Victim Alec Baldwin

Art by Raymond Pettibon, courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery, New York

I just finished reading the article Alec Baldwin wrote published in Vulture. Apparently he has now decided that he will change directions in his life; he writes:

It’s good-bye to public life in the way that you try to communicate with an audience playfully like we’re friends, beyond the work you are actually paid for. Letterman. Saturday Night Live. That kind of thing. I want to go make a movie and be very present for that and give it everything I have, and after we’re done, then the rest of the time is mine. I started out as an actor, where you seek to understand yourself using the words of great writers and collaborating with other creative people. Then I slid into show business, where you seek only an audience’s approval, whether you deserve it or not. I think I want to go back to being an actor now.

Most of the article focuses in on how he has been treated over the past few years by the media and his peers, catalyzed by events that have transpired. These include the recent accusations of him being a homophobe that was a result of him calling a reporter a "f-gg-t" (which he denies), his beef with Shia LaBeouf, and his fallout with MSNBC complete with jabs towards Rachel Maddow.

I admit, at first glance, a part of me felt bad for this guy reading his letter to the public. Alec is funny. He definitely has some talent. I understand how someone living in the public eye might become frustrated. Alec points to the increased harassment from the paparazzi, the fact that everyone now has a camera at their fingertips via phones, and a general elevated amount of hate in our culture as being sources of him feeling defeated.

Overall, this letter or article sounds very similar to Woody Allen's response to his daughter Dylan, that was printed recently in the New York Times. It's no wonder Alec is a fan of Woody's. While both of these men seem to enjoy playing the role of the victim, Woody is indeed a much better writer, as would be expected.

Both Woody and Alec's stories have captured my interest because they share a similar theme. They both depict a certain mentality that has steadily gained popularity inside our culture -- the victim mentality. I describe this type of mentality as someone who:

• lacks boundaries
• deficient of an internal moral compass
• shows little to no self-control
• lashes out at others by pointing out their flaws as a way to justify their own  actions
• believes that they are merely responding to the actions of others
• denies any personal responsibility
• believes all of their actions/reactions are completely justified
• has a deep-seated anger, toward anyone who they perceive to have wronged them
• believes that others are out to get them for no reason
• has feelings of superiority over others
• believes they are entitled to recieve-- things/positive attention/respect - all of which they do not give to others
• believes that they are simply living their lives yet, bad things keep happening to them and they cannot understand why
• continually expresses/complains they have been wronged by others
• insists that others are full of hate while denying their own hatred of others
• distorts known information in a way that absolves them from admitting any fault and to gain sympathy
• enjoys engaging in gossip and attacking people where no proof is presented

The fact is, Alec and Woody seem to represent many people's mentality in this country. Yes, liberalism indeed has enabled many people to embrace these types of beliefs and to consider them normal. Both men have indeed mastered an area of life -- they are financially successful and that I can respect. However, they have failed at being decent human beings who can express empathy for others and fail to exhibit personal responsibility for the events that have occurred in their lives. Both of these men are bullies. This victim mentality is exactly what has created the bullying problems we now witness inside of our schools. Our children are now suffering as a result of this mentality.

The victim mentality also fosters a person who tends to be more concerned with image. They focus more upon manipulating the views of people on the outside looking in, while simultaneously disrespecting and bullying those around them. They want to be seen by others as the victim who is being wrongly accused, the hero whose story has yet to be told, but those close to them in proximity usually will have another story to tell.

There are parts of Alec's writing where I want to feel empathy for him but unfortunately his tone is uneven going from self-awareness, blaming others, being a victim, and then the cycle is repeated. The moment Alec appears to give his audience some sort of recognition that he's taking responsibility, he manages to tiptoe in a "but-it-was-not-my-fault; it's them/he/she" follow up. He's the victim of situations; he's the one being attacked; he was just merely responding. Yes the responses could have been better and more eloquent but ultimately everything was started because someone did something to him.

To wit:

And I find myself bitter, defensive, and more misanthropic than I care to admit. And I’m trying to understand what happened, how an altercation on the street, in which I was accused—wrongly—of using a gay slur, could have cascaded like this.

Here he seems to be owning up to flaws and his internal feelings but he immediately proceeds this with stating he was wrongly accused. It's not his fault.

I haven’t changed, but public life has.

Later on, he writes:

I’m self-aware enough to know that I am to blame for some of this. I definitely should not have reacted the way I did in some of these situations. I don’t have these issues with waiters, traffic cops, store clerks. I know there’s an impression that I’m someone who seeks to have violent confrontations with people. I don’t. Do I regret screaming at some guy who practically clipped my kid in the head with the lens of a camera? Yeah, I probably do, because it’s only caused me problems. 

