Mark Duplass is a filmmaker and actor darling of the indie scene best known for playing the hilariously narcissistic Peter Eckhart on FX’s “The League.” He is also very clearly of the Left. On July 18 he tweeted, “Fellow Liberals: If you are interested at all in ‘crossing the aisle’ you should consider following @benshapiro. I don’t agree with him on much but he’s a genuine person who once helped me for no other reason than to be nice. He doesn’t bend the truth. His intentions are good.”
This tweet, sent amid a “do a good deed every day” challenge, received so much hate for merely asking people to consider opposing political ideas that Mark deleted it and issued an apology: “Genuinely appreciate all of your comments. My goal is to create further understanding of each other’s positions. If we ‘vote them out’ without any attempt to understand, they’ll likely just vote us out next time the same way. That said, I hear your points. Best to all of you.”
His apology received such another outpouring of nonsensical outrage that he has also since deleted it.
So in 24 hours I apparently went from being a person with good intentions to a racist sexist bigot. Twitter toxifies any attempt to cross the aisle. There's no conservative Mark could have recommended who wouldn’t receive the same blowback. https://t.co/JEizw69eFH
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 19, 2018
According to the woke thought guardians of the Internet, they did not attack Duplass. They merely educated him concerning his privilege. One writer commented, “In addition, letting ‘good’ white guys slide on bullsh-t like this where they make an uneducated statement and aren’t held accountable for it are part of why we are where we are today in lots of different parts of Hell.”
Here are some choice examples from the orgy of inanity following Duplass’s tweets (obscenities altered): “He had to delete his tweet in under and hour after reaping a monsoon of sh-t for being a Nazi sympathizer.” “F-ck Mark Duplass. Why do liberals always have to cede EVERYTHING for the sake of bipartisanship…”
“I will bet money mark duplass either has sexual assault in his past or bodies in his basement.” “the privilege of being able to look past someone’s sh-tty opinions because they were nice to you once is staggering. as staggeringly dull and overrated mark duplass’ films are i’d wager.” One gentlemen posted the now-deleted original tweet with this bit of incivil commentary: “For Posterity, @MarkDuplass is a racist monster.”
Duplass is not very famous outside of certain circles. His work has generally been excellent but is clearly within the indie sphere. His work shows he wants to hear every side of a story or issue as best he can, regardless of how complicated. After 2016, Duplass brought this attitude to understanding President Trump and Americans who chose to vote for a man he deemed horrific. That attitude has been so remarkably rare that it almost seems heroic.
Until this tweetfest, there was widespread agreement that Duplass was one of the nicest guys on Twitter. He’s in the middle of an adorable “do a good deed every day” kick! But more importantly than merely being nice, Duplass backs up his bipartisan rhetoric with actions.
He appeared on the libertarian-ish Dave Rubin’s YouTube show, “The Rubin Report,” last year to talk about that very thing. He has been on Steven Crowder’s “Louder with Crowder” conservative show multiple times. A less-woke place one cannot find outside of Alex Jones’ bomb shelter. In light of all this, it’s a bit surprising that it’s taken this long for Duplass to spark outrage. But it couldn’t be less deserving.
As Duplass pointed out in the initial controversial tweet, he doesn’t agree with Shapiro on virtually anything. But Duplass wants to help tone down the discourse. He wants people to listen to each other and understand. He’s a good guy who honestly wants the best for everyone.
If this sort of thing can happen to Duplass, then there’s really no hope for civility among the “populist” wing of the left. Twitter does not bring out the best and brightest from any group, but for them to turn on their own so easily, and so effectively, is disturbing to watch and completely unsustainable long term.
Duplass should not have deleted the tweets. All this does is encourage and embolden the outrage. Once the chum is in the water, the sharks will not relent until they think they’ve found meat.
Adding fuel to the fire by doubling down or repenting doesn’t make it any better. That is like rewarding a child in the middle of a tantrum with the attention she’s wrongly trying to get. Blue checks trying to mute the crazy on Twitter need to learn not to react when controversy inevitably starts.
It should go without saying that Ben Shapiro is not a Nazi, or a racist, or a fascist, or a misogynist, all things the Twitter mob accused of him, then of Duplass through guilt by association. Shapiro is caustic, sarcastic, and regularly calls idiots idiots. But he’s also extremely fair and admits when he has made mistakes. He is exactly the sort of person leftists should be paying attention to, partially because Shapiro was a Never Trumper until election day.
One might think that would give him credibility with the Left. That it doesn’t is telling. It also telegraphs to anyone watching that siding with the Left on important issues is no protection against being mobbed.
Duplass said something genuinely helpful to his followers and got destroyed for it. He should have just stood his ground and waited it out. But he didn’t, and the leftist trolls got another gross victory. Things will start to get better as people like Duplass go the way of Rubin, a prominent guy who started out on the Left and has gradually moved Right due to attacks like this. But until then it’s only going to get worse.
If you have any doubts some elected Democrats would gleefully plunge us into civil war for political advantage, you must see this clip of Rep Swalwell. It’s scary. ~9 mins in. https://t.co/1RFa6JINwT
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) July 19, 2018
