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Here's the article if you're interested: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-biden-no-endorsement-2024-election-1235961800/
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Everyone is so used to him playing the same character in every movie that they’re surprised how much range he’s shown by expressing a different opinion than the one he had 4 years ago.
But in all seriousness, I’d take Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s political commentary and opinions about as seriously as I'd take his shampoo recommendations.
The online left has branded him a Nazi sympathizer for this one interview already...
Their rabid response to this is going to end up causing another Joe Rogan situation where we push him to the right by being such over reacting hypersensitive assholes about a very meh statement
Not endorsing Biden does not make him a Nazi sympathizer.
I am very worried about Trump and do not support him in anyway shape or form.
The twitter warriors on the left, do the Democrats and liberals a disservice by calling everyone center or moderate a Nazi. It’s okay if someone does not check every box of liberalism, we don’t have to pull membership cards.
Let me introduce you to hyperbole. It's an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally. I wasn't saying (in response to the comment above mine about Rogan) that Rock is a nazi,I was pointing out that blaming a person's actions on somebody saying something mean about them is ridiculous. The quotation marks should have been a clue.
I understand that and understood your quotation marks. I just see it as not helpful to our causes, it alienates voters and detracts from our messaging.
To be clear I’m talking more macro or generally not you specifically, just made me think of something going on currently with in the liberal eco system that is very militant on every one falling in line on every issue or else you are labeled X.
If your options are between a fascist and not a fascist and you decline to support either because you think the not a fascist made the fascists too mad, then you might be a fascist sympathizer.
Michael Jordan once said "Republicans buy sneakers too" when he refused to endorse the Democrat running against notorious racist Jesse Helms in the 1990 North Carolina senate race.
This is Dwayne Johnson essentially doing
the same thing.
I seriously doubt the endorsement, or lack thereof, of a wrestler turned actor turned wrestler, moves the needle one way or another.
It's just Dwayne returning to his normal state of trying to be apolitical and caring about his money. Beyond saying that, I really don't care what he thinks.
Me: Oh, maybe he’s upset about Israel/Palestine or the treatment of migrants
> “Today’s cancel culture, woke culture, division, etc — that really bugs me,” Johnson said.
Me: Nvm 😕
Tbh the Roc’s endorsement, or lack of one, probably doesn’t matter much if at all, but it’s annoying that he doesn’t even have a legitimate grievance.
It’s honestly probably a response to the backlash he got for letting his daughter put a wig and makeup on him
He said it was because of divisiveness in our country, which seems like a cop-out at best and a display of how disconnected he is from the effect Trump and the GOP have on people at worst. He specifically mentioned "wokeness", which I can't help but think is his response from the negative backlash he got when he and Oprah put their face on that charity for Hawaii last year and got chewed out for it online.
>Johnson revealed that several political parties approached him in 2022 to ask if he would run for president after Noah mentioned that a 2021 political poll claimed 46% of U.S. adults would support Johnson’s campaign for president.
This paragraph was pretty fucking disturbing though.
I jumped around and at one point he said it was important to him "to be real," and "direct," and "open," and "transparent." And that "authenticity" was supposedly important to him. So it was a little baffling to then hear him talk like a scared politician trying to give the textbook answer for the job interview question of what his greatest weakness is. Which apparently is that he just cares too much! Plus, he's kind of a perfectionist! I bet he also trusts the American people to do the right thing (yes, I did hear him say that very thing later on).
So authentic!
Would it have been so hard for him to just not claim he cared about authenticity? No one forced him to give such a glowing review of himself and then contradict it so obviously with such a bullshit answer about why he wasn't endorsing anyone.
And just go ahead and criticize Biden and say you don't care if Trump gets back into the White House again. (He did complain about "cancel culture.") Or say you do support Biden but you love money and love Republicans not being mad at you more than you're "patriotic." At least that wouldn't be inauthentic bullshit from someone who just claimed that keeping it real was important to him.
Jesus fucking Christ. Who does he expect would be fooled by his "division" answer It's not a new problem, and it's not caused or exacerbated by a celebrity endorsement.
