Progressive Activist Tries to 'Cancel' Clint Eastwood for 50-Year-Old Joke: He Fails
Leftist Rafael Shimunov's attempt at canceling a legend fails misserably
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When a progressive activist tried to "cancel" Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood by raking up a 50-year-old joke, the leftist punk failed miserably.
Earlier this week, the iconic 91-year-old actor and director was targetted by Rafael Shimunov, who called on social media followers to rally against Eastwood because he "mocked" Native Americans 48 years ago.
The left-wing activist called out Eastwood for a joke he uttered at the 1973 Academy Awards while he was presenting at the ceremony.
Shimunov tried cashing in his cancel culture chips by rewinding the tape and letting all his 50,000-plus Twitter followers know that Eastwood "mocked" Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather at the gala event.
During the awards, actor Marlon Brando made headlines by refusing to show up to accept his Best Actor Oscar for his work in "The Godfather."
Instead, Brando had Littlefeather speak out in his place regarding treatment of Native Americans in Hollywood.
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Littlefeather told the crowd that Brando "very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.
"And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry."
With that, the audience members began to murmur before a number of them booed while others clapped.
"Excuse me," Littlefeather told the crowd before it quieted down and she continued.
"And on television, in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee," she added.
"I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will, in the future — our hearts and our understandings — will meet with love and generosity.
"Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando."
The cameras soon turned to Eastwood — known at the time for his roles in the "Dirty Harry" movies as well as numerous westerns such as "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" — so he could present the award.
And he made a joke.
"I don't know if I should present this award, on behalf of all the cowboys shot in all the John Ford Westerns over the years," Eastwood said to mild chuckles.
1973: Native American actor Sacheen Littlefeather boo'd (and cheered) by Hollywood at the Oscars before being mocked by Clint Eastwood and almost physically assaulted by John Wayne simply for asking that Indigenous people not to be dehumanized in film.pic.twitter.com/BgOiuBq4hR
— raf (@rafaelshimunov) October 11, 2021
While Twitter is often the perfect platform for leftists to trigger a "cancel" canpaign, Shimunov appeared to have pushed his luck with his attack on Eastwood.
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As you might expect there were a fair number of commenters who agreed with Shimunov's sentiments.
However, many others found it petty and ridiculous that he went back nearly 50 years to make a case against Eastwood:
- "Y'all are digging this up again?" one commenter said. "It is pretty obvious at this point that you are in perpetual need of something to get offended by and virtue signal how much better you supposed[ly] are than everyone else. Meanwhile, normal people collectively yawn."
- "You think you're doing something important by 'exposing' A FAMOUS incident from 48 years ago (it was before you were born so I'll give you a pass on not knowing about until today) but I promise you you're not going to cancel Clint Eastwood," another user said with a laughing emoji. "He's 91 and doesn't have Twitter."
- "This was 48 years ago. Are people just looking for anyone & anything to tear down?" another commenter asked. "I was alive then & knew about this & somehow I've managed to live a wonderful life since. I consider 'Unforgiven' one of the best westerns. Please, people, pick your battles. This is a molehill."
- "Rafael, your little coup against Eastwood failed," another user declared. "What a life, the guy make big movies in Hollywood for [a] living, you... spend your day on Twitter and Google finding things from 48 yrs ago to bring hate on today's impressionable youth, and that makes you feel good...wow..."
- "What is wrong with you? STOP trying to ruin people because of misdeeds or poor judgement from 40 years ago," another commenter asserted. "Babe Ruth smoked BTW, and he helped orphaned kids like himself. Do we ruin him because he was a poor role model? So cowardly, just unbelievable."
Given the degree to which Eastwood is revered and lauded by left-wing Hollywood — and that actors, producers, screenwriters, and movie studios have been jumping at the chance to work with him for the last 30 years since he's been on the director's chair — it seems unlikely that woke power brokers in Tinseltown are going to light their torches and go after Eastwood any time soon.
Shimunov could have saved himself a lot of embarrassment in this instance by actually watching some of Eastwood's movies and taking Harry Callahan's advice:
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'
"Well, do you, punk?"
