It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot than open it and remove all doubt.
In today’s example that proves the above statement we have one Tom Hanks courtesy of Time Magazine via John Nolte AKA Dirty Harry
Tom talking about his new show on HBO:
“From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place,” Hanks says. “How could they just pick up their lives and get on with the rest of us? Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”
Read much, Tom?
I’m not even going to discuss why the Japanese attacked us and the reasons we were fighting WWII, none of which had anything to do with the God the Japanese people worshiped, but I will discuss what is happening today…and why we fight.
Apparently, Mister Hanks missed it. There are a group of people in this world who don’t care much for you or anyone else like you. They will do whatever it takes to either convert you to their way of thinking or they will kill you. They believe they owe you that death because you are not worthy of living in their world. Your way of thinking and living is evil to them and they will do whatever it takes to stop you. Those are the people we fight. I didn’t make this up. This isn’t the product of some wartime propaganda factory. They will tell you what I just typed in their own words. Google it, Bing it use whatever search engine you like but I guarantee you that if you look for it you will find it. What happened on 9/11 was just the cherry on the top of the Jihad cake. If anyone believes that was some random instance of lunatics run amuck, then they are kidding themselves.
I would implore Mister Hanks to go back to his nice house with his nice wife and his nice kids and enjoy the life that is his because he was fortunate enough to grow up in America, and leave the thinking to those who are a little better equipped. DOUCHE.
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I can’t think of a single example of “difference” ever being a reason for war. It can be a reason for suspicion and can certainly result in misunderstandings that can have repercussions, but by itself it has never been a reason for all out conflict. It may have made wars of conquest or persecutions easier to justify, but there’s usually a whole litany of reasons in addition to such attitudes that cause those things. Just as often, different cultures trade and have non-violent rivalries, or mutual fascination over their differences.
Of course, anyone with half a brain knows the historical reasons over WWII and you could cite literally hundreds of examples as to why we were fighting Japan. Cultural differences probably heightened things a bit, but having three thousand of your people murdered tends to spark such a mindset. Of course, the most decorated unit of the war and in US military history was a Nisei unit serving in the the European theater and several hundred thousand American soldiers married “war brides” in the period we occupied Japan. The success of those marriages were quite variable, do to the obvious reasons, but I would like to think more than a few happy couples came out of it.
Tom Hanks bugs me. A lot. When he was young, he was an evangelical Christian, a “Jesus Freak.” Over the years, Hollywood has broadened his mind to the point that he now makes movies that attack Christian doctrine (despite the fact that he’s now technically Greek Orthodox, which is his wife’s church).
In other words, he’s an apostate who has turned his back on the faith. Far from the only one in Hollywood, but it irks me.
If his mind is as mushy as we all think, then he may not even have made a definitive enough stance to consider him such. That is, he may be a “double-minded man,” split between the faith he’s wandered from and whatever idiocy he happens to parrot this week. That may be a grace, if we take his eternal soul into account.
Wonder how vets of the Japanese Theater would respond to, probably one of the most ignorant things I’ve heard come out of anyone’s mouth since Obama’s last speech: “We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different.” If my dad weren’t 91 – he’d give Hanks MORE than a little piece of his mind.
I meant Pacific Theater – but you all know what I meant. Been a long day.
If only something like this was an isolated case. Where is this crazy narrative coming from, anyway? What’s even more concerning is that people listen to folks like Hanks, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon. They’ve got it all wrong, but folks listen to them like their prophets or something.
Recent comments by Mr. Hanks on “Morning Joe”:
“I think we’ve elected a wise, calm man (Obama) who wants to get things done. “
“I think the President of the United States is doing a spectacular job…”
Yeah. Right.
Oh if my Dad was alive he’d kick Tommy Boys butt. I’d call Hanks a f*cktard but that would be an insult to f*tards.
He has been going downhill along with a number of other actors that I once enjoyed. Hate to tell Mr. Hanks that many of us have returned to the civilian world after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and are fitting right back in.
Stephanie: I think we should call him a f*cktard, in fact he’s starting to be one of the head f*cktards in Hollywood.
It is amazing how being ignorant of the history of SE Asia in the first half of the 20th Century makes it so easy to understand the causes of WWII. Teddy Roosevelt’s negotiating an end to the 1905 war on the presumption that the Japanese should act in the Pacific as the US was acting in Latin America, the brutalization of the Chinese by their Japanese conquerors, and that little mishap on Dec. 07, 1941 were all just incidental to our hatred of anybody different? Ye gods.
Pathetic. Not much of a man.
I’m with Outlaw: In his effort to be all moral relativistic, Hanks conveniently leaves out the one thing the Japanese and modern terrorists have in common – they liked to kill Americans. In his rush against judging people, he’s being judgmental.
I remember when Hanks was doing interviews for Saving Private Ryan, he talked about how we had to fight the Nazis in WWII, and how Hitler had to be stopped.
So we had to fight the blonde, blue-eyed Nazis, but to fight back against their Japanese allies, the ones who actually attacked us, can only be because of RACISM!
I just realized that. I wonder if Tommy Boy has ever been called
to the carpet for this crap?
Ignorant of the past and of the present.
For so long, I’ve looked up to Mr Hanks. I’ve enjoyed his work in Saving Private Ryan as it was a doorway for my dad’s emotions, a Korean War Vet, to finally come out after many, many years. Stories long held within, years of night terrors and a question mark of time were finally unleashed in bits and peaces.
I thought Mr Hanks had a firm grasp of reality, after being around the actual veterans and war heroes he interviewed for film projects. So where, I wonder, did he first go astray? Is he so protected in the little Hollywood bubble that he can no longer see history through the lens of truth? This is a lesson for anyone aspiring for a lofty Hollywood career. Did Tom set out to take the wide road with the others, the easy road? Just a question.
Well said, tasd.
I apologize for the word “peaces”–should have been “pieces”. I was thinking how much more peaceful nights were after the night terrors stopped…..
TH…another example of an excellent actor who needs keep the trap shut, except on screen reading lines!