Hollywood Hypocrisy: From Gun Violence to Tax Breaks Hollywood Holds a Double Standard

If Hollywood wasn’t so preachy, I wouldn’t care. I really wouldn’t. But when they’re saying one thing and doing another, I just can’t stand the BS.

It’s no secret that Hollywood is full of hardcore lefties that make George Soros look like Rush Limbaugh. I thought Rob Lowe (who’s as centrist as it gets there) did a pretty good job once of explaining why:

Fair enough. Many of my friends, both liberal and conservative, don’t necessarily break Democrat or Republican based on political ideology. Some people choose their party affiliation based on social circles. I’ve even known a few pro-business, pro-school choice/charter school Democrats who only registered as Democrats because they live in Chicago – where there isn’t a single Republican in power. Lowe has a point though, many people driven by emotion and empathy tend to be driven to the left while those guided by logic and reason gravitate toward the right.

But if you’re a Hollywood celebrity using your star power (and money) to campaign for a Democratic office seeker, don’t be a hypocrite.

Pretty much 98% of Hollywood was in the bag for Barack Obama in 2012, the list is way too long to duplicate here. So what’s one thing they love to say on camera? Plenty of celebrities from Will Ferrell to Chris Rock love to look cool by “begging” Obama to raise their taxes – assuming more revenues automatically means the government will put that money to good use and create many more jobs, more top notch public schools, and more successful green energy companies with it. Well they certainly got their wish in the fiscal cliff deal that was signed into law this week. Except it extended $430 million in tax cuts for Hollywood.

Wait … what?

You read that right. As Breitbart reports, “Section 317 of the freshly approved legislation includes an extension for ‘special expensing rules for certain film and television productions.’ Congress first enacted production tax incentives favorable to the domestic entertainment industry in 2004, and extended them in 2008, but the deal was meant to expire in 2011.

Hollywood players routinely beg the government to raise their taxes so they can pay their ‘fair share.’ Yet the industry moves new productions to places where existing tax breaks help its bottom line. That means plenty of shows and films are shot in states like New Mexico, which feature highly favorable tax rates, as well as destinations north of the border with similar perks.”

The deal extended Hollywood’s tax breaks through 2013 and 2014 – thanks to the efforts of former senator and now chief Hollywood lobbyist Chris Dodd – even as payroll taxes rise on ordinary Americans.

You've got to love the double standard.

Hollywood also decided to do a public service announcement shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy “demanding a plan to end gun violence.”

I don’t doubt the sincerity of their message, I’m sure it came from the heart. What drives me crazy is how the left views this as a “gun” issue. If only we could take a magic wand and just get rid of all the guns … Let’s pass more gun laws, that’ll take care of it! It’s such a typical knee jerk reaction that isn’t rooted in any practicality or evidence. Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the nation and experienced a 39% spike in gun homicides in 2012. On the same day as the Sandy Hook incident, a crazed man in China killed 22 school students with a knife.

The root cause of these tragedies, which nobody seems to want to have a national discussion on, is mental illness. Gun control proponents naturally think this is a “guns” issue while religious fanatics want to believe it’s a “school prayer” issue, yet nobody bothers to mention that state funding for mental health care has been cut by nearly $2 billion since the Recession, diminishing access to necessary services for the mentally ill, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

As for the Hollywood PSA, someone had fun in the editing room:

It’s the guns’ fault, right?

Look, I will defend the First Amendment as much as the Second Amendment, because unlike those who only pick out the parts they like and don’t like, I protect and enforce the entire Constitution as a U.S. citizen. But I’m sick of leftist Hollywood celebrities begging for taxes to be raised, guns to be taken away all while mindlessly assuming government is the answer to every problem, even when obviously they don’t follow their own rules. These are the same progressive elites from the New York news media, Ivy League academia, and Washington insiders who love to label anyone who’s not liberal as “out of touch” with mainstream America – as if they have any idea what’s “in touch” with mainstream America.