This is exactly the point that Elon Musk made that literally overnight took him from a darling child of the left to their biggest enemy next to Trump.

Elon identifies as a liberal. Always has. But he broke the internet when he posted the stick figure meme of the right remaining pretty much where they were and the left going so far to the left in the last 20 years. Like the right, Elon hasn't changed but on the X/Y axis it now make him look like he's in the center and no longer a liberal.

Ironically, the most hated person of the left is obviously Trump. He's not a conservative. Over the course of his public life and prior to running for POTUS, he sided much more often with dems. Simply put, he's a liberal that believes in capitalism and rabidly America first.

One side of the axis has shifted rapidly, so much that it's made guys like Elon and Trump appear to be conservative. Neither are.

Urban Ag said:

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This is exactly the point that Elon Musk made that literally overnight took him from a darling child of the left to their biggest enemy next to Trump.

Elon identifies as a liberal. Always has. But he broke the internet when he posted the stick figure meme of the right remaining pretty much where they were and the left going so far to the left in the last 20 years. Like the right, Elon hasn't changed but on the X/Y axis is not make him look like he's in the center and no longer a liberal.

Ironically, the most hated person of the left is obviously Trump. He's not a conservative. Over the course of his public life and prior to running for POTUS, he sided much more often with dems. Simply put, he's a liberal that believes in capitalism and rabidly America first.

One side of the axis has shifted rapidly, so much that it's made guys like Elon and Trump appear to be conservative. Neither are.

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Yep. And they are starting to view people like Tulsi Gabbard, Mill Maher etc. as "conservative". It's insanity.

Rocag said:

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If your goal is to make explicitly "non-woke" media then you are already by definition limiting yourself to whatever fraction of the population would be interested in that. That's, presumably at least, still millions and millions of people. And there are already right wing and Christian production companies who see modest success. But yeah, they're probably never going to be as successful as the major players because their target market is much smaller.

I absolutely believe there are actors who've faced discrimination because of their politics. I also believe they're far outnumbered by low talent failures who use their political beliefs as an excuse for why they couldn't hack it.

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LOL.. you think the woke crowd is the majority?

Yep. I've expected moderate Dems for years to put their foot down and say enough, but over and over I've watched the tide pull them further and further out there. The fear of being canceled is real, and that in and of itself is effectively fascist.

Cliff.Booth said:

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Yep. I've expected moderate Dems for years to put their foot down and say enough, but over and over I've watched the tide pull them further and further out there. The fear of being canceled is real, and that in and of itself is effectively fascist.

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Also, they hate Trump with every fiber of their being and despise/look down on people who voted for him. I am not at all a Trump guy (Desantis or bust here), but the constant attacks, hoaxes, accusations, indictments, and just outright hatred is over the top...especially considering what they turn a complete blind eye to. I truly think this is largely what has fueled many of them.

I am sure many high profile libs fear being cancelled for departing from the groupthink, but the average citizen on the left has zero to fear.

Urban Ag said:

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This is exactly the point that Elon Musk made that literally overnight took him from a darling child of the left to their biggest enemy next to Trump.

Elon identifies as a liberal. Always has. But he broke the internet when he posted the stick figure meme of the right remaining pretty much where they were and the left going so far to the left in the last 20 years. Like the right, Elon hasn't changed but on the X/Y axis it now make him look like he's in the center and no longer a liberal.

Ironically, the most hated person of the left is obviously Trump. He's not a conservative. Over the course of his public life and prior to running for POTUS, he sided much more often with dems. Simply put, he's a liberal that believes in capitalism and rabidly America first.

One side of the axis has shifted rapidly, so much that it's made guys like Elon and Trump appear to be conservative. Neither are.

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Very well said.

Macarthur said:

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Brittmoore Car Club said:

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Rocag said:

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I'd agree, something did happen. Look at the uproar over the Little Mermaid just because it cast a black Ariel. As if mermaids were some real thing that exclusively had white skin to begin with. Who cares if she's black? What does it really matter? But for some people it clearly did.

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I think the problem the relatively few, but vocal, people had with black Ariel could be described as "fatigue" regarding the over the top never ending need to change the race, gender or sexuality of so many characters, just for DEI sake. I do think the glaring double standard in Hollywood is annoying to a lot of people though. There would certainly be outrage if the shoe was on the other foot, and black/brown characters were being increasingly exchanged for white.

I personally didn't notice any "uproar" over the race of The Little Mermaid...just a few funny memes similar to Tom Hanks playing MLK (and I think this was more a response to Snow White). Among my conservative friends and family, some just thought the live version of Little Mermaid sucked and some thought it was pretty good.

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I really had to do a double take when I read this. I want to make sure I understand what you are saying.

