The Internet Is #Offended By The Rock Reasonably Endorsing A Presidential Candidate
Our goal was to catalogue all the things famous people did that got the internet outraged, allowing us to track how the cycle of outrage changed and morphed over time.
This article is more than 2 years old
A few months ago here on GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT we started a project called #Offended. Our goal was to catalogue all the things famous people did that got the internet outraged, allowing us to track how the cycle of outrage changed and morphed over time.
Then we ran into a problem. There was too much outrage. The original page we used to track all the times people got #Offended became huge. So huge it began to load too slowly. So this page is the sequel.
To see the first batch of #Offended stories go visit that page here. Continue on to see the sequel, More #Offended.
The Rock Endorses Joe Biden For President – September 27, 2020
The Rock has decided to endorse Joe Biden for president. Celebrity endorsements really don’t matter, they have never moved the needle when it comes to elections, so the move was probably pointless. However, he felt it was important and he seems to have some connections to the Democratic party (apparently according to various reports he has met with Biden), so he made an endorsement. Here’s his endorsement video in which he looks really jacked, even for The Rock…
No big deal, right? Big deal. A lot of people aren’t happy about it. Wild and gross accusations are now being flung at the generally beloved Dwayne Johnson. They range from totally unfounded and gross accusations like this one…
“I guess pedos stick together!“
And slightly less gross but still ridiculous and totally off base accusations like this…
To more reasonable but still slightly rude disagreement like this…
And a lot of people who are disappointed and won’t be watching his movies anymore like this person…
He’s also getting some support, of course. People who are already voting for Biden are happy about it and he got a “Thank you” from noted actress turned liberal political activist Alyssa Milano.
In the end The Rock will be fine, but any time someone famous throws their hat into the political ring it’s risky.
Netflix Accused Of Sexualizing Children – August 20, 2020
Netflix has announced a new movie called Cuties and it’s about an eleven year old girl “heroically” rebelling against her parents by joining a twerking dance crew. The poster is controversial and people have launched a petition to get the movie banned.
Outraged By Goodyear Prohibiting Support For The Police – August 19, 2020
Earlier this week an image was leaked from a presentation given to employees in which Goodyear listed the types of acceptable speech at their company. The slide was reportedly shown at a Topeka plant from a manager who says it came from the company’s home office. Here’s the image…
Conservatives immediately erupted in outrage, accusing the company of censorship and bias. President Trump even responded with this tweet…
Goodyear issued this statement in response…
“Goodyear is committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace where all of our associates can do their best in a spirit of teamwork. As part of this commitment, we do allow our associates to express their support on racial injustice and other equity issues but ask that they refrain from workplace expressions, verbal or otherwise, in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party as well as other similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of equity issues.“
– –Melissa Monaco, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Critics point out that the statement doesn’t really address the slide and isn’t clear on whether they support the views expressed in the controversial photo or not.
President Trump’s press secretary was, in particular, critical of their response. Here’s what she had to say…
#Offended By Seth Rogen Refusing To Work With White People – August 10, 2020
As part of his press tour for the new movie American Pickle, actor/writer and Canadian/Jewish immigrant Seth Rogen decided to get into issues of race. Talking to Entertainment Weekly he had this to say…
“I mean personally, I think I am just actively trying to make less things starring white people… So that’s how I’ve been trying to deal with it, is just to actively take as they would say, anti-racist measures to assure that some work is doing done to acknowledge that Black people are very marginalized in American society.”
While some have applauded his stance on making more of his hiring decisions based on race, others were instantly offended and responded like this…
“Translation: I’m actively trying to get people to like me by showing how woke and virtuous I am”
“Ending discrimination through discrimination. What a concept!”
“Gotta look good for the thought police, and virtue patrols. Good job Sellout Rogen.”
Ryan Reynolds Apologizes For Offending People With His Wedding – August 4, 2020
Actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got married in 2012 and seem like they’ve stayed happily married since. They have two daughters together. And now Ryan Reynolds has apologized for the whole thing.
At issue is where they had their wedding. It took place at the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. It’s a historic landmark and also used for events by wealthy individuals. In addition to its long history involving all kinds of things (even pirates!) Boone was also home to slaves a couple hundred years ago and so the outrage mob went after Ryan and his wife for having their wedding there.
Here’s what Boone Hall looks like…
In response, Ryan Reynolds issued this apology in an interview with Fast Company: “It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy. Years ago we got married again at home—but shame works in weird ways. A giant fucking mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t fuck up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.”