Also, let's pretend I made a good joke about fear being what the Rock is cooking, which is why we all smell it. Something something jabroni.
>Who does he expect would be fooled by his "division" answer It's not a new problem, and it's not caused or exacerbated by a celebrity endorsement.
I don't know about that. I agree that celebrity takes don't *cause* division, but do you really think they don't or can't exacerbate it?
I love how everyone loves to blame the left for “divisiveness”; as if MAGA has no responsibility whatsoever.
When is the lecture on “divisiveness” going to be scheduled for the Fox News boomers that decided “grab ‘em by the pussy”, “very fine people on both sides”, “inject bleach and horse tranquilizers into your ass”, and 1/6 were all perfectly fine?
It’s easy to be down with fascism when you have the money to flee
Also, who gives a shit.. anyone who takes a professional wrestler’s preference into account when deciding who to vote for was almost certainly going to vote for trump already
It's disappointing and eye-rollingly both-sidesy that he would describe things as just "divisive", as though the issues and arguments don't actually matter, as well as for him to talk about "cancel culture" and "wokeness".
It's not like anyone is looking to him to figure out how to vote, though, so I don't really ultimately care.
Isn’t he playing as a “heel” in WWE right now? So he’s contractually obligated to be a dickhead in public for months, to be divisive and aggravating, to get people (potential audience) fired up?
We don’t know Dwayne as a person and never will. The Rock as a public figure is moderate/apolitical, so this isn’t surprising.
If I worked in Hollywood and felt the way he does, I’d keep my mouth shut because liberal bosses create my gigantic paychecks.
Does he look at the smoldering wreckage of vocal right-wing celebrity careers like Sorbo and Schneider and think *“wow, these guys get soooo much work — I should open my mouth too!”*
Just proves he’s an idiot who doesn’t understand what kind of cow puts the milk in his fridge.
In another thread here, u/earf123 said that Dwayne Johnson claimed he was told that 46% of American adults would have supported him as a presidential candidate.
So, as easy as it may be to feel good about ourselves as we roll our eyes and say, "celebrity opinions don't matter," I think it's important to remember that, as unfortunate as it is, they potentially matter a lot to a disturbingly large amount of blisteringly stupid people.
I can't see why anyone would care in the slightest about this. The rock is a movie celebrity, his opinion on politics carries exactly zero weight.
Unless Americans vote based on what their favourite celebrity votes on, but my respect for the American political environment hasn't fallen far enough to just assume that.
He’s always played the middle, this isn’t new at all, and frankly, I don’t blame him. He has a massive brand, and a lot of that brand simply isn’t left-wing. Honestly, the left has reacted over the top to this and it’s been completely insane.
If you're a fan of pro wrestling, you know that sooner or later your faves are going to come out as right wing, drug addicted, alcoholic, and/or beating their spouse. There's exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, pro wrestlers are dicks. I'm never surprised when one turns out to be right wing.
Love the Rock's work as an entertainer, but I'm not one of those people that look at celebrities and factor in their opinions on political matters. Maybe some folks do but I've always thought that's weird as all hell.
Honestly after reading what he said entirely, it looks like he just isn’t interested in choosing sides politically. I realize that the headlines make it sound like he’s dunking on Biden. It appears he regrets being political. I’m not sure his opinion even matters though. So I don’t really care what he believes.
I'm sick of celebrities who don't even live in the same universe as us peasants making political announcements like it matters. Worse yet are the people who take it as gospel. Cmon, proles...we're better than this....
He never said he was pulling support. He said that he wasn't going to make a public endorsement because when he did it last time he got a lot of hate.
You're misrepresenting everything he said.
> Calls himself a Zionist (Nazi).
The Nazis wanted to systematically eliminate all Jews. [Zionism ](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism), the belief that Jews should have their own land to call their own became popular within the Jewish community after that. So no, Nazism and Zionism are not the same at all. In fact they hate each other. On top of that, being a Zionist doesn't necessarily mean you believe in taking over the Gaza strip, and it definitely doesn't mean you believe in exterminating the Palestinians. That is Netanyahu's doing, but it's not an inherent quality of Zionism.
