Oct. 14, 2017 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
27:43
3857 Why I'm Breaking Up With Hollywood
While he had planned for this video to be a review of Blade Runner 2049 - Stefan Molyneux just couldn't financially support any Hollywood production in light of the flood of sexual assault and rape associations plaguing the industry. Molyneux explains why he is breaking up with Hollywood and hopes that you will keep your entertainment dollar from being used to bait for continued abuse and sexual predation. Your support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
Since I was a little kid, my brother and I used to go to a little local theater and for 10 golden British pennies, we were able to sit and watch a variety of cartoons and short movies and so on.
And it was really educational.
And somewhat propagandistic and all that, but I remember one of the things from when I was little that happened was I went to one of these I guess smorgasbord or buffet of little shorts and it was a sports team and the sports team you know the usual hardscrabble kids down on their luck a bad or no coach then the new coach comes along there's no crying in soccer and they turn it around and so on they beat the bad team I remember thinking even at the time okay but if the camera was on the other side of the field I would root for them.
I like the blue team because I know their backstory and I've been forced to like them or manipulated into liking them by hearing their backstories and their hardscrabble lives.
And so I like the blue team.
However, if the camera was on the side of the red team, I'd like the red team and I'd want them to win.
And I just remember thinking about that when I was...
Oh, this is pretty little. Six or seven.
Maybe eight. Eight?
Actually, probably eight. Anyway. So I've loved movies forever.
And, you know, foreign movies, historical movies, other than Ghibli, I have imbibed just about every kind and enjoyed them all.
And I've loved talking about movies with you guys over the years.
I've got, I don't know, a dozen or more probably movie reviews.
Over the course of this show, not as many as I'd like, but since I became a dad, it's a little tough to get away for that kind of time period to watch the movie, think about it, research it, and write it up, and then record it.
It's time-consuming. And, you know, current events, tsunami all the time.
So I love movies, and today, you know, I've been imbibing, man, it's really, you know, I've done a lot of shows on the Weinstein scandal, and I hate to be annoying, but I still don't think many people out there, based on the view count, are really getting how important a story this is.
Why are you wasting your time on movies and M&M and Hollywood?
It's because culture is really, really important.
Most people don't have philosophy.
Most people have a kind of half-digested buffet of images that Kind of assemble in this tossed salad kind of manner in their brain, and they kind of bounce around between these various emotional stimuli, you know, like hysterical pinballs on cocaine.
And this is their reference point.
This is how they make decisions.
And so I really care about culture.
I really care about art.
I started out as a short story writer, as a poet, as a novelist, as an actor, as a director, as a playwright, and so on.
And I did all of those things, and the philosophy stuff, Philosophy was supposed to inform my art.
That's what I kind of wanted, and it kind of changed over time.
Into recognizing, as I tried to make my way in the art world, coming up against this intense, intense leftist-socialist-communist bias was something that I recognized.
Well, I really want to be an artist, but unfortunately I have to fix the culture before I can be an artist.
There was just too much pushback against anything even remotely.
It's elevated or free or free markety or anything like that.
It was terrible.
I mean, the first day when I was at theater school, marched into the head's office and he says, oh, well, you're all very young, white and bourgeoisie.
Bougie, I think he said.
But... And I think I understand sort of what the sports fans feel, what's been going on with the NFL lately, with these, you know, take the knee regarding the flag stuff.
And it is important. There's a reason why leftists go for this stuff.
It's very important stuff.
Very important stuff. You know, people don't really get...
I think at a gut level, it's hard to sort of articulate it.
But statues are being replaced because people are being replaced.
Because a culture is being replaced.
Because a tradition is being replaced.
Right? You can't kneel to the flag of America because you kneel to the state.
I know the flag is a symbol of the state.
No, the American flag is a symbol of the absence of the state because the American experiment, successful as it was for, I guess, close on three quarters of a century, From its inception, but the American experiment was the opposite of a state.
