Universal’s decision to cancel The Hunt is just one more example of how our entire American culture is geared toward encouraging even more mass-shootings.
Sorry, it is not enough to not publicize their names — sorry, it just isn’t. That’s not what these losers want. What they want, more than anything, is to prove they are not losers, to prove they matter, and if the only way they can accomplish that is through mass murder, so be it.
So what does stupid America do?
Shooting after shooting after shooting we give these monsters win after win after win.
We prove that the monsters do matter, and worse, we inform wannabe mass killers, future mass-killers, those thinking about becoming mass-killers, that they too will matter, because America is guaranteed to freak out.
Politicians, from the president on down, freak out.
The media, desperate for ratings and to score political points against the right, freak out.
Hollywood celebrities on social media, desperate to pretend that they too matter, freak out.
And over a stupid movie called The Hunt, some on the political right, yep, freaked out.
The freak out is the shooter’s goal, y’all…
When these monsters lie in bed fantasizing about what their evil deed can achieve, it is all about the chaos it will cause; how it will command the news cycle, how it will consume social media, how they can cause Americans to give up their speech and gun rights, how this freak out will prove that the loser is not a loser.
We know this, and yet our entire culture continues to run advertisements for the next mass shooter: Yes, you too can be a success, you too can show the world, and all you have to do is write a nonsensical manifesto, pick up a gun, and enter your nearest gun-free zone! Tell him about the prizes, Don…. Ten days of 24/7 news coverage surrounding your manifesto worth $75 million! Our nation’s capitol beset by chaos! Yes, what you did — yes, you! — will be the focal point of social media… And, as an extra special gift, if you act right now, we’re throwing in the additional prize of getting a Hollywood movie canceled!
What are we thinking?
We canceled a movie in response to a couple of mass shooters who committed these mass shootings to prove they had the power to shake up the world.
Let’s assume, which I do not and did not when the news was announced, that The Hunt is exactly what its critics fear most — a left-wing fantasy where urban elites hunt and kill us awful rural, red state, bitter clinging deplorables… The hunters are the heroes doing God’s work because we deplorables are getting what we got coming…
Not for a moment do I believe that’s the case, but let’s assume it is…
So what?
This is the United States of America and in the United States of America you are allowed to make whatever art you want. And you finding yourself and your identity and your political beliefs at the wrong end of artistic freedom doesn’t mean that freedom shouldn’t exist. No one’s forcing you to go see it.
Well, it’s irresponsible to release a movie like this…
Maybe it is. But this is the United States of America and in the United States of America you are allowed to be irresponsible with your art.
Until you reach the tip of my nose, you can swing your fists however much you like in this country and art is no skin off anyone’s nose.
Do we really want to live in a country where we stifle artistic expression because some scumbag might use it as inspiration? Do we really want to give mass-murderers veto power over our art, over what we can and cannot say?
Listen, I’m as at-risk of being killed in a mass shooting as anyone else… But I would rather live with the risks that come with living in a free country than live in a simpering country in a constant crouch because if I say what I want to say or make the art that I want to make somebody might do something.
That’s no way to live.
Besides, you are much more likely to be killed by someone else’s car than someone else’s gun. So if your goal truly is the saving of human life, you’d be calling for a ban on automobiles long before you joined the mindless mob targeting guns and movies.
And shame on Universal Studios…
Shame on Universal forever…
Obviously, Universal is not worried about The Hunt inspiring mass shootings. If the studio was, they never would have poured millions of dollars into gearing up the publicity campaign (the production company is Blumhouse).
No, what Universal is caving to is THE MOB… The studio is caving to the cry-bullies on Twitter, the cry-bullies in the entertainment media, and the cry-bullies on cable news… They are tossing out a piece of art hundreds of people sweated blood to conjure, and doing so only because a handful of un-American virtue signalers terrorized them with shame, and did so for no good reason other than to prove they could.
Yes, I defended Sony’s decision to kill The Interview back in 2014. That was a completely different dynamic. Sony was under attack by a foreign government. It is not Sony’s job to fight a foreign power. That job goes to the government, which failed miserably.
Remember: it is the government’s number one priority to protect our rights and if a movie company cannot release a film safely in America, that is the failure of the government, not the movie company, and certainly not the art that company produced.
What we have with Universal Studios, though, is nothing like that. These squealing little studio gerbils not only surrendered their own rights, they added yet one more incentive, one more win, one more reason for why the next mass shooter will matter.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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