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Ryan Reynolds says the 1980s were a traumatic and ‘brutal time’ — and people aren’t happy about it

Ryan Reynolds may have a point, but no one is hearing it.

Reynolds was talking about an upcoming film that focuses heavily on American culture in the 1980s when he described what he thinks the decade was really about.

‘Sociopolitical tensions everywhere.’

‘Gun’ shy

Speaking to a reporter from the red carpet, Reynolds said that looking back at the 1980s now, the decade tends to be seen through rose-colored glasses and not for how it actually was.

“What’s interesting about when you get far enough away from a time period that’s quite distinct, I think there’s always a lovely feeling associated with it. It’s almost like you pave over all the trauma with, like, puppy dogs and ice cream,” the actor began. “The ’80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a f**king mess.”

Reynolds was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976 and grew up in the province. Now 49, he described the American 1980s as being filled with political tensions.

“It was a tremendous strife,” he told Variety. “Sociopolitical tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban missile crisis, which was only like 15-20 years before. It’s a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. “Top Gun.” Cocaine!’ Like, no! It was really scary.”

RELATED: Mark Ruffalo writes endless progressive letters — gets called racist anyways

Manhattan, 1984. Barbara Alper/Getty Images

Gag him with a spoon

A significant number of notable accounts disagreed with the younger actor’s take, with women’s sports advocate Jennifer Sey commenting, “Literally no one was talking or worrying about the Cuban Missile Crisis. What is he talking about?!”

“I was born in 1972 and grew up in the 80s. I have no idea what he’s talking about. The 80s were awesome,” novelist Mathew Betley wrote on X.

Author Sarah Adams added, “The 80s were amazing, what the hell is this revisionist history.”

At least one reader agreed with Reynolds, though, pointing to ’80s issues like peer pressure and divorce.

“It was everyone for themselves,” he wrote. “Teflon Reagan shining through the sooty shadow of Vietnam and overthrowing democracies in Central America. Quadrupled national debt. Even as a teen I knew it was a bulls**t decade.”

RELATED: HBO star declares USA is suffering without Kamala Harris: ‘Consequences of not trusting a black woman’

Right said ‘Dead’

While the majority of comments strongly disagreed with Reynolds, perhaps the latter reaction was closer to what the “Deadpool” star was referring to.

Reynolds reportedly said that modern popular projects like “Stranger Things” paint a different picture of how society was. Particularly, he said the threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union was surging and the exodus of American manufacturing was devastating the working class.

This, along with AIDS, serves as the true reality of the time, Reynolds explained.

“I think when you look back at 2026 and this era, I think they’re going to pick on the big-ticket items that don’t really leave the footprint culturally that you would think it would. I don’t know. … I wonder what it’s going to be. Is going to be like, ‘Oh, the COVID era’ or something. I have no idea,” Reynolds concluded.

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​1980s, Ryan reynolds, Entertainment 

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LGBTQIA+ activist called for Trump to be assassinated and for harassment of his attorney, feds say

A podcaster based in Los Angeles called repeatedly for the president to be assassinated and told his followers to harass the president’s personal lawyer and his family, prosecutors say.

40-year-old Benjamin Azariah Southworth was arrested Thursday and charged with one count of threats against the president, one count of cyberstalking, and one count of harassing telephone calls in interstate communications.

‘Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf**king pedophile in the White House.’

Southworth allegedly made the comments on several social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and his own website from January through May this year.

Court documents said one of the posts was made at Instagram on March 31.

“Since the Supreme Court has ruled today that psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical torture known as gay conversion therapy is free speech, I want to practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy for five years,” the message read.

“Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf**king pedophile in the White House,” the message continued.

“I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump” read another message documented in the court filing. “This government is illegitimate and out of control. It’s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump.”

In addition to calling for Trump’s death several times, he posted the personal information of his attorney Jay Sekulow in order to have his followers harass him.

“No peace for traitors,” Southworth allegedly stated at the time.

Southworth described himself as a “GLAAD-award-nominated artivist” on his website, which also said he used his platform to challenge “Christian nationalism, anti‑LGBTQIA+ bigotry, and Zionism.”

A Blaze News request for comment to Sekulow was not immediately returned.

