When a person’s mind summons a millennial, social and political commentator in 2017, Tomi Lahren is probably one of the first names that comes to mind. Her brand of know-it-all conservatism has a pretty stable home on The Blaze, Glen Beck’s network. And her bit known around the world called “Final Thoughts” circulates newsfeeds on Facebook and Twitter daily with people either denouncing her, or agreeing. Today my comments will be addressing Lahren’s sentiments about an Iranian film director responding to the travel ban in the form of a political statement at the Oscars. So buckle up and “Feel free to disagree…” as Lahren herself often explains.
After the Oscars this past month, Lahren’s response to celebrities using the fact they have a wide audience to speak out against injustices like the travel ban put in place through an executive order by President Donald Trump was to be expected. She has a history of telling entertainers that they should “should stick to entertaining.” This tweet, “Foreign film translation: Iranian filmmakers don’t like the new POTUS because they’re used to former POTUS kissing their behinds” plus her “Final Thoughts” gave me agita.
This tweet from the night of the Oscars has a lot to unpack, let’s start here. Did former President Barack Obama personally bend over and kiss the behinds of all Iranians? I don’t think so. He treated them like people, unlike Lahren. The former president attempted to thaw icy relations with a nation. The United States’ relationship with Iran can be described as a great balancing in which the former president stepped with great care and tact. Let’s afford Asghar Farhadi the same justices, okay? He does not have to support every decision his government makes, so holding him responsible for the actions of the Iranian government as a whole is lunacy at best. Lahren spent the last eight years frazzled and made furious by the Obama administration.
Blaming large groups of people for what few do is easy, but if Lahren really cared about eradicating this issue she would be calling out people in government who actually have control over political questions instead of picking on a man with an opinion, who uses his platform to simply state it. To top off my issues with this tweet, her language is not only uncomfortable, but it condones a level of intolerance that frankly, for lack of a better word, is gross. This storm of hate occurred in congruence with the travel ban, so in her world is a perfect time for a glorified tantrum, or “Final Thoughts.”
The thing about her “Final thoughts” – I am like one hundred percent sure they are not going to be final. She seems constantly ready battle, and if something fires her up enough I have a sneaking suspicion she does not care about repeats.
Lahren uses this opportunity to state that Asghar has no right to talk about human rights violations because he’s from Iran. However, I have a question for Lahren: is he human? Yes. So he can talk about violations of human rights just as freely as you, an American human being. She later goes off on a tangent about the Hollywood celebrities again, a recurring theme. To paraphrase what I took from the final thought on the Oscars, Lahren explains that Tinsel-town is lacking a diversity of thought while they are busy looking for diversity in the people who are winning awards.
This idea of hers is interesting, but misguided. When you include more varieties of race, religion, and gender in award shows a diversity of thought will be there because people are unique and bring their own life experiences. It might not be exactly the way Lahren wants, but I think that’ll be a good character builder for her. Those are my “Final Thoughts.”
