I always wondered why actors are so arrogant in their opinions on politicians. Well, I guess lots of politicians are just actors, so that makes sense :)
If we keep electing the same type of people to lead this country - older, male, "experienced" politicians - we will keep getting the same type of leadership. Sarah Palin will bring a refreshing and much needed change to Washington.
Matt Damon can vote for whomever he likes. I'm voting for McCain and Palin.
I wouldn't say Matt Damon is dumb, he's entitled to his opinions and you are entitled to disagree with him. Politics are polarizing but it doesn't help to belittle those that disagree with you.
tam
· 1 year ago
bill, you're right i shouldnt have called him dumb. i stumped to his level of saying silly things about another person. and i know should better than that.
The connection comes from the idea that anybody who could believe that creationism stuff (especially the young earth creationism stuff) is obviously a moron.
How do I know this, because I'm one of those weirdo young earth creationists, and that's often how I am treated, even by fellow Christ-followers. I get looks like, "are you really that stupid?"
Oh well...
James McLean
· 1 year ago
LOL. you know me, i don't pick sides in this battle. he does make a good point that we don't know much about her and that she could become the next president. he does kind of trail off with a bit of nonsense at the end there ha ha.
this is what is curious to me, is McCain that lame of a candidate where his VP gets more adoration and attention than he does? i have never seen this much hub-bub over a VP.
Matt
· 1 year ago
I like dinosaurs.
My favorite is the T-Rex...always has been...always will be...
I actually kind of liked what Matt had to say, except for the dinosaur stuff. ;)
My problem is that I find it hard to listen to/follow someone that's so fired up about an issue. If they're that emotional I kind of tune out. Don't get me wrong, I believe you need to be passionate about the issues, I've just made far too many bad decisions based on emotion... and I bet you have too.
In other words, when I get real emotional I tend to make stupid comments... like "I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago... I want to know that, I really do!" ;)
Matt, my favorite is Barney because he makes my kids happy...
Brent & Tam, you go girl! (er, boy and girl)
Bill, good point, sometimes we all do the ol' foot in mouth. Maybe that's what Damon is doing here, although I doubt it.
Eric, interesting point. While not completely disagreeing with you, I think that our emotions need to be involved in our decision making process, otherwise we end up making heartless and purely logical decisions. I think I know what you mean though - that sometimes we base our decisions on pure emotion, which many times is irrational and gets us in trouble.
James, we don't know her very well. I agree. But do we ever really know anyone well? What I know, which is limited when it comes to politics, is that I'm personally sick of Washington Clubbers running everything, lobbyists pulling the strings, special interests using up all the money, and governors flying around in luxury jets. Is Palin a great choice? I don't know. Does she represent an idea that there's a possibility of a change in methodology of big government - to me she does, a little bit, and a little bit more than Obama, McCain, and especially Biden. So, Becky - I tend to agree with you (off the soapbox).
Jeff, more power to you. I haven't gone down that road yet. I'm too busy trying to get people into small groups!
Becky
· 1 year ago
One more thing ... I think what's even scarier than having Palin as VP like he mentions is how so many people will jump on the anti-Palin bandwagon just because Matt Damon said it.
Alex, I agree that emotion needs to be a part of decisions. Eric I hear your concern over emotion being the driving force.
But more than that for me is the responsibility of influence. Damon has a huge influence on people. He's a famous actor and to do what he did here is completely irresponsible. Whether his cause is good or bad, it creates inauthentic chaos. Herding sheep. What scares me is that people do listen to this and agree based on the speaker and who knows, he could be herding them right off a cliff.
Pastor's have the law to hold us accountable to political influence, but we can still abuse it as well. We have to be responsible.
My question, and I'm only responding because I haven't seen it brought up yet, is how do these questions not also apply to Obama, who is a pres candidate, not a vp?
Sure, Palin was mayor of a small town, but to take shots at her for "only" being a governor for two years when Obama's only been a senator for nearly three years is a bit ridiculous.
