Earlier this week, I wrote about actress and director Justine Bateman's hilarious series of satirical tweets and threads taking apart the leftist meltdowns on TikTok with the hashtag #SocialMediaVideoCritique. Since that time, Bateman has also added a new hashtag, #SocialMediaPostCritique, where she blasts the leftists who were raging at her for her brilliant satire (you should definitely check that one out for some great laughs).
At the time I wrote the article, I wondered what had changed for Bateman, who was very critical of pretty much anything Republican or Trump-related during Donald Trump's first term as president.
Well, I asked the question. And Bateman delivered the answer. Yesterday, she briefly put down her satire pen and picked up her sincere pen for an epic thread about exactly what may have pushed her to the right.
Her explanation will not shock you. Bateman didn't really change. The left in America did.
Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years.
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
It should come as no surprise that freedom of speech was at the heart of Bateman's argument. Everyone is sick and tired of 'walking on eggshells' around the perpetually offended left, who will cancel you for disagreeing with them.
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And Bateman lives in Los Angeles (and works in the film industry), so I'm betting she felt this more deeply than people who live in more purple or red areas of the country.
I have found the last four years to be an almost intolerable period. A very un-American period in that any questioning, any opinions, any likes or dislikes were held up to a very limited list of “permitted positions” in order to assess acceptability. 2/
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
Intolerable and un-American.
That slaps. That slaps hard.
I’ve never in my life known that to be an American environment. It’s an environment I have encountered in smaller groupings (a church, a private club,a clique), but never before as a national blanket. It has been suffocating. Common sense was discarded, intellectual discussion 3/
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
The left and the right have always been at odds and always will be. They simply have two different visions for America. But it was only recently -- and particularly in the last four years -- that common sense went right out the window.
And while Bateman is very careful not to explicitly name which end of the political spectrum is responsible for that, it becomes very clear who she is talking about as her thread continues.
… was demonized. Only “permitted position” behavior and speech was “allowed.” Complete intolerance became almost a religion and one’s professional and social life was threatened almost constantly. Those that spoke otherwise were ruined as a warning to others.Their destruction 4/
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
Speak against the 'permitted position' and you will be ruined.
Raise your hand if that sounds familiar with what Hollywood does (or tries to do) to anyone who isn't a hardcore leftist.
… was displayed in the “town square” of social media for all to see. This was the #MeMeMeMeToo moment, where every effort was made to divert attention to oneself, instead of recognizing how one contributes to the whole.This was the era of trying to exercise control over those 5/
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
… who did not want to follow the crowd and has their own ideas about what they needed to do. This dampened our culture and innovation, bringing people to even think that generative #AI, a regurgitation of the past, was actually our cultural future. /6
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
#MeMeMeMeToo. This is a brilliant hashtag. At its heart, the effort to silence other opinions is the ultimate narcissism. It is the certainty that 'MY' opinion is the only one that is valid, so only the people who 'affirm' that opinion are allowed. Everyone else must be shut down.
As Bateman correctly notes here, that is the death of creativity and innovation. We are certain that Elon Musk would agree with her here.
When you starve a society of those called to be independent thinkers and cultural and intellectual innovators, you rob that society of any forward movement. Those that tried to impose that control maintained a kind of “hall monitor” position by threatening others with damning 7/
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
…labels like “Sexist,” “racist,” “homophobic,” etc, when the free-thinking and questioning was nothing of the sort. However, the mob mentality that followed caused these social convictions when there was often no evidence to support them. (See Charles McKay’s 1841 book, 8/
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
I have heard all of the slurs and name-calling. I have been on the receiving end of most of them, as has everyone else at Twitchy and everyone who reads Twitchy, I am sure. As Bateman notes, none of them are ever based in evidence. They are simply efforts to silence conservative or independent thought.
And when the mob does that, they can wield a lot of power.
Or, at least, they used to be able to wield a lot of power.
“Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds” 9/https://t.co/DGAyyX2bwa
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
The book Bateman cites here is a three-volume 19th-century exploration of mob mentality, from alchemy to the Salem witch trials.
Fast forward to the 21st century. With the gender cult craze and the COVID pandemic, another term entered into common usage to explain this phenomenon: 'mass formation psychosis.'
Bateman's thread reveals how this impacted her when you consider the effects of mass formation psychosis on its targets: perpetual, free-floating anxiety that can't be attached to a single focus point, overwhelming stress, a sense that nothing is real, and all of it being directed by a charismatic figure. In 1930s Germany, that was Adolph Hitler, but in current-day America, it is not a single person (no matter how often people shout 'Trump is Hitler!'), but it is the media.
All speaking with one voice. All designed to keep people afraid and divided. All designed to silence people who may dissent.
Strikes a chord over the past four years, doesn't it? Given that, who can be surprised that Bateman is where she is now, philosophically?
Bateman concludes her thread with a simple explanation of who she is today. Not a 'MAGAdonian,' certainly not a member of the unhinged left, but just one of millions who believe in free speech and common sense.
I am neither one extreme or the other, but am one of the millions of people who believe in common sense, and that everyone should be free to live their lives however they want, unless that freedom interferes with someone else’s freedom to live their own life.
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) November 8, 2024
That’s it. 10/fin
Bateman is on the early side of Generation X. This is who Gen X has always been. We just wanted to be left alone. But they wouldn't let that happen. So we became engaged, we became much more vocal, we decided enough was enough.
And oh, by the way, we just helped elect Donald Trump more than any other age group.
While Bateman is not a huge Trump supporter, her thread shows her immense gratitude for the results of the election.
As Bateman stated, she is not alone. There are millions like her.
I see you.
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) November 8, 2024
Same. Feels like a long war just ended and I’m finally home
— Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) November 8, 2024
Does feel nice, not gonna lie.
— Lady Demosthenes (@LadyDemosthenes) November 8, 2024
The air seems cleaner and the sun a little brighter.... .
— Mike Christensen (@Mik3Christensen) November 8, 2024
It is truly refreshing. I feel freer already, and optimistic about my child's future for the first time.
— le Sour Patch Lyds (@sourpatchlyds) November 8, 2024
There were literally thousands of replies just like the tweets above. THOUSANDS.
Like Bridget Phetasy, like Joe Rogan, like Bari Weiss, like Elon Musk, and like so many others, Bateman certainly never considered herself a conservative. And she probably never will. That's perfectly OK.
But it seems clear that she recognizes conservatives are where free speech and common sense live now.
Welcome to the club, Justine Bateman. You don't have to walk on eggshells around us.
Also, we have cookies.
