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Why Chris Pratt Must Stand Up to PC Scolds

Hollywood is running low on free speech role models.

Too often celebrities use their clout to bully others with their political observations while remaining mum when free speech gets attacked.

The industry’s silence over Berkeley is, sadly, deafening.

UC Berkeley riots threaten free speech

For a while, it looked like Dwayne Johnson could be that role model. The star of “The Fate of the Furious” isn’t divisive. His public persona is so darn bipartisan both National Review AND Michael Moore recently sang his praises.

Johnson hasn’t taken a stand on free speech, though. It’s just not his style, his brand. He’s a unifying star, and that’s more than enough for now. Heck, we could use a dozen Dwayne Johnsons at this point.

Bill Maher and Richard Dreyfuss have both spoken out on the decline in free speech. Yet Maher remains a deeply polarizing figure, and the “Jaws” star’s celebrity cache isn’t as robust as before.

Dreyfuss talks sanctuary cities ruling, importance of civics

Enter Chris Pratt.

The “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2″ star might not know it, but he could be the one to take a stand against our scolding PC Culture.

He just hasn’t done it yet.

Pratt got attacked not once but twice in recent weeks for saying the most ordinary things. First, the  “Passengers” star suggested that Hollywood isn’t comfortable sharing blue collar stories. There’s some truth to that, even though high profile films like “Manchester By the Sea” and “Moonlight” captured a blue-collar ethos from two very different cultural perspectives.

guardians of the galaxy vol 2 poster
‘Guardians’ star Chris Pratt sits atop the Hollywood A-list.

Generally speaking, when we see people on screen they tend to be middle class … or higher. Watch a rom-com and the heroes have beautiful homes or apartments.

The day-to-day lives of blue-collar Americans aren’t glossy. They’re hardscrabble, and people seeking escapist entertainment might prefer to see how others live.

Pratt’s comments were thought-provoking, at the very least. It might have sparked a valuable conservation.

That’s not how the Social Justice Warrior crowd, which incidentally includes too many journalists, saw it.

They pounced. Pratt apologized.

The actor’s latest “mistake” is even more inane. Pratt starred in an Instagram video, complete with closed-captioning text, tied to the “Guardians” sequel. He asked users to turn on the volume.

“You’d rather read those than hear me?” he said.

Guess what happened next? If you said “manufactured social media outrage,” you’re paying attention. The comments were deemed insensitive to those with hearing issues who depend on closed captioning.

So Pratt apologized. Profusely. Like his career was on the line and he just said the “n-word and “f-word” to a gathering of black and gay journalists.

Instagram does this thing where it mutes all the videos it shows and forces you to turn on the volume in order to hear them. (maybe because most people are watching those videos at work when they should be working and don’t want to get caught. I know that’s when I do it. 😬) So when I made a video recently with subtitles, and requested that people turn up the volume and not just “read the subtitles” it was so people wouldn’t scroll past the video on mute, thus watching and digesting the information in the video. HOWEVER, I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles. More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize. I have people in my life who are hearing-impaired, and the last thing in the world I would want to do is offend them or anybody who suffers from hearing loss or any other disability. So truly from the bottom of my heart I apologize. Thanks for pointing this out to me. In the future I’ll try to be a little less ignorant about it. Now… I know some of you are going to say, “Hey! Chris only apologized because his publicist made him!” Well. That is not the case. As always I control my social media. Nobody else. And I am doing this because I’m actually really sorry. Apologies are powerful. I don’t dole them out Willy-Nilly. This is one of those moments where I screwed up and here’s me begging your pardon. I hope you accept my apology. And on that note. Why doesn’t Instagram have some kind of technology to automatically add subtitles to its videos? Or at least the option. I did a little exploring and it seems lacking in that area. Shouldn’t there be an option for closed captioning or something? I’ve made them lord knows how much money with my videos and pictures. Essentially sharing myself for free. I know they profit. So… GET ON IT INSTAGRAM!!! Put closed captioning on your app. #CCinstaNow

A post shared by chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) on

Here’s part of his Instagram mea culpa:

“HOWEVER, I realize now doing so was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles. More than 38 million Americans live with some sort of hearing disability. So I want to apologize.

I have people in my life who are hearing-impaired, and the last thing in the world I would want to do is offend them or anybody who suffers from hearing loss or any other disability. So truly from the bottom of my heart I apologize. Thanks for pointing this out to me. In the future I’ll try to be a little less ignorant about it.”

