Fact Check: Clint Eastwood Purportedly Returned His Oscars Because of 'Woke Nonsense in Hollywood.' Here's the Truth About This Rumor
Claim:
Clint Eastwood returned his Oscars, citing "woke nonsense in Hollywood."
Rating:
On May 15, 2024, the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page published a meme showing a photo of legendary actor and director Clint Eastwood with the headline, "Clint Eastwood Returns All Six of His Oscars: 'Hollywood Is Morally Bankrupt.'"
The caption above the meme said, "According to Eastwood, returning the awards was the only option for him. 'I don't want to be associated with any of the woke nonsense in Hollywood.'"
However, this item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The America's Last Last of Defense Facebook page describes its content as entertainment containing satire and parody. The page's description specifically mentions an intent to troll, reading, "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery. Nothing on this page is real."
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is one of the websites under the umbrella of the America's Last Line of Defense network of satire and parody. The website's "About Us" page defines the term "taters" as "the conservative fans of America's Last Line of Defense."
The first comment under the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook post credited the SpaceX Fanclub Facebook page with the content idea:
This is part of our new "SpaceX Guy's AI headlines respun into conversational English" series. It's where we take a headline that already included the basics of anywhere between one and nine ALLOD stories with "woke" added somewhere and spin it again.
Yes, patriots, there is actually a person here doing this on purpose, contrary to the half-dozen meatwhistles calling us a Russian troll farm all day.
They do politics, comrade, we do culture war nonsense. Pay attention. And God Bless America.
The SpaceX Fanclub page published what appeared to be the original post on May 11. The post's meme read, "Clint Eastwood Returns Oscar, Says 'It's Become Too Much Woke.'" The SpaceX Fanclub page's description reads, "We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real."
According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences website, Eastwood has won a total of five Oscars. One of the five Academy Awards was for the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.
Sources:
"Clint Eastwood – Awards." IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000142/awards/.
"Clinton Eastwood." American Academy of Arts & Sciences, https://www.amacad.org/person/clinton-eastwood.
"The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award." Oscars.org, https://www.oscars.org/governors/thalberg.
