What It's Really Like Being Conservative in Hollywood (Pt1)| Andrew Klavan | POLITICS | Rubin Report — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00You've got to speak up. This thing about
2. 0:01dropping our voice, you know, I used to
3. 0:03go into movie studios for meetings.
4. 0:05And I'd be sitting out in the waiting
5. 0:07room, you know, you sit for a few
6. 0:07minutes before they call you in. And
7. 0:10almost every time somebody would come up
8. 0:12to me and drop his voice and say, "I I
9. 0:14saw you on Hannity. I I saw you on
10. 0:16Beck." And I would always say the same
11. 0:17thing, "Why are you whispering? We're in
12. 0:19the right."
13. 0:21And I understand the fear and I
14. 0:23understand, you know, we we famously had
15. 0:25this supposedly secret organization, the
16. 0:28Friends of Abe, out in Hollywood.
17. 0:30And I kept saying to the leaders, you
18. 0:32know, we've got to go public. And they
19. 0:34wouldn't do it cuz they didn't want the
20. 0:36working guys to get caught, the gaffers
21. 0:37and the guys who are not movie stars and
22. 0:40all this. But I just thought if you
23. 0:41don't if you're if you act in secret,
24. 0:43then you look like you're ashamed. And
25. 0:45if you act in secret, you look like
26. 0:46you're afraid.
27. 0:54So, as a guy that was around that and
28. 0:56also was around Hollywood and and you
29. 0:58know, doing movies and Clint Eastwood,
30. 1:00although he's one of the few sane ones
31. 1:02we've got, but but you've been around
32. 1:04the machine. What is it? Have you like
33. 1:06been able to really unpack maybe now
34. 1:08that you've stepped away from it? Like
35. 1:10what is it that causes that groupthink
36. 1:13amongst these people who so often
37. 1:15seemingly vote against their own
38. 1:16interests? They cannot be happy that the
39. 1:19homeless people are now climbing up the
40. 1:20Hollywood Hills like we're in Walking
41. 1:22Dead.
42. 1:23No, it it is absolutely true. But, you
43. 1:26know, there's certain things are
44. 1:27certainly breaks walls between them. For
45. 1:30instance, in San Francisco, the rich
46. 1:32people are living in Silicon Valley, you
47. 1:34know, the rich people are not living in
48. 1:35the places that they let go down the
49. 1:36drain. There is, you know, it it's a
50. 1:39funny thing because in a way in a way
51. 1:42it's a point that marks Karl Marx
52. 1:44himself might have made. You know, Karl
53. 1:45Marx basically believed that your wages
54. 1:49had not got you hadn't become richer if
55. 1:51there was now a bigger divide between
56. 1:53you and the really rich people. He
57. 1:55believed that it was all relative, you
58. 1:56know, so even though you were doing
59. 1:58better, if the next guy was doing 10
60. 2:00times better, you were going to be
61. 2:01unhappy. And there's a lot of human
62. 2:02truth to that. I mean, that's you know,
63. 2:04it's envy, it's coveting, covetousness.
64. 2:06That those are just human traits. And
65. 2:09so, we have got a moment now when some
66. 2:11of these wealthy people are so wealthy
67. 2:14and so detached and so surrounded by
68. 2:17other people like themselves and so
69. 2:20disdainful of the ordinary men and women
70. 2:23who just want to do their jobs and and
71. 2:25have some fun and you know, get married
72. 2:27and have kids. They're so disdainful of
73. 2:29that life that they really have no idea
74. 2:31what people are talking about. Some of
75. 2:33these people who are accusing Look, I I
76. 2:36lived out of the country for 7 years.
77. 2:38This is the least racist country on
78. 2:40Earth. It is the least racist country on
79. 2:42Earth. And when they talk about systemic
80. 2:44racism, it's the least systemic racist
81. 2:47country on Earth cuz obviously there are
82. 2:48always going to be racist people. But
83. 2:51they they don't know it. They don't know
84. 2:52it. When they talk about, "Oh yeah,
85. 2:54these people are just racist." They
86. 2:55believe it because they never see them.