The American experiment was as small a state as humanly possible at the time with the available political science technology and mindset that was there.
And so you can't kneel to the existing American flag because that limits the power of the state and there are so many people now who are existing and subsisting on the state that they have a different God that they wish to worship and that God is the state and the American flag is the flag in general of conservatives and conservatives want a small government and They're willing to take a big god to get a small government,
whereas on the left, they want no god and a giant government, the atheistic worship of the state, or statheism, as I call it, atheism plus statism together.
And so, they want to replace the conservatives, and this is why they go after everything the conservatives treasure.
The history, the tradition, the flag, the music, everything, right?
And they portray America as...
Thunderously dysfunctional in order to...
Like, if the problems are so big, then you need an even bigger state to deal with them.
If the problems can't be dealt with voluntarily.
And just look at the rap sheet.
Literally look at the rap sheet of NFL stars.
I mean, it's brutal. I wonder they're against the cops.
It's crazy. Well, not crazy, I suppose.
So, I understand what the NFL people, because now they've come for something I love.
I don't particularly care about watching sports.
I guess I got bored enough watching Wimbledon on a 10-inch, fuzzy, half-rolling, black-and-white television with a crooked Mickey Mouse antennae when I was a kid in England.
It's like, well, there's a ball rolling around somewhere in that gray, sparkly murk, but I don't know where the hell it is.
But now, of course, they've come for movies.
And it's different, though.
I mean, it's different because the Weinstein thing goes deep and it goes wide and it goes far.
Far into the past, far across.
It touches just about everything and everyone because he was such a central and pivotal man within the industry.
And everyone knew, of course everyone knew.
Of course everyone knew.
Now, they can't say that they know now, obviously, for a variety of reasons, I'm sure.
Some to do with Korea, some to do with liability and so on.
But my opinion, yeah, of course they knew.
I mean, of course they knew.
I mean, they made jokes about it.
2013 Oscars. Here are five women who no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.
Of course they knew. There's no question.
And... So, they've come for the movies now...
And this really struck me today.
I wanted to do a movie review.
I wanted to go and see the new Blade Runner movie.
I liked the first Blade Runner movie.
In particular, the man's face.
Ritka Howe is his name? His face when he sees toys.
You know, and the wonderful Tears in the Rain speeches.
Beautifully delivered. Um...
So, I'm wrestling.
I'm wrestling. And to be honest, I thought, I wonder if I could, I could, this is so sad, but this is, you know, I'm an addict.
What can I say? I was like, oh, maybe I can say I had the tickets before.
I was like, no, no, come on.
Don't lie. Don't lie.
Don't lie to your audience. So, I'm like, thinking about it, thinking about it, talking about it with people I know, and it's like, nope, I can't.
I can't. I can't.
I can't go. Oh, man.
That's rough. You know, when you stare into the abyss of culture trying to rescue the dregs and the heights and the glories of civilization from impending doom, sometimes it's nice to go and watch people shoot at each other with lasers in space or whatever the hell goes on.
And no. No.
Couldn't do it. I couldn't do it.
And, you know, that's me.
I think that's a good case. But can you?
Can you really do it? Can you now look at successful women in Hollywood or men?
James Van Der Beek was talking about how he had his ass grabbed when he was younger.
And I don't know what they're actually mean by that.
How far... Did that go?
How far did they take that?
How much did he experience?
I mean, if you look at Corey Feldman, I think it was, talking about the number one problem in Hollywood is pedophilia.
Elijah Wood for Frodo from Lord of the Rings also talked about something similar, though he didn't experience it.
His mom kept him safe from it, but he said there's a lot of predation, a lot of predation on children in Hollywood.
And... I mean, the fashion industry, I can imagine as well.
The academia, I wonder, sometimes, you know, because we've been used to this kind of stuff from the Catholic Church.
But how many other institutions?
We just look up Edward Heath and the investigation that occurred.
I don't even know what to say about that.
He was the Prime Minister of England when I was a kid.
