Rob Reiner – hypocrite, con artist

Rob Reiner – actor, director, and leftist scold on Twitter and elsewhere – should add “hypocrite” and “con artist” to his name. Yesterday a now-prominent Twitter user, drawing inspiration from journalists like Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger – dropped an embarrassing thread about Rob Reiner. According to it, Rob Reiner has a decidedly checkered past, involving “misuse of taxpayer funds” – in short, government program embezzlement. But worse than that, he collaborated with the most dangerous financier in the world, George Soros.

Who is Rob Reiner?

Rob Reiner is the son of Carl Reiner, an actor with many motion-picture and television credits. Perhaps the elder Reiner’s most famous is his appearance as struggling television writer Walt Whittaker in the 1966 film The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! Five years later, the younger Reiner would land his breakout role – as Michael Stivic in Norman Lear’s All in the Family. In fact, Rob Reiner twice won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Comedy Actor for that role.

In 1984 he directed his first film, This is Spinal Tap, a pretend documentary about a totally factitious heavy-metal band. And that project probably defines his career today, in entertainment and in politics. For Rob Reiner spends his time in a world of make-believe. Make-believe that a heavy-metal band that never existed, did exist and hired him to tell their story. Make-believe that the crudest President ever elected is an unblemished Hero of the People. (LBJ, 2017.)

And now, make-believe that socialism works – and anyone who says otherwise is lying. But most of all, make-believe that you are never guilty, no matter how guilty you might be of breaking the law in ways you accuse others of breaking it. Surely he must have read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals in his spare time. Yesterday, someone finally called him out on putting those Rules into practice. After this, no one should take Rob Reiner seriously ever again.

The thread

This thread comes from Dom Lucre, Breaker of Narratives. He actually pre-announced the thread the night before last, close to midnight:

Then, yesterday morning, he dropped the main thread.

Much of that thread is quite jarring, though it tells very little that diligent researchers couldn’t find out for themselves. Everyone who cared to know, knew that Lyndon Baines “Corn-pone” Johnson was one of the crudest Presidents ever elected. To see him using a racial slur when talking to his political operatives – and then talking to community leaders of that race and turning on the charm – perhaps serves an example of two propositions. Actor Richard Jordan, as “Jeffrey Pelt” in The Hunt for Red October (1990), illustrated one:

I’m a politician, which means I’m a cheat and a liar, and when I’m not kissing babies, I’m stealing their lollipops.

The second proposition is to beware of anyone, especially a politician, who turns on the charm. Chances are, it’s a false front – and small wonder, therefore, that some find charm highly overrated.

The salient point, however, is this: Rob Reiner presented a false hagiography of Johnson in his film LBJ (2017). As before: make-believe. So now he regularly, on Twitter, makes believe that Donald J. Trump is the worst criminal to be elected President. Scarcely a day goes by that he does not issue a tweet to that effect. But let no one say anything against Johnson – or Biden – today!

Reaction

Most of the reaction was positive, with appreciation to Mr. Lucre for the story behind Rob Reiner and his campaign. Perhaps one user tried to hold up Reiner’s favorite narrative against Trump.

Most of the replies he got either chastised him for “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” or shared damaging information about President Biden. All were negative.

A few users made some allegations against Rob Reiner that went beyond what Dom Lucre revealed. They are probably not worth repeating, unless and until someone in authority is ready to indict him on their account. But in the first four hours since the thread dropped, no one, except for that one user, had anything sympathetic to say about Reiner. And even he confined himself to saying, “But Trump!”

Analysis

In his breakout role, Rob Reiner took many insults from his acting colleague, Carroll O’Connor. The most common one, of course, was a word that stands for a stupid or dull person. But Rob Reiner is neither stupid nor dull – and if he were, that might almost excuse his attitudes. Instead he is clever – though perhaps “too clever by half” fits the bill. Definitely he is hypocritical, and a true radical, obeying one of Saul Alinsky’s cardinal Rules. Which is: always accuse your opponent of that which you yourself do.

He cuts a truly pathetic picture on Twitter. CNAV will not quote any of his tweets here, because they all contain the same message. Donald Trump is a criminal; why won’t authorities do their job and indict him; a-ha, he won’t skate this time; et cetera ad nauseam.

Now he turns out to be either a venal shakedown artist – or worse, someone who lends new meaning to the phrase “public funding of political campaigns.” For his embezzlements seem to have been not so much for pecuniary gain as to make taxpayers fund his leftist politics without ever knowing it. He’s also intellectually dishonest, and guilty of the logical fallacy of special pleading.

The most striking irony might be this. Throughout his career, he advocated for something loosely called Russia – when it was actually called “Soviet Union.” Now he accuses a President of colluding with post-Soviet Russia. He has never explained that irony – and he also has much else to explain.