Again, he begins to show an awareness of himself but protests that it's an impression that people have of him that causes people to believe he enjoys confrontation. Later on in this article he alludes to this "impression" being created by others like Harvey Levin, and not his own actions.

I'm unsure of what incident he is referring to above. Unfortunately he has been involved in a number of disputes and arguments with reporters, it's very hard to keep track of. The one that drew quite a bit of attention that I remember took place in November of 2013.



"She nearly knocked my wife's teeth out with her microphone!"??? Anyone watching this can clearly see this is a gross exaggeration. This deliberate distortion of facts in order to garner sympathy is consistent with having a victim mentality.

Alec is a bully.

Here is the other incident that was referenced to in the previous video.



First of all, the reporter who is holding the small camera phone is standing and waiting as Alec walks towards him. The reporter then appears to ask a question and Alec moves directly at this man and shoves him, completely unprovoked. I do agree that this reporter should have stayed away from Alec at that point. That action is indeed considered an assault. Nonetheless, Alec enjoys pushing people around and instead of keeping his hands to himself, he makes the choice to shove this reporter again. This is typical behavior for Alec.

I do believe the following video is speaking of the larger attack that Alec is referring to in his article but again, there are too many of these attacks to be assured.



Sure, we can see how annoying paparazzi are yet this is not an excuse for celebrities to attack. Perhaps there are indeed justified acts like pushing a photographer away from you or your children but this problem seems to follow Alec constantly. There is a reason for this. Rather than learning some basic self-control, Alec chooses to lash out, blame others, and as a result never seems to understand that he himself creates these situations; he makes them larger than they need to be. He does not recognize the role he is playing in magnetizing more negative situations with the press.

Returning back to the article:

But—I’m sorry, I can’t let go of this—do people really, really believe that, when I shouted at that guy, I called him a “f-ggot” on-camera? Do you honestly believe I would give someone like TMZ’s Harvey Levin, of all people, another club to beat me with?

Yes, yes, I do.

Alec is well known for his inability to utilize self-control. Anyone who leaves a message on their own child's phone calling them a "PIG" has serious self-control issues.

Alec takes some shots at Harvey Levin. Levin is the bad guy, not him.

Harvey Levin exists in his own universe. He’s this kind of cretinous barnacle on the press. Levin told the world that that muffled sound on the video—Levin wanted everyone to know he knows what it is. You don’t know, and I don’t know, but Levin knows, and he tells the world that it’s “faggot.” 

I get angry, and I’ve said all sorts of things in anger, but I’d never use that word. Levin has so little regard for the truth, which is odd, knowing he was once a legal correspondent for the CBS affiliate in L.A. He’s also the one who revealed the tape that my ex-wife’s lawyers provided of me yelling at my daughter seven years ago. Knowing that none of it would have transpired if I hadn’t left the message in the first place, I think he hurt my daughter more than anyone.

See what I mean? He acknowledges he did something wrong but he cannot help himself to carry on further and suggest that someone else is worse than him. Whom is going to have more of an impact on his daughter -- him (her father) or someone in the press whom she doesn't even know? If I were his daughter I would be relieved that the press finally exposed him for being the abusive man he truly is. Levin did his daughter a favor.

Do I honestly think Alec is a homophobe? No, he's most likely nothing of the sort, but the problem here is that he still refuses to outright own up to his actions. While he would like to claim he never said the word "f-gg-t" others maintain they know what they heard.



Would it not be easier for Alec to just say, "I said something bad. It happened. I did not mean it in the way people are insinuating. I was very angry and an offensive slur came out in a heated moment. I am sorry. I am also sorry that I offended people the way I have"? That's it.

Instead, Alec decides to make this backwards non-apology where he goes into this lecture of how he supports gay marriage and how he's speaking at a gay friend's wedding, then proceeds to try and deny that he ever said "that word" but can't exactly remember what he said. It's like watching a fish out of water, flopping around and hoping that someone will feel sorry him, pick him up, and put him back in the water so he can go back to bullying the other fish again.

In the recent video, you see me completely riled up and going after this guy and you hear me saying “c-cks-cker” and then some bisyllabic word that sounds like “f-gg-t”—but wasn't. Still, it doesn't matter. glaad comes after me and Anderson Cooper comes after me and Andrew Sullivan comes after me, all maintaining that I’m a hateful homophobe. All based on what Harvey Levin told them. 

Alec is a bully.

