Actor John Cusack is a big fan of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ particular brand of socialism. In fact, as the ’80s actor made alarmingly clear at a Bernie rally in Exeter, NH on Saturday, he believes if we don’t stop “predatory capitalism” in the next “ten or twelve years,” we’re all toast.
“[T]he billionaires are getting nervous and all the corporate media is — they hate us, they don’t hate us, they’re confused. And it seems like every conceivable power structure on earth is trying to kill or derail our movement, but we’re still here,” declared Cusack, in remarks reported by Grabien.
“We know this form of capitalism takes and takes; it takes whatever, whenever, however it wants,” he said. “It’ll take our lives, it’ll take our labor, our spirit, our air and water, even our earth.”
Cusack then echoed an alarmist line often repeated by global warming activist Greta Thunberg, but specifically tying the sentiment to Sanders’ policies.
“Bernie respects us enough to tell the truth, the hard truth: We have a ten to twelve year window to radically transform our energy systems, or climate change, predatory capitalism, and endless war economies will rob us of the right to any future at all,” said the actor. “And as we can see literally every day, the house is on fire.”
Bernie, suggested Cusack, is our only hope in these desperate times.
“But as Bernie tells us, this is no time for despair, it’s no time for anything but action,” he said. “Because if we stand together, with him, the future is still indeed unwritten. And there’s nothing more powerful than a movement whose time has come.”
Cusack then invoked a vaguely defined “movement,” by which he appears to mean democratic socialism, which he says is now finally “close” to power.
“We have never had a movement candidate this close to power with a revolutionary movement he’s led and built, ready-to-go, all the way to change the country and help heal the world,” he said. “With people of every race, creed, gender, everybody stands together in solidarity when all of us whose labor powers this economy, stop the profiteering and tell the billionaires and the corporate tyrannies that it’s time to start treating all human beings with respect and dignity.”
Video of Cusack’s remarks below (via Grabien):
Other celebrities who’ve made millions from Hollywood’s “predatory capitalism” have resorted to Thunbergian rhetoric about climate change in recent months, including “Aquaman” (which blew up at the box office) star Jason Momoa, who told the United Nations in September that humanity is “a disease that is infecting our planet.”
“From the atmosphere to the abyssal zone, we are polluted,” said the “Game of Thrones” star. “It is a known fact that the great garbage patch floating in the Pacific is larger than the country of France. Even at the depths of the Mariana Trench we are discovering nano plastics. And shockingly, there are more particles of plastic in the ocean than there are stars in the Milky Way. It is shameful.”
“Yet, the greatest threat to small island developing states is that entire islands are drowning into the sea due to the enormous volume of emissions generated by the first world countries,” he said. “Island nations contribute the least to this disaster but are made to suffer the weight of its consequences.”
Similar to Cusack, Momoa laid the blame at the feet of capitalism and failure of the government to intervene enough.
“Our governments and corporate entities have known for decades that immediate change is needed, yet change still has not come,” said the actor. “And when the front line is gone, we are doomed. There is no undoing. If you continue to watch unsympathetic to the issues of island nations, this realization will soon come — that you stood by and witnessed the world cross the critical tipping point, ushering in the death of our planet.”
Momoa’s speech the U.N. below: