With a worldwide audience there was no way celebrities could resist the chance to lecture.

Last night’s 92nd Academy Awards were a bit of a slog, even by the normal standards of these awards shows. The adage of ‘’less is more’’ is often used in art, but somehow it never applies to shows rewarding art. And in it all, while there was a notable easing back from the social lectures there was in fact enough, and of those instances where the celebrities could not help themselves the examples were rather pointed.

I took little time for the first political jab, although it aimed surprisingly to the left. Steve Martin referenced how a couple of years back there was an error in announcing the winner of Best Picture, but there would be no issue with that happening as the Academy is using the same phone app used in the Iowa Caucus.

That surprising barb was about all you would see aimed in that direction the rest of the night. Even a few comments on the dearth of female representation in certain categories, when mentioned, were not exactly directly calling out the group but more of a chiding nudge to do the right thing next year.

On this particular subject, Natalie Portman was called especially brave because she wore a cape that had the names of various slighted female directors embroidered in its hem.

Being self-critical is not Hollywood’s strong suit. Lecturing others is something they are far more comfortable doing. Brad Pitt won the first award of the evening and in his acceptance speech he opened with a salvo directed at Washington D.C.

They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the senate gave John Bolton this week.  I’m thinking maybe Quentin does a movie about it. In the end the adults do the right thing.

Now one could go into the details of this particular subject, such as how allegations on Bolton’s claims in a book were not based on any actual excerpts seen, or how Bolton in a prior interview had praised the quality of President Trump’s handling of Ukraine, or even how the Democrats had the chance to subpoena Bolton in the House inquiry but elected to pass on that action. These would fall on deaf ears. I just find it amusing that Dems are defending Bolton these days, when they have long reviled the man they promised would rush us into wars.

Pitt, and actor Joaquin Phoenix, were regarded as some of the most likely winners going into the night, and one other winner was all but assured: ‘’American Factory’’, winning for Best Documentary Feature. This film came out of Netflix and is produced by the outfit that involves former President Barack Obama and his deal with the streaming service, so winning was a foregone conclusion. The Obamas struck a deal with Netflix for tens of millions of dollars. Hang on to that bit of trivia for a moment.

The Oscars introduced the Documentary nominees with a video montage of prior docs that was some of the most leftist agitprop they could find. It began with Greta Thunberg thanking David Attenborough for his environmental films. Narrated by hyper-leftist activist actor Mark Ruffalo there were segments of poor people unfairly impacted by storms, and one man making quotes about what is actually true, voiced over a clip of President Bush, and then a flash of Barack Obama’s HOPE poster.

Most egregious was the sound bite of Charlton Heston bellowing ‘’From my cold dead hands!’’, taken from Michael Moore’s ‘’Bowling from Columbine’’. This famous clip is actually infamous. What Moore did in that film was play Heston’s NRA speech from Denver over images of the students gunned down that day in Colorado. Except Heston never said those words in Colorado; Moore spliced in parts of a different speech he gave in order to paint Heston as a raving zealot. Interesting choice of clips, in a montage touting telling the truth…

Amazingly when accepting the award for Best Documentary, about the plight of workers in America, director Julia Reichert was brazen enough to invoke the Communist Manifesto. ‘’Working people have it harder and harder these days – and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.”

"Working people have it harder and harder these days." #AmericanFactory director Julia Reichert accepts the award for best documentary at the #Oscars https://t.co/BRyZZBTxrs pic.twitter.com/IB44nR1mnN

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 10, 2020

There it is. Touting communism, at the behest of a former president, all while collecting largesse and accolades as an elitist in perfect capitalistic fashion. In a way, I guess you could say Reichart has a point. Looking at the historically high employment figures in various categories you might say those who are now employed have it a little harder than when they were able to just stay home and cash government checks.

When Phoenix won for his award he went on a lengthy, rambling speech that had some good points about cancel-culture and redemption, but he also lapsed into his vegetarian agitprop as well, describing the anguish cows have when we steal their children and exploit their bodies. Honestly it could have taken far less than three-plus minutes to say, ‘’Be better people, and stop drinking milk.’’

But this is Hollywood, where people who can afford five-star chefs can eat the vegan lifestyle, and where filmmakers can cash large checks from former presidents who have a healthy contract with a content provider, only to then go on to tell us the economic system that grants their career is inherently evil.

As I usually do in these circumstances, I’ll choose to ignore any lecture from this privileged sect that they themselves ignore in their own lives.