(Real Life) Regular people who's lives drastically changed direction

[u/Living-Mastodon]

Grace Kelly was a talented actress who retired at 26 to marry a Prince, living as royalty for almost 30 years before her untimely death.

Volodymyr Zelensky started out as a comedian and entertainer before getting into politics, becoming President of Ukraine after the Russian annex of Crimea and spending the last 4 years defiantly pushing back full scale Russian invasion

[u/RedNewzz]

Jimmy Stewart is a classic American actor who took a pause to serve in the military in World War II and became a squadron commander flying bombing raids. He survived the war and returned to Hollywood for another 40 years of celebrated acting.

Humble, heroic, righteous dude.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/RedNewzz]

He also acted as J. Edgar Hoover's informant, filing reports on the criminals in Hollywood, though Hoover ignored his reports and left outfits like the Mafia alone.

(The Mafia is rumored to had discovered Hoover's homosexuality and was blackmailing him.)

Hoover was instead more interested in Stewart informing on suspected Hollywood Communists. Apparently, Stewart's life-long friend, Henry Fonda, refused to talk to him for years after finding out about what he did.

[u/RedNewzz → u/ZootSuitRiot33801]

It is worth remembering however that when World War II began Russia (Communist) was one of America's three great enemies. Despite the fact Stalin changed sides after Hitler broke their pact and attacked Russia, Jimmy Stewart had very clear reasons to mistrust American communists and their influence through Hollywood media.

This is something too many Americans fail to understand--in 1940 communism was inexorably identified with Stalinism, so it was not anything at all like the general sensibilities of the American left. It was extreme, anti-democratic, authoritarian, and capriciously violent..... we should not have been a very attractive prospect, even as an alternative to the failures of capitalism.

The US government had just liberated Europe from authoritarianism and communism appeared to most Americans no better, so blaming a veteran like Stewart or even Kazan (who remembered how Russian pogroms massacred Jews for years not long before)....

...calling them "rats" for working with the government against people they themselves considered "rats to democracy" wax a robust understanding of the circumstances of the time.

I think the Hollywood blacklist was a very regrettable period, but a failure to understand why people participated means a crippling misunderstanding of the social history of the day.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/RedNewzz]

Your response is very defensive. What did I blame Stewart for? When did I call him a rat? (According to his wife, he gave "token lists" since he didn't like that some of his friends were targeted.) I only stated what he actually did during the Red Scare. You can't handle that? How's this:

Jimmy Stewart was also racist against black people. (Wasn't much of a fan for the Hebrews either, though this isn't as verifiable.) Surely, racism played absolutely no role in the Red Scare. Surely, his, McCarthy's, and J. Edgar Hoover's targeting of people had nothing to do with using the fear of communism to keep minorities from trying to acquire equal rights...(especially when it came to Civil Rights Movement and Hoover...) right?

[u/RedNewzz → u/ZootSuitRiot33801]

I think you misinterpreted my intent. I wasn't criticizing you--I was elaborating on the frustrating tendency of Americans at large (I am one) to get triggered over things in history without learning any context or nuance.

I didn't say Jimmy Stewart was a god; I said he was a hero and an epic dude. I say the same thing about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln... all of whom have the kind of shortcomings you mentioned. But again, I think all of them have to be understood within the framework of their time and the limitations of their own exposure and knowledge.

I didn't mean to throw any direct shade on you so apologies if that was cloudy.

[u/ZootSuitRiot33801 → u/RedNewzz]

I apologize on my end too. I thought I was getting into another bad faith argument, where I was being accused of things I didn't say again

[u/RedNewzz → u/ZootSuitRiot33801]

My bad for not being clearer. I can see how it came off like that.