I don't THINK he is one. He has said it several times that he is one: https://www.theadvocates.org/libertarian-celebrities/clint-eastwood/.
Not only that, Hollywood is solidly "Civil Libertarian" and it's obvious in all of his movies that this is what he is an advocate of. Eastwood is part of a club of Hollywood going all the way back to Ronald Reagan (as governor of CA) and includes Oliver Stone, Matt Stone and Trey Parker (of South Park) and countless others, who use their movies to advance Civil Libertarianism. Even Spielberg is an advocate. Tenets of Civil Libertarianism:
1) Hate or be suspicious of government agencies, laws and regulations designed to keep the peace, protect the most vulnerable, etc. ANY law or measures they pass are slippery slopes to Fascism and an attack on personal freedom.
2) Hate or be suspicious of authority figures, experts, etc. no matter how right they may be in theory, particularly "smart people" like scientists or intellectuals.
3) Even hate the concept of "civil rights laws" (ironically), because these are also attacks on personal freedom.
For instance, Dirty Harry was a Libertarian screed against The Supreme Court. The movie literally said that the reason why cops need to be judge, jury and executioner is that The Supreme Court passed an "evil" landmark ruling that tied the hands of police to arrest criminals. Later Dirty Harry movies pushed the narrative that gun control is evil because it prevents Good Guys with Guns from protecting the public.
Unforgiven is another variation on a theme. Gene Hackman's character is supposed to present the "evil" gun control lobby. Clint Eastwood's character is another spin on the "Good Guy with a Gun" trope, the hero who saves the day because he's so much more righteous and noble than anti-gun control advocates.
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moviechatterer (13153)
a year ago
I think your tenets are biased.
A Libertarian would not specifically single out and hate the laws "designed to keep the peace, protect the most vulnerable, etc."
They would object to the ones that infringe their liberty and restrict things that dont hurt others.
Bans basically. like marijuana.
They dont object to laws like "Thou shalt not run around the streets stabbing people"
They dont want "The Purge" , they just want to be able to eat some shrooms if they want to.
I'm also calling bullshit on
2) (smart people)
and
3) "civil rights laws"
additionally , Libertarianism is a wide ranging philosophy adopted by both ends of the political spectrum and can therefore represent a range of conflicting views:
Although libertarianism originated as a form of left-wing politics,[26][74] the development in the mid-20th century of modern libertarianism in the United States resulted in libertarianism being commonly associated with right-wing politics. It also resulted in several authors and political scientists using two or more categorizations[4][5][17] to distinguish libertarian views on the nature of property and capital, usually along left–right or socialist–capitalist lines.[6] Right-libertarians reject the label due to its association with conservatism and right-wing politics, calling themselves simply libertarians, while proponents of free-market anti-capitalism in the United States consciously label themselves as left-libertarians and see themselves as being part of a broad libertarian left
(from wikip)
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[deleted]
a year ago
Why did you ask me to elaborate on why I called Clint Eastwood a Libertarian? So you could bait me into a response that you were NEVER going to entertain seriously no matter what I said? Why waste your time and mine asking me something on the PRETEXT that you were really interested in what I had to say, when the whole point was to just get me to respond so you could dismiss my viewpoint?
Libertarianism is neither a Leftwing or a Rightwing political ideology. It's a philosophy outside the realm of either Leftwing or Rightwing ideology but it always piggybacks into Leftwing and Rightwing causes to spread its agenda. The ACLU and the NRA are in the exact same camp, even though their proponents will argue that they're the hard left or the hard right or they themselves will attack each other as "the Right" or "the Left" when they get in each other's way.
You can quote Wikipedia all you want. It's meaningless, because it wasn't written by anyone who has any knowledge of political science, especially as it pertains to American history.
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moviechatterer (13153)
a year ago
Basically curious as to why many people, like Clint Eastwood , would label themselves with a label that they clearly think is a good thing , but that you clearly hold in contempt , and therefore what the differences are in what the two parties think the label means .
I dont think Clint would say "I'm a libertarian , and the best bit about that is I hate laws designed to keep the peace, scientists, smart people, and the racial equality brought about by civil rights laws. "
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