87. 2:57They never meet them. They never talk to
88. 2:58them. They never listen to them. Some of
89. 3:00the stuff that you and I talk about on
90. 3:03what is now called conservative media,
91. 3:06they've never heard. They have never
92. 3:08heard it. And when they discover it,
93. 3:10they're absolutely shocked. I mean,
94. 3:12Russell Brand, the comedian who is he
95. 3:14was a very very bright guy, but he is
96. 3:16kind of left of center. When he found
97. 3:18out that the Russian collusion thing was
98. 3:20a hoax, he went on the air and he said,
99. 3:22"I'm gobsmacked. I'm flabbergasted. Who
100. 3:24knew?" Well, we knew. You know, we knew
101. 3:26and we said it all the time and a lot of
102. 3:28stuff that we know ultimately becomes
103. 3:30mainstream, but they never stop and say,
104. 3:32"Oh gee, the right-wingers were telling
105. 3:34the truth and the New York Times and CNN
106. 3:37and NBC were all lying." They just never
107. 3:39say that.
108. 3:40Think of all the people that they made
109. 3:42into idols, Andrew Cuomo,
110. 3:46What was the other guy's Michael
111. 3:47Avenatti, you know, was that his name?
112. 3:49Yeah.
113. 3:50And and now Dr. Fauci, you know,
114. 3:52torturing dogs, having eating the faces
115. 3:55of dogs. Literally, like you cannot make
116. 3:57this stuff up. Eating the faces off dogs
117. 4:00that they don't let their paws go to I
118. 4:02mean, it's just insane. And and these
119. 4:05are their heroes and you know, you'd
120. 4:07think at some point they would say,
121. 4:08"Hmm, maybe we're not that good a judge
122. 4:10of character, you know, maybe we ought
123. 4:11to take another look at a Ted Cruz.
124. 4:13Maybe he's not a bad guy, you know,
125. 4:14maybe maybe picking on Mike Pence for
126. 4:16being true to his wife isn't really a
127. 4:18great, you know, look for us."
128. 4:20They never do. They never listen to us.
129. 4:22They're so separated. They're so
130. 4:24sequestered by their wealth and their
131. 4:26cultural power more than anything else.
132. 4:28Their cultural power has sequestered
133. 4:30them that they do not know what they do
134. 4:33not know. And that's basically the kind
135. 4:35of stuff that the rest of us are talking
136. 4:37about. You and I don't agree on
137. 4:38everything. Me and Ben Shapiro don't
138. 4:39agree. And Michael Knowles, we all have
139. 4:40these big arguments. We have a range of
140. 4:42opinions on the right.
141. 4:45They've just got this one opinion, but
142. 4:46they hear it again and again and again
143. 4:47and they think everything else is evil.
144. 4:49So, what's the trick? I mean, you know,
145. 4:50when I do my weekly Q&A's on Thursday,
146. 4:52there's always like 10 questions of the
147. 4:54same variety, which is what are the
148. 4:56tricks to to wake up my friend? How can
149. 4:58I bring them back? I can't get them to
150. 5:00sit down and watch a PragerU video. Or
151. 5:03Dave, now you're too scary for them.
152. 5:05So, I assume you're on the scary list,
153. 5:07too, Andrew. Like what what what are the
154. 5:09tricks? You got any tricks? I mean, you
155. 5:10were around a lot of these people.
156. 5:12You know, two two things are very
157. 5:15important. One is
158. 5:17you you've got to speak up. This thing
159. 5:19about dropping our voice, you know, I
160. 5:20used to go into movie studios for
161. 5:22meetings.
162. 5:23And I'd be sitting out in the waiting
163. 5:24room, you know, you sit for a few
164. 5:25minutes before they call you in. And
165. 5:27almost every time somebody would come up
166. 5:29to me and drop his voice and say, "I I
167. 5:31saw you on Hannity. I I saw you on
168. 5:33Beck." And I would always say the same
169. 5:35thing, "Why are you whispering? We're in
170. 5:37the right."
171. 5:39And I understand the fear and I
172. 5:41understand, you know, we we famously had
173. 5:43this supposedly secret organization, the
174. 5:45Friends of Abe, out in Hollywood.
175. 5:48And I kept saying to the leaders, you
176. 5:49know, we've got to go public. And they
177. 5:52wouldn't do it cuz they didn't want the
178. 5:53working guys to get caught, the gaffers
179. 5:55and the guys who are not movie stars and
180. 5:57all this. But I just thought if you
181. 5:59don't if you're if you act in secret,
182. 6:01then you look like you're ashamed. And
183. 6:03if you act in secret, you look like
184. 6:04you're afraid. And so, all of us,
185. 6:06because all of you know, it's not just
186. 6:07artists who are part of the culture.
