Hollywood actor Sean Penn has long been an outspoken liberal.
He was even friends with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.
But Penn confessed to Bill Maher that socialism “doesn’t work.”
Many Hollywood leftists have long had cozy relationships with socialist dictators.
Fidel Castro was treated like a celebrity in elite left-wing circles.
Actor Sean Penn was friendly with socialist president Hugo Chavez when he was alive, but now even Penn seems fed up with the radical left.
During a free-wheeling interview with liberal comedian Bill Maher, Penn admitted that socialism “doesn’t work.”
In various parts of the interview, the two liberals ragged on the excesses of wokeism.
Regarding radical gender theory, Penn quipped, “I identify as a hotdog bun who wants its own bathrooms…There’s a silliness to the ‘woke’ culture that’s gotten out of hand.”
Penn and Maher also discussed how college campuses have become cathedrals of far-left madness.
Penn recounted, “I had protesters outside the auditorium at the university. And some of those protesters found their way into the auditorium. Most of them were outside with the banners, you know, ‘f*ck Sean Penn’ or whatever it was. And I was in the wings, and they had told me, you know…this head of the university department here is going to introduce you and then moderate the conversation. And I’m waiting in the wings of this auditorium, and I’m hearing the introduction. And at some point close to saying, ‘And now, ladies and gentlemen, Sean Penn’ and I come out, they mentioned the movie Milk.”
In the movie, Penn played Harvey Milk, the first openly gay public official.
Maher mentioned, “You won an Oscar for that.”
Penn continued, “It got a big applause, and I was listening to that applause and I was realizing the contradiction in what was happening outside with the protesters and the few inside. And when I came out, I think the first thing I said, which I think was a fair observation…were that film made today, I couldn’t play that part.”
“Right,” Maher concurred.
By the woke diktats of today, only gay actors can play gay characters.
Penn added, “And the same people who, two minutes before they were applauding Milk, were thinking ‘f*ck him’ about MeToo. Suddenly we’re hard-wired into an acceptance.”
Maher commented, “Institutions are becoming the opposite of what they’re supposed to be. Colleges are supposed to be about scholars…and free speech and opening your mind. And now it’s about, ‘You can’t say this. How dare you?’”
Penn agreed and added, “Worse than that, it’s, ‘You can’t teach at this high a level. How dare you?’ Hence, the NYU organic science professor who was fired because too many of the kids’ parents wrote complaining letters [that] you’re making a course too hard. And these are the people who are going to be our health professionals.”
Penn was referring to organic chemistry professor Maitland Jones Jr. who was let go by NYU after 82 of his 350 students signed a petition complaining about the class being too difficult.
Maher said, “Colleges have been taken over by ideologues…There is something going on here…that is very reminiscent of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in 1966 with DEI officers as the Red Guard…[T]here is a place for DEI officers and there should be some…I think Michigan State has 140. That’s a lot of witches to be hunting.”
Penn added, “It’s a big investment in the hunting of witches.”
“That doesn’t make me a conservative to point that out. I just want to keep it real,” Maher qualified.
Then Penn said, “Whenever people applaud their socialism, and they use that word, I want to fight them. Because we know—we know from every experiment around the world of socialism…doesn’t work.”
Perhaps sensing they were venturing into dangerous territory, the two liberals quickly stepped away from the “conservative” ledge and claimed that the type of “socialism” they want is 911 services and other public accommodations.
The left has gone too far when hardcore liberals like Sean Penn are mocking pronouns and denouncing communist regimes around the world.