Usually when someone calls their wedding a “giant fucking mistake” its for different reasons. This may be a wedding regret first.
One Million Moms Goes After Hallmark – July 27, 2020
The conservative activist group One Million Moms is going after the Hallmark Channel for announcing that they’re going to incorporate LGBTQ programming into their traditional Christmas movie schedule. They’d already taken a step in that progressive direction by airing the LGBTQ centric commercial in the image above.
The Hallmark Channel Christmas movie offering is a big tradition for a lot of traditional Christmas families, and apparently they take it pretty seriously. The outrage started when Hallmark released this statement…
“Diversity and inclusion is a top priority for us and we look forward to making some exciting programming announcements in the coming months, including announcements about projects featuring LGBTQ storylines, characters, and actors. We are committed to creating a Hallmark experience where everyone feels welcome.“
One Million Moms responded by posting this petition which says in part: “So many people feel betrayed by Hallmark over these past seven months. Hallmark Channel was one of the remaining channels that families could watch without being bombarded by politically correct commercials and the LGBTQ agenda.”
In addition to signing the petition (which currently has over 33,000 signatures) the group is urging their members and those who agree with them to boycott all things Hallmark. “This includes Hallmark Channel, Hallmark wrapping paper, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, etc.”
Outraged By Ellen Degeneres Show’s Treatment Of Employees – July 17, 2020
There have often been rumors, mostly unsubstantiated, that Ellen Degeneres is not as nice off camera as she is on camera in her nice talkshow host persona. But now fans are angry at direct accusations from some of her current and former employees.
Those accusations aren’t leveled at Ellen so much as everyone else in charge of making her show. They come from one current Ellen show employee and ten former employees. Talking to Buzzfeed one of them said the following…
“People focus on rumors about how Ellen is mean and everything like that, but that’s not the problem. The issue is these three executive producers running the show who are in charge of all these people [and] who make the culture and are putting out this feeling of bullying and being mean.“
In the report there are accusations against the show’s producers of racial discrimination, firing employees for taking medical and bereavement leave, and microaggressions. The accusers claim they were afraid to speak out against their treatment because they thought they might be fired for doing so.
In response, The Ellen Degeneres Show’s exec producers have issued the following joint statement…
“Over the course of nearly two decades, 3,000 episodes, and employing over 1000 staff members, we have strived to create an open, safe, and inclusive work environment. We are truly heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience. It’s not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us. For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.“
Alyssa Milano Accused Of Wearing Blackface – July 1, 2020
Former actress Alyssa Milano has become one of the biggest voices in liberal politics and she’s been at the forefront of a lot of the social movements sweeping the country. Now she herself, though, has become the target of controversy when a photo of her apparently wearing blackface began circulating on the internet.
Here’s the photo…
The image is actually for a parody she did in which she was making fun of Snooki from the Jersey Shore. Snooki is infamous for being overly tan, so Alyssa went even more over the top to be even more tan than the real Snooki. Here’s the video of her getting made up…
Milano believes this backstory for the image justifies it. She has responded to the attacks against her by tweeting: “Hey, assholes. The below picture is me parodying Jersey Shore and Snookie’s tan. Snookie’s tan (she is a sweetheart by the way) is worthy of parodying as is Trump’s ‘tan.’ So go fuck yourselves with your smear campaign.“
However, some in outrage machine point out that others have been accused of wearing blackface for similar reasons. For example, some of tweeted that an episode of the Golden Girls in which Rose and Blanche are wearing mud masks was recently banned because that was viewed as blackface. Meanwhile Jimmy Kimmel has also been in the cancel crosshairs for wearing makeup in a parody of Karl Malone.
Outraged By Terry Crews Warning Against BLM – June 30, 2020
A few weeks ago Terry Crews courted controversy when despite ile nearly every celebrity has issued a statement supporting Black Lives Matter, the protests, and in some cases even the looting… he did not. Since then despite numerous threats and hatred spewed his way (and even threats that this might end his career) he has refused to back down. In fact he took it a step further today when he issued this tweet…
In response to his refusal to back down from his moderate position, the vitriol against him has ramped up even further. Terry Crews became the #1 trending topic on twitter with things like this being directed at him…
It all started in early June when Terry Crews first issued the following tweet…
Jimmy Kimmel Goes Into Hiding As #CancelKimmel Trends – June 24, 2020
Last week Jimmy Kimmel announced he was taking a summer vacation from his show and that he’d be back on the air in a few months. Now it seems clear that he only went on hiatus to avoid the backlash he knew was coming.