Are you telling me that some white folks think movies are woke now because Hollywood is trying to diversify casting?

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Keep your smooth brain chugging. You'll get it, eventually. It's pretty obvious.

I think your average white person thinks the race swapping of classic characters unnecessary and annoying, but understands and supports the industry creating new characters in new productions that are more diverse, and it's been the way for a while. Kids of all backgrounds should enjoy movies and shows with characters who look like them, that's understandable. Again, I thought Frozen, Coco, and Moana were all great, and I didn't care what the characters looked like.

Because I think it is cheap pandering. I've heard friends of other races say that instead of a person of color being cast on what had been a white character, why not just come up with cool new characters in new features that are original. I get that.

Macarthur said:

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Cliff.Booth said:

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Because I think it is cheap pandering. I've heard friends of other races say that instead of a person of color being cast on what had been a white character, why not just come up with cool new characters in new features that are original. I get that.

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I guess my biggest question is how often have characters been recast as a person of color. I'm sure there's some I will reemeber once they are mentioned, but I guess i just don't get why it's even an issue.

What are some characters they have done this with that bug you?

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I don't care if Little Mermaid is black or if Batman or even James Bond. The character matters. It wouldn't make sense to have a white Black Panther just like it wouldn't make sense to have a black Robin Hood or King Arthur. It wouldn't make sense to have a black Captain America that has origins in World War 2. If ethnicity is tied to the character, then race matters. If not, I don't really care what skin color the character has. I thought it was ridiculous that the new Vikings show on Netflix had a black woman ruler.

'Sound of Freedom' crosses $100 million at box office

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/jim-caviezel-faith-based-thriller-sound-freedom-crosses-100-million-bo-rcna95383

Cliff.Booth said:

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I think your average white person thinks the race swapping of classic characters unnecessary and annoying, but understands and supports the industry creating new characters in new productions that are more diverse, and it's been the way for a while. Kids of all backgrounds should enjoy movies and shows with characters who look like them, that's understandable. Again, I thought Frozen, Coco, and Moana were all great, and I didn't care what the characters looked like.

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I'll point to Rogue One for a bit of a discussion. One of the characters was portrayed by a Hispanic actor, who apparently was very proud of being able to do so. Kudos to him. Never had a problem with that despite some bozo on here suggesting that I did. The key here was that it was a new character to Star Wars. They didn't find some rando Hispanic actor to portray Luke Skywalker, or more appropriately for that movie, Governor Tarkin.

There should be no issue with new characters being whatever the creators want them to be. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, male, female, hell even whack-a-doo trans, it's all fine. Tell a good story with good characters and people will see the movie.

I've no interest in seeing Thor with tits (never-minding the brief Loki-induced transformation of Thor to the warrior gal in The Dark World), or a gay James Bond, or black Ariel for that matter. Create new characters in new stories rather than absconding with known characters. You can say it's a fictitious character all you want, but that is not going to erase the existence of previous incarnations of those characters in movies. You have 25 or so James Bond movies, in which each one of them 007 is a womanizer. Write your own spy story about a gay spy who does his gay thing with other gays. Could be male or female. Whatever. Then put that out there and lets see how it does.

Macarthur said:

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Brittmoore Car Club said:

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Rocag said:

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I'd agree, something did happen. Look at the uproar over the Little Mermaid just because it cast a black Ariel. As if mermaids were some real thing that exclusively had white skin to begin with. Who cares if she's black? What does it really matter? But for some people it clearly did.

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I think the problem the relatively few, but vocal, people had with black Ariel could be described as "fatigue" regarding the over the top never ending need to change the race, gender or sexuality of so many characters, just for DEI sake. I do think the glaring double standard in Hollywood is annoying to a lot of people though. There would certainly be outrage if the shoe was on the other foot, and black/brown characters were being increasingly exchanged for white.

I personally didn't notice any "uproar" over the race of The Little Mermaid...just a few funny memes similar to Tom Hanks playing MLK (and I think this was more a response to Snow White). Among my conservative friends and family, some just thought the live version of Little Mermaid sucked and some thought it was pretty good.

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I really had to do a double take when I read this. I want to make sure I understand what you are saying.

Are you telling me that some white folks think movies are woke now because Hollywood is trying to diversify casting?

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No...casting has always been very diverse my whole entire life...going back at least to the 80's. Watch Predator, Silver Spoons, Rocky, thousands of other movies...you name it...very diverse, with black people often times making up much more than their 13% share of the population in terms of representation. I don't know ANYONE who ever had a problem with different races on the big screen, that would be absurd. But black Ariel and brown Snow White just get an eye roll and it's very clear that, just like at my company, there are DEI initiatives that these companies are trying to meet. It may even be ESG scores at play for all I know. It's not about Ariel. It's just about the predictable nature of everything. Especially knowing that they would never do the reverse...i.e. replace main "Princess and the Frog" black characters with white ones.

