If it weren’t for a Chris Rock joke, Will Smith’s life would be perfect, and he’d be a happy pacifist.
At least that’s what Smith and his apologists would like us to believe.
I’ve thought about the assault since it happened, and I’ve had a number of observations about it, and here they are:
In slapping Chris Rock in front of the world, over a tepid joke at his wife’s expense, Will Smith brought the spotlight onto him and his wife, and made it even more widely known that he allows his wife to sleep with other men, and that she publicly discusses, it and even parades in public with her lovers. So the thing that really enrages him about his life, the thing that was really behind his profane and violent outburst at the Oscars, is now more known than it’s ever been. So now Will Smith must be slapping the one person he should have slapped in the first place, himself.
As for the guys defending Will Smith’s alleged “defense” of his wife’s “honor” by slapping Chris Rock over a joke at her expense, I would ask if they and their significant other have an open relationship, and does she publicly discuss her affairs? Because that kind of self-inflicted humiliation can lead weak man to descend into violence at the drop of a joke, and get the support of other weak men.
That kind of self-inflicted and ongoing humiliation needs to be dealt with, something Smith clearly hasn’t done, and so he’s made himself believe that, because of his triple privilege—leftist privilege/black privilege/celebrity privilege—that he’s entitled to initiate force against others and get away with it. And the Hollywood cowards all around him do nothing but encourage him to do just that, and we saw some of them console him after he assaulted Chris Rock, instead of consoling Chris Rock, a victim who didn’t cry like his assaulter did. So a criminal who should be in jail is home free, with the support of his Hollywood community, whose collective cowardice gave him a standing ovation for winning an Oscar after he ruined the entire evening for everyone by assaulting a presenter. But despite the fact that Chris Rock chose to not press charges, as he was given the opportunity to do so from police who were at the event, Smith still criminally assaulted someone, and violated California law. He shouldn’t be able to walk away from this, but considering the wide support for a racist movement like BLM —which the once mild-mannered Smith has fully embraced, fancying himself to be like Malcolm X—he just might.
And then I hear talk of how Will Smith’s slap shows that “masculinity is back”. What a sick, twisted idea of the meaning of masculinity. Emotional fragility is not masculine. Sucker-slapping another man is not masculine. Letting your wife sleep with other men is not masculine. A masculine man would have simply taken the joke, just like Chris Rock took the slap. And a masculine man wouldn’t be blubbering after winning an Oscar, and burping out false platitudes about love and protecting people, literally right after acting out rage and violence. Will Smith is an extremely fragile person who needs professional help to deal with his problems. He’s not someone to celebrate.
As for the popular idea that this was a “stunt”; why the hell would Chris Rock agree to being smacked in front of the world? And why the hell would the Academy sign off on it?
Consider this scenario:
Academy: “Hey, Chris, we want you to get slapped by Will so we can increase our ratings.”
Chris Rock: “Why would I do that? I have no stake in your ratings. What’s in it for me?”
Academy: “Nothing, but I’m sure others can figure that out after the fact.”
Chris Rock: “Okay! I’ll Do It!”
I understand that people are so used to things being faked these days, from all around us in every way, but this is not one of those cases. People are faking themselves out about it to believe it’s fake. If anything, the only stunt-like thing about the slap is that Will Smith, being an actor who lives to play pretend, has likely rehearsed this scene in his weak mind for a while, and acted it out whenever the hell he felt like it, knowing he’d likely get away with it, as he strutted with a grin on his way back to his seat after his assault.
And for those who’ve made themselves believe that Smith was actually enraged at the joke: He was shown laughing right alongside everyone else who was laughing. And then, off camera, I can imagine that his humorless wife quietly told him that he had better slap Rock over his bald joke about her or she’ll slap him in front of everyone.
