On the occasion of Tom Cruise’s birthday on July 3, a user on movies subreddit community, which has over 28 million users, posted a link to Tom Cruise’s life in photos. Soon, a commentator mentioned, “A lot of people don’t know but he is a scientologist.” In response almost every commentator said, everybody knows but nobody cares because it’s not relevant to be brought up on his birthday. Many others said, it does not matter he is my favourite hero.
On the same community a month back when Jeremy Renner’s latest movie announcement was posted somebody cracked a joke mocking his now non-existent app which he shut down due to trolls. The comment was eventually removed after another commentator put up a resistance but on Twitter and on reddit hundreds of comments are made on a daily basis mocking the said app. Renner was a victim of the trolls and imposters who infiltrated the app and harassed users, so he had to shut it down but he is still mocked for launching it in the first place.
Yet, Robert Downey Jr’s drug and gun possession charges are not brought up every time an Avenger or Iron Man movie is discussed or Mark Wahlberg’s prison time for beating up black kids or Mel Gibson’s antisemitism. Despite Will Smith’s shocking and disgraceful act of slapping the Oscar host Chris Rock a random search on Twitter shows that there is no hate for him in public.
So, why do some movie stars become more a target for hate than others?
While it is important to speak up against injustices and an artist’s personal wrongful actions cannot fully be separated from his art but shouldn’t there be some context for public outrage and hate? Issues which are long settled, for which there are no pending complaint or court cases, no victim who is still seeking justice or issues which are not even crime or anything just something you don’t like (like Renner’s app), how relevant is it to bring these up in every discussion? And what do random mention on Twitter or Reddit achieve? If there is a serious issue it should be taken up at proper forum.
The other day a Twitter account started blabbering things about Renner’s sex life and child custody. It is a matter related to his personal life that should be dealt by him and his ex-wife in the court and so it was and duly settled. Renner retained joint-custody of his child. Why do people still talk shit on Twitter about it?
How talking shit about Cruise’s scientology on Reddit makes a difference? If he or his cult is committing crimes, report them. It’s a faith he believes in. Your own religion is no less ridiculous than any another, if your religion teaches you to make fun of other people’s believe, there’s a problem with your religion so laugh at yourself before you laugh at a scientologist. They say it’s not a religion but cult. As if religion and cult are two different things, they are not. As if the self-proclaimed guardians of other religions like the Order of the Churches or the Imams and Maulanas are any less controlling of the community. Whatever we have heard of Scientology is just pure hearsay. There are no eyewitnesses to any crime or wrong doing, no court cases, no investigation, no victim. It’s all sheer propaganda and conspiracy theories. Just because it is spread and lapped up by liberals doesn’t make it any less ridiculous than the right-wing conspiracy theories.
What matters to me is that there are no allegations of Tom Cruise ever cheating on his partners or being abusive towards them. There are no #metoo allegations, no history of drug abuse, no crime record, no public misbehavior, no reports of coming late on the sets and throwing his stardom around. Rather he is the most disciplined actor, most bankable producer, and the greatest icon in Hollywood. He comes from a poor family, raised by an abusive father, no contacts in Hollywood, and he rose to the top by sheer talent and hard work. These are the only things I am concerned with. Scientology will concern me if there was a single real incident in public domain. Otherwise I will not believe in things people say.
Everybody in Hollywood has done some shit. Its history is filled with drug, sex, violence and what not.
Robert Downey Jr was arrested for drug and gun possession in 1996. He was pardoned in 2015 and since then long articles are written about his heroic recovery from drugs. Mark Wahlberg was arrested for racist attacks against black kids in 1986s but he was himself a teenager then. There are many other bigger stars who have done worse things yet somehow, I feel Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner are most often on target on social media.
Few days back trolls on Twitter made dozens of hate tweets for the mere reason that Jeremy Renner’s cover version of the song “The House of The Rising Sun” was included on The Umbrella Academy season 3 soundtrack. People calling it a crime. A song is a crime in their eyes they hate Renner so much. Although, on YouTube there are hundreds of people praising him for the same song.
I have always struggled to express my love for both Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner for these haters. And I was dreading that next in line will be Johnny Depp but strangely he got a lot of public support. Renner or Cruise not so lucky in that dept.
Can we not end this culture of hating someone who has not personally harmed you and there are no victims who is seeking justice against them and no open cases no crime or anything.
This Is My Truth 