Sydney Sweeney, an actress, has never shied away from being provocative and stripping naked in front of the camera. Her numerous naked scenes on HBO’s “Euphoria” have turned her into a Gen Z pin-up.
However, the fallout from a surprise family birthday has ruffled feathers and threatened her with excommunication from the liberal circles where her sexuality helped her become a celebrity.
Sweeney, who is from rural Idaho, may have revealed that her family holds conservative views that, shockingly, are shared by a large portion of the country.
Her family threw a hoedown-themed 60th birthday party for her mother on Friday, complete with line dancing, jean-jacket embroidery, and a mechanical bull. Revelers wore red caps with the MAGA slogan — “Make Sixty Great Again” — a trend seen across the political spectrum in recent years.
What seemed to enrage people on Twitter the most was a photo of a partygoer wearing a pro-law enforcement T-shirt.
The images prompted lunatic thought-mafia enforcers to lash out at Sweeney, accusing her of being a Trump supporter. They began hurling accusations of racism, white supremacy, and homophobia.
(If a shirt or a costume renders someone and their loved ones irredeemable, I’ve got news for fans of Prince Harry — who once dressed up as a Nazi for a birthday party — and Meghan Markle, with whom I’m sure there is a lot of crossover in this outraged social media mob.)
The angry tweeters conflated conservatism — even perceived conservatism — with bigotry without making any specific policy or principle points.
The backlash became so severe that the 24-year-old was forced to address her mother’s Western-themed party publicly.
“You guys, this is insane. “An innocent celebration for my mother’s 60th birthday has devolved into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention,” she tweeted on Saturday. “Please refrain from making assumptions. Many blessings to everyone, and Happy Birthday, Mom!”
It’s unclear how her family votes, and it doesn’t matter or have any bearing on the “Euphoria” star’s acting ability. The Sweeneys could be Bernie Bros, MAGA supporters, or AOC supporters. However, in 2022, politics is religion, and people are as zealous as ever, with fringe crazies on the left presiding over a new Spanish Inquisition and morphing into keyboard Torquemadas.
This ideology has driven many conservatives into the closet, particularly in creative circles, while conspiracy theorists like Bette Midler and Rob Reiner are celebrated (until Midler stepped on a gender-ideology land mine by objecting to women being referred to as “birthing people”).
Sweeney, on the other hand, is in good company. Chris Pratt, an actor, has been chastised for his Christian beliefs and falsely accused of belonging to the controversial Hillsong Church. Pratt’s views are mainstream and, well, milquetoast. But this irritates diversity advocates, who are only interested in extreme identity politics.
The most important kind of diversity of thought, according to their doctrine, must be suppressed or vilified.
That is why we are unable to share anything. Established media and entertainment properties such as Disney have gone so far into the culture wars, slamming Florida’s Parental Rights Education Bill or the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, that we now have “right-wing” companies covering sports and making movies in response.
The chasm is so wide that we’ll never meet in the middle again. Is this the world that the online inquisitors desire?
