Thread by @MatthewFoldi

NEW from me @PirateWires:

We've got another @Santos4Congress interview sure to stoke some fiery debates.

That's right, we talked about tonight's #Oscars, which neither of us will be watching, and about his takes on Hollywood and much more

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(1/xx)

Up first, @micsolana's take:

"It happened slowly, then all at once: a mature internet, in which a majority of Americans lived in some significant part online, reshaped our country in accordance with the malleable laws of the digital world...

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(2/xx)

...Some call this the “attention economy.” I call it the Clown World. In the context of democracy, the game is fundamentally changed, and the men and women who understand this are the most formidable voices in politics...

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(3/xx)

...Such figures include Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (with, to a lesser degree, the rest of the Squad), and now @Santos4Congress, the most scandalous politician America also just can’t seem to quit." @micsolana

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(4/xx)

Before reading my piece, I recommend reading @river_is_nice's take on Santos, also @PirateWires:

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(5/xx)

The #Oscars are tonight, and maybe hundreds of Americans will be watching — but #NY03's @Santos4Congress won’t.

I caught up with him to get his thoughts on this year’s Academy Awards (he’d give Best Picture to...The Conjuring?!), Chinese influence in piratewires.com/p/george-santo…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Despite @Santos4Congress’ deep understanding of Drag Race lore, he told me that “a lot of people think I’m tuned into pop culture, but I’m not.” Even so, he had no shortage of opinions on Hollywood.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(7/xx)

As with much of what he does and says, @Santos4Congress caused quite a stir when he told me for @TheSpectator that The Hobbit movie trilogy is “fantastic,” and that The Battle of the Five Armies is “my favorite fucking movie.”

https://twitter.com/MatthewFoldi/status/1628124144016494597

(8/xx)

My previous Santos interview inspired @jackbutler4815 to investigate if I've uncovered his greatest scandal yet.

His takes that follow in my @PirateWires interview are bound to inflame, but also entertain.

nationalreview.com/corner/george-…

(9/xx)

We started with The Slap — @Santos4Congress is firmly on team @chrisrock. “Quite frankly, it was fucking stupid. Chris Rock is a genius.” Besides, Rock’s G.I. Jane joke was funny, he told me.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(10/xx)

But Santos isn’t actually going to watch the #Oscars tonight. “I think the reason I stopped watching them is that they won’t really put box sellers there,” @Santos4Congress said.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(11/xx)

“They'll put the circlejerk of the who's who — Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, blah blah blah, all these fancy people, these elitists.” #Oscars

@Santos4Congress prefers less pretentious entertainment — comedy and horror above all else.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(12/xx)

“Let's be honest, Saw was a fucking great horror movie. But #Oscars don’t have a horror category. Resident Evil, great cinematics. @MillaJovovich is one of my favorite actresses. It's her, @morgan_freeman, @ImAngelaBassett and @GerardButler”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(13/xx)

While @ImAngelaBassett was nominated to win Best Supporting Actress for #BlackPanther, Santos thinks she should win Best Actress. "I’m not trying to be racist, but she's Meryl Streep, the black version. She’s just as good. She’s fantastic."

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(14/xx)

Between @ImAngelaBassett and @Morgan_Freeman, @Santos4Congress told me, “If I see anything with them, dude, I lose my mind because I just like their style.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(15/xx)

As @Santos4Congress surveyed modern cinema, he told me that a common thread that runs through excellent movies is that they have @LeoDiCaprio in them.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(16/xx)

“I think the last great masterpieces to come out of Hollywood were movies like Titanic and The Revenant.” @LeoDiCaprio had famously been snubbed by the #Oscars for decades, which @Santos4Congress said was unfair.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(17/xx)

“DiCaprio deserved an Oscar in The Aviator and then they just had to come up with a reason to give him an Oscar. I think he earned an Oscar in Titanic, and in The Man with the Iron Mask, he acted really well,” @Santos4Congress on @LeoDiCaprio

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(18/xx)

Santos also likes actors he sees as “genuine.” “I have my favorite actors. And then I have the actors I think are charismatic. @JLo, @TheRock. @melissamccarthy. They're genuine.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(19/xx)

But one actor he doesn’t have time for is @TomCruise. Cruise’s @TopGunMovie is one of the only movies with mass appeal to win a nomination for Best Picture in years, but @Santos4Congress hasn’t seen it, or the first one.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(20/xx)

Amazing take from @Santos4Congress: “Tom Cruise isn't somebody that inspires me to go run to the movie theater. Had Morgan Freeman been in Top Gun: Maverick, I would have watched it.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(21/xx)

Why does @Santos4Congress hate @TomCruise so much? Politics. “Tom Cruise has given me enough evidence of what he thinks of America to make me not like him,” the congressman said.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(22/xx)

Perhaps the evidence Santos is referring to is how Cruise berated the Mission Impossible staff for flouting COVID protocols before he himself was infected.

mercurynews.com/2022/03/29/unv…

(23/xx)

Santos also doesn’t like @JaneFonda or @Madonna, who he says went woke.