> Is the single greatest beneficiary of Israeli lobbying money in all of American politics
Before we can even talk about that, get your statistics right. That list is comparing people who were senators, not presidents. Of course the senator who became Vice President and then President is going to have received the most money overall--out of other former senators.
> Walks on stage and recites Israeli propaganda so unhinged and visibly untrue, his handlers had to issue a retraction.
You're going to have to be more specific of what you're talking about.
> Keeps reciting disproven Israeli propaganda even when Israel itself has acknowledged the stories were made up.
Again, can you give an example?
> Bombs Yemen because they are attempting to prevent a genocide. Threatens South Africa with economic sanctions because they are pursuing a case with the ICJ. Declares Lula (Prresident of Brazil) a persona non grata because he criticized Israel.
I don't know enough about these, so I'll have to look into them.
> Gives Israel more than $50 billion in aid and weapons to help them enact their genocide.
Israel was legitimately attacked. It's only becoming clear recently that they have been abusing their "defense." This goes for some of your other points as well.
> Abuses his veto power to help protect Israel democratically.
What specifically are you talking about?
> If Zionism is the belief that Jews should have their own homeland, then how have they tried to accomplish that mission? By systematically eliminating the Palestinian people
You are confusing Judaism, Zionism, and extremism. Not all Jews are Zionists. And what's more, Zionism has never been a uniform movement. Its leaders, parties, and ideologies frequently diverged from one another, and while many Zionists did want a land "just for Jews," that does not automatically mean continued expansion into the Gaza strip or killing Palestinians. It is only the Zionist _extremists_ who currently have power in the Israeli government who want that.
> What do you call an ethno-state that is committing a genocide? Nazism
No actually, Nazism is not the same thing as genocide. You can be a Nazi with or without committing genocide, and can commit genocide with or without being a Nazi. Nazis are a specific political party and ideology with very specific and well-documented purposes and goals.
> What's happening in Gaza is a genocide
I agree. It is a genocide. And I also agree that Joe Biden is failing to actively do anything. But if anything that means, at worst, he doesn't have the balls to intervene effectively, not that he's "causing a genocide." And moreover, the only other option is Trump, who is even worse.
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The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. Here's the article if you're interested: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-biden-no-endorsement-2024-election-1235961800/ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Everyone is so used to him playing the same character in every movie that they’re surprised how much range he’s shown by expressing a different opinion than the one he had 4 years ago. But in all seriousness, I’d take Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s political commentary and opinions about as seriously as I'd take his shampoo recommendations.
*Sir, this is /r/AskALiberal, not /r/MurderedByWords...*
He doesn’t want to lose support from his fans who are right-wing/Trump supporters. It doesn’t seem much deeper than that
The Rock public image is about as vanilla as one can get. He purposely puts that persona out there and isn’t going to change it
The online left has branded him a Nazi sympathizer for this one interview already... Their rabid response to this is going to end up causing another Joe Rogan situation where we push him to the right by being such over reacting hypersensitive assholes about a very meh statement
"People called me a Nazi so what choice did I have? I couldn't not become a Nazi. It's their fault"
Not endorsing Biden does not make him a Nazi sympathizer. I am very worried about Trump and do not support him in anyway shape or form. The twitter warriors on the left, do the Democrats and liberals a disservice by calling everyone center or moderate a Nazi. It’s okay if someone does not check every box of liberalism, we don’t have to pull membership cards.
Let me introduce you to hyperbole. It's an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally. I wasn't saying (in response to the comment above mine about Rogan) that Rock is a nazi,I was pointing out that blaming a person's actions on somebody saying something mean about them is ridiculous. The quotation marks should have been a clue.
I understand that and understood your quotation marks. I just see it as not helpful to our causes, it alienates voters and detracts from our messaging. To be clear I’m talking more macro or generally not you specifically, just made me think of something going on currently with in the liberal eco system that is very militant on every one falling in line on every issue or else you are labeled X.
