Shut Up and Slide, Team USA

“I learned a long time ago, keep your d— mouth shut if you want to stay in show business,” said the great Dolly Parton.

Do you know where she stands on immigration enforcement, veganism, or Gaza? Me neither. 

Uninformed virtue signaling is a staple of the U.S. entertainment industry. Freeing Tibet, global warming, masking and vaccines, all had their day. Now, the performers have collectively agreed to honor the First Woke Commandment: You Shall Have No Borders.

The woke swarm has collectively decided that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal sub-agency charged with enforcing immigration law, should not enforce immigration law.

In practice, this means that the U.S. should admit anyone who wants to come here, and that we should not expel them under any circumstances once they are in. That used to be a radical, ultra-Left, or even anarchist view.

Paid athletes and performers now pretend ICE agents are unsanctioned storm troopers in President Donald Trump’s private army, rather than federal agents carrying out valid law enforcement to the best of their ability–in the teeth of deliberate, organized disruption by paid activists. You’d think that creative artists would be more imaginative, but comparisons to Nazi Germany are their usual go-to.

At last September’s Emmy awards, which are for television shows I don’t watch, Hannah Einbinder of HBO’s “Hacks” skillfully mixed sports with domestic and foreign policy by saying “go Birds, f— ICE, and free Palestine.” Einbinder, who is Jewish, wants to boycott Israel, to persuade them to–I think–allow Hamas to rearm and continue their benevolent rule in Gaza.

Einbinder’s co-star Jean Smart sported a “Be Good” badge, a reference to Minneapolis resident Renee Good who was killed last month while obstructing federal agents in an organized campaign. Smart, Mark Rufalo, Wanda Sykes, and other actors wore the same badge. None of them, as far as I know, ever wore a badge in memory of an American killed by an illegal alien.

At the recent Grammy music awards, a musician called Bad Bunny said “ICE out” and rambled about love. Two of my favorite singers, Carole King and Joni Mitchell, sported anti-ICE badges. Yet I won’t be burning my vinyl of “Tapestry or Court and Spark,” just like I didn’t burn Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s “Carry On” because Neil took his music off Spotify in 2022 when Joe Rogan critiqued Covid vaccine mandates. I expect musicians to let their freak flags fly. But I bought their product and I’ll keep it.

Someone named Shaboozey also sported an anti-ICE badge. I won’t burn his album either, because I don’t have it, and also I don’t think the medium he uses to publish his music is flammable. Justin Bieber did not wear a badge on the boxer shorts he wore to perform, nor was an anti-ICE message part of his body-encompassing tattoo collection. Probably an oversight.

Performers Billie Eilish, SZA, and Kehlani reportedly took precious award-stage time to criticize ICE. Eilish reassured us that “no one is illegal on stolen land,” though she seems intent on keeping people off hers.

Last weekend, Mr. Bunny presented the half-time show at the Superbowl. Though not wearing a dress, he presented a message about Latin American solidarity to whatever portion of the audience was fluent in both Spanish and mumbling.

“The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” summarized the Jumbotron in English. How profound.

In the sports world, we now have the winter Olympics. The temptation for our athletes to signal virtue as well as talent is strong. Team USA changed the name of their hospitality house from Ice House to Winter House. Did they imagine Italians confused it with a detention center?

The gist seems to be to equate enforcing federal immigration laws with “hate and fear” and law-breaking activism with “peace and love.” Some athletes want to represent only part of America.

This summer, we’ll endure the FIFA World Cup of soccer. Gary Lineker, a retired player and long-time television commentator from England, sold his podcast to Netflix and will want to be in the USA to cover the games.

Lineker is a leftist who dislikes our president. He favors mass migration, and in 2023 compared the former Conservative government’s attempt to stem asylum fraud as “immeasurably cruel,” likening the home secretary’s choice of language to–wait for it–Germany in the 1930s.

Back in 2018, journalist Laura Ingraham asked basketball star LeBron James to “shut up and dribble” and stop talking politics. She caught hell for it but coined a neat catchphrase.

So Gary, if you shut up and dribble, you are welcome to come to America to talk about soccer. I doubt President Trump knows who you are, and I don’t think he’s a big footie fan so you should be under his radar.

And to Team USA, please just shut up and slip, slide, and jump. The less you say, the more we’ll marvel at your talent.

As for the acting, music, and entertainment crowd, we’ll never be that lucky. They are so used to speaking the words of great writers that they arrogate profundity to their own opinions.

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