brian
· 1 year ago
I think its wonderful that everyone gets involved in this election. and I agree with matt . what do we really know about this palin woman other then she thinks special needs funding isnt important. and she really thinks dinsaurs were alive 4000 years ago. my son who is 5 knows dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. we also know she has a bad problem with lying. the bridge to nowhere was a lie. she voted for it untill she secured the millions of goverment dollars then she voted against it . and kept the millions anyway. she abused her power as govenor with the whole troopergate scandle that she promised americans she would cooperate in and as we all knew she wont even answer questions about itbecause she knows the end result will show she abused her power. also lying about the telepromter not working and telling the great people of ohio that she said everything she said out of her own thoughts and not what was writen on the telepromters we know that was a lie. we know she has no controle over her own children and clearly no respect from even her own children. we know she is not qualified to do her job as govenor never mind vice president. we know all this because the truth has come out on all these subjects and she hasnt denied any of them . mccain is a lier as well. this is a guy who actually thinks our economy is actually perfectly sound and strong.. well i guess if i owned 8 or 9 houses and i was worth over 100 million dollars the stock market crash wouldnt make me think twice about where my rent money will be coming from when i lost my job because the company had to close its doors due to republicans refusing to monitor the banks and the bank presidents and the morons writing up billions of sub prime loans to people who couldnt afford to eat every day never mind pay for a mortgage that gets more espensive after 3 years ... not to mention that we are spending billions on a war " on terror" according to bush that has nothing to do with terrorists. and we all know he went to war with out the gongress,s ok to do so.. bush just thinks that because he is the president that he has his own personal military. just think if we had the 100,s of billions of dollars back that bush and mccain and govenor sununu oked to spend on absolutely nothing more then showing how retarded the u.s is . our foriegn relations are at an all time low, our national debt is now more then doubled since bush took office as a matter of fact there was a 278 billion dollar surplus when clinton left us and bush came on the scene. tahst all gone . unemployment is up over 6.2 % nation average anyway. there has been over 600,000 jobs lost just in the last few months . and gas prices.... well we all know whats going on with the gas prices.. bush gave the big oil companies billions and billions in tax breaks and for what so they can break records of profit every quarter? we need change in a big way and mccain isnt it . its true he voted over 90% of the time with bush and his retarded views on everything from big oil taxxx breaks to keeping our troops in iraq to bailing out fannymae and the other greedy scumbags who ruined thi economy...
alex
· 1 year ago
wow
brent(inWorship)
· 1 year ago
I sure wish I had as much knowledge as brian, cause he sure "knows" a lot...
But more than that for me is the responsibility of influence. Damon has a huge influence on people. He’s a famous actor and to do what he did here is completely irresponsible. Whether his cause is good or bad, it creates inauthentic chaos. Herding sheep. What scares me is that people do listen to this and agree based on the speaker and who knows, he could be herding them right off a cliff.
Response: I don't think actors should be held any more responsible for their influence on fans than any one of us should be for our influence on people who like us.
Why place the blame on the "shepherd" and not on the "sheep" who would follow blindly? On one level, you seem to be insulting the people who would agree with Damon based on his fame/acting skill alone (for being incompetent at independent thought), and it also leads to another question: if there are people like that in the world, then should Damon be held responsible for their decisions? Should you be? Should I be?
This last is a question I have for you: what did you mean by "inauthentic chaos"?
brent(inWorship)
· 1 year ago
Susan,
"I don’t think actors should be held any more responsible for their influence on fans than any one of us should be for our influence on people who like us."
Ummm, I agree. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions. No where in my comment did I dispute that. Here's the issue though. I may affect 20-30 people who care for me and respect me. Damon can affect 100's of thousands that care for him and respect him. Even more than that, Damon is an iconic figure, which means that his thoughts are taken as gospel in people's minds. Many people live star struck and what stars say, goes. That's scary. Besides, we are talking about Damon here...not the sheep.
"you seem to be insulting the people who would agree with Damon based on his fame/acting skill alone (for being incompetent at independent thought)"
Insulting? Hardly. Many would be proud to say they are voting like Damon. They love him, they idolize him. What he says is gospel. That's what many people do with people of his popularity. Should Damon encourage a talking point? Absolutely. Should he, or any of us in our political opinion be gospel? Nope.
"if there are people like that in the world, then should Damon be held responsible for their decisions? Should you be? Should I be?"
Yes to all of the above, based on action. If Damon's hope is to bash the right so that the left will win, then he needs to be accountable for his actions. If I, or others choose to blindly follow him, then I, or others should be held accountable for my actions.
"what did you mean by “inauthentic chaos”?"
What many people do(and in my opinion, Damon has done here) is to create hype so as to encourage some sort of action. When the hype is so strong that it creates chaos, that concerns me. When i said this, my point was to say that people are reacting over hype, not because of what they believe, but because of what someone else has said they should believe. That is my beef with this.
By the way, let me add here. This goes for any side of the coin. If a conservative chose to make a video like this (which they have) I would react the same way. Show me those videos and I'll tell you the same thing.
Also, so you know, I am voting independent...
People like Damon and others who have followers, need to be cautious
Q: Do you respect or disrespect people who are so starstruck that they would vote based SOLELY/ALMOST ENTIRELY on what their actor would do? (This is not to be confused with people who love the actor in question AND arrive independently at the same conclusion--in other words, what the actor said has little/moderate influence.)
"If Damon’s hope is to bash the right so that the left will win, then he needs to be accountable for his actions. If I, or others choose to blindly follow him, then I, or others should be held accountable for my actions."
