Don’t you hate it when some celebrity you really respect and most people venerate just comes out and says something that ticks you off, and yet you find that while you are incredibly frustrated with him or her, and absolutely disagree with certain statements, you still really respect that person? I respect Clint Eastwood for a million reasons, but his recent comments got on my nerves. So, I’m going to try and break down why I revere him and why I’m massively annoyed with him right now. And yet, I still think he’s awesome.
Why everybody has to respect Clint Eastwood
- He’s eighty-six, still healthy and alive, and not a vampire. That’s pretty impressive.
- He isn’t afraid to use the “f” word in interviews. And you know, probably because he’s Clint Eastwood, we’d feed him peanuts to hear him say that word over and over again because he sounds so cool when he says it.
- Eastwood played the most conflicted, not at all clean-cut, bad guy type good guy cowboys better than anybody before or since. He made us love the shady, underdog hero—nothing like the John Wayne style cowboy hero—because he was cooler than the Fonze when he did it. And that was a huge film making shift. After all, if you have ever had the holy terror of reading the Puritanical Paradise Lost, you know the only entertaining character in it is Satan. Satan’s the only entity that’s ever doing anything that’s really interesting to humans—you know, all the sinful things we actually kind of want to do. Eastwood managed to Satanize the Hollywood hero masterfully because he was just like the popular bad boy in high school your mother told you to stay away from but you couldn’t get enough of. And plus he’d save the girl or the world or whatever needed saving.
- Eastwood tells it how it is, basically, and gets right the point with the kind of blunt straightforwardness some find insulting but I revere, especially in an octogenarian.
- “Make my day.” Let’s leave it at that; there’s no real need to elaborate.
Why Clint Eastwood’s recent comments are so unnerving
Let’s stop there since my reasons for respecting Eastwood could fill up a novel.
And yet, he had to go and ruin my day by telling America to “just get over” Donald Trump’s racism. In the same interview, he called this generation “wimps” (he used a stronger term, actually, because he’s so cool). You know, I have no qualm with him name calling people in “this” generation because he’s correct. At least, in comparison to himself, tough guy Clint Eastwood, he’s darn right.
We’re all wimps when held up to him and we still want his autograph even though he called us a bad name.
Racist words to hurtand words can cause emotional trauma
But telling people to “get over” Trump’s racism bothers me. We’ll “get over” racist comments when the real racist idiots out there “get over” racism first. Racism promotes hatred that can often lead to violence.
And while I don’t care about what people do with their spare time in general, I do care if they’re doing things that hurt other people. Words really can hurt people and cause a lot of emotional trauma—think of an emotionally abused child. And abusive words often lead to the introduction of another category of abuse—physical abuse and violence. Honestly the world’s got to “get over” racism first, then those comments wouldn’t even matter.
And yet, I still respect Eastwood.In fact, I think I’ll Netflix some of his movies to hear him say “Make my day” fifty billion times tonight. By the way, Mr. Eastwood, how many peanuts will it cost me to hear you say my favorite ”f” word again? Because I’d rather remember you for either that funny interview quip or your catch phrase being spoken instead of your comment about Trump and racism.
In fact, to prevent such statements from happening again, I’d like to offer to continue to feed your peanuts for the rest of your life. Given the fact it seems likely you’ll outlive even me, that’s going to cost me a lot of peanuts, isn’t it?
