Susan Sarandon Says Some More Despicable Sh1t

Susan Sarandon was a complete asshole during the 2016 election — one of Bernie Sanders' most obnoxious surrogates, who splained at Dolores Huerta, asserted that Hillary Clinton was "more dangerous" than Donald Trump, said that a Trump presidency was "more likely" to usher in positive change than a Clinton presidency, and then voted for Jill Stein.

She has continued to disgorge stupid trash along the same vein post-election, in some contemptible bid to justify the stupid trash she said two years ago. For instance: "I did think she was very, very dangerous. ...We would be at war [if she was president]."

And here we go again:

Donald Trump has, if anything, inspired more women and people of color to run for office, says actress Susan Sarandon #VarietyStudio presented by @att at #TIFF18 pic.twitter.com/eVIsI9kAWe

— Variety (@Variety) September 12, 2018

Transcript:

Male Interviewer, offscreen, at the Toronto International Film Festival: —give our current president a grade, what grade would you give him at this point?

Sarandon: Oh my god, I would tell him just start all over again. I mean, I don't think we can grade him. I think what he's done that is the most significant is that, by no — unintentionally, he has energized, um, you know, by making it so clear, the way governme— I mean, in all fairness to Trump, this stuff was all laid in place over the last 12 years. I mean, this didn't just suddenly happen.

Democrats were losing thousands and thousands of seats, then all these things were put in place, and refu— People were being deported, and there was many, many wars, and all of that was happening, but he is so bumbling, and he is so — he's like a character out of a cartoon or something — that you can't not be aware of what's going on now.

And — and Bernie Sanders proved that you could run without taking dark money, without taking PAC money, and so you're seeing an enormous amount of people that are using that and are running and winning. And so many women in primaries, and now we've got, you know, more, uh, elections coming up, and those people — you never saw that population running. So many women, I think like forty percent more women, are running for office and becoming elected.

We're on the verge of having the governors of Florida, Georgia, and Maryland be people of color, and one woman of co— Now that, you know, this is a revolution. It may not seem like one. So things have gotten— What is it? The Leonard Cohen quote? You know, the cracks are where the light comes through? So maybe things had to get so bad before real change actually could happen.

So, uh, we just have to stay awake, and also the kids are on fire. I never heard millennials or kids in high school saying, "I can't wait to vote." That's huge. And they're really doing a good job of, uh, of signing up kids. And that's what's gonna make the change. I say: Take me down, you know? [laughs] Take over. Get rid of all these old people and get that young blood in there. And they're gonna make the difference. I'm very hopeful because of them.

Where do I even begin with this horseshit?

First, the answer to the question should have been "F. He gets a failing grade, because he is a vile human being whose chief governing principle is malice." This isn't hard — or it shouldn't be. And isn't, for any decent person who doesn't have an agenda in which they want to retroactively justify their ludicrous comments about Hillary Clinton being more dangerous than Donald Trump by giving Trump credit for inadvertently inspiring a revolution.

Second, to talk about what's happening right now as a "revolution," and further to imply that it will yield good things for marginalized people (that they definitely want even if they are too stupid to know it), is just breathtaking privilege, for reasons I have previously explained.

Third, Sarandon literally just has no idea what the fuck she is talking about: "I mean, in all fairness to Trump, this stuff was all laid in place over the last 12 years. I mean, this didn't just suddenly happen." To say that the groundwork has been laid for Trump over the last 12 years is ahistorical nonsense. Try decades. Of course, a historically accurate picture of what got us here — and how long it took — undercuts Sarandon's execrable implication that the Democrats were complicit, as well as her evident belief that we can turn around decades of traitorous scheming by winning a few House seats.

Fourth, crediting Bernie Sanders (and Donald Trump) for the burst of female candidates running for elected office, and failing to even utter the name Hillary Clinton, despite her history-making run as the first ever major-party female nominee in the nation's history, is just some full-tilt misogynist filth. I'm sure there are women running for office who were inspired by Sanders. I'm sure there are women running for office who were moved by the prospect of holding Trump accountable. And I'm damn well sure that there are women running for office who would credit Hillary Clinton with inspiring them, with motivating them, with blazing a trail for them, with giving them the courage to take their first steps into the fray.

Fifth, I will never not ragescream when I hear people say crap like this: "So maybe things had to get so bad before real change actually could happen." Things were pretty goddamn bad for a lot of people already, Susan! FOR FUCK'S SAKE. I don't even understand how a person says something like this. I guess we just needed a president who put babies in cages before we could get off our asses and pay minimal attention and start spouting a bunch of half-baked dross about a political system we haven't even put in any real effort to understand. SHRUG EMOJI.

Sixth, she's never heard teenagers say they can't wait to vote? Oh. Well, there are a lot of nerds in the world who said that, like me. The fact that she thinks because she's never heard it, it's never happened, is a pretty good indication of why her thinking about a lot of stuff is total rubbish.

Seventh, SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Sarandon isn't just saying ill-informed stuff with which I disagree (although that, too). She's saying stuff that is dangerous, because it's dishonest in a way that serves a privileged agenda which is just as selectively dismissive of expertise and knowledge, just as disdainful of recognizing the individual needs of distinct populations, and just as hostile toward the essential tenets of a pluralistic democracy as the conservative movement consolidating its power behind Donald Trump.

That's why Sarandon can't bring herself to truly criticize him. She sees something familiar in him, and something in him she admires.

Which brings us to why it's necessary to push back against this stuff: Sarandon and her compatriots aren't staging a revolution; they're staging a change in management.