Waves of sadness swept through the nation's progressives yesterday when it was revealed that, tragically, Trump voters don't actually hate black people or gay people, don't hurl hurtful epithets, and don't try to hang actors from spindly sidewalk trees in the midst of a polar vortex, while being careful not to bruise their victim's tuna sandwich from Subway.
Rather, it now seems that Smollett staged the entire thing, including sending a terroristic-threat letter filled with white powder, and his oh-so-tearful ABC interview, all in a ploy to get a pay raise on his TV show.
That's right, this wasn't even really about Trump-hating (though Smollett successfully guessed that this would put the media solidly on his side). Rather, it was about getting more money for the already overpaid little mofo, and using any tool - including inciting a race war - to get it.
Let's be clear here. We already know that Smollett took a big, steaming dump on white men in general and Trump-supporters in particular. But he also dropped big, squishy deuces on the legacies of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Matthew Shepard, and every other person who has ever suffered real discrimination because of their race or sexual orientation. Smollett took all of that history and all of that pain and thought, "I can make money with this." If there's a worse racist than Smollett in the country right now, we certainly can't think of who it might be.
Although there are plenty of people in second place: the "news" reporters, tweeting celebs, and politicians who gleefully disregarded all of the immediately glaring flaws in Smollett's preposterous story, and instead ramped up hate and racial division in our country because that's what they love to do, and that's what their political ambitions are built on. Meanwhile, Trump and Trump-supporters just quietly go on with their business of treating other folks equally while building an economy that is demonstrably more favorable for blacks and hispanics than anything dreamed of under Barack Obama.
Smollett's crass scheme was to get more money and bigger parts. We're pretty sure that the money won't be happening, but we rather hope he will be getting those bigger parts, lube free, every time he tries to shower in prison for the next several years.
Of course, he's not off to the hoosegow quite yet. He still needs to complete his contractual commitment to his miserable TV show. Which, we're guessing, won't take long...
"Emmy, here I come!" |