Hollywood has always had very diverse casting. No one I know has any problem with that. Making Snow White brown and employing tall people as dwarves is absurd though. Her freakin name is because she is so pale white.

Macarthur said:

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Seems like a really weird thing for people to get bent out of shape about.

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You could see it that way, or you could consider that it's a pretty weird move to make in the first place. Why not just make a faitful adaptation that heavily relies upon the nostalgia factor to make money? What is wrong with that? Disney's marketing tactic for the last few years has been "this ain't your grandma's _______." It's the lamest form of pandering. They could be making bank if they'd just respond to what most of their potential audience wants. The woke crowd wouldn't hype it, but they had disdain for Top Gun Maverick and Mario Bros and those still did really well. Like was said before, just stop listening to them, their praise and shaming are equally empty.

Meanwhile:

"Sound of Freedom" surpassed $100 million at the box office.

Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" is the top seller on iTunes.

Disney lost over $9 million in their last eight films and Disney World has record low traffic while travel elsewhere is booming.

Target stock has been downgraded from $261 to $171. Anhauser Busch is destroying unsold products due to plummeting sales.

Great to see the other half of America speaking with their dollars.

Macarthur said:

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I think we agree on most things here but why do you find it annoying?

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It's patronizing and preachy and feels forced often times. I know you probably want him to say "because I'm a racist, duh!" LOL. Just like when Biden says his next SCTOUS justice is going to be a black female.

Hollywood used to just feel more "natural" and "organic". It's hard to explain I guess.

My daughter is half Asian and I am more critical of whites than any other race, for political and cultural reasons. I know you have this perception that we are bigoted in some way shape or form, but that's just not the case.

Bruce Almighty said:

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A Net Full of Jello said:

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Bruce Almighty said:

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I don't care if Little Mermaid is black or if Batman or even James Bond. The character matters. It wouldn't make sense to have a white Black Panther just like it wouldn't make sense to have a black Robin Hood or King Arthur. It wouldn't make sense to have a black Captain America that has origins in World War 2. If ethnicity is tied to the character, then race matters. If not, I don't really care what skin color the character has. I thought it was ridiculous that the new Vikings show on Netflix had a black woman ruler.

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What about making Alexander Hamilton a person of color? Would that make sense?

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If it was based on reality, then no it wouldn't. The musical (which I haven't seen) is not. I view it as more of a parody.

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But let's be honest here. They did cast a person of color to play Alexander Hamilton. If the above was real and they cast Tom Hanks to play MLK... well, they wouldn't so it's hard to say how people would respond. If Disney was casting the Princess and the Frog and cast Taylor Swift to be Tiana, people would (rightfully, in my opinion) have a fit because that is not the character of Tiana. They wouldn't even be able to get away with casting Zendaya who is half African American. And people would be in agreement that it was wrong if they did. However, they take characters like Ariel who everyone knows to be a white-skinned red-headed mermaid and cast her as a person of color with rust colored hair. Then, when people don't like it, Disney (and others) cry racism. They cast Snow White as a person of color. Snow. WHITE. And people argue, "well no one's skin is really white as snow so it's okay." Then when people are upset about it, again, they are called racist. And don't even get me started on the "7 Magical Creatures" crap. Why Peter Dinklage thinks he gets to speak for the entire dwarf community is beyond me, but he sure did a great job of taking away opportunities from others in the dwarf community.

Cliff.Booth said:

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Macarthur said:

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Seems like a really weird thing for people to get bent out of shape about.

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You could see it that way, or you could consider that it's a pretty weird move to make in the first place. Why not just make a faitful adaptation that heavily relies upon the nostalgia factor to make money? What is wrong with that? Disney's marketing tactic for the last few years has been "this ain't your grandma's _______." It's the lamest form of pandering. They could be making bank if they'd just respond to what most of their potential audience wants. The woke crowd wouldn't hype it, but they had disdain for Top Gun Maverick and Mario Bros and those still did really well. Like was said before, just stop listening to them, their praise and shaming are equally empty.

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I feel like you read 2 or 3 random tweets by psychos in their basement and then just paint with the broadest of brushes. You went from "the entire woke left" criticized Top Gun Maverick, to "go look at reddit and twitter" and I can't think of one person in real life I know (many progressive, liberal, etc.) who had anything but good things to say about that movie. Hell Spielberg stopped Tom Cruise at the Oscars and told him he saved cinema with that movie.

The only person *****ing about Mario Bros was Leguizamo and nobody gives a **** about him at all. So it was him + a few trolls online. Maybe a random axios article that nobody gave a **** about, but that's a far cry from some wave of criticism.