The above seems contradictory to me. If Damon needs to be held accountable for his actions, exactly what is he accountable for? Are you saying that he's responsible for the way people vote based on what he says? If so, why do you go on to say that people who follow blindly need to be held responsible for their actions? Who exactly is responsible for this one action of voting?
"Should Damon encourage a talking point? Absolutely. Should he, or any of us in our political opinion be gospel? Nope. "
Are you saying that Damon should be held responsible for the fact that his political opinion is considered as gospel by fans? It's a state of affairs that he and other stars have no control over.
Also, if you persist in saying that you don't hold Damon any more responsible for his influence on others than we do for our individual circle of friends and family, then you ought to perhaps stop investing so much weight and moment to what amounts to a mere opinion that he has and that he's voiced. I truly don't think that any of us go about our daily lives spouting opinions here and there about various issues, and then, after our friends/family listen to us, we're responsible for how they conduct their affairs in reaction to what we said. They're adults. We're adults. The only time where I'd agree that we need to be especially careful in even voicing our opinions is when we're dealing with children. You seem to be likening the starstruck fans to children, even if you don't say so or will agree to the comparison. And that IS insulting, no matter how they would see it.
In the end, I think you're blaming the wrong source. All this is a problem only because of people who are so starstruck that they would follow blindly where their star leads them--no other faction of people would be influenced one way or the other by what a mere actor said. You can't seriously be holding the star responsible for what their fans do. I agree that that state of affairs is sad (that actors hold so much undue sway over certain people) but it's not something that should be laid at the door of the actors.
Susan
brent(inWorship)
· 1 year ago
Susan, I am sure you are a wonderful person but this conversation is silly. I'm done. If you ever write a post where you are willing to listen. Let me know.
All Comments
so talented but so....dumb? what a pity.
holding my breath and hitting "post"....
tams last blog post..please stand for the national anthem…
He's an actor...he needs to remember that.
I always wondered why actors are so arrogant in their opinions on politicians. Well, I guess lots of politicians are just actors, so that makes sense :)
brent(inWorship)s last blog post..Baggage
Matt Damon can vote for whomever he likes. I'm voting for McCain and Palin.
Beckys last blog post..Follow Me
tams last blog post..what? a rant at inProgress???
oh the irony ;)
tams last blog post..what? a rant at inProgress???
How do I know this, because I'm one of those weirdo young earth creationists, and that's often how I am treated, even by fellow Christ-followers. I get looks like, "are you really that stupid?"
Oh well...
this is what is curious to me, is McCain that lame of a candidate where his VP gets more adoration and attention than he does?
i have never seen this much hub-bub over a VP.
My favorite is the T-Rex...always has been...always will be...
Matts last blog post..9/11
He's fine, I'll still watch his movies, but he didn't give us an opinion. He just gave us an overhyped, well acted diatribe of dumb.
brent(inWorship)s last blog post..Baggage
I actually kind of liked what Matt had to say, except for the dinosaur stuff. ;)
My problem is that I find it hard to listen to/follow someone that's so fired up about an issue. If they're that emotional I kind of tune out. Don't get me wrong, I believe you need to be passionate about the issues, I've just made far too many bad decisions based on emotion... and I bet you have too.
In other words, when I get real emotional I tend to make stupid comments... like "I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago... I want to know that, I really do!" ;)
erics last blog post..Worship Confession - Landslide
Brent & Tam, you go girl! (er, boy and girl)
Bill, good point, sometimes we all do the ol' foot in mouth. Maybe that's what Damon is doing here, although I doubt it.
Eric, interesting point. While not completely disagreeing with you, I think that our emotions need to be involved in our decision making process, otherwise we end up making heartless and purely logical decisions. I think I know what you mean though - that sometimes we base our decisions on pure emotion, which many times is irrational and gets us in trouble.
James, we don't know her very well. I agree. But do we ever really know anyone well? What I know, which is limited when it comes to politics, is that I'm personally sick of Washington Clubbers running everything, lobbyists pulling the strings, special interests using up all the money, and governors flying around in luxury jets. Is Palin a great choice? I don't know. Does she represent an idea that there's a possibility of a change in methodology of big government - to me she does, a little bit, and a little bit more than Obama, McCain, and especially Biden. So, Becky - I tend to agree with you (off the soapbox).
Jeff, more power to you. I haven't gone down that road yet. I'm too busy trying to get people into small groups!
Beckys last blog post..Follow Me
Alex, I agree that emotion needs to be a part of decisions. Eric I hear your concern over emotion being the driving force.
But more than that for me is the responsibility of influence. Damon has a huge influence on people. He's a famous actor and to do what he did here is completely irresponsible. Whether his cause is good or bad, it creates inauthentic chaos. Herding sheep. What scares me is that people do listen to this and agree based on the speaker and who knows, he could be herding them right off a cliff.
