Meryl Streep’s Trump-bashing acceptance speech at the Golden Globes is a perfect example of the elitist attitude that inspired a reactionary Trump presidency.  Like all good liberals, she showcased her detachment from reality, claiming that the entertainment industry is nothing without “outsiders and foreigners” and that journalists depend on Hollywood to “safeguard the truth.”  But the crux of her diatribe focused on calling out Donald Trump for purportedly making fun of a disabled reporter during the presidential campaign.  That disrespect, Streep said, is the reason Hollywood has received so much criticism following the presidential election.  “Disrespect invites disrespect,” the actress pontificated, and she’s right – just not in the way she thinks.

Streep’s circular reasoning about disrespect is the pretentious equivalent of a guilty toddler protesting, “But he started it!”  The problem is that Trump didn’t start it.  He was elected despite his verbal diarrhea because the public is largely tired of being disrespected by Hollywood and the media.  The president-elect’s constituents are used to Hollywood belittling right-wing figures for everything but their stances on the issues.  If you want to talk about who started the disrespect, Meryl, let’s go ahead and discuss some examples of your industry disrespecting the right.

The entertainment industry disrespects our intelligence.  Think about all the movies and TV shows you’ve seen in which the antagonist is a rich white guy or an evil corporation.  Now, google how much money rich white guys and evil corporations raked in from those productions.  Michael Moore is a prime example.  He rails against capitalism but has collected a cool $50 million through his business ventures.  Then there’s the progressive agenda lies that Hollywood thinks it can fool us with.  People like Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore lecture us about the apocalypse once known as global warming and then waste fossil fuel on flying private jets and heating massive mansions.  Many women in the industry – including Streep – complain about the mythical gender pay gap, but take a look at the highest-paid celebrities this year and you’ll see a woman at the top.  Taylor Swift earned $170 million, which is $75 million more than any single man on the list.  Meryl Streep and her coterie have long been feeding us lies and hypocrisy, sure that we are too stupid to see the truth.  Any surprise they express at the backlash is pure hubris.

The entertainment industry disrespects our leaders.  George W. Bush is the most made fun of president in history.  Turn on a standup special from the early 2000s and find bit after hackneyed bit jeering at Bush’s accent and manner of speaking.  Second only to Bush is Sarah Palin.  Bill Maher called the Alaskan governor an especially misogynistic scatological slur on his HBO show.  Rapper Azealia Banks tweeted that Palin should be raped and have her head shaved by black men.  

But by far the most fitting example of lefties in entertainment attacking our leaders, considering Streep’s distress over Trump supposedly mocking a handicapped reporter, is a potential movie about Ronald Reagan.  Earlier this year, one of the hottest scripts in Hollywood was a story built around lampooning Reagan’s dementia.  An industry that takes such a script seriously has no place criticizing what Trump allegedly did.  But that logic won’t stop them.  Donald Trump was late-night show fodder for the entire presidential campaign, including John Oliver pillorying the history of the Trump family name, and it’s only going to get worse after the real estate mogul’s imminent inauguration.

The entertainment industry disrespects our sports.  Once upon a time, athletics were a venue in which we could come together and put aside our political and social differences.  Now, the sporting world is polluted with leftist talking points.  ESPN prioritizes sociopolitical issues over athletics to a sickening extent.  They over-cover Colin Kaepernick’s childish National Anthem protest; they obsess over every mention of race, gender, or sexual orientation.  The network is doing its best to fuel a race war, through programs like His and Hers, whose co-host Michael Smith once bashed Seattle Seahawks defensive back Michael Sherman for pointing out that the Black Lives Matter movement should acknowledge black-on-black crime.  

ESPN even joined the new reverse segregation movement, launching The Undefeated, a blog that claims to be “the premier platform for exploring the intersections of race, sports and culture.”  It seems a bit redundant to me.  Politicizing sports has resulted in fans losing respect for the sports media.  ESPN is bleeding subscribers, and the NFL has experienced major dips in ratings.  Yes, Meryl Streep is right – disrespect does invite disrespect.

Streep is already experiencing the truth of her words.  She hypocritically took a snobbish jab at football and mixed martial arts in her speech, because those base activities are “not the arts.”  In response, UFC president Dana White called Streep an “uppity, 80-year-old lady.”  White is dead on – Streep and so many others in her position are outrageously disconnected from the real world.  They isolate themselves in esoteric culture and class, completely ignoring the common citizen, who is more likely to be a fan of sports than “the arts.”  This year, those citizens reacted by ignoring Hollywood’s pompous warnings and electing Trump. 

If Meryl Streep is worried about being disrespected, she should heed the converse of her own statement: respect invites respect.

Aaron Case is an American expat living in Taiwan, where he co-founded Island Nation Translation.