Hollywood’s hypocritical oath

When it comes to all the check-the-box liberal causes, nobody does it better than those in the Hollywood elite. So if there was anything gratifying about Sunday night’s Academy Awards, it was seeing some of that ideological tripe being shoved right back down their throats, as host Chris Rock blisteringly exposed their hypocrisy.

The irony was rich, to be sure. This is the hyperleft crowd. They’re the ones driving diversity at all costs — except diversity of thought, of course, since everyone must be in lockstep with the politically correct flavor of the day. More on that later.

With regard to Mr. Rock’s monologue, this was the white Oscars, which falls entirely on all the Hollywood bigwigs in attendance. The fact that there wasn’t a black actor or actress in the top four categories for the second straight year can’t be blamed on anyone but members of the academy and those in attendance. They own it, and Mr. Rock made them take ownership right after the opening montage: “I’m here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards. You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job. So y’all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now.”

That had to have attendees squirming in their seats before they could even get comfortable. But they were able to settle back into their sweet spots by night’s end, thanks to Vice President Joe Biden and actor Leonardo DiCaprio touting two dubious issues.

Mr. Biden was sent up on stage to further purport the myth that college campuses across the nation are teeming with predators, based on the oft-cited statistic that 1 in 5 women have been victims of campus sexual assaults. Multiple reports and studies have shown that statistic to be dramatically overstated — on the high end, it might be 2.9 percent, which is still far too high, but a long way from 20 percent. If Mr. Biden and his proponents are correct, no parents in their right mind should ever send their daughter off to college; conversely, since the liberal left in Hollywood, academia and politics take that statistic as gospel — seeking prosecution in kangaroo college courts that offer no semblance of due process — no parents in their right mind should ever send their son off to college.

Then there’s Mr. DiCaprio, who spouted a typical left-coast liberal climate change speech, when everybody in the building arrived in limousines or flew into town on private jets, or both. As University of Tennessee law professor and Instapundit.com blogger Glenn Reynolds often writes: “I’ll believe it’s a problem when the people who say it’s a problem start acting like it’s a problem.” The day that the Hollywood jetset flies coach and pulls up to the red carpet in a Prius or a Leaf, we’ll know it’s a crisis. On this night, all their so-called crises were again exposed as nothing more than hypocrisy.