With just over two weeks till the election, American society seems to be as polarized as ever. Actress Kirstie Alley was showered with vitriol on Twitter after expressing support for Donald Trump’s re-election.
Alley, who is best known for her role in the sitcom Cheers, stirred lots of anger online on Saturday after declaring that her vote this year will go to the incumbent president, because “he is NOT a politician.”
“I voted for him 4 years ago for this reason and shall vote for him again for this reason. He gets things done quickly and he will turn the economy around quickly,” she tweeted to her 1.4 million followers.
The declaration, which is not surprising coming from Alley, a vocal Trump supporter, triggered an avalanche of condemnation from the opposing political camp. Critics rushed to accuse her of being in a cult – or even more than one.
Alley joined the Church of Scientology in 1979 (which she reportedly left earlier this year). The organization has been accused of being cult-like, preying on rank-and-file members while coddling celebrities who join it.
Some added a third ‘cult’ to the list, saying Alley is part of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Its followers claim that Trump is secretly a champion of resistance against a powerful pedophile ring, which has supposedly infiltrated all corners of the US establishment. Earlier this month, Alley made alarms go off among QAnon watchers by retweeting a slogan popular among supporters of the right-wing phenomenon. She later said she was not aware of the connection.
There was much mockery of Alley’s professed sympathy for Trump. People who hate the president naturally see him in a different light and were quick to call him a mass murderer of American citizens, a jailer of babies and, of course, a ‘Russian asset’.
Some attacks were personal or professional rather than political. One popular take was that Alley’s Cheers co-star Shelley Long was the superior actress. Some gleefully noted that the pinnacle of Alley’s acting career is long past.
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