Well here’s a report we didn’t think we’d be filing. A Hollywood liberal elite is starting to get it. Well, kind of. On his popular show “Real Time,” Bill Maher took to the stinging “New Rules” segment to call out woke Hollywood. The segment points out, in pretty solid detail, it’s time to starting considering the role of movie violence, namely the overwhelming use of shootings in hit films, and it’s potential relationship to mass shootings.
Movie Violence and Mass Shootings
Conservatives and pro-2A folks know the drill. Hollywood makes tons of violent television shows and movies. They rake in even more tonnage of money with all that gun play. Then every time gun legislation gets propped up, the famed Hollywood actors and execs pile on calling for gun control. Matthew McConaughey famously did just that recently following the horrific school shooting in his home town of Uvalde, Texas.
But Maher seemingly sees hypocrisy in these soapbox speeches. Mirroring a familiar conservative refrain, Maher called out Hollywood’s double standard on guns.
“When liberals scream ‘do something!’ after a mass shooting, why aren’t we also dealing with the fact that the average American kid sees 200,000 acts of violence on screens before the age of 18 and that, according to the FBI, one of the warning signs of a potential school shooter is a fascination with violence-filled entertainment?” he asked. “It’s funny, Hollywood is the wokest place on Earth in every other area of social responsibility…but when it comes to the unbridled romanticization of gun violence: crickets. Weird, the only thing we don’t call a trigger is the one that actually has a trigger.”
Metal Health and Violence
But the pro-2A counter centers on mental health. Here again, Maher–while still sticking to some gun control points to be sure–also points out the mental state linking most mass shooters.
“Broken young men who feel like losers and want the world to hurt like they do,” Maher said, reading his list of potential causes. “Easy access to guns; kids having smartphones, which makes losers feel even worse because of the bullying and all the fake lives that look better than theirs; and, yes, yes, crazy amounts of gun violence and movies and TV.”
Now Maher still appears way more liberal than conservative. We also don’t expect him to start championship for increased gun rights anytime soon. But the nugget here lies in this remarkable fact: even elite Hollywood types might finally be starting to get it. You can’t simply, in good conscious, blame violence solely on the presence of guns. And these wicked acts of mass violence against school children, well those acts can only be perpetrated via the hearts of wicked men.
Movie violence alone fails to explain the problems linked to guns and crime in our society. Neither do video games, socioeconomic standing, education, employment or even mental health. Universally, we’d bet most people agree with that assessment. So why then should guns alone constitute the sole explanation for mass shootings? Simply stated, it falls short like all the others.
Nevertheless, the left continues pandering for gun control to fix the problem. At least on this day, one famous voice from the left questioned that position.
