When the cases dwindle and the lockdowns finally end, the Show Trials are gonna be lit. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio got to live the dream he must have nurtured since his days as a Sandinista fan-boy in the 80s: establishing a Coronavirus stasi and encouraging citizens to report social distancing scofflaws. In Tampa, the city’s newest gazillionaire resident was run out of a public park for working out -- alone. Welcome to town, Mr. Brady! In California, they’re burying skate parks. Let a thousand despots bloom! 
Essential to any police state worth the name is the public confession, and actor Josh Brolin has given us the first high-profile one of the Virus Terror. As reported by CNN, the actor lives in Malibu next door to his father, actor James Brolin and his wife Barbara Streisand. Over the weekend, they went over to say hi.
As CNN tells it, Brolin “faced backlash after a now deleted post showing him, his wife Kathryn and their toddler daughter, Westlyn, poolside in Malibu with the elder Brolin and Streisand.” And the opprobrium wasn’t for exposing a child to Streisand -- not exactly anyway. It was for being together. With family. At the house next door.
Apparently Brolin pere has a pool, Brolin the younger doesn’t, and he wanted to show his child the pool. They had planned to observe strict social distancing protocol. But as happens so often with these crazy visits to Grampa’s, things got out of hand. Photos were taken, photos were posted ...
Well and truly shamed by social media church ladies, Brolin made a confessional video and posted it to Instagram. While true fans of self-flagellation might be disappointed with Brolin’s effort (no blood, and he didn't seem to be weeping), it was debasing enough to have assuaged the righteous.
Brolin called his actions “irresponsible.” He was appropriately dismissive of the rubes who don’t follow every jot and tittle of this week’s guidance for hermits. “There are some people out there, no masks, no gloves, no interest in it. They think it’s in your head, that you’ll survive because of immunity created from your own psychic weight.” But that’s not Josh! Nosir.
He wanted people to know this wasn’t a forced confession. “I don’t care about followers, I don’t care about Instagram … it’s a platform. I don’t feel responsible to it at all. But I do feel responsible to my fellow man, period.”
And he’s grateful for the online scolding. Really. “It's hard to be honest and say, 'Maybe I screwed up,’” he admitted. “I knew that was in the air. Not because of the responses, but the responses brought me back to my own truth.”
He has his own truth? Man, movie stars sure are lucky. Now if he could just get a pool.