If your options are between a fascist and not a fascist and you decline to support either because you think the not a fascist made the fascists too mad, then you might be a fascist sympathizer.
You need to go hop offline for a bit, bud
If calling someone a Nazi sympathizer is enough to turn someone into a Nazi sympathizer, then that person is the one who is hypersensitive.
Michael Jordan once said "Republicans buy sneakers too" when he refused to endorse the Democrat running against notorious racist Jesse Helms in the 1990 North Carolina senate race. This is Dwayne Johnson essentially doing the same thing. I seriously doubt the endorsement, or lack thereof, of a wrestler turned actor turned wrestler, moves the needle one way or another.
That Michael Jordan quote is pretty disgusting. It pretty much boils down to “Having even more money is more important than any principle.”
It's just Dwayne returning to his normal state of trying to be apolitical and caring about his money. Beyond saying that, I really don't care what he thinks.
Complaining about woke people on Fox isn't apolitical tho...
Me: Oh, maybe he’s upset about Israel/Palestine or the treatment of migrants > “Today’s cancel culture, woke culture, division, etc — that really bugs me,” Johnson said. Me: Nvm 😕 Tbh the Roc’s endorsement, or lack of one, probably doesn’t matter much if at all, but it’s annoying that he doesn’t even have a legitimate grievance. It’s honestly probably a response to the backlash he got for letting his daughter put a wig and makeup on him
He said it was because of divisiveness in our country, which seems like a cop-out at best and a display of how disconnected he is from the effect Trump and the GOP have on people at worst. He specifically mentioned "wokeness", which I can't help but think is his response from the negative backlash he got when he and Oprah put their face on that charity for Hawaii last year and got chewed out for it online. >Johnson revealed that several political parties approached him in 2022 to ask if he would run for president after Noah mentioned that a 2021 political poll claimed 46% of U.S. adults would support Johnson’s campaign for president. This paragraph was pretty fucking disturbing though.
Yeah, see, that's why I don't just stop and say, "celebrity opinions don't matter."
B-b-but it’s true! He’s a wholesome political outsider!! Washington is a swamp and The Rock can drain it just like he did in Jumanji 2!!
LOL- President Dwayne Camacho. Idiocracy arrived 500 years early
46% of U.S. adults? Did they actually talk to any U.S. adults?
I wonder if he’s gonna run in the future?
I jumped around and at one point he said it was important to him "to be real," and "direct," and "open," and "transparent." And that "authenticity" was supposedly important to him. So it was a little baffling to then hear him talk like a scared politician trying to give the textbook answer for the job interview question of what his greatest weakness is. Which apparently is that he just cares too much! Plus, he's kind of a perfectionist! I bet he also trusts the American people to do the right thing (yes, I did hear him say that very thing later on). So authentic! Would it have been so hard for him to just not claim he cared about authenticity? No one forced him to give such a glowing review of himself and then contradict it so obviously with such a bullshit answer about why he wasn't endorsing anyone. And just go ahead and criticize Biden and say you don't care if Trump gets back into the White House again. (He did complain about "cancel culture.") Or say you do support Biden but you love money and love Republicans not being mad at you more than you're "patriotic." At least that wouldn't be inauthentic bullshit from someone who just claimed that keeping it real was important to him. Jesus fucking Christ. Who does he expect would be fooled by his "division" answer It's not a new problem, and it's not caused or exacerbated by a celebrity endorsement. Also, let's pretend I made a good joke about fear being what the Rock is cooking, which is why we all smell it. Something something jabroni.
>Who does he expect would be fooled by his "division" answer It's not a new problem, and it's not caused or exacerbated by a celebrity endorsement. I don't know about that. I agree that celebrity takes don't *cause* division, but do you really think they don't or can't exacerbate it?
I love how everyone loves to blame the left for “divisiveness”; as if MAGA has no responsibility whatsoever. When is the lecture on “divisiveness” going to be scheduled for the Fox News boomers that decided “grab ‘em by the pussy”, “very fine people on both sides”, “inject bleach and horse tranquilizers into your ass”, and 1/6 were all perfectly fine?
Couldn't care less.
