Matthew McConaughey gave an interview to Russell Brand for Brand’s podcast a few weeks ago and the interview left me…incandescent with rage. MM thinks it’s contemptible that “liberals” would treat knuckle-dragging racists, misogynist Trump supporters like they were garbage. McConaughey argued that the “illiberal left” is just as bad as the Nazis who supported Donald Trump. He also patronizingly claimed that it’s not a Nazi’s fault that he’s a Nazi because he’s been “fed fake news.” The interview was a complete sh-tshow of two privileged white dudes pissing on marginalized communities for… being justifiably terrified of racists, transphobes, misogynists, etc. Anyway, McConaughey had more to say! He was on Good Morning Britain yesterday and it got so, so stupid.
Actor Matthew McConaughey said in a new interview that “illiberals,” the “extreme” right and “cancel culture” are deepening the political divide in the United States. The “True Detective” star re-emphasized comments he made earlier this month when he called out the hypocrisy of Hollywood elites asking conservatives to back President-elect Joe Biden despite how President Trump was treated during the four years of his administration.
“You need liberals. What I don’t think we need is the illiberals. And what I don’t think that some liberals see is that they’re often being cannibalized by the illiberals,” McConaughey said Tuesday on “Good Morning Britain.”
“Now there are extremes on both sides that I think are unfair, that I don’t think are the right place to be. The extreme left and the extreme right completely illegitimize the other side, the liberal and conservative side, which we need in certain places. The two extremes illegitimize those two sides. Or they exaggerate that side’s stance into an irrational state that makes no sense and that’s not fair when either side does that,” he continued.
The “Dazed anad Confused” star went on to warn on “Good Morning Britain” that the corrosive effects of the cancel culture could eventually have dire effects on the First Amendment.
“Where the waterline is going to land on this freedom of speech and what we allow and what we don’t and where this cancel culture goes, where that waterline lands is a very interesting place that we are engaged in right now as a society that we’re trying to figure out because we haven’t found the right spot,” he said.
Dear Matthew, let me introduce you to my friend, the word DElegitimize. Not “illegitimatize.” And “illiberal” doesn’t mean “an extreme version of political liberalism,” which he seems to think it means. “Illiberal” means ignorant, intolerant, unrefined. As in, many of those MAGA douches are uneducated, uncouth and illiberal. As for the rest of it… it’s like I need some kind of dopey McConaughey-to-English dictionary. He said all of those (dumb) words to make the point that “extremism on either side is bad, both political sides should try to find common ground.” Which is a completely mediocre stance to take as a cisgender heterosexual white man who will never be marginalized in America. As for what he says about cancel culture… did this dude get high before he went on air or something? He was being interviewed by Piers Morgan too. I bet Piers wet himself when MM started in on all of this.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Every time I think I could not be more exhausted by “both sides” bullshit, a new opportunity presents itself.
Let’s see, one extreme wants to live in an all white autocracy, the other wants everyone to have a living wage and healthcare. The extremes on the right and left are in no way comparable and if you think they are you are lazy, intellectually incompetent, and probably a racist.
DITTO
Thank you Mac-perfect response
@Mac,
but you do realize that’s not how they see it, and that it’s probably not how the “centrists” see it? The MAGAts will tell you that all they want is people working hard, paying fewer taxes, and not paying for lazy freeloaders. And that all we want is not work and get everything for free.
I feel like this self-congratulating discourse in our little bubble feels good, but clearly doesn’t win us enough votes.
It won enough votes to win both the popular vote by 7 million and the antiquated Electoral College as well.
And yes, still too many people voted for Trump. Some are die-hard Republicans, some are Trump cultists. Neither will ever vote for a Democrat, very few die-hard Republicans can overcome their racism to get past thinking Black Americans take “their” benefits and “their” privileges and “their” property. They don’t think Black votes matter, let alone Black lives.
@Larisa – how they see it is irrelevant. Proud boys want a white Utopia, Democratic Socialists want a fair and equitable society. Facts aren’t self congratulatory, they’re just facts.
I don’t think anything will win their votes, Larisa, if what they are really in support of is upgholding the extreme exploitation and greed of the capitalist system.
@ Mac
well, it is relevant if we want to breakdown their picture of their reality, and it seems we need to if we are to make any progress, because the GOP still did disgustingly well in the last election.
@Purple prankster,
honestly? I agree with you. However, I’m in a forum with some smart women who skew “centrist”, and who are grilling Dems for not reaching out and finding the middle ground. Personally, I’m at a loss and out of good will to do that. But I do see their point re: the numbers of the last election. So, I thought I’d bring it up with the ladies of CB to see if you had any clarity on the subject. I have all but eliminated Trump supporters from my life, but the few who remain – I can guarantee you they do not see themselves as bad guys, greedy, racist, or anything else. I guess I think it will be much harder to convince them that they are bad than to convince them to make different choices? Because a choice isn’t an indictment of your character like a label?
