Award Ceremonies and Virtue Signalling, or Meryl Streep goes to the Globes

I love awards seasons, or at least I used to. In recent years I just can’t seem to get past the self-congratulatory wank-fest that is A-list celebrities telling me how much their work makes the world a better place. 

According to Meryl Streep Hollywood actors are not only the wellspring of inter-human empathy and harmonious racial diversity, but it is the frontier, wherein directors, actors, scriptwriters, etc, wage war against the elitist injustice that ravages the USA. 

The video of Streep’s speech is below if you wish to see extreme psychological delusion first hand…

I’ll leave aside the fact that Streep deliver’s her injunction against elitism wearing a custom-made Givenchy gown, and instead draw attention to the economics of Hollywood, which funds its selfless representation of empathy and diversity with the taxes of those deplorables she implicitly attacks.

You may not be aware of the fact that a significant number of states in the US offer tax breaks, credits and subsidies to attract Hollywood companies to come and make their films. Among them is Texas, Connecticut, Tennessee and Rhode Island.

The purpose of these concessions is to boost the local economy: locations featured are expected to boost tourism to the region, and film production expended to boost employment, both for the duration of a given project and through the training and supply of below-the-line workers, as well as in ancillary sectors.

The reality is that as more and more states adopt these policies, competition for limited productions increases, and each state seeks to achieve the competitive edge by offering more and more of the taxpayer dollars to the detriment of local services and amenities. As such, Hollywood actors are the direct beneficiaries of corporate welfare. Do you think Streep has any empathy for the average American who labour’s daily to compensate the ever-escalating budgets of the latest Hollywood blockbuster. (Actually, it is more often the mid-range budgeted films - the kind Streep stars in - that tends to cash in on these government programs).

And don’t think that this complicity with the exploitation of the average citizen is contained within the borders of the US. Canada, Australia, China, Singapore, England, New Zealand…they all compete for these runaway productions by offering similar tax subsidies and credits.

via GIPHY

The other stunningly elitist move strategically employed by Streep is her co-option of the cultural cache available to her non-white colleagues in order to score some progressive brownie points. This is an important performance for any lily white progressive who advocates diversity, lest you get called out for your privilege. Indeed, notice how Streep's role call directs the camera towards her non-white colleagues from elsewhere.

And of course, there is the mandatory calling out of Trump, another important strategy employed by the Hollywood elite as a way of showing how while their skin is undeniably white, they are different from those bad white people over there.

Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions, leave your comments below.