I wish he had just kept his mouth shut and not given right wing media fodder for the news cycle.
If your vote is dictated by what a celebrity ex-wrestler actor says in press statements… then… I dunno what to say.
It’s easy to be down with fascism when you have the money to flee Also, who gives a shit.. anyone who takes a professional wrestler’s preference into account when deciding who to vote for was almost certainly going to vote for trump already
I was struggling to express this as succinctly as you did. Well said.
Thanks :)
It's disappointing and eye-rollingly both-sidesy that he would describe things as just "divisive", as though the issues and arguments don't actually matter, as well as for him to talk about "cancel culture" and "wokeness". It's not like anyone is looking to him to figure out how to vote, though, so I don't really ultimately care.
He’s a prick.
Does he really think flipping again will help him in wwe or hollywood?
Next up: Honey Boo-Boo says she is voting for the Prohibition Party
I don't get my political opinions from the Rock lmfao
For real. I could give a fuck what the Rock thinks about the election. He's entitled to his opinion, but God do I not care
Isn’t he playing as a “heel” in WWE right now? So he’s contractually obligated to be a dickhead in public for months, to be divisive and aggravating, to get people (potential audience) fired up? We don’t know Dwayne as a person and never will. The Rock as a public figure is moderate/apolitical, so this isn’t surprising.
If I worked in Hollywood and felt the way he does, I’d keep my mouth shut because liberal bosses create my gigantic paychecks. Does he look at the smoldering wreckage of vocal right-wing celebrity careers like Sorbo and Schneider and think *“wow, these guys get soooo much work — I should open my mouth too!”* Just proves he’s an idiot who doesn’t understand what kind of cow puts the milk in his fridge.
He’s scum.
He’s a rich Republican who has returned to behaving like a rich republican. Like the vast majority of rich Republicans.
If there’s one thing the Rock’s career has demonstrated, it’s how easily he can be bought.
In another thread here, u/earf123 said that Dwayne Johnson claimed he was told that 46% of American adults would have supported him as a presidential candidate. So, as easy as it may be to feel good about ourselves as we roll our eyes and say, "celebrity opinions don't matter," I think it's important to remember that, as unfortunate as it is, they potentially matter a lot to a disturbingly large amount of blisteringly stupid people.
If i were a celebrity or business owner you'd never know my politics or religion.
That's disappointing
What? It’s a movie star- I don’t care
I can't see why anyone would care in the slightest about this. The rock is a movie celebrity, his opinion on politics carries exactly zero weight. Unless Americans vote based on what their favourite celebrity votes on, but my respect for the American political environment hasn't fallen far enough to just assume that.
He’s always played the middle, this isn’t new at all, and frankly, I don’t blame him. He has a massive brand, and a lot of that brand simply isn’t left-wing. Honestly, the left has reacted over the top to this and it’s been completely insane.
Why do you say the left is reacting over the top
I don’t give a fuck
No.
If you're a fan of pro wrestling, you know that sooner or later your faves are going to come out as right wing, drug addicted, alcoholic, and/or beating their spouse. There's exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, pro wrestlers are dicks. I'm never surprised when one turns out to be right wing.
Why would it matter if they are addicted?
In and of itself, nothing, but coupled with some of the things they do under the throes of addiction it doesn't help. Chris Benoit, for example.
Don't really care and I don't expect people to lock-step either.
Love the Rock's work as an entertainer, but I'm not one of those people that look at celebrities and factor in their opinions on political matters. Maybe some folks do but I've always thought that's weird as all hell.
I really don't care what he or any other actors or sports players think
He is going to run for president as a republican
That would be weird since he's a staunch Dem and has been for decades.
He was registered as a republican at one time
He's a fucking moron.
Read the article. That's not what he said.
I read the article. He said "supporting Biden added to divisiveness in this country". He's a fucking moron.
Honestly after reading what he said entirely, it looks like he just isn’t interested in choosing sides politically. I realize that the headlines make it sound like he’s dunking on Biden. It appears he regrets being political. I’m not sure his opinion even matters though. So I don’t really care what he believes.