Oh thank you, I got lost mid-rant and thought “isn’t this word salad?” but wondered if my brain hasn’t jump started yet this morning.
oh, and, SHUT UP MATTHEW.
Yes. Why. Is. He. Still. Talking.
I laughed at him being referred to as “the Dazed and Confused star.” Nice bit of shade.
I noticed that too – 1993 reference as the career headline for the win 🙂
Because at least in 1993, he could have claimed ignorance, but you lived through 2020 dude – no excuses.
I’d consider maybe thinking about taking him seriously if he hadn’t gone on GMB… congrats Matty! You played yourself 🤡
I know right! I liked him better when all he had to say was alright alright alright!
Time to shut up and stop “both sides-ing ” it, Matt. If you support racist, misogynistic, homophobic people with your vote, then you too, are racist, misogynistic, and homophobic. It’s really that simple. The trump right has made no secret that these are their values. No one who supports that does so unknowingly.
For the most part celebrities wading into politics is a failure. Having a platform because you are a movie star is a turn off to many.
I’m sorry, but he kind of sounds like an idiot. If if you’re going to repeat an argument to several media outlets, maybe first make sure what you’re saying makes sense, and uses the correct words?
Both sides are not equal. He’s a privileged, Rich, straight, white male, who has never had his basic human rights threatened, so he has no business telling others to just get along with their oppressors.
Apparently, the “waterline” runs between his ears.
Thank you, what WAS he doing to that poor waterline? I didn’t know it landed.
Isn’t an illiberal a conservative? I’m just not sure that the words he is using explains his stance properly but even if he was articulate, I disagree with him completely.
I can see political parties being pro or anti big governments, fiscal spending, monetary policies, taxation cuts, debt to GDP, extent of climate change response and other policy issues. What I fail to comprehend is when human rights issues are being brought into the mix as if we could both-sides human rights and agree to disagree. Torture? Political intimidation? Internment camps? Racism? Xenophobia? Homophobia? How can we agree to disagree there when your side is about denying people their human rights? Cancel culture is what they are afraid of? Not extrajudicial killings of citizens? I hate him so much.
Why exactly do I need to find common ground with people who are willing to strip the rights away from others?
And from people who want to strip rights away from me?
Im exhausted with white people. The reason why he doesnt find Trumpism and the cult as “extreme” is because that animosity and violence is not DIRECTED at him. We PoCs get the brunt of that. These assholes were literally trying to disenfranchise black and native votes with all those fucking lawsuits.
White people only started to call the police as fascists when they were getting violently attacked or kidnapped in Portland during BLM when weve been telling yall this for decades. It went from cops aint that bad to fascism real quick.
Fuck him.
He’s married to a WOC and has children with her. The fact he remains ignorant of that the GOP does to their lives is a testament to selective thinking and selective ignorance.
Perhaps one of his boys needs to be detained with brutal force for him to finally understand WTF goes on in his state and country.
This. And yet it’s common to find white people who have yet to interrogate their white privilege, married to BIPOC people and then inflicting their racist/bigotry onto their own children. I have friends who grew up in such environments.
Well, thanks, all these white people disagreeing with Matthew, but sure.
And that’s a BS timeline, too, I had problems with police for a decade before Portland, but I understand that it doesn’t suit your narrative.
Well, no, white activists have been calling cops fascist pigs since at least the hippy movement, and all through the various G-7/G-20 or whathaveyou protests for the last two decades–and quite vocally. But I take the rest of your point.
Just F off Matt
Has he retired from acting?
He has always bugged the crap out of me! This just adds to my belief of his ignorance.
Go make a car commercial and stop getting involved in politics.
Does Matthew not remember how Republicans did everything they could to not work with Obama? Or how about Mitch’s legislation graveyard? Save this BS for the MAGAts. They are the ones that need to hear it. And JFC “illiberal.” Suck my Illiberal balls McConaughey.
I used to like him. Not any more.
Rich white man says words. Is given national television platform by another rich white man to do so.
He’s trying SO hard to sound philosophical and smart for his obvious upcoming political run, but he just sounds like the lazy dumb pothead he actually is.
He thinks he is so frakking smart and philosophical. He speaks as though he’s above it all, trying to teach us something about political maneuverings and lost ideologies. He’s absolutely nothing but insufferable. A Texas hick who charmed Hollywood, when all he could do was whip it out, hang from a college dorm window while playing the bongo. There’s a million of his type across the south. They all flash their look-at-me smiles while oozing southern drawls and sauntering through life.
“They all flash their look-at-me smiles while oozing southern drawls and sauntering through life.”
