Rogen’s Twitter attacks will only get Cruz sympathy
Seth Rogen clarified this weekend on Twitter.
Responding to a story by an ABC affiliate, the comedian took issue with a certain word in the report about his recent back-and-forth with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. As Rogen tweeted: “This isn’t a ‘feud.’ I’m not happy he inspired a deadly insurrection. Is that a ‘feud’?”
Semantics aside, this feud-that-is-not-a-feud started on Inauguration Day.
Shortly after Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement by executive order, Cruz climbed out of his Grecian Formula crypt to fire up the tweeter: “By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh ...”
The global climate treaty is simply named for the city in which it was signed in 2015. It is not exclusively about Parisians any more than the 1543 Treaty of Greenwich was about time zones. But while Cruz was widely mocked, including by Greta Thunberg, Rogen’s reply was industrial-strength personal.
“F--k off you fascist,” he wrote.
To which Cruz replied: “Charming, civil, educated response.”
The next day, while taking a short break from his cynical politics, Cruz replied to a tweet from MGM Studios, which asked the public to name the first movie they had seen. Cruz recalled seeing “Fantasia” at the age of four, which scared him and made him cry.
This may be the most human Cruz has appeared in his adult life.
But Rogen was not having it. He replied: “Everyone who made that film would hate you.”
Rogen has since called Cruz an effing clown and a fascist piece of s. In the crossfire, he even found time to unload on Marco Rubio: “Go f--k yourself you fascist dweeb.”
But as amusing as the mental image of Rogen taking bong hits and dropping F-bombs on craven Republicans who cheered on an attempted coup may be, does all of this not benefit Cruz? I read through their exchanges in the past few days and you know what?
I felt something I’ve never felt before: sympathy for Ted Cruz.
It’s not that I disagree with Rogen. Cruz is cretinous swine, a power-hungry tool who would gladly sell his wife’s kidneys for more political clout. He knew there was no widespread election fraud. He knew Donald Trump, a man he secretly despises but also idolizes for a populist appeal he will never match, lost and it wasn’t even close. He knows he’s on the wrong side of history. Deep down, Cruz knows he’s an effing fascist. When he gazes into a mirror, he absolutely sees an effing clown who gleefully aided and abetted in the treasonous scheme to overturn a free and fair democratic election.
“Traitor” should be the word scrawled on his tombstone.
Here comes the “but.” But! By relenting to understandable righteous anger, I fear Rogen has inadvertently created a sideshow that detracts from the wreckage Cruz and others — shout-out to Josh Hawley — were willing to inflict on American democracy due to their blind ambition. They both knew Trump lost. They didn’t care about reality. They were fixated on winning over the Trump Cult for a future presidential run.
But — but! — by hammering Cruz on Twitter, Rogen runs the very real risk of backfire.
If you read their back-andforth, Cruz is the one who comes across as reasonable. This poor bastard is tweeting about “Fantasia” and a Hollywood liberal is telling him the whole world hates his guts? He’s telling Rogen he actually enjoys his movies and the actor is telling him to do something that is anatomically impossible?
That is not holding a fire to the toes of a traitor.
It is providing an escape path for the traitor to rebrand as the victim.
That both men were born in Canada and none of this is great for our polite stereotype is beside the point. I get that Rogen hates Ted Cruz. I hate Ted Cruz. My guess is even Cruz’s “friends” hate Ted Cruz. His hyperpartisan gibberish is the oratorical equivalent of arsenic. But — but! — when a celebrity of Rogen’s calibre points this out, the inevitable consequence is what the anthropologists call cultural galvanization.
Those who support Cruz see a comedian bullying a brave merchant of truth. Those who support Rogen see a brave merchant of truth profanely taunting a seditious gasbag. And in the wash, you end up with the kind inertia that does not lend itself to Biden’s goal of unity.
A much better way for Rogen to destroy Cruz? Ignore him. Don’t give him oxygen.
Don’t let him change the subject.
The senator desperately wants distraction. He wants everyone to be yammering on about this “feud” with Rogen, as I’m doing right now, and skip the two months he spent egging on the lunatics who stormed Congress with murderous fantasies based on fake news.
Any headline that contains the words “Seth Rogen” and “Ted Cruz” only benefits the latter.
In another back-and-forth, Cruz complimented Rogen on his movies, which he called “pretty funny.” He added, “I’m sure you hate that I enjoy them.”
It was masterful manipulation.
Without realizing it, Seth Rogen is helping to humanize Ted Cruz.