#CancelKimmel has been the top trending topic on Twitter for two days now, after activists suddenly discovered that Jimmy Kimmel did Blackface on The Man Show twenty years ago.
Kimmel has now spoken out about the controversy and he has this to say: “I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head. I’ve done dozens of impressions of famous people, including Snoop Dogg, Oprah, Eminem, Dick Vitale, Rosie, and many others. In each case, I thought of them as impersonations of celebrities and nothing more. Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing, and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices.“
Kimmel then goes on to attack those who have a problem with him saying, “I believe that I have evolved and matured over the last 20-plus years, and I hope that is evident to anyone who watches my show. I know that this will not be the last I hear of this and that it will be used again to try to quiet me. I love this country too much to allow that. I won’t be bullied into silence by those who feign outrage to advance their oppressive and genuinely racist agendas.“
Here’s one of the clips in question…
Additionally in audio from Kimmel on The Adam Carolla show in 2013, Kimmel admitted to using the N-word several times in 1996 when he imitated Snoop Dogg for a comedy album. In that same 2013 podcast he also did what Carolla described as his “crazy black voice” to imitate comedian George Wallace.
Here’s the audio of that 1996 album…
All of this is probably amplified because Kimmel has been one of the most public figures leading the charge against others for doing similar things. Because of that, the backlash against him has even reached notable public figures like Donald Trump Jr. who says…
The Internet Tries To Re-Cancel Mel Gibson – June 23, 2020
Mel Gibson was all but blacklisted from Hollywood years ago when he was caught on tape making anti-semitic statements. Recently he’s made something of a minor comeback, with supporting roles in movies like 2017’s Daddy’s Home 2. But now he may be headed back to the blacklist, thanks to new accusations of anti-semitism from actress Winona Ryder.
In an interview with The Sunday Times Ryder says that while at a party Gibson once asked her “You’re not an oven dodger, are you?”. Winona Ryder does have Jewish heritage and the reference was apparently some kind of joke about the holocaust. Later they were all talking and when Gibson learned Winona’s friend was gay she claims he joked, “Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?”
Winona Ryder does say Gibson tried to apologize later.
In response activists are now going after Mel Gibson with messages like this…
And the pressure is on for Hollywood to re-cancel Mel Gibson. Given his past and the tendency of Hollywood to do whatever “right thinking” social media activists want, don’t expect to see him working again.
Arrow Star Stephen Amell Accused Of Being Racist – June 16, 2020
Arrow star and native Canadian Stephen Amell recently went on the How’d You Do It? podcast and decided to address the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the country. He had this to say…
“Racism is a systemic problem, but I’m not as familiar with it just because I haven’t seen it in action, personally. Obviously, I see the video of George Floyd being murdered by white police officers, I remember the Trayvon Martin case, and all the things that have been happening… Although most of that, for me personally, has been overshadowed by gun violence. That’s the big thing that’s difficult for me to wrap my head around, moving to the States, simply because that doesn’t happen in Canada. At all. Ever.”
Fans are taking issue with his assertion that gun violence doesn’t happen in Canada because they’ve somehow twisted it into him saying racism doesn’t happen in Canada. That’s not what happened at all, but it hasn’t stopped the mob coming for him with tweets like this…
The accusations were blasted at him for nearly a week straight, but no one in the time bothered to actually listen to what he really said. Sometimes there’s just no way to win.
Tucker Carlson Broadcast Starts A Race To Cancel – June 14, 2020
When always controversial Fox News host Tucker Carlson came out against Black Lives Matter, activists immediately began to call for his removal as a host. Carlson has often been targeted by activist groups for the things he says, but they’ve been ignored. This time, with the Black Lives Matter movement getting the full attention of everyone, they have begun to succeed.
So far Fox News has refused to cancel their top rated program, but advertisers have begun to bail on the show. Disney, Papa John’s, and Poshmark have all pulled their advertisements from the show in response to outrage over his comments. Others like T-Mobile have publicly vowed they will never spend their ad dollars there.
