This is seriously where the Perpetually Offended Left is going. There was already a freakout over the 1971 interview, and now Michael Hiltzik is melting down in the LA Times
It’s time to take John Wayne’s name off the Orange County airport
Most people familiar with the life story of John Wayne are aware that the late movie star was a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger — after all, he was still making a movie glorifying America’s conduct of the Vietnam War (“The Green Berets,†1968) well after the country had begun to get sick of the conflict.
But the resurrection of a 1971 interview Wayne gave to Playboy magazine has underscored the sheer crudeness of the actor’s feelings about gay people, black people, Native Americans, young people and liberals.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s impossible or immoral to enjoy Westerns and war movies starring John Wayne; that’s a personal choice. But it certainly undermines any justification for his name and image to adorn a civic facility. (snip)
Wayne’s May 1971 Playboy interview has been unearthed before, notably in 2016 when his daughter Aissa endorsed Donald Trump for president. But it may well resonate more today, when iconic representations tied to racism, such as statues of Confederate war heroes, are being evicted from public spaces.
So, this is really all about Trump Derangement Syndrome, to pair with the utter intolerance of thought.
So let’s take a gander at some of John Wayne’s opinions, circa 1971. A typescript of the Playboy interview, which I link to here, has been circulating widely and is the source of the quotes, but I validated it against facsimile pages from the original Playboy edition. Magazine writer Richard Warren Lewis conducted the interview at Wayne’s home in Newport Beach.
Now, you can go read the material, but, remember, this was 1971. Heck, I was 4 at the time. It was a very different time, and mainstream thoughts were much different. One where they weren’t attempting to get rid of men being men.
Interestingly, no one from the Left is calling for the removal of Robert “KKK” Byrd’s name from the dozens of things that bear his name.