RELATED: ‘We’re gonna hang him from the Statue of Liberty’: Man allegedly threatened to kill Trump

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement that there would be “zero tolerance” for such threats, especially against the president.

“Threatening an elected official with violence is a serious offense, and you will be arrested and charged, as Mr. Southworth found out this morning.”

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​Christian nationalism, Death threats, Los angeles, Zionism, Politics 

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Lindsay Clancy murder trial fireworks: Defense attorney wants 1 juror kicked out, tells judge his jury instruction is ‘soft’

Just before a deadlocked Massachusetts jury of nine women and three men Thursday afternoon completed a sixth day of deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial with no verdict, there were fireworks in the Plymouth courtroom.

The prosecution and defense have agreed that Clancy — a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse — killed her three young children in 2023; the issue has been whether she is criminally responsible for their deaths due to her mental state, the Associated Press said.

‘If we come back here in a half-hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame — it’s a real shame.’

The fireworks started with a lengthy and animated sidebar — a private discussion between the judge and attorneys on both sides. The AP in a separate story called the sidebar “impassioned,” with Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington pointing his finger and Judge William Sullivan handing him a document.

As the sidebar stretched past the 10-minute mark, two court officers joined the discussion, which featured Reddington sighing, speaking to the judge, and slicing the air with his hand, the AP reported.

Then jurors began entering the courtroom one by one and were sworn in, after which the judge spoke to each juror, and then they were taken back out of the courtroom, the outlet said, adding that it wasn’t clear what was said.

The jury then re-entered the courtroom, and the outlet said the Judge Sullivan told jurors, “I want to remind you that you are required to follow my instructions on the law as I gave you.”

Sullivan also said, “It is not enough for prosecutors to show a probability, or even a strong probability, of guilt,” the AP noted, adding that the judge also said proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all possible doubt. He then sent the jury back to deliberate further — and the outlet said some in the audience gasped.

With the jury out of the courtroom, Reddington spoke in a microphone directly to Sullivan.

“The court has an instruction from the foreperson of that jury — that has been working for a week — now saying there is one juror who refuses to listen to the law that you have given him or her on reasonable doubt,” Reddington said, his voice rising, the AP reported. “I suggest respectfully that the soft instruction that you gave them, saying at the sidebar, can you listen to the law as I instruct you, does not focus on the issue.”

The outlet said Reddington asked the judge to remove the juror in question.

“If we come back here in a half-hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame — it’s a real shame,” Reddington said, according to the AP.

RELATED: Woman charged with juror intimidation at Clancy trial tells different tale than images on her phone: Prosecutor

But Sullivan said removing a juror from a “deliberating jury is a sensitive undertaking,” the outlet reported.

“I don’t feel it is proper for me to side with one side or the other of the deliberations. I don’t feel it’s appropriate for me to say I agree with one juror or 11,” Sullivan said, according to the AP. “At this point, I have asked if they are able to follow instructions. They swore earlier they could. They have said at this point they can.”

Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said the judge’s instruction was appropriate and no further action was necessary, the outlet noted.

Soon Sullivan called the jury members back into the courtroom and dismissed them until 9 a.m. Friday, at which time they again will resume deliberations.

Outside the courthouse, Reddington expressed hope that the trial will be resolved after the judge questions a juror on Friday, the AP said: “There will be an inquiry by the judge tomorrow at 9 o’clock. There’s a person who has doubt but will not listen to the judge’s instructions.”

Reddington also told reporters outside the courthouse that the jury foreperson’s note identified the holdout juror to the judge, the outlet noted, adding that Reddington is hoping that before the judge questions that juror on Friday, attorneys on both sides will get to argue in the open over the specifics of that inquiry.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — in their Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023, WBZ-TV reported.

Reddington said his client was not criminally responsible for killing her children because she was overmedicated and suffering from postpartum psychosis, the station reported, adding that prosecutors said Clancy planned the killings and knew right from wrong when she strangled the children.

If the jury convicts Clancy of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or manslaughter, she will go to prison, WBZ said, adding that if jurors find her not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be required to continue her stay at Tewksbury State Hospital, where her case will be reviewed periodically.

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​Massachusetts, Murder trial, Mother kills children, Postpartum psychosis, Judge, Attorneys, Lindsay clancy, Crime