Absolutely astonishing and staggering, and I don't know what to make of it.
I don't. But of course I know about Jimmy Seville.
I mean, how the BBC still has any kind of license or credibility after they covered up a serial, astonishingly evil child rapist for decades.
Well, I guess they cover up the rapes from the Muslims in various British towns and cities.
Nothing new, I suppose.
Well trained in that particular aspect of satanic, satanic corruption.
So you look at these, Emma Thompson, it just came out and said that she spent most of her twenties trying to keep old men's tongues out of her mouth.
And now Ben Affleck, right?
Accused of groping women, I think more than one now.
I think two. One of the early 2000s, one much more recently.
He apologized to one.
I don't know what's happening with the other.
But this is...
The dam has broken, right?
This is coming out.
And I don't think it can or should be stopped now.
Let's just turn the goddamn light on and see what the hell's going on.
Because I'm...
I'm very very keen on shining the light in dark places.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Everything needs to be cracked.
It's how the light gets in.
And this all needs to be seen.
This all needs to come out. I don't know.
Like, what the hell is going to be seen?
I don't think Harvey Weinstein is anywhere close to the bottom of the swamp.
He's mid to top two-thirds, in my opinion.
There is many layers still to go down.
And... I can't look at them on the screen now.
Like, I can't. I can't even watch the previews.
I can't look at them because all I'm thinking, all I'm thinking is, what did you know and when did you know it?
And how did you become famous and what did you do?
Like, I can't. I don't, you know, I'm not, of course, not everyone, but who knows?
Who knows who and who knows how?
So many women are starting to come out and talking about this.
And of course, it's...
It's good.
I mean, obviously it's good. You know, I'm torn.
Half of me is like, well, why the hell didn't you guys talk?
I mean, Harvey Weinstein turned out to be kind of like a paper tiger, right?
Thursday, the New York Times thing comes out.
Friday, Saturday, two full days.
Sunday, he's fired.
He's gone.
I mean, think about that.
It's absolutely astounding.
What a paper tiger. I mean, okay, I know he's not in his prime.
He hasn't had it in five years.
Haven't had an Oscar in five years.
Finances of the company may be in trouble.
I've heard. I don't know. But what a paper tiger.
I mean, this guy, the King Kong of Porn Island, like he dominated this vile, predatory, disgusting cultural landscape for decades.
And what did it take to bring him down?
One article and not even three full days.
That's amazing. I mean, it's astonishing.
It's literally like, you know, Lord of the Rings.
They go on this massive journey and then, oh, oh, I just stepped on the ring and it crumbled into nothing.
Or, why didn't we just get the eagles to fly us there?
Well, it wouldn't have been as good a story, of course.
So, I can't.
I looked at the listings like, oh, it's time.
I can live without 3D. Then I'm like, I can't.
It's all suspect to me now.
It's all questionable.
And it's all sordid.
Who's made it? You know, there are the stories of the women who defied him or defied others.
And he's not the only one.
Come on. There are stories of the women who defied him or defied others.
No career. Never heard from again.
Pfft. Gone. I mean, I know his methodology.
I understand it.
You take something beautiful and you slime it.
It's the hatred of the good for being the good.
You take someone young and innocent and pure and hopeful and talented and optimistic and you crush them.
Because beauty is something to be destroyed because you are ugly inside and out.
So you can build something beautiful but you can smash something beautiful.
And so what you do is you accumulate resources so the beautiful people want something from you, and then you torture them with the withholding of these resources until they soil themselves.
The purpose is the humiliation, the art is the methodology.
He's not in it for the art.
He's in it for the humiliation, but he needs the art to have something that people want so that they will humiliate themselves to get it.
You understand? You understand.
You understand. It's not about the art.
The movies are there as bait!
You understand? The movies are there as bait, and your money, your dollars, your hard-earned money, Is going to these people so they can dangle it in front of young men and young women so that those women and men will degrade and soil themselves to get a hold of it.