If you’re wondering what Carlson said, below is the broadcast in question. It seems to be ad free, so don’t worry you’re not supporting Fox News monetarily by watching it. You may be angered by it, however, so don’t watch unless you’re prepared…
But the cancel war hasn’t stopped there. Now in an attempt to combat “cancel culture” conservatives are launching a campaign to cancel the cancelers. They’re calling for boycotts against Disney and other companies pulling their advertisements, with people taking to social media to loudly pronounce they’ve cancelled their Disney Plus subscription, for example…
Where this will end is uncertain, but as of this moment no one really seems to be listening to the people supporting Tucker. It’s unclear if the advertisers trying to cancel Tucker Carlson will care if they get cancelled back.
#Offended Because Cracker Barrel Feels Racist – June 10, 2020
The top trending topic on Twitter this day is “Cracker Barrel” and it’s not because they have delicious pancakes. The folksy chain restaurant is under heavy fire from Twitter activists accusing it of such things as “feeling racist”.
It’s hard to say where the trend of attacking Cracker Barrel began, but it seemed to appear shortly after this post became popular…
Soon after that seemingly positive post began to gain traction, Twitter was flooded with outraged accusations and comments like these, drowning that post out and burying it…
#Offended By The Push To Shut Down STEM – June 9, 2020
The latest push from Black Lives Matter protests has them asking America to #ShutDownStem. For those unaware, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.The hashtag calls for everyone working in or researching in STEM fields to stop their work and spend a day in reflection on race issues in America.
Given that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, that would presumably also mean taking a pause on all the research going on to save lives from the Coronavirus and lots of other life-saving science research. While some people in STEM fields are vowing to participate, others are drawing a line in the sand and responding with angry, outraged posts like this…
At this hour the #ShutDownStem hashtag is one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter, but it’s filled with divisive posts with people joining the day long STEM boycott and a lot of people voicing their outrage over the idea.
#Offended By Mark Wahlberg’s Past – June 7, 2020
In 1986 Mark Wahlberg and three friends chased down a group of black children while yelling the “N” word at them. There was a civil lawsuit against Wahlberg as a result, a case which he settled.
For his part, Wahlberg says he has changed as he has grown older and no longer holds those racist views. He has talked openly about this past behavior for years, apologized for it repeatedly, and attempted to make something good out of it to help others understand where he went wrong and avoid repeating his mistakes. But apparently no one on Twitter saw any of those interviews.
So when Mark Wahlberg voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement by saying this…
…the people involved in the Black Lives Matter movement spit on this tweet and used it as an opportunity to call him a racist and try to destroy his career.
Activists Shame Netflix Users For Making The Help Popular – June 5, 2020
On June 5th The Help became the most watched movie on Netflix. The film is a period piece which depicts the lives of African American servants working for a white family. No doubt Netflix users chose to watch it in such large numbers as a way to help them better understand African American life, in a world where that seems to be the only thing anyone is talking about.
And apparently that was a huge mistake. Now activists are shaming people for watching it and some are even lobbying Netflix to get them to delete The Help, so that white people can’t watch it. Here’s what they’re saying…
#Offended By Ben Affleck Playing A Mexican-American In Argo – June 5, 2020
Normally when we catalogue an instance of internet outrage it’s as a result of a pocket of mob anger popping up among the public against celebrities. In this case, it’s celebrity on celebirty outrage, with Edward James Olmos going after Ben Affleck for starring in Argo.
In the critically acclaimed movie Argo Ben Affleck plays a real life CIA agent named Tony Mendez. Tony was an American with some Mexican ancestry. And now, eight-years after its release, noted Mexican-American actor Edward James Olmos is hopping mad about it.
Talking to Deadline, Olmos had this to say: “Ben Affleck played Tony Mendez. He should never have played Tony Mendez. He was the director and he should’ve either gotten Michael Pena, or Andy Garcia, or myself, Jimmy Smits, any one of a multitude of people that can handle those roles. He said, well, they wouldn’t have made the movie if I wasn’t playing the role. Bullshit. He was directing it, he wrote it. It won the best film of the year Academy Award, so what are you talking about? Tony Mendez was a Chicano, a Mexican American, born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Now, 99% of the people don’t even know that.”
That all sounds pretty reasonable until you learn that the real-life Tony Mendez was happy that Ben Affleck played him. He really liked it. Additionally, Mendez was pretty clear at the time that he doesn’t actually consider himself Mexican-American or Hispanic.
He gets his Mexican ancestry from his father, who died when Tony was still young. As a result, Mendex doesn’t speak Spanish or identify with that culture in any way. So casting someone like an Edward James Olmos would probably have been less true to who Tony Mendez actually is.
- Want more mob outrage? Visit our original #Offended article.