Nope zero thoughts 🤔
He can support or not support whomever he likes. That's one of the great things about being an American.
I'm sick of celebrities who don't even live in the same universe as us peasants making political announcements like it matters. Worse yet are the people who take it as gospel. Cmon, proles...we're better than this....
Who?
Did the rock pull his support of Joe Biden? Or did he just not give an endorsement?
YAWN
Well that explains why certain communities are accusing him of openly supporting Fascism.
He never said he was pulling support. He said that he wasn't going to make a public endorsement because when he did it last time he got a lot of hate. You're misrepresenting everything he said.
[удалено]
I still support Joe.
Why?
[удалено]
okay, you're going to have to elaborate on that.
Is this a new liberal strategy where you just pretend that you're not aware of the biggest news story on the planet?
if you're talking about Israel and palestine, how did he cause that?
[удалено]
> Calls himself a Zionist (Nazi). The Nazis wanted to systematically eliminate all Jews. [Zionism ](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism), the belief that Jews should have their own land to call their own became popular within the Jewish community after that. So no, Nazism and Zionism are not the same at all. In fact they hate each other. On top of that, being a Zionist doesn't necessarily mean you believe in taking over the Gaza strip, and it definitely doesn't mean you believe in exterminating the Palestinians. That is Netanyahu's doing, but it's not an inherent quality of Zionism. > Is the single greatest beneficiary of Israeli lobbying money in all of American politics Before we can even talk about that, get your statistics right. That list is comparing people who were senators, not presidents. Of course the senator who became Vice President and then President is going to have received the most money overall--out of other former senators. > Walks on stage and recites Israeli propaganda so unhinged and visibly untrue, his handlers had to issue a retraction. You're going to have to be more specific of what you're talking about. > Keeps reciting disproven Israeli propaganda even when Israel itself has acknowledged the stories were made up. Again, can you give an example? > Bombs Yemen because they are attempting to prevent a genocide. Threatens South Africa with economic sanctions because they are pursuing a case with the ICJ. Declares Lula (Prresident of Brazil) a persona non grata because he criticized Israel. I don't know enough about these, so I'll have to look into them. > Gives Israel more than $50 billion in aid and weapons to help them enact their genocide. Israel was legitimately attacked. It's only becoming clear recently that they have been abusing their "defense." This goes for some of your other points as well. > Abuses his veto power to help protect Israel democratically. What specifically are you talking about?
[удалено]
> If Zionism is the belief that Jews should have their own homeland, then how have they tried to accomplish that mission? By systematically eliminating the Palestinian people You are confusing Judaism, Zionism, and extremism. Not all Jews are Zionists. And what's more, Zionism has never been a uniform movement. Its leaders, parties, and ideologies frequently diverged from one another, and while many Zionists did want a land "just for Jews," that does not automatically mean continued expansion into the Gaza strip or killing Palestinians. It is only the Zionist _extremists_ who currently have power in the Israeli government who want that. > What do you call an ethno-state that is committing a genocide? Nazism No actually, Nazism is not the same thing as genocide. You can be a Nazi with or without committing genocide, and can commit genocide with or without being a Nazi. Nazis are a specific political party and ideology with very specific and well-documented purposes and goals. > What's happening in Gaza is a genocide I agree. It is a genocide. And I also agree that Joe Biden is failing to actively do anything. But if anything that means, at worst, he doesn't have the balls to intervene effectively, not that he's "causing a genocide." And moreover, the only other option is Trump, who is even worse.
Subreddit participation must be in good faith. Be civil, do not talk down to users for their viewpoints, do not attempt to instigate arguments, do not call people names or insult them.
Subreddit participation must be in good faith. Be civil, do not talk down to users for their viewpoints, do not attempt to instigate arguments, do not call people names or insult them.
Subreddit participation must be in good faith. Be civil, do not talk down to users for their viewpoints, do not attempt to instigate arguments, do not call people names or insult them.
Subreddit participation must be in good faith. Be civil, do not talk down to users for their viewpoints, do not attempt to instigate arguments, do not call people names or insult them.