“I used to love Jane Fonda. My childhood was riddled with Jane Fonda movies. And then the woman went nuts.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(24/xx)

For years, Fonda has been an outspoken activist, most memorably during the Vietnam War. However, her anti-Vietnam War activism was “different” for @Santos4Congress, because, he told me, he would have been right there with her.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(25/xx)

But over time, @JaneFonda “just decided to make her entire life political. She prides herself on getting arrested for loitering or whatever.” (she does seem desperate to prove him right, recently saying pro-life Americans should be “murdered.”)

https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1634238511426486295

(26/xx)

In contrast with actors/activists like @TomCruise and @JaneFonda, @Santos4Congress praised actors whose views he doesn’t know. “I don't know Mel Gibson's political beliefs. I don't know Denzel Washington's political beliefs. I don't know @Morgan_Freeman’s. piratewires.com/p/george-santo…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

And what does Santos think about the future of movies?

“Action movies are dead,” Santos declared. “@sseagalofficial was one of the greatest, but I think after Steven Seagal’s exit from those hyper-action police movies, who replaces him? Now, instead of piratewires.com/p/george-santo…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

It’s not just the action genre that @Santos4Congress thinks is over. He doesn’t think comedy is going to survive, either. “You're not going to see another @AdamSandler, or Vince Vaughn, or @ChrisRock, or @KevinHart4Real. Well, Kevin Hart survives because — piratewires.com/p/george-santo…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Santos’s frustration with Hollywood boils down to his disdain for its elitism, as well as the ways that it’s increasingly caving to both a censorship regime pushed by the Chinese Communist Party on one hand, and a woke agenda on the other.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(30/xx)

But while @Santos4Congress disagrees with caving to Chinese censors, he said he understands it. “I'm looking from a business perspective. I'm a businessman, so I'm just gonna talk from that perspective. When you're ostracizing a billion people, as a good piratewires.com/p/george-santo…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

But, @Santos4Congress seemed amused as he told me about what he sees as a coming battle between the warring aspects of wokism and Chinese Communists.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(32/xx)

“Woke wants everything gay, and pro-China-beholden-Hollywood can’t have that. It becomes a cannibalistic event that I would actually enjoy watching. That's a movie I would watch: Woke Hollywood takes on Chinese-influenced Hollywood.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(33/xx)

Regardless of the issues he has with Hollywood, @Santos4Congress hasn’t kept out of movie theaters entirely. He recently watched @TheMenuFilm in theaters. His take? “What a cheeseburger!”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(34/xx)

Speaking of cheeseburgers, even though Santos told me “what Hollywood is serving, I'm not eating,” if there were a hypothetical gun to his head, and he had to pick #Oscars winners, he does have favorites. But most haven’t been eligible in years.

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(35/xx)

BEST PICTURE from @Santos4Congress: “A movie that I think should have been Best Picture is @TheConjuring. Hollywood didn't give two flying fucks about it because it was was it was, as they call it, bad acting.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(36/xx)

BEST ACTRESS from @Santos4Congress: He turned to @HarryPotterFilm, like a true millennial, giving it to both @EmmaWatson (Hermione Granger) and @RealMaggieSmith (Professor McGonagall) because she “turns into a cat, like that's talent.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(37/xx)

BEST ACTRESS from @Santos4Congress: He turned to @HarryPotterFilm, like a true millennial, giving it to both @EmmaWatson (Hermione Granger) and @RealMaggieSmith (Professor McGonagall) because she “turns into a cat, like that's talent.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(37/xx)

BEST ACTOR from @Santos4Congress: @Morgan_Freeman. He said this was a no-brainer. He's talked with me extensively about his admiration of Freeman, like in my interview @TheSpectator with him.

thespectator.com/topic/george-s…

(38/xx)

BEST DIRECTOR from @Santos4Congress: “Even I will concede to the elitists — I think it's going to be between James Cameron or Quentin Tarantino.” He added that he’d consider Steven Spielberg for it too, but also that he’s not a big fan of any of them any piratewires.com/p/george-santo…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Toward the end of our interview, #NY03's @Santos4Congress turned reflective. “I'm very, very close-minded about actors these days. Because the more I learn about your non-performative career, the less interested I am in you.”

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(40/xx)

FACT CHECK: @Santos4Congress has not seen ANY @TopGunMovie, and HATES @TomCruise, as he told me for @PirateWires—so this @nbcsnl portrayal is false

piratewires.com/p/george-santo…

(41/xx)

https://twitter.com/tmz/status/1634920903740891136