Stop. It’s enough.

At some point a celebrity must take a stand for free speech. Say no. Refuse to submit to the SJW thugs. Pratt has proven time and time again he’s a good guy. He’s sweetly shmoopy with his wife, Anna Faris. He visits sick children, sometimes in costume, to raise their spirits.

We’ve yet to read any drunken adventures about him, where he trashes both a hotel room and his sparkling reputation. He’s one of the good guys, and a charming actor to boot.

Which means he’s perfectly situated to start fight back. Here’s how.

  • Ignore It All: When these social media outrages start, they’re often fed by the stars themselves attempting to back pedal. Keep silent and the problems often fade away.
  • Fight Back with Class: Use Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to fire back … gently. “I hear your point, but it’s abundantly clear I meant no harm by what I said. We need to avoid these ultra-sensitive times and think about the person’s intent, not just an X-ray of the words spoken.”
  • Go the Full Meryl Streep: The Oscar winner delivered a stinging sermon during the Golden Globes last year aimed at President Donald Trump. No matter what you think of her speech she pulled not a single punch. Pratt could do the same, decrying this Orwellian nightmare where simple opinions become toxic to a select, and loud, few.

The third option is the riskiest, and the least necessary.  Still, all three options are on the table for Pratt. Should he “enrage” the PC crowd one more time, here’s betting he opts for one of the three.

He darn well should. We need a free speech Hollywood hero more than ever.

25 Comments

  1. We had a free speech hero. Quentin Tarantino. And we threw him away because of out-of-context quotes from a rally. Rise of Snowflakes on the Right.

    1. I’m curious, and I really mean it. Are the snowflakes on the right the one who support Trump, or the conservatives, or those who are OK with this Ryan led GOP. They are all distinctly different politically, so which one do you mean by ‘snowflakes on the right’?

      Edit: Well, it cannot be Trump, he was not around when Trantino went down. So you cannot be referring to Trump supporters. I am guessing you mean Conservatives, the Tea Party types. Now that’s funny.

      1. That’s kinda jumping to conclusions, there. To suggest that I somehow mean Conservatives as a group is laughable, as I am one. Dittos for the Tea Party, which I support. “Snowflake” is an attitude–those who are easily triggered by perceived slights, however fictional.

        I hope that answers your question.

        1. Ah, ok. I’ve just noticed that the left has been trying to turn that word around and sling it back to the right, and i’ve often wondered if it was being done in general or specifically at one group on the right. Cheers!

    2. Part of snowflakeism is to not only completely shut yourself off from “offensive” first amendment freedoms… but to demand the authorities (police, school administration, legislative govt, etc.) not only shut down, but prosecute the free speech of which they don’t approve.

      Neither of these components is something you see often from the Right.

    3. “Snowflake” sensitivity is your PC nitwits domain. The lamest of you, like you, try to turn it around, and fail.

    4. Quentin Tarantino is a hero of the Left. He said Obama was his favorite president. He helped spread the Black Lies Matter bumpf at one of their rallies against “police brutality”. His move Django Unchained is basically anti-white slavery porn.

      There is nothing conservative or “free speech” about this deep dyed lefty.

      1. “Anti-white” my eye, or did you miss Dr. Schulz and the Marshall he and Django report to? And if you think the movie celebrated slavery, there’s something wrong with you. As for cops, he CONSTANTLY has cops as the good guys in his films (particularly recurring characters Sheriff McGraw and his son).

        “Nothing Conservative”? Inglourious Basterds supports enhanced interrogation. Jackie Brown denounces race hustlers (“Is white guilt supposed to make me forget that I’m running a business?”). Death Proof and True Romance support gun rights–verbally.

        “Nothing free speech”? Look up his clash with Spike Lee, over what subjects and words whites should be “allowed” to tackle.

        I stand by my words.

  2. I really doubt that Disney would stand for one of the stars of its MCU movies going “full Meryl Streep” in opposition to SJW’s. That just too much negative PR to take for most corporations these days.

  3. Related: Chris Pine got crap for his joke on SNL about there being so many men named Chris who are action heroes (Pratt, Pine, Hemsworth) and the SJWs fired back that there were too many white men heroes. Pratt wasn’t out of line, the snowflakes just worry too much.

