With action movie legend Chuck Norris unable to fight back, Variety unleashed an attack under the guise of an obituary.
In an opinion piece, William Earl said the characters Norris played committed the unforgivable sin of making it appear that the American military was a force for justice.
Norris was “the all-American archetype of the muscled action star,” Earl wrote, saying the actor “felt commissioned by the military to prove what a good, strong man was,” before labeling much of Norris’s popular work as “morally simplistic action films.”
Earl wrote that Norris’s legacy is troubled because his films represented a point of view with which Earl disagreed.
“Was Norris a brilliant athlete and top-shelf star? Yes. But there’s no denying that his roles were part of a body of work used to show American strength, might and the pernicious attraction of taking the law into one’s own hands — something that seems less fun in a year in which our country is funneling money into bombing Iran and ICE agents are acting like one-man militia,” he wrote.
He was a conservative man of God. His legacy is just fine.https://t.co/c7t2oreE08
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) March 20, 2026
“Given our nation’s divisions in morality, information literacy and overall sense of reality, it’s easier to see Norris’ characters as justification for a fringe conspiracy movement rather than a moral standing,” he continued.
“When patriotism and laws shift away from the Constitution, what side does a gunslinger land on?”
“While Hollywood takes endless shots for being too liberal or left-leaning, it’s a short-sighted criticism considering the industry’s decades of glorifying American military strength. Ultimately, genre fans can appreciate Norris as a larger-than-life marquee figure,” Earl wrote.
“But it’s a unique twist on separating the art from the artist: When a star is the poster boy for American exceptionalism and might, at what point does his legacy transition from escapism to dangerous propaganda?” he added.
Not even death could stop Chuck Norris from roundhouse kicking Variety with the greatest ratio of all time. Legend forever.
Now do your thing internet. Ratio these dirtbags to the moon and back. pic.twitter.com/wdkcEEhiVb
— Jared Tate ©️ (@jaredctate) March 20, 2026
Norris died Thursday at the age of 86.
Indicting Norris for projecting the image of a strong American that will stop at nothing to achieve justice irked many on social media.
“Unbelievable. Politicizing the death of an American icon who gave selflessly to so many causes & elevated everyone. Variety should be ashamed. Scum,” investor and entrepreneur Brandon Fugal posted on X.
Unbelievable. Politicizing the death of an American icon who gave selflessly to so many causes & elevated everyone. Variety should be ashamed.
Scum.
— Brandon Fugal (@BrandonFugal) March 21, 2026
“You absolutely cannot hate the media enough,” commentator Matt Van Swol wrote, summarizing the piece as “total trash” that was “propaganda nonsense, leftist ideology trash.”
“C’mon. Stop it. He was a movie and tv star, people loved him, he was an icon. If his legacy is damaged, it’s because of political, garbage journalism like this,” another poster said.
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