Alec doesn't know the word he used either? Interesting. He cannot tell us what word he coupled with "c*cks*cker" but he can tell us with certainty that it was not the "f-gg-t" word. However he does not say "c-cks-cker" either. You can clearly hear the verb-form of the word (-ing).

Repeatedly, he needs to remind us that he is a victim of other people's actions and hate.

He also describes in this letter some problems he had with Shia LaBeouf. Apparently he felt a desire to clear the air about this situation as well. They were both hired to work for a production. LaBeouf is described by him as being difficult (no shocker here), and that Shia had unleashed on Alec for not memorizing all of his lines the way he had, and that Alec was slowing him down. This led to Alec stating he was going to leave which prompted the immediate firing of LaBeouf.

I'm not too familiar with anything else that has been said in the media concerning this situation so the story itself was boring to me. Alec presented this tiff in a way that reminded me of someone who desired an ego-boost. I can only extrapolate from this that he wants us to know how influential he was during this production; he's the alpha, Shia is the beta.

First of all, why kick this young man when he's down? LaBeouf is currently going through some mental break-down. He has been exposed recently as a plagiarist and his Twitter feed is filled with repeated claims of how he's "not famous anymore." He's difficult to work with but he's young and obviously in need of some help. As an older man, Alec should know better than to engage in this kind of frivolous gossip.

If he was so inclined to address this clash that occurred, he should have taken the high road and kept his response simple and respectful. The details according to him need not be mentioned in public. "Shai LaBeouf is going through a hard time right now. I can confirm that our short stint together working on a production did not end the way I desired nor intended. Yes he was fired and out of general respect, I will leave those details for him to explain if he so chooses, as that affected him and not myself. I wish him luck and have nothing more to say on this issue." Seriously, how hard is it?

Alec is a bully.

Finally he discusses his show at MSNBC and how the entire incident with the reporter ultimately led to him being fired, wrongly of course. He cleverly insinuates that he has it on good authority Rachel Maddow was out to get him (of course!), and she was the main influence in this final decision, not his words or behavior.

Once they fired me, a former MSNBC employee I knew emailed me. He said, “You watch now, Phil is going to start leaking left and right to bury you.” When I left, “Page Six” was flooded with lies about me. Another told me, regarding the “toxic little queen” comment, that Rachel Maddow was the prime mover in my firing, as she was aghast that I had been hired and viewed me as equivalent to Mel Gibson. Another source told me, “You know who’s going to get you fired, don’t you? Rachel. Phil will do whatever Rachel tells him to do.” I think Rachel Maddow is quite good at what she does. I also think she’s a phony who doesn’t have the same passion for the truth off-camera that she seems to have on the air.

While I may also have a distaste for Maddow, there is nothing he states that can be proven, other than citing some anonymous source. I can certainly understand this type of gossip between him and perhaps some close friends and family but airing this publicly in a letter/article intended for fans is irresponsible, mean, and childish. If you cannot come to the table and fully disclose the information, why bother mentioning it at all? Being classy is clearly not a part of Alec's general character.

This type of attack on Maddow is nothing short of acting like a complete coward. Maddow cannot prove a negative. She is left defenseless because she has no evidence to refute. How can she respond to an anonymous source? Alec's accusations can only be categorized under "dirty tricks."

Alec is a bully.

Clearly I find much to criticize in Alec's article.

I cannot help but notice that he seems extremely paranoid, which indicates a serious underlying problem. This sort of paranoia reminds me of a cocaine abuser or someone who suffers from mental health issues and is not being properly treated with appropriate medication and therapy. Of course this makes me sad for him.

Then again, Alec is a bully.

There is no question that his letter demonstrates a victim mentality.

One can only begin to guess what is next for Alec. He has a new baby and he's 55 years old! To me, this is completely selfish. As someone who lost a parent [my mother] at the age of 25 (that is entirely too young to lose a parent), I get rather emotional seeing people have babies at such an older age, knowing they may not be around for their child's life past their 20's or 30's. By the time this child reaches 20, Alec will be 75 years old. 75 years old, if he lasts that long.

It would be nice to see Alec grow up himself finally and start realizing that the majority of his problems and his penchant for finding drama are due to his own actions and reactions. This is a lesson that many need to learn.

Alec is a bully.

Let's face it, YES there are events that occur that we cannot control but we ultimately choose how we react to them. At the end of the day, it's not too hard to figure out that bullies like Alec draw more and more drama into their lives because they ignore the idea they have a choice in how they handle themselves and their reactions. The only person "out to get him" and cause him trouble is Alec himself.

Alec is a bully.


Read the article/letter for yourself here. Tell me what you think.