Bret Easton Ellis: ‘Leftist Hysteria,’ Thought Police Will Create Many More Kanyes

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - NOVEMBER 18: Author Bret Easton Ellis attends the 'Band of Outsid
Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Dewars
Dylan Gwinn

Screenwriter and author Bret Easton Ellis believes there’s a backlash brewing against “leftist hysteria” in Hollywood and sees a future where more celebrities, such as Kanye West, rebel against the liberal orthodoxy that has taken over Tinseltown.

“As someone who considers themselves a disillusioned Gen-X’er, I think there IS a backlash brewing against leftist hysteria. What I used to semi-align myself with has no answers for anything right now, just constant bitching and finding ways to delegitimize an election,” Ellis told the Observer. 

“That is not a plan for 2020, and if I was a hardcore Democrat I’d be very worried despite the blue wave of 2018, that may or may not fully arrive,” the American Psycho said.

Indeed the saga of Kanye West embracing President Donald Trump has come more as a confirmation for Ellis, reinforcing a prediction he made months ago.

Speaking specifically of West’s rebellion against liberal groupthink, Ellis said: “I don’t know if Kanye was red pilled exactly,” a reference to how some people are drawn toward and eventually convert to conservatism. “Kanye does not do this in a systematic or literal way: it’s sweeping, metaphorical and inchoate and in the age of digital literal-mindedness.”

Ellis sees the seeds for the coming crop of celebrity rebels, sown into the very soil of Hollywood itself:

Hollywood is both hysterically emotional about its liberalism, but it’s locked in a major hypocrisy because it is one of the least inclusive capitalist societies that exists—pure corporate culture with corporate rules. It’s about caving in creatively to the global marketplace and, for example, if that means no gay characters in movies because they won’t play in certain territories then so be it. And as I’ve always liked to point out: Beverly Hills voted for Trump in 2016—one of the only bits of red out here in a sea of blue, and that fact does not fit into a neat narrative about So-Cal Hollywood liberalism.

In July, Ellis was harassed and screamed at by people in the Sunset Tower in Los Angeles, who accused him of being a “Trump apologist” and of “colluding with Russia.” This, after Ellis merely suggested that liberals “get a grip” on their emotions and stop “virtue signaling” when it came to Trump:

The American Psycho writer recently observed on his podcast, the Bret East Ellis Podcast, that by overreacting to Trump, the left was actually letting him win:

You can dislike the fact that Trump was elected, yes, definitely, and yet still understand and accept ultimately that he was elected this time around. Or you can have a complete mental and emotional collapse and let the Trump presidency define you, which I think is absurd. … If you are still losing your sh*t about Trump, I think you should probably go to a shrink and not let the bad man that was elected define your self-victimization and your life. You are letting him win.

Those insights formed the basis for Ellis’ prediction, now apparently being fulfilled, at least in-part, by Kanye West.

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn

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