Cue Twilight Zone music. I was flipping through the four channels my antenna picks up, and happened across Ellen, the daytime talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. She was interviewing Ellen Pompeo, who plays the title character Meredith Grey on Grey’s Anatomy, and they were discussing income inequality. Imagine my surprise when the two Ellens began to sound like Bill Whittle on wealth creation.
The gist of their discussion was the departure from the show of two female cast members and the rumors that Pompeo’s salary was at the root of the problem: she makes so much money that there isn’t any left over for other female actors. Pompeo says the rumors are untrue and declares that women should not bit pitted against one another.
The actress also spoke broadly about her T.H.R. essay, which revealed that she struggled for years to make the same salary as her former co-star Patrick Dempsey, even though she had a bigger role than he did. (Pompeo plays Meredith Grey—the show is named after her!) This struggle is common for other female stars—the producers of Netflix’s The Crown, for example, recently shared that Claire Foy, who plays Queen Elizabeth II on the series (the literal crown!), made less than her co-star Matt Smith, who plays Prince Philip.“It’s important to be really truthful about our pain and our struggles,” Pompeo said of her decision to do the piece. “Sometimes you have to go through painful things to just be an example. We have a platform.”She’s been “so shocked” at how many women have rushed to her in order to share their stories of inequity, the actress continued. “As women, we’re afraid to ask, we’re afraid to be vocal, we’re taught not to be,” she said. “They like us quiet, as we’ve seen from this administration. It’s really important to encourage each other, encourage other women. To stand up and be strong and know we’ll be O.K. and we have each other’s backs.”And Pompeo also believes that it’s important not “to pit [women] against each other. We’re not enemies. We do lift each other up and support each other, and we’re not victims. We’re very strong and we’re capable of many, many things.”
This is all standard leftist feminist fare. The Trump administration “likes women quiet,” and unspecified men oppress women, denying them equal pay and pitting women against one another.
Buried in the interview, however, is a fascinating exchange in which DeGeneres says that one of the things that causes problems for women in terms of equal pay and garnering support from other women is “coming from this sense of lack” whereby “if somebody has something, I’m not going to get it.”
She goes on to say that “there’s abundance, everyone can have whatever they want. So just because you’re making a whole lot of money, doesn’t mean another woman is not going to make that money.”
Pompeo responds by noting that this “notion” that “because you have, means I don’t get” is deeply rooted and accurately notes that it “speaks to Civil Rights and equal rights” and that it’s “where racism and sexism is based.”
She then strongly asserts, “It’s important to unearth that [notion] and dispel it and to say that it is simply not true.”
Watch the exchange:
Well, yes. That’s exactly what we’ve been saying for fifty years, and it’s stunning to hear the argument made from the left.
Democrats have been feeding on the greed, envy, and resentment of a variety of “gimme” groups. These groups have become convinced that they are victims of sexist, racist white male capitalists who amass all available wealth for themselves, leaving nothing for anyone else.
Bill Whittle did a fantastic video about wealth creation laying out what the “modern left” as he calls them believe about wealth creation and what we on the right believe:
The two Ellens make the right’s argument about wealth creation. It’s staggering. Welcome, but staggering.
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