Pastor's have the law to hold us accountable to political influence, but we can still abuse it as well. We have to be responsible.
brent(inWorship)s last blog post..2.1 - Can I Get an Amen!
Sure, Palin was mayor of a small town, but to take shots at her for "only" being a governor for two years when Obama's only been a senator for nearly three years is a bit ridiculous.
brent(inWorship)s last blog post..Dear blog
But more than that for me is the responsibility of influence. Damon has a huge influence on people. He’s a famous actor and to do what he did here is completely irresponsible. Whether his cause is good or bad, it creates inauthentic chaos. Herding sheep. What scares me is that people do listen to this and agree based on the speaker and who knows, he could be herding them right off a cliff.
Response:
I don't think actors should be held any more responsible for their influence on fans than any one of us should be for our influence on people who like us.
Why place the blame on the "shepherd" and not on the "sheep" who would follow blindly? On one level, you seem to be insulting the people who would agree with Damon based on his fame/acting skill alone (for being incompetent at independent thought), and it also leads to another question: if there are people like that in the world, then should Damon be held responsible for their decisions? Should you be? Should I be?
This last is a question I have for you: what did you mean by "inauthentic chaos"?
Ummm, I agree. Everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions. No where in my comment did I dispute that. Here's the issue though. I may affect 20-30 people who care for me and respect me. Damon can affect 100's of thousands that care for him and respect him. Even more than that, Damon is an iconic figure, which means that his thoughts are taken as gospel in people's minds. Many people live star struck and what stars say, goes. That's scary. Besides, we are talking about Damon here...not the sheep.
Insulting? Hardly. Many would be proud to say they are voting like Damon. They love him, they idolize him. What he says is gospel. That's what many people do with people of his popularity. Should Damon encourage a talking point? Absolutely. Should he, or any of us in our political opinion be gospel? Nope.
Yes to all of the above, based on action. If Damon's hope is to bash the right so that the left will win, then he needs to be accountable for his actions. If I, or others choose to blindly follow him, then I, or others should be held accountable for my actions.
What many people do(and in my opinion, Damon has done here) is to create hype so as to encourage some sort of action. When the hype is so strong that it creates chaos, that concerns me. When i said this, my point was to say that people are reacting over hype, not because of what they believe, but because of what someone else has said they should believe. That is my beef with this.
By the way, let me add here. This goes for any side of the coin. If a conservative chose to make a video like this (which they have) I would react the same way. Show me those videos and I'll tell you the same thing.
Also, so you know, I am voting independent...
People like Damon and others who have followers, need to be cautious
<abbr>brent(inWorship)s last blog post..Sitting In A Chair In The Sky!</abbr>
Q: Do you respect or disrespect people who are so starstruck that they would vote based SOLELY/ALMOST ENTIRELY on what their actor would do?
(This is not to be confused with people who love the actor in question AND arrive independently at the same conclusion--in other words, what the actor said has little/moderate influence.)
"If Damon’s hope is to bash the right so that the left will win, then he needs to be accountable for his actions. If I, or others choose to blindly follow him, then I, or others should be held accountable for my actions."
The above seems contradictory to me. If Damon needs to be held accountable for his actions, exactly what is he accountable for? Are you saying that he's responsible for the way people vote based on what he says? If so, why do you go on to say that people who follow blindly need to be held responsible for their actions? Who exactly is responsible for this one action of voting?
"Should Damon encourage a talking point? Absolutely. Should he, or any of us in our political opinion be gospel? Nope. "
Are you saying that Damon should be held responsible for the fact that his political opinion is considered as gospel by fans? It's a state of affairs that he and other stars have no control over.
Also, if you persist in saying that you don't hold Damon any more responsible for his influence on others than we do for our individual circle of friends and family, then you ought to perhaps stop investing so much weight and moment to what amounts to a mere opinion that he has and that he's voiced. I truly don't think that any of us go about our daily lives spouting opinions here and there about various issues, and then, after our friends/family listen to us, we're responsible for how they conduct their affairs in reaction to what we said. They're adults. We're adults. The only time where I'd agree that we need to be especially careful in even voicing our opinions is when we're dealing with children. You seem to be likening the starstruck fans to children, even if you don't say so or will agree to the comparison. And that IS insulting, no matter how they would see it.
In the end, I think you're blaming the wrong source. All this is a problem only because of people who are so starstruck that they would follow blindly where their star leads them--no other faction of people would be influenced one way or the other by what a mere actor said. You can't seriously be holding the star responsible for what their fans do. I agree that that state of affairs is sad (that actors hold so much undue sway over certain people) but it's not something that should be laid at the door of the actors.
Susan
Alex, so how's the weather :)
<abbr>brent(inWorship)s last blog post..I Hate That About Me!</abbr>