James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director behind the Avatar franchise, has again denounced the United States as irrational and unsafe, declaring that he fled to New Zealand in search of sanity and relief from American politics and pandemic policy.
Speaking on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Cameron explained that he has effectively started over in the South Pacific nation, where he both resides and has spent years producing his blockbuster films. According to Breitbart, he framed his move as an escape from what he sees as Americas failures, particularly its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and held up New Zealands heavy-handed COVID regime as a model to admire.
Citing a report from Variety, Cameron first justified his relocation by praising New Zealands aggressive virus controls and high compliance with government directives. After the pandemic hit [New Zealand] had eliminated the virus completely, he said, before boasting, They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate. This is why I love New Zealand.
For Cameron, the contrast with the United States could not be starker, and he made clear he views his fellow Americans as dangerously misguided. People there are, for the most part, sane as opposed to the United States where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and thats going down going the wrong direction, he argued, casting New Zealanders willingness to obey state mandates as proof of their superior rationality.
He pressed the point further when Bensinger asked where one would rather live, using the question to disparage the U.S. as divided and anti-science. Are you kidding me? Where would you rather live? Cameron asked, before extolling A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybodys at each others throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears.
Camerons glowing rhetoric about New Zealands sanity stands in sharp contrast to the reality that the country embraced some of the harshest COVID restrictions in the Western world. As Breitbart News reported, New Zealand slid into outright authoritarianism during the coronavirus pandemic with some of the worlds strictest lockdowns and wound up with surges of Wuhan coronavirus infection and death anyway.
The left-wing government of then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern famously imposed a three-day nationwide lockdown in August 2021 over a single case of coronavirus transmission. That zero-COVID strategy, cheered by many global elites, came at the cost of civil liberties, economic freedom, and basic normalcy, yet Cameron now cites it as evidence of a more enlightened society.
When Bensinger suggested that the United States remains a fantastic place to live, Cameron immediately pushed back. Is it? he replied, dismissing the idea that Americas freedoms and opportunities outweigh its political and cultural turmoil in his eyes.
Bensinger then tried a different angle, praising New Zealands natural beauty as a reason to live there. But New Zealand is just stunningly beautiful, Bensinger noted, to which Cameron replied: Im not there for scenery, Im there for the sanity.
Cameron also made clear that his sense of safety in New Zealand is tied directly to escaping President Donald Trump and the American medias focus on him. He said he feels safer there and added, I certainly feel like I dont have to read about [Trump] on the front page every single day. And its just sickening. Theres something nice about the New Zealand outlets at least theyll put it on page three.
His contempt for Trump is personal and visceral, extending well beyond policy disagreements into crude insult. I just dont want to see that guys face any more on the front page of the paper. Its inescapable there, its like watching a car crash over and over and over, Cameron complained, portraying Trumps prominence as a kind of national affliction from which he has now escaped.
This is not the first time Cameron has publicly attacked the President, particularly over climate policy and his refusal to bow to environmental alarmism. Last December he scolded the president for refusing to accept the doomsaying of global warming alarmists while calling Trump a narcissistic asshole for not relenting to the climate change mob, as Breitbart News reported.
In that earlier interview, Cameron railed against Trumps efforts to roll back radical climate regulations and questioned the sanity of anyone who resists the green agenda. The famed director disgorged his vitriol in an interview with the where he claimed Trumps moves to thwart global warming extremism is sending humanity backwards.
Im frustrated because the human race seems to be delusional about what they think is going to happen next. We are going backwards, Cameron exclaimed, casting skeptics of climate catastrophe as irrational and dangerous. The Terminator creator ripped Trump as the most narcissistic asshole in history since fucking Nero. And added, Yeah, you can quote that.
Camerons comments underscore a broader divide between Hollywood elites and millions of ordinary Americans who value personal liberty over government micromanagement of their lives. While he celebrates a small island nations willingness to submit to sweeping mandates and censorship of dissent, many in the United States remain wary of the very authoritarian impulses he praises, preferring a messy but free republic to a sane society defined by state control and ideological conformity.
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