Why on earth would liberals /progressives bash our Hollywood supporters?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

I have seen the term "elitist" thrown around on this board so much this week that I do not know whether I have entered a parellel universe where the language of the right intersects with the left and poisons their soul or if people are just truly uninformed about the differences Hollywood HAS made in liberal causes and their overall philanthropic contribtutions.

I recently noticed in a thread several people saying Barbara Streisand is all talk and NO action.

Look, you may not like her and certainly right wing radio has assassinated her for contributing to and supporting Bill Clinton, but claiming she is a "liberal elitist" who has done NOTHING for the common person is an outright lie.

I figured it was time to provide DU with some of her and other Democratic party celebrity supporters ACTUAL contributions. Please BOOKMARK this thread and ADD celebrities YOU know have helped our causes and let's use this to counter this destructive conversation. Don't BITE the hand that feeds our party.

Here are a few:

The Streisand Foundation:

http://www.barbrastreisand.com/bio_streisand_foundation.html

Here is the Streisand foundation responding to right wing lies:

http://www.drudgereport.com/news_truth.html

Here is a financial report on Smoking Gun's web site:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/foundations/barbrastreisand1.html

For fun contrast that with Kelsey Grammar's Foundation
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/foundations/kelseygrammer1.html

Norman Lear's accomplishments (Don't forget People for the American Way

http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?cm=about

Whoopi Goldberg

http://www.acmewebpages.com/whoopi/interviews/au062002.htm

Ted Danson

http://www.americanoceans.org/

[blm]

1. I don't trust anyone who posts that antiDemocrat crap.

They have no good intentions for Dem or the party. That anti-Dem establishment bs is a security blanket for the uninformed who have NO idea the difficulty in maintaining a REAL big tent.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I'm just really sick of some of the posts I read here calling these

people HARMFUL to our causes when THEY FUND THEM

[SahaleArm]

12. You didn't get the memo.

You have the power! Take back your party!

It's like capture the flag:D.

[redqueen]

2. Great post

We're being infiltrated and moved to the right.

No question.

[spooky3]

8. I agree, thanks, Nothingshocksmeanymore.

[flamingyouth]

3. I have no idea

But everytime I read those posts you're talking about, I think I ground the enamel off most or all of my teeth...

[JitterbugPerfume]

9. NSMA it is beyond me

why Democrats are so self distructive I think some of us listen to right wing peopoganda to much

by the way, I love Barbra Have ever since I heard her singing "Second Hand Rose " many years ago

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. You are assuming...

they really are liberals and progressives. :)

The minute I read the word "elite" used, you know damn well they are parroting the RW spin they listen to.

It is so very clear that there had been an incredible increase in trolls that have come here/been sent here to stir dissention and spew propaganda.

Some of them manage to aquire startlingly high post counts before being "outed" -- heck, some of them are still posting under the radar.

BBut, you can always smell them in the end....

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

6. Actually DU ran an article on the front page recently using this language

Admin certainly isn't stealth freepers.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. Which one????

I generally don't read the articles...

I want to check it out and see if it warrants an email to the admins.

[tom_paine]

7. We Free Americans woulsdn't. It's Bushveik infiltrators

Take a close look at who is saying this. You'll see a pattern.

They are starting to work in teams, too, I think.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. "They are starting to work in teams, too, I think."

You noticed that too, huh? ;)

[PopSixSquish]

13. That Does Surprise Me Sometimes

I've seen many posts here bemoaning the fact that "we" don't have the money or the influence or the "star power" to get the message out. Yet when someone (anyone) steps up to the plate and smacks down the Right Wing, folks just jump all over them because their too controversial or something like that.

I'm reminded of this Winston Churchill quote at times like these "If Hitler invaded hell, I'd at least put in a good word for the devil in the House of Commons"

Anyone who stands up and says no more or donates money/time gets my support regardless. After we save this country from those who would destroy it, we can all go back to arguing amongst ourselves.

I'm just sayin'

[jonoboy]

14. I always think they are very brave for putting their names to the cause

and if they donate funds even better

[funkyflathead]

15. They are out of touch

Not all of them but some of them live in such shallow worlds I don't know how we can claim to be on the same team.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

20. Got any specifics?

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Yupster]

40. How's about celebrities saying

they're against people having guns while they have armed bodyguards?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

41. I would certainly draw a distinction between ordinary citizens carrying

concealed weapons and a trained professional accompanying a celebrity who by design has a much higher incidence of being stalked than the general population.

