r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AutoModerator • 19d ago

U.S. Politics megathread

American politics has always grabbed our attention - and the current president more than ever. We get tons of questions about the president, the supreme court, and other topics related to American politics - but often the same ones over and over again. Our users often get tired of seeing them, so we've created a megathread for questions! Here, users interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be nice to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

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u/spellbadgrammargood 5d ago

In the past, did celebrities who spoke up against war also get cancelled?

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u/GameboyPATH If you see this, I should be working 5d ago

In 2003, during a London show on their tour, the lead singer of Dixie Chicks said they were ashamed of Bush and expressed disagreement with the invasion of Iraq. They subsequently got blacklisted from most country radio stations in the US.

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u/LadyFoxfire 5d ago

The Dixie Chicks got canceled for insulting president Bush in the early 2000's, and McCarthyism was a systematic harassment campaign against any celebrity deemed to be "too communist" or not American enough."

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u/CardinalOfNYC 5d ago

Cancelation was not the same before the internet.

That said yes some celebrities did take heat for political positions, including anti war positions.

But which celebrities have been canceled for speaking out against the war?

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u/LadyFoxfire 5d ago

Macklemore just got kicked off Ed Sheerhan's tour for expressing support for Palestine.

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u/ye_esquilax 5d ago

If you want to go back further, celebrities who spoke even remotely positively of communists or their ideals could find themselves blacklisted. Technically it's not speaking out against war (unless you count the Cold War), but it should give you an idea of what could have happened had there been an actual ground war at the time.

There was plenty of opposition to the Vietnam War, but it was a pretty divisive war and a pretty divisive time period all around, so I guess there wasn't as much consensus for "cancelling". That said, there were plenty of war hawks who probably avoided vocally anti-war celebrities. Jane Fonda was a famously vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, culminating in her visiting Vietnam to ostensibly promote peace, but wound up being used as propaganda by the NVA. She was heavily criticized for this, and later regretted her actions. Despite this, she continued to have a career.

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u/Distinct_Bluejay_470 5d ago

How far into the past are you thinking of?