You are enabling.
You are paying for. You are subsidizing.
Everything that is going on.
And, you know, it's one thing to hear these kind of stories.
It's another thing when it just comes pouring out and you realize just how widespread the problem is and how vile the industry is and how they want your money to dangle in front of beautiful people so beautiful people will be tempted to shit themselves.
And why didn't they come forward for so many years?
Well, there have been reports of photographs of...
And it's unconfirmed.
Dear God, I hope it's never confirmed.
But there are reports of photographs of famous actresses in sexual positions doing sexual acts.
Who knows what kind or how degrading.
In which case...
This is probably why.
I mean, the guy was a filmmaker or producer, so is it inconceivable that he had any kind of recording equipment?
It's not inconceivable to me.
And even if he didn't, if he said he did, you know, let's say some woman gives him a blowjob for a role and he's like, yeah, I filmed that.
I own you now. She's not going to come forward.
She's not going to say no. Go watch the interview from, I think it was 98, David Letterman and Gwyneth Paltrow.
They're joking about Harvey the mafioso, Harvey the thug, making people do stuff.
Look at the pictures of Harvey Weinstein wrestling Emma Watson into a car.
Looks like the kind of thing you put in front of a Policeman when you're in tears.
That's where my baby went.
I can't do it.
I can't sit there and hand money to these people so they can create art as a Venus flytrap for the butterflies of youthful passions.
I can't do it. I can't be the financial conveyor belt delivering young, tender, optimistic, talented, beautiful people into the demonic clutches of those who can't see a single candle without wanting to shit on it.
I can't do it. I don't know what I'm going to do.
Maybe it's a great thing for me.
But there's this new movie with Ben Affleck coming out.
And they've sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into this thing, right?
hundreds of millions of dollars into this movie that's coming up.
And if it's true that, you know, Rose McGowan is talking about Weinstein as having raped her, and she gets kicked off Twitter for a day, Thank you.
If it's true that Ben Affleck is this kind of serial groper and I don't even know what to call it.
I mean, I don't even know what to call it.
I'm just going to check the name of this movie.
I really should have checked it out.
I'm pretty sure I know, but I can't even tell you how much it bothers me when I get these little details wrong and when I do them on the fly.
It can be 50.
50. I'm 99% sure.
But let's just see here.
Yes, I was in fact.
Correct. So, yeah, the Justice League, the film that's coming up.
And, of course, they want it to be big in the Christmas season and so on.
It's coming out this year.
And... Yeah, so Ben Affleck's going to be in it.
And, you know, Batman, you know, he's called Buttman now because he grabs, and there's women now saying he grabbed their ass cheeks and slipped his fingers down the crack of their ass cheeks in ceremonies and awards places and so on.
And it's just gross and it's predatory.
And if you watch him kind of half-mawling these women in these various videos, it is creepy.
And, you know, I'm old enough now To look at these videos and say, well, what if my daughter, I mean, my daughter is very, very beautiful, and what if she wants to go into the arts?
What if she wants to go into the movies?
What if she wants to go and do something like that someday?
Is that the den of oily, middle-aged, fat-fingered tentacles that I'm encouraging her to enter?
I can't. I mean, it's hideous.
Beyond words. And...
Of course, the industry is going to hope that they can...
Right?
Just keep driving. Was that a thump?
Just keep driving. Just keep driving.
Just keep swimming. And...
We can't.
We can't. We can't let them.
You know that, right? You know.
You know we can. Because this kind of corruption...
Is very, very distorting.
Like, you're in this kind of world, you know, all these, oh, this is rape culture on campus, this is rape culture in the West.
I think we may have found where some of the rapier elements of the culture might be.
And it seems to be kind of localized in a particular industry and perhaps even location.
So, when I, you know, I did a critique of Emma Watson's he-for-she UN speech years ago, but if she's grown up in this kind of environment, if she's experienced it or she's seen it or she's heard tale of it and so on, well, I can understand then why she's got this view of masculinity and patriarchy and so on.
And it's like, yeah, I can kind of get that.
You know, when Emma Watson has these...
I saw her live in Toronto, fantastic actress.
And when she...
She was in a Bridget Jones movie recently, completely dismissive of fatherhood and masculinity and men and so on.
It's like, well, yeah, I can kind of see it.
If you're around these kinds of people, if you're around these kinds of men, if you're around this kind of patriarchal structure, That is going to give you a sense of life and a sense of horror and hostility towards masculinity that through your art is going to infect the culture.
You understand? The CIA was involved in the The founding of feminism, the funding of...
I think it was in Ms.
Magazine and so on. But through art, if women are preyed upon...
See, when women were preyed upon, but they generally didn't have a voice in the industry, they were just pretty things for the scriptwriters to funnel their words through, that wasn't great.
But now that women have a voice in art, if they're exposed to this old-school predation, You know, this sea of wrinkled penises you've got to cross and cross your fingers in order to get to the golden statue.
Then it's going to seep into their art, it's going to seep into what they do, and it is going to distort the entire culture.
In other words, this is how this kind of parasitical patriarchy replicates itself.
As you pray upon the women, you give the women a voice in movies, and then the women take their horror of having been preyed upon And put it into their movies, and thus this horror spreads, marches its way across the cultural landscape, all the way to the point where, you know, men are ridiculous or goofy or predatory or scary or whatever, and it makes no sense, of course.
I mean, it makes no sense. If men are so rapey and terrible and scary and patriarchal, then why are you letting men into women's washroom?
Anyway, I understand. It doesn't make any sense.
So... I can't.
I can't. I mean, I have to break up with movies.
I have to. I can't.
I have to, not because I want there to be no movies, but because I want there to be movies that I can go to, that I can enjoy, that I can...
You know, it's like the Blood Diamonds thing.
You know, it's like, oh, that's pretty.
Where's it come from?
You know, the broken tibia of some half-destroyed worker.
I can't. I can't.
You know, Fairtrade Coffee.
How about some unrapey movies?
You know, can we look for that?
How about some unwrinkled fat trolls slobbering all over Pretty Girls?
How about we can get some of those?
I don't know, because I don't know now.
I don't know how far, how deep, how wide.
I know that they're going to cover it up.
They're going to, you know, it's funny because, you know, After they make all these movies condemning corporations for their corruption and for covering up things of the Catholic Church, for covering up things, go on Variety magazine.
Go on the main magazines for the entertainment industry.
Look for anything to do with Ben Affleck and harassment.
They won't find it. They won't find it.
Why? Well, for the same reason...
That tobacco companies covered up a bunch of stuff.
The NFL may have covered up a bunch of stuff.
Same reason. So after all of this lecturing about, of course, if they're leftists, right, then they're leftists and letchers.
It's not just a catchy half rhyme.
And leftists and letchers seem to go hand in hand.
And that's because of the R versus K stuff I talked about in my Gene Ward presentation some time back.
It is, you know, being on the left means really letting your freak flag fly.
And that's why the Stars and Stripes have to come down.
And I don't know which movies...
Are clean. I don't know which producers or letches.
I don't know who's been molested, who's been raped, who's been harassed, who's been groped, who's been grabbed.
I don't know. But I do know that every dollar I give to the industry is just another carrot to dangle on the edge of a cliff that has swallowed far too many good souls already.
So... I invite you to think about it.
I invite you to discuss it.
If you want to call into the show, I do a call-in show every week, please do.
If you want to leave your comments below, please do.
But I want The movie system to reform itself.
I want the television system to reform itself, but I don't know that that's possible.
I think most likely what's going to happen is alternative studios are going to have to emerge.
Alternative media platforms are going to have to emerge.
And frankly, there's more truth in what I do than just about any movie.
There's more truth in what so many other people do.
On YouTube and other places than just about any movie you can think of.