187. 6:09It's not just media people. Everybody is
188. 6:11part of the culture.
189. 6:12Everybody has a little piece of it like
190. 6:14a you know, a candle in their hand. You
191. 6:16have got to speak up. You've got to.
192. 6:18You've got to say it politely. You don't
193. 6:19have to scream at people. You don't have
194. 6:21to get in their faces. You don't have to
195. 6:22be Donald Trump. You just politely say,
196. 6:24"You know, I disagree." And and if if we
197. 6:27don't start doing that, if we let them
198. 6:29cow us and silence us, we have no choice
199. 6:32chance. And the other side of it also is
200. 6:36right-wingers think the the truth is so
201. 6:39important, the facts are so important
202. 6:41that you don't have to be nice about
203. 6:42them. That you can scream an ugly truth
204. 6:44in someone's face. And Paul Simon said,
205. 6:46"You know, I want you know, I don't want
206. 6:48you to lie to me, but I want some
207. 6:49tenderness beneath your honesty." And
208. 6:50right-wingers got to learn that trick
209. 6:52because
210. 6:54the left are ugly. They're mean. They
211. 6:57call people names. They they're
212. 6:58disgusting. They cancel people. They
213. 7:01bully them. If we don't have a sort of
214. 7:03civilized attitude, but a When I say
215. 7:06civilized, that doesn't mean keeping
216. 7:07your mouth shut. It means speaking
217. 7:09bravely and clearly in a polite way,
218. 7:13then we're just the same as them. It is
219. 7:15we get lost in the crowd. So, if we
220. 7:16don't develop some communication skills
221. 7:19and and some courage,
222. 7:21you know, we'll be lost. We'll be swept
223. 7:23away cuz they own the media. You know,
224. 7:24it's so funny because I obviously agree
225. 7:26with the sentiment. And then there's
226. 7:28this part of me as someone that's, you
227. 7:30know, sort of new to this thing on the
228. 7:31right, let's say, that when you see them
229. 7:34lie and lie and lie again and know
230. 7:36they're lying and we know they're lying
231. 7:38and everyone knows the solution it's in
232. 7:39quote. And they just keep going. I can
233. 7:41somehow see how decent right-wing people
234. 7:45that are moderates really start sounding
235. 7:48like crazy angry kooks because the years
236. 7:51go by, you try to rationalize, you try
237. 7:54to be open, you try to have
238. 7:55conversations. They keep lying, things
239. 7:57keep getting worse. They're dragging you
240. 7:59to hell with them. Next thing you know,
241. 8:01you're screaming on the radio for 4
242. 8:02hours a day about whatever it might be.
243. 8:06So, I'm sympathetic to even though I get
244. 8:08your point, I am sympathetic to the
245. 8:09people that it sort of sound like
246. 8:11they're nuts at some level. Me me, too,
247. 8:14because they also gaslight you. So, for
248. 8:16for 30 years, they call you racist. They
249. 8:18call you sexist. Your god stinks. Your
250. 8:21country stinks. Your history stinks.
251. 8:22Everything about you stinks. Then Rush
252. 8:24Limbaugh comes on the air and he says,
253. 8:26"Well, these feminazis." And everybody
254. 8:27goes, "Where is the civility? Where what
255. 8:30Where what has happened to the civility
256. 8:32in this country?" So, they gaslight you.
257. 8:34But, if you listen One of the things
258. 8:35that happened to me when I came back
259. 8:36from England where I was living, I I
260. 8:38started listening to Rush just to hear
261. 8:40what the fuss was about. And he was so
262. 8:43happy and so funny and so a kind of
263. 8:45sweet-natured
264. 8:47with all the stuff that he said that I
265. 8:49thought, "No, wait a minute. That all
266. 8:51the stuff I heard is untrue and I want
267. 8:53to listen to what this guy has to say."
268. 8:54If you're looking for more honest and
269. 8:56thoughtful conversations about politics
270. 8:58instead of nonstop yelling, check out
271. 9:00our politics playlist. And if you want
272. 9:02to watch full interviews on a variety of
273. 9:03topics, watch our full episode playlist
274. 9:06all right over here. And to get notified
275. 9:08of all future videos, be sure to
276. 9:10subscribe and click the notification
277. 9:12bell.