That sums it up so well.
There’s value in his commentary. It’s highly unpopular and he expressed it rather clumsily, but I certainly agree with the essence of it.
That the political extremities are potentially dangerous and can damage democracy? As has been evidenced throughout history? I daresay you not only know this, but have a more nuanced and elegant grasp on American politics and what it means for all of us. 😁
Biden would be more of a centrist in Western Europe. In some countries he would even be slightly right of centre. Mainstream Democrats are not extreme.
This while mainstream Republicans are way more extreme.
What Americans call centre is not in the middle to me at all
The “essence” is sh*t too, honey.
That everyone should just get along, even if the other side are actual Nazis?
No thanks.
Compromise is always going to be necessary to get stuff done when there are varying opinions and all, but that’s for stuff like tax policy or bill stimulus bills and such. Not when one side is trying to take away basic human rights, and lives, based on gender, race, sexuality, etc.
Will someone who loves this man tell him to shut the fu*k up and go read a book?!
Notice they described him as the star of “Dazed and Confused” instead of an Oscar winner. Dazed and confused indeed. The right wing is probably thrilled to have nabbed someone so stupid to spread this propaganda.
Surely there are stronger folks in Texas to run against him if he throws his empty hat into the ring?
I saw him once at a gym. He had a huge bright green bandanna over his forehead and was doing squats in the center of the weights area, calling as much attention to himself as possible, but when anyone looked at him, he got all pissed and hostile, like how dare anyone notice him. I know it’s just a moment in his life and maybe not fair to judge but he seemed like a total jerk…
You go ahead and judge, honey. We’re with you.
haha thanks for the laugh! I’ve always loved your screen name btw too!
Thanks! Gotta pinch your nostrils when you say it, and survey the rabble out over your aristocratic nose.
will work on it! 🙂
Matthew needs to read some James Baldwin.
Matthew needs to read.
(But Baldwin is a perfect choice.)
I will always side-eye white privileged people who marry minorities and have children with them and REFUSE to educate themselves and better their understanding of the world surrounding them.
Just like Matt Damon, he is a white douche who doesn’t realise his latin wife and biracial children are looked down upon people just like him. Assholes.
This. @Cee
Still nope. This is basically the argument to moderation or golden mean fallacy, with a heap of libertarian “I’m not like other girls” thrown in. The sky is not green, dude. There are situations in life where insisting on a middle ground does not make you a better person than everyone else, and is not the most rational, balanced, healthy option.
Those Lincoln commercials went to his head.
He was charming a few weeks ago when he stuck to talking about his kiddos. Now he needs to hush.
I’ll say this: the problem with cancel culture is that it wants to wipe out every bad thing that was ever said or done, and its biggest proponents demand apologies as if they themselves were the injured party.
We should hold people accountable, but a lot of wanting to cancel a person comes from someone finding something that someone said in an interview from like, 1981, likely 20 years before the person bringing it to light was even born. They pluck things out of the past and attempt to recontextualize them in the present, and then demand apologies from the person if they’re still alive. If they don’t deliver, well, fuck them and their fans.
I’m a millennial (32) and liberal, but I’m feeling like a lot of teens and 20 year olds are going hog-wild with the term “problematic” and don’t really understand how to handle conflicting points of view. They just draw hard lines and say, “This is bad, and if you didn’t know about it, you weren’t paying attention and you suck, too.” EVERYONE is problematic, everyone has said or done shit they wouldn’t say today—the difference is in whether you’re willing to change, and cancel culture doesn’t allow for that. It just shuts it down completely.
I agree.
I want someone to ask MC what illiberal means
Oh he knows what illiberal means. He’s saying extreme liberalism is intolerant.
This is what happens when dumba$$ people are told they’re smart or that what they have to say is important because they are white, male, rich and good-looking.
Idiot man shows he doesn’t own a thesauruses
He sounds like an idiot. In regards to cancel culture it’s actually right wing media that exasperates it to put the fear in centrist white people. Example, remember when Adele wore her hair in braids as homage to the nottinghill carnival, all over the daily mail “Adele cancelled” but when I went on twitter there were only like 2 people who were outraged and everyone else was saying ‘this doesn’t bother me etc”. But the daily mail and piers Morgan blew this up to make it look like liberal lefties were cancelling her when no one actually did. I’ve seen many attempts at this, and it’s all to make lefties look like they will rage over any small thing. Yet when that Lord whatever his name is called Kamala Harris “that Indian” and got 11K responses calling him a racist POS, the DM said nothing.
Oh, eff off, Matthew.
Just hearing that Matthew McConaughey and Russell Brand were in a room together (virtually or not) talking about politics makes me pre-exhausted! The egotistical white male privilege is unimaginable.
I liked him better when he did RomComs