And this wasn’t simply an isolated attack, but something that’s been brewing regarding comedians and truth-tellers in our culture, where they’re physically attacked over words, as if in justified retaliation against them. Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock for exercising his free speech, and then Smith sat back down, consequence-free. Comedians had better be prepared for copycats, more than ever. As one Ross Noble tweeted, “…You are not permitted to get up on stage and hit a comedian unless you are at least Oscar nominated.” Funny, and damning.
And based on what I’ve been reading online, I wrote out these observations on social media:
“Making fun of someone’s wife crosses the line.”
“How about assaulting someone?”
And
Are all of Jada Pinkett’s lovers going to slap Chris Rock?
And then there’s the race issue here, with it being just the latest example of the epidemic of black on black crime, which is rarely broached in polite society, or even by so-called brave pundits, but it spilled over from the street to what is supposed to be the most glamorous stage of all. Those who can’t bring themselves to rightfully condemn Will Smith, no matter what race they are, are the real white supremacists, because they clearly expect nothing of blacks and everything of whites. And yes, if Tom Cruise or any other white move star of Smith’s caliber had done what Smith had done, he’d be in jail over it. We all know that, but that’s only being discussed underground, where the truth is now relegated to.
And not only leftists are in support of Smith’s unsupportable actions, but some conservatives are as well, with Steve Deace tweeting, “Most biblical moment at the Oscars in recent memory. Will Smith pimp-slaps a punk for dissing his wife…” For a religious conservative like Deace to be so taken by the moment that he overlooks the fact that Smith is dissing himself and his marriage by allowing his wife to sleep with others, and make a public show of it, tells you that emotionalism is run amok, left and right.
And then there’s the aspect of cancel culture in real time that Jason Whitlock discussed on his show, Fearless, that hit home the fact that Will Smith shut Chris Rock up by smacking him, and further shut him up by cursing him out to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth, to which Rock agreed. And for a big mouth like Chris Rock to be silent since then says a lot.
And right after the Academy condoned Smith’s violence, it tweeted that it doesn’t condone violence. Here’s how their tweet should have looked:
“The Academy does not condone violence of any form.”
And then I see that Will Smith’s son, or daughter, as he’s “gender fluid”, Jaden Smith, tweeted about his father’s assault, “And That’s How We Do It”. Since when is that how the Smith clan does it, as I don’t recall this happening any other time with Will Smith. Unless Jaden invertedly revealed his family’s usual way of dealing with things, through violence.
And then I hear Will Smith apologists asking, “What would you do in the same situation?” First, many people have been in the exact situation that Smith was, at the Oscars, where their significant others were made fun of by a comedian ontage, and None of them, in the history of the Oscars, walked up and smacked the comedian. Again, I have seen Will Smith, as well as a number of formerly mild-mannered black men, all of a sudden acting like they’re Malcolm X, and it’s embarrassing, particularly coming from very privileged and pampered celebrities. And my point is that the BLM wave has led to weak-minded black men to try to get in on it, to whatever extent that they can, in order to get some form of black street cred. But Will Smith wants it all ways; to act like a thug, and then, within minutes, cry over winning an Oscar, and talk about wanting to be a “vessel of love”, and presuming that he a right to lecture us about how bad violence is.
And then I see a conservative website called The Right Scoop calling Will Smith’s PR “apology” “sincere”. The violent Hollywood hack started his “apology” by lecturing all of us non-violent people about how “violence in all its forms is poisonous and destructive” and that “There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.” Will Smith is a 53 year old man, not a kindergartener, and it’s obscene to see suckers falling for it. Despite the fact that Smith hasn’t paid a price for his crime, there’s clearly a part of him that still thinks that there’s a chance that he might not fully get away with it, so he’s covering his bases, and telling his publicist to send out whatever he thinks he needs to in order to do some damage control.
This event has only made matters worse for those who tell jokes or who tell uncomfortable truths, and those applauding Smith’s thuggery today will have to remember their support for it when the next person is attacked over words. And they need to be reminded that they did their part to make matters even worse for free speech.
Matt Tarango says
Good piece, Bosch. 👍