No One Has Any Patience for Susan Sarandon’s Fair-Weather Protest Hypocrisy

Oh hey, it’s been a while since we’ve talked about Susan Sarandon. It’s been some time since she credited the Trump presidency for giving us “a populace that is awake” (as if much of the populace didn’t need a racist, xenophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic administration to be “awake”), since she praised the “energized” revolution brought on by the complicit Jill Stein voters like herself, or since she seriously didn’t recognize the hypocrisy in giving interviews about the merits of socialism and voting via one’s conscience (read: that “identity politics” thing rich white people don’t seem to think applies to them) from elite, lush, private members-only Manhattan clubs.

It’s been a while since all those things happened, but most of us haven’t forgotten. Most haven’t forgotten the high-profile celebrities who used their platform to dissuade people from casting their votes for Hillary Clinton in the general election–which is very different from throwing their support behind Bernie in the primaries. When something horrific happens like the Supreme Court upholding Trump’s racist, xenophobic, anti-Islamic travel ban, or the retirement of a Supreme Court justice that will inevitably result in only another justice eager to uphold similar actions, you know who we don’t want to see voicing their opposition? People like Susan fucking Sarandon.

Susan Sarandon didn’t cause Trump’s election. But she was a prominent, high-profile voice fighting his opposition. Her concerns about Hillary Clinton (namely her lack of vocal opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline) were valid, but Sarandon placed her objections to specific aspects of Clinton’s campaign above so much else, so many issues we’re now fighting. From Trump’s immigration policies to his ability to change the ideology of the Supreme Court in a way that severely jeopardizes the preservation of Roe v. Wade, none of which are new fears–they were all visible on the election trail. So sure, Susan Sarandon is allowed to protest. But we are all allowed to call her a hypocritical asshole making use of her privilege to decide which issues she feels like protesting and when.

In short:

(image: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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