In an interview with ' Marlon James, Sept. 7, 2016, actor Brad Pitt, 52, displays his impressive intellect on the subjects of Donald Trump and Brexit, Britain's referendum to leave the European Union.
Here are relevant excerpts from the interview. No commentary on my part is needed as Pitt does a great job on his own demonstrating the shallowness of his intellect, the arrogance of his elitism, his antipathy toward Christ and Christians, and how utterly removed he is from the lives and concerns of Americans and Brits who do not have net worths like the stratospherical $400 million estimated combined net worth of Pitt and wife Angelina Jolie:
I [Marlon James] ask him [Brad Pitt] about Brexit. "Man, I never thought that would happen. Same way I can't bring myself to think that Trump will be in charge. In the simplest terms, what brings us together is good, and what separates us is bad. We have this great line in 'The Big Short,' " he says, referring to the Oscar-winning film about the global financial crisis of 2008, which he produced. "When things are going wrong and we can't find the reason for it, we just start creating enemies." I mention that when creating those enemies, we often look no further than what's right in front of us. Gays, for example. "Or illegal immigrants," he says. He keeps wondering aloud about this, not because he's all that interested in extremism, bigotry, religiosity and fear as part of an actual pathology - or Trump supporters and the religious right, for that matter - but because in another version of this story, where the movie star thing hadn't clicked and he remained stuck in his home state, that could have been his fate. "Coming from Oklahoma, southern Missouri, which leans more toward a Trump voice, I try to understand it."
"It seems that the people who suffer the most end up betting for the party that would hurt them," he goes on. "And so I try to understand where they're coming from." When I suggest that money has a lot to do with it - Belgium supporting Tutsi control over the Hutus [in Rwanda], and building resentment, prompted genocide - he agrees. But a recent conversation he had with a scholar from the Brookings Institution, the Washington, D.C. think tank, sparked a different view, one where the cause of strife can't be explained by simple economics. "You gotta understand," he says, "that it's also in our DNA. Most Americans don't have time to watch CNN and Fox and Al Jazeera. They're trying to make the rent, get the kids fed, they're tired when they get home and they want to forget about everything. And so suddenly when this voice comes in - and it doesn't have to be a voice of substance - saying he's fed up with all of this, that's the part that hooks into the DNA."
A fair point to consider, that our social behaviors, prejudices and even the mental process of who we choose to love or hate is rooted in biology, but how does this convince people to actually buy what Trump is selling? "What I'm most hopeful about is that we're a global neighborhood now, and we start to understand each other more and more - and yet, you see this reactionary push for isolation and separation again." Pitt shrugs, and says that he thinks a lot of people feel alone, and on a certain level, again because of his background, he knows what that's like. "A Trump supporter is fighting against just about everything," he says. "What does he even mean, take our country back? Would someone please explain that to me?" Pitt looks at me, impish and totally serious at the same time. "Where'd it go?" [...]
On the topic of exotic worlds, he mentions a film he'd like to make about Pontius Pilate, mostly because the script, which focuses on a mediocre Roman official stuck in the middle of nowhere with difficult people he doesn't like, makes him smile. Jesus doesn't get much screen time. "It certainly won't be for the 'Passion' crowd," he says, which reminds me that Mel Gibson's torture-porn epic is one of the things that drove me out of the church. Pitt bursts into laughter. "I felt like I was just watching an L. Ron Hubbard propaganda film."
