An anti-Spencer Pratt panic appears to be unfolding among the "elite."
Yes, that Spencer Pratt — former reality television personality, tabloid fixture, crystal enthusiast, and living reminder that the early 2000s briefly lost all adult supervision.
The mere possibility of his rise seems to have triggered an emotional response from portions of Hollywood suggesting Los Angeles is one election away from civic collapse.
But the strangest thing about the panic is not that celebrities are angry (celebrities are always angry).
The strange thing is how difficult it seems to be for any of them to explain what, exactly, is supposed to be so horrifying about Spencer Pratt.
Comedian Drew Carey, for instance 👇
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(The dirty words are to demonstrate to us just how serious he is.)
Here is where the whole thing becomes genuinely fascinating: What precisely is the objection?
If Pratt were campaigning as some ideological firebrand, the Hollywood freakout would at least make some sense. If he were promising to outlaw gay marriage, wage war on abortion, launch some apocalyptic culture-war crusade, or spend his weekends ranting about shadow governments and fluoride conspiracies, one could at least understand the emotional outrage.
But from what anyone can tell, Spencer Pratt appears bizarrely unobjectionable.
His apparent platform, to the extent one exists, seems to amount to: Los Angeles feels dysfunctional and perhaps should function better.
Which, to be fair, does not exactly qualify as extremist rhetoric. Even the users on the left-wing app Threads agree:
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That's why the celebrity panic demonstrates something about modern progressivism: the objection is not about Pratt's ideas. It's Pratt himself. The man simply violates elite expectations.
He is a reality-television celebrity. He feels unserious. He lacks institutional polish. He carries the chaotic energy of someone who wandered out of a tabloid headline and accidentally into municipal politics. In short, he does not look or sound like someone respectable people in respectable circles are supposed to take seriously. Not unlike, dare we say it, Donald Trump.
And that's why the panic from certain corners of Hollywood begins to feel revealing.
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Karen Bass, the incumbent Democratic mayor, has not exactly presided over an era of obvious civic flourishing - including the small inconvenience of Los Angeles periodically catching on fire.
When citizens begin to lose confidence in institutions, they do what citizens have always done: they start looking elsewhere. There's nothing crazy about that.
Angelenos have spent years watching visible homelessness, affordability crises, public disorder, wildfire controversies, bureaucratic dysfunction, and rising frustration accumulate while being assured by political leadership and the wealthy Hollywood stars that finance them, that things are fundamentally under control.
Multimillionaire celebrities, meanwhile, live behind gates, protected by private security.
Spencer Pratt may ultimately prove ridiculous. Reality television is not exactly the traditional proving ground for statesmanship.
But when the establishment's loudest message increasingly sounds like "Only idiots would support this guy," one begins to suspect the outrage may be revealing something deeper than concern about Spencer Pratt.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
