugly. And he’s made some mighty fine films of his own. He’s also a complex man. He claims to be libertarian, but he’s supported both Democrat and Republican politicians. He’s called for gun control since the early 1970s. He was also a progressive mayor of Carmel-By-The-Sea, at least on environmental issues. And he’s long been an advocate of environmental controls. And, clearly, since he’s been mayor of his little resort town, he clearly isn’t opposed to government at all costs, nor is he opposed to using government power for the common good.
But, in recent years, he’s become a bit of a loose cannon. His speech at the 2012 Republican Conference, the so-called “Empty Chair” routine, was unforgettable. But this week, he was in the news again, complaining about the “pussy generation.” See, Ol’ Clint is tired of political correctness:
[Trump]’s onto something because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells.
We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist.
My response? So what? First, Clint Eastwood loves to come off as a tough guy when he’s going off on a tangent like this. Clint Eastwood ain’t no tough guy, he plays them in movies. That’s a big difference. Second, Clint Eastwood is 86 years old. When he was growing up, Jim Crow and segregation existed in the US. Is that what he wants to return to? I presume not.
As for “political correctness,” you know what? I’m sick of this one too. Creating an environment in the world where people feel comfortable, where we are all respected and treated fairly is not a bad thing. It’s easy for a multi-millionaire 86-year old white man to complain about the things that weren’t called racist 80 years ago. What discrimination has Clint Eastwood faced in his life?
And this is the thing, the people who complain about “political correctness” tend to be white and middle class, and quite often male. In other words, they tend to be people who don’t know what it feels like to be the target of discrimination or hate speech, or, worse. It’s easy for them to claim there is no discrimination, no racism in society. They’re not targeted by it. It’s easy for Eastwood to complain about the “pussy generation.”
In short, you cannot complain about “political correctness,” or claim there is no such things as racism, sexism, misogyny, or homophobia if you are of the dominant group in society.
More to the point, a long time ago, a great man once noted that the mark of a democracy was how it treated its minorities. And that is most certainly true. That great man, by the way, was former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau (the father of current PM, Justin “Hotty Pants” Trudeau).
Matthew Barlow 
Minorities huh?
Human rights are always top priority to Muslims who are in minority, but never in countries where Muslims are in the majority. You can fact-check that.
Well done. We’re not talking about the rest of the world here, we’re talking about the United States of America. So take your bigotry elsewhere. You should be ashamed to call yourself Christian, you are denying one of the central tenets of Christ’s teachings.
Do some homework Matt. Its not bigotry if its true. But it does make you an enabler of all things Muslim, good and bad.
Do you even know what Islam’s objective is, or the Quranic doctrine to achieve such?
Once more, the discussion here is about the United States of America, not Iran, not Saudi Arabia, or any other such place. And no, favouring rights for a Muslim minority in the US does not make me an enabler of all things Muslim, good or bad. Similarly, your advocacy of Christianity does not make you an enabler of all things Christian, good or bad.
So unless you have something to say about the United States of America, we are done here.
The Clinton just had 4 people die under mysterious circumstances in almost as many weeks. All had potentially ruinous information against Hillary and Bill Clinton and their “foundation”, or in regards to emails or voter fraud.
http://yournewswire.com/official-who-served-dnc-election-fraud-papers-found-dead/
Oh, no we’re into conspiracy theories, I see. What I would really like to know is how you can call yourself Christian when all you do is spew hate? That is a direct contradiction of what Christ taught.
This is on several outlets. Just not the main-stream mefia outlets owned by only 6 individuals, all of whom are biased and filter out freedom of the press and free speech. Google it. Statisticly, you have a one in 37,000 chance of knowing someone who has been murdered if you are an American. (in any single year). One in 500 chance if you live to the Clintons ages. (70)
They have been closely associated with 83 such cases now. The chance of this occurring by chance is only 1 in 5 to the 75th power, CONSERVATIVELY.
You can’t argue with math, John. It’s totally rational when reduced to metrics.
Get my name right when you comment on my blog. And, second, I did Google it. You’re falling off the deep end. And you didn’t answer my question as to how you can call yourself Christian when you spew hatred.
Its not hatred for people. All people have the same intrinsic worth. Even the unborn.
Do you agree?
And yet you keep spouting hatred, at Muslims, liberals, and now the Clintons.
What if I said of Hillary Clinton,
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
Would that be hateful or am I defending the truth and all whom she would otherwise victimize with her obvious ideology?
You see, people are not hierarchical in worth, but truth is, and so are ideologies, such as Islam as it concerns our country, immigration, and Hillary Clinton wanting to increase immigration of Muslims by 550%. Muslims are people, but Islam is an ideology. A very bad ideology.
So what do you think of my opening statement of Hillary?
Islam is a religion. And you’re a bigot. We’re done.
I agree with you in general, although I don’t want to see speech stifled for fear of offending people. We do tend to jump on people who disagree with us for genuine errors. Tolerance is tolerance. I would rather hear people say their politically incorrect things so we can have a true dialogue than have them feel that they can’t express themselves. Clint doesn’t seem to have any of those feelings, however, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt him to think before he speaks.
I agree with that, in general. But Trump is beyond the pale in his comments on immigrants, Mexicans, African Americans, Muslims, women, the disabled, LGBT people, etc. There is no dialogue to be had with the likes of him. And Eastwood is, as you note, also missing the point. On purpose, I think.
I’m with you on Trump as well. But I try to have dialogue with people in my town, my church, etc….
As usual, right on the button cousin! Very interesting read and although I, too like Eastwood’s character in the movies, he probably has never tasted any kind of discrimintation in this lifetime.
Merci, ma cousine!
The real problem with “political correctness” isn’t political correctness; it’s people using that as an abstract pejorative label to silence critics without discussing whether the speech in question is actually OK.
And that’s the thing, those crusaders against PC culture don’t really care if they offend people. They think it’s acceptable.
Oh, and I’m surprised your commenter above didn’t pull the “Islam is against the U.S. Constitution” claim. Which sounds funny considering that the most prominent office holders disobeying the Constitution in the last year were Christian fundamentalists who refused to marry gay people.
He might very well have, I deleted a bunch of his comments that crossed a line into offensiveness.