I don't see anything elitist or hypocritical about that. I ALSO don't know of any celebrity who has lobbied against citizens who are the victims of stalking or the like being armed or protected. Have you heard of any that actually said it would be inappropriate for a stalking victim to protect themselves?

[Yupster]

43. Didn't Rosie O'Donnell

get in trouble for this just a few years ago?

She said no one should own a gun and then the Enquirer or someone did a story about how her kids have guards who walk them to school with guns. Then she said she was reconsidering her position because there were mothers in poor neighborhoods whose kids walked to school in a lot more danger than her kids had.

I thought she handled the situation well, but her initial position was that no one should be able to peotect themselves with guns, except my family.

[bearfartinthewoods]

16. you know what makes her an elitist?

anyone who has multiple homes...HUGE homes.. loses the right to preach to me about where my thermastat is set.
anyone who flys around in private planes while lecturing me about gas mileage is a hypocrite.

period

[funkyflathead]

17. Da-ding!

Does she own an SUV too?

[bearfartinthewoods]

18. who knows?

i'm not saying she can't own whatever she wants but i don't look to her for guidance on how to conserve. the elitist tag, for me, comes from this issue.

it's very...hmmm..how can i put this....let them eat cake-ish for someone to live lavishly and lecture on conservation at the same time.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

19. When did she do this?

[bearfartinthewoods]

26. hmmm.....iirc, it was about a year and a half ago

and no, i don't have a link.

what brought this on? who was bashing celebs? link?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

30. As I said in the opening post, it has been the stereotype du jour

on DU lately.

It is funny but one DOES NOT see this hurled at right wing celebrities with similar hypocrisy.

[bearfartinthewoods]

36. heeheehee...don't get me started

one of the first flamings she-bear and i got on this board was for criticising an extremely rich repub for not giving away more money.

of course she happened to be married to a dem....who's name starts with a K and she is no longer a pubbie <grin>.

i just have a thing about rich people. how many homes and cars and clothes does one get to have before it effects the way the world spins?

ahhh..but a busy friday night is not the time for such conversations.
i'll leave it with the idea that i admire spartan people more than
almost anything.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

37. Actually HE BEAR..you will NOT get a stitch of disagreement from me on

the issue of HOW much it takes to satisfy the word WANT...I see it everywhere and INCLUDE it in the SUV thing (fine for those who need em, excessive for those who don't and LORD knows I am NOT the judge of that but it would be NICE if people would LOOK for themselves and MANAGE their excesses..this coming from a woman that RECYCLES EVERYTHING)

We can start a thoughtful conversation about greed, want and insatiability some day in the MEETING ROOM if you wish.

[bearfartinthewoods]

42. icksney on the he-bear please?

bear will do. she-bear and i really didn't think about the ramifications of our nic. just bear will do for me and she-bear prefers, well, 'she-bear' because she refuses to sign off using the proper term for a female bear and i don't blame her a bit. : grin:

i'd be glad to talk about greed someday. drop me a line or leave pebbles marking the way to the meeting room.

[bleedingheart]

21. Actually very few people could not be called elitists

I did a survey here on DU a while back asking people what they do to be green... Not many with solar panels ...but I don't judge people because they are not walking the walk exactly as I would like them to.

Maybe Babs has solar panels on her homes, perhaps she has other stuff she does...I don't judge.

But what I do know is that she does give a lot and I am not going to bash her, thank goddess we have people on our side to help fund us...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

22. My problem with that criticism is that people claim we are for purity

but then will use it on the slightest flaw...in the meantime, Rush rails agains drug users and liberal treatmentlaws and benefits from them himself.

Talk about PREACHING and being a hypocrite.

[bearfartinthewoods]

34. hmmm.....

well i don't go around griping about her but i take the 'green' stuff pretty seriously. we have sculpted our lives to minimize our footprints and i have "issues" with those who don't. i also have some problems with the ultra-rich in general so i don't much care for her.

let me put it this way..if a person wants to lecture me on racism, i better not find out he's a racist in his own life. same goes with conservation or sexism or whatever. i guess it's the hypocrisy that bugs me about her but i will gladly take her money...symbolicly speaking, that is.

[bearfartinthewoods]

28. correction

elitist is one of those words that many people toss around.

i just looked it up and i misused the word. hypocrisy works for her conservation lectures but i have no real knowledge of her being an elitist.

