Nothing seems to get conservatives' goats quite like celebrities having political opinions—well, liberal and leftist celebrities, anyway.
They seem to love it when weird right-wing celebs like Kevin Sorbo get on the internet and say bizarre, usually counterfactual nonsense, or when JK Rowling does her darnedest to make her legacy not about Harry Potter but about her weird obsession with trans people.
But a liberal celeb having a political opinion?! Gasp! That won't do! And Hollywood icon Sarah Jessica Parker is over it.
During a recent visit to Nicolle Wallace's podcast The Best People, Parker had some choice words for conservatives who love to tell people like her to "shut up and act."
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Parker told Wallace that she finds that attitude hypocritical.
“They seem to want everyone who disagrees to shut up. It’s the weirdest thing — but not their side."
"It’s so off-kilter, like who can talk and who can’t? Who’s told to shut up and who isn’t? I’m just a citizen ... [but] someone will say to me, ‘Shut up and act.’”
Parker also hit back at people on the left who think she doesn't talk about politics enough. She explained to Wallace that she doesn't find social media to be a particularly productive place to discuss political issues.
She explained:
“They’ll say, ‘Be vocal. Be vocal.’ And I am vocal."
"I’m not interested in quick little snippets when it’s dealing with conflict or even election sometimes."
"I really was so thoughtful about how I wanted to talk about the election because I think it turns into a distraction from a campaign. It turns into fodder. It’s misunderstood.”
She went on to express how dismayed she feels that our political discourse has devolved to anger, insults and online fighting in the social media era.
"There was a kind of civility, there was a kind of elegance to our differences [before social media]."
"Shut up and act" is a perfect of example of what Parker explained as a loss of respect for both each other and for the offices of government that have been inflamed by social media.
Takes like that are often controversial, especially among young people. But the data, which has been extensively studied, is clear that social media has greatly exacerbated our political divisions and been leveraged by political parties and foreign adversaries specifically for that purpose.
The response to Parker's comments on social media basically just proved her point, with many conservatives insulting her.
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But the majority seemed to agree with Parker, and applauded her take.
Parker ended her comments by urging people to be more involved in politics beyond social media, whether they're a celebrity or not, telling Wallace, "I think we can be a lot more productive sometimes when we’re not doing that."
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