    The article nailed it though: We need someone to point out that you are not your victimhood, and sometimes people say things you won’t like.

    1. SJWs have their torches perpetually burning….to justify it, they must regularly burn someone at the stake…whether that person is actually a “witch” is irrelevant.

  4. We have create this bizarre twilight world of deranged snowflake bullies on social media whose entire identity is claiming some sort of outrage no matter how frivolous or inane. The trick that people like Pratt need to learn is that these parasites of the social media world are a microscopic minority. The rest of us are completely sick of their narcissism and endless whining and the real world could not care less. The problem is an illusion; social media makes it seem that this fringe of the perpetually offended are more much numerous than they really are. A few hundred sjw comments seems like a legion. And accepting social media as real, the impulse is just to apologize; it is convenient. But even then the sjws are so lacking in basic grace that they cannot even accept an apology, which they view as blood in the water justifying more bullying.

    Here is the rule: unless you said or did something that genuinely requires an apology, don’t apologize or even acknowledge it. 99.9 percent of us are not the braying, unhinged lunatics you are trying to placate. Ignore them and in a day or two they will go off being “outraged” at something else. The trick again is not to get suckered into believing that a few dozon or hundred self-selected comments from sjws amount to anything real.

  5. Asking people to listen to the audio “was incredibly insensitive to the many folks out there who depend on subtitles”? Really? ALL the deaf prople are going to take offense? Now THERE is an insult.

    Pratt could say that he now realizes that there might be SOME nasty SJW leftists among the deaf people out there and that if these take offense he is willing, out of pity for their MORAL deafness, to give them an apology, but to imply that ALL deaf viewers will take offence at not being singled out and pointed to via gratuitous qualifying statements really is ungenerous of him.

    Does he really want a world where every coach shouts: “LISTEN UP! Except for you, the deaf kid over there, you LIP READ UP!” Seriously, this doesn’t go without saying, to the relief of all?

    1. I have a hearing disability, and – to me – Pratt was right. I would rather hear him than read subtitles.

  6. Chris is too nice a guy to suddenly stand up and proclaim “Deus Vult!!!” and draw his sword. I actually suspect him to be a beta male.

  7. He’s a relatively new convert to the one, true faith. That probably makes his time amoungst the carny folk that much more difficult.

    And if you Google search “Chris Pratt Christian” Google will never fill it in for you. It just gives after you type Christ.

  8. You mean Dreyfuss’s celebrity “cachet,” not “cache” isn’t as robust as before.

  9. The percentage of action-adventure stars over the years who have been, if not conservative, at least moderate Republicans and out of the general mainstream of Hollywood liberal thought is fairly high. But first you’ve got to get to the ‘iconic Hollywood action-adventure star’ level first before you can risk showing you’re not a doctrinaire progressive.

    Saturday Night Live played on Pratt’s not-yet-iconic status this past weekend with guest host Chris Pine, where the joke was people couldn’t remember which action-adventure start named Chris was which. That reality makes Pratt replaceable by the powers-that-be in Hollywood if he gets out of line (and it would be nice if Pratt was willing to risk his future to say and defend what he believes, instead of backing off every time the SJW Hollywood thought police roll around. But right now the best that might be hoped for is the Dwayne Johnson mode, which is basically “Shut Up and Act” when it comes to politics, even though Johnson probably has reached the level where he’d still be marketable to the progressives running the studios, even if he were saying things they don’t believe in).

  10. So I should stop enjoying music because there are deaf people?

    Actually deaf people do listen to music. Had a friend whose university had a college for the deaf. They buy the biggest sub woofers they can get , turn the bass up as far as it can go then do the same with the volume. They dance, they sit on the speakers to “feel the beat ” better. At all hours of the day, in the dorms, the on campus residence halls.

    Guess who was “insensitive” when they asked the administration to put an end to it.

  11. While you will find no bigger supporter of the First Amendment than me, the First Amednment doesn’t protect hate speech, speech that makes women, minorities, gays, and the disabled feel uncomfortable or unworthy. I think it is way past time arrests were made for the hate being spewed daily, starting with Trump and all of the intolerant and closed-minded Republicans I had to block and unfriend due to their noxious and frankly criminal opinions.

  12. Why expect someone who hit “grovel” at the first word of manufactured outrage to become your “Guardian of Free Speech”? Pratt simply isn’t up to the job in real life.

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