[QC]

23. Bashing Barbra is dumb.

No doubt about that.

But I think that much of the acrimony over the word elitist here is a matter of many of us using different but unacknowledged definitions and thus talking at cross purposes.

I do not believe that Barbra is an elitist. I do not believe that it is elitist to say that some ideas are superior to others. I do not believe that it is elitist to say that some works of art or literature or film are superior to others. I do not believe that it is elitist to argue even that some individual people are superior to others. I believe that progressive ideas are superior to reactionary ones, that Faulkner is superior to Barbara Cartland, that Citizen Kane is a better film than Porky's and that Al Gore is a far better man than George W. Bush.

What I would consider genuine elitism is the snobbery often expressed here toward large groups of people, the ones that many people here refer to as hicks and "the great unwashed." If blithely dismissing large groups of people (not individuals, but entire groups of people) as beneath one is not a perfect example of elitism, I do not know what is.

And, I would add, the reason that George W. Bush is in the White House right now is that he was born into the political and economic elites. This argument cuts both ways, and we're fools not to use it against the real elites who are driving this country into the ditch.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

24. I GOT NO ISSUE WITH YOU, my friend

I think you DO notice that I do my best to attack stereotypes based on most of these aspects...although since Democrats have taken to using phrases like NASCAR DADS and Soccer moms in order to appeal to demographics..it sort of FORCES those generalizations ad nauseum.

I think one can go for demographics WITHOUT invoking names that lend themselves to stereotyping.

[QC]

27. We agree.

I hate the mediawhore practice of lumping people into ridiculous categories like "soccer moms," "NASCAR dads," "angry white males," and the like. It doesn't increase our understanding of things--in fact, it constricts it. And that is what it is meant to do, I suspect.

And I have often seen you confront those who think that slinging silly stereotypes around is the same thing as discussing, so I'm not going after you here, not at all.

[bearfartinthewoods]

29. well by the dictionary, she is elite

anyone who says she isn't the cream of her field is in severe disagreement with most of the people who judge such stuff.

1 a singular or plural in construction : the choice part : CREAM <the elite of the entertainment world> b singular or plural in construction : the best of a class <superachievers who dominate the computer elite -- Marilyn Chase> c singular or plural in construction : the socially superior part of society <how the elite live -- A P World> <how the F.-speaking elite ... was changing -- Economist> d : a group of persons who by virtue of position or education exercise much power or influence <members of the ruling elite> <the intellectual elites of the country> e : a member of such an elite -- usually used in plural <the elites ..., pursuing their studies in Europe -- Robert Wernick>

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

31. There was a better definition in another thread

I don't have time to look for it now but I think the source was Wikepedia.

[QC]

32. That's what I mean about imprecision of language.

Is Barbra elite in the sense that she is brilliantly talented. Certainly.

Is she a nasty Hollywood elitist in the sense that Freepers use the word. No, because the concept itself is pretty silly. Celebs have as much right to express opinions as anyone else, and their opinion are neither better or worse simply because they are celebs.

Was she born into a hereditary elite, like Bush? No, she earned what she has, whereas Bush, if he were named Snodgrass, would be working graveyard shift at a Circle K somewhere.

[bearfartinthewoods]

33. what about this part

"the socially superior part of society "

that rubs me the wrong way...smacks of classism. maybe, since i know i'm not a part of it, it bugs me that if that makes 'them' the superior part of society, i must be the inferior part.

no one likes to be told they are inferior :grin:

[QC]

35. Yep, classism sucks.

And while I expect it from Republicans--after all, their whole reason for existing is to serve the super-rich--it's always disturbing to see Democrats go for it. But then maybe it's because the "socially superior part of society" will never consider me their kind of people. No great loss, though.

I don't understand why we don't turn the elitism charge back on the Republicans. I mean, they represent the elite that is really in control of this country, which is most assuredly not Barbra Streisand, Michael Stipe, and Sean Penn.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

39. True but that also goes to our penchant to personalize issues

I might be one who contributes but I do it far too small amounts to be considered a PHILANTHROPIST.

And how often do we ALL categorize ourselves as MIDDLE CLASS thereby granting beingness to the notion there is a classhigher than ourselves.

Since human energy is finite...all it means is they got paid MORE per BTU that they expended.

[Forkboy]

38. I dunno

you should go into the Hillary/Sarandon thread and ask :)