Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino (“Mighty Aphrodite,” 1995) appeared to have a minor meltdown over what she viewed as a lack of American progress — and the continuation of several “hideous wrongs” — heading into the new year.
Sorvino shared her frustrations in a couple of tweets posted on Friday, just before 2022 came to a close over the weekend — and she claimed that, among other issues, Americans had failed to eradicate bigotry and anti-Semitism.
“Does anyone else feel shellshocked hideous wrongs of our nation’s past we thought we’d progressed beyond’ve found footing as pseudo-defensible positions: Bigotry, slavery, white supremacy, colonialism, anti-semitism, hatred of women, lgbtqia folk & migrants-as tho they were legit?” Sorvino asked, complaining that she had thought that America had progressed only to find that certain wrongs were not only being continued but defended.
We think we are on this inexorable climb to progress, growth, equality, only to realize we are only 1 degree away from Auschwitz, or George Washington’s thousands of slaves, the genocide of millions of Native Americans, or the justification of Harvey Weinstein’s rapes…
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) December 31, 2022
“We think we are on this inexorable climb to progress, growth, equality, only to realize we are only 1 degree away from Auschwitz, or George Washington’s thousands of slaves, the genocide of millions of Native Americans, or the justification of Harvey Weinstein’s rapes …” Sorvino continued.
The actress suggested that the United States was somehow “1 degree away” from the 1.1 million Jews, Poles, and gypsies killed at Auschwitz — the deadliest of the Nazi concentration camps — where some 85% of the men, women, and children who passed through its gates were systematically exterminated.
She also offered comparisons to the killing of Native Americans in the name of colonization — some of whom died of diseases that crossed over from Europe with explorers and colonists alike — and claimed that George Washington owned “thousands of slaves” when historical records suggest that number was closer to 125.
Sorvino’s final comparison took a personal turn, as she suggested the people allowing bigotry and other “hideous wrongs” to continue were no different than those who justified disgraced Hollywood producer “Harvey Weinstein’s rapes.”
The “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion” star was one of the first to speak out against Weinstein, claiming that he had made advances toward her — and that her refusal to accommodate his wishes had led to her career being stifled.
“It’s very triggering and re-traumatizing for me,” she told KTLA during the now-convicted rapist’s most recent trial. “I find it horrific that his defense is using these outdated tropes, you know, slut shaming and saying that it was a consensual transactional casting couch. He was a sexual predator of epic proportions, a very violent assault. I personally know people who have